You Got Me (JenLisa)

Chapter 46

His Majesty's assistant had been around before Her Royal Highness was born. He knew the ups and downs the royal family had went through, publicized and not. He had been trusted enough to be invited with humors and secrets. And he was there during the darkest and brightest days that His Majesty had went through. The former King's death, the end of a once happy union and, of course, the arrival of Princess Pranpriya. His Majesty's assistant had watched the young princess grew into a sweet, smart, bubbly, beautiful girl. So beautiful that she had all them under her spell. The bright smile was contagious, most especially.

He had witnessed the teenage princess retiring the less glamorous pigtails and apple-cut hair she used to sport before she had hit puberty and grew her hair long and soft, it made her look elegant. He had never imagined, even suspected her of...of being different. (He still couldn't let the word 'gay' form and slip from his lips. He wasn't sure if it was okay to talk and think openly about it, especially in front of His Majesty, himself.) During the summers that Her Royal Highness would spend inside the warm and comfortable walls and gardens of the palace, whenever she would return home from South Korea, Princess Pranpriya would be back each year looking more stunning and beautiful from the last time everyone had seen her. Until when she had turned eighteen and the palace was barely graced by her presence. Who would have suspected her of being different?

"Tell them to abort whatever order the General has told them to do and to wait for my command, instead," His Majesty spoke.

"But Your Majesty--" the elderly and the most loyal assistant paused and stopped altogether, drowning whatever words, words of haste and worries, he wanted to utter next, after he saw the kind of look that His Majesty was throwing at him.

The assistant gulped. It was intimidating and piercing, those eyes. The kind that which anyone before it would understand that His Majesty was the ruler and they were only mere servants. It wasn't unkindly. Nor was it brusque. But it spoke a lot of authority and power that the elderly man bent and bowed and said politely, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Cancel all appointments I have for today and call the Brueshweilers. Tell them that I need to see them immediately," His Majesty ordered and added dismissively, "That would be all."

The elderly, but still fine-looking man in coat, with sleek fine white hairs combed neatly and seemingly haughty cheekbones, nodded. He took a few steps back, bowed again before his King, turned his soles around to head for the massive door made of hard wood and golden plates, with intricate carvings and designs depicting the history, the culture of their land, and left His Majesty alone, giving him time to recall where it all began.

"I know that, Father. But can you do it?" 

The words suddenly echoed once again inside His Majesty's mind. It was in the same room that the conversation between the father and the daughter took place five years ago. Where their words were confined securely by the thick walls and the privacy of His Majesty's office inside the palace, as per Pranpriya's request.

The eighteen-year old Pranpriya asked, looking between excited with the prospect of getting what she wants and nervous as she was finally laying out before him her demands.

His Majesty sighed. Beside the fact that what his daughter was asking from him was out of his control, he was still feeling shocked and shaken about what Pranpriya had confessed to him earlier.

"Darling, it's not as easy as you might think it is," His Majesty said calmly.

"But you're the king, Father. Surely, you can do anything about it. Right?" Pranpriya insisted, a glint of hope was peeking through those doe eyes. It was lovely but painful to look at. "Right?" she repeated.