The two who had been scuffling just moments before walked into the Queen’s suite in silent awkwardness.
Julia turned away, not wanting Liv to see the slap mark on her face.
Tess grabbed her right wrist with her left hand, hiding something.
Both were tacitly silent, waiting for Liv to speak first.
“Sit down.”
Liv sat in the very center of the big sofa.
Julia walked to the other side and sat on the side sofa.
Tess chuckled and chose the side sofa on this side.
They were, as always, in silent accord.
Liv was in pajamas, her gaze unfocused, looking at no one.
Her hair, untended for a day, flipped up at the ends, a few locks slipping down her cheeks.
“I just finished watching the execution, and thought I could handle it. If those sixty people deserved what they got, it’s not unfair. Giovanni’s mother is pitiable, but aren’t the people whose bodies were obliterated by their warship’s cannons also pitiful?”
Liv looked up, glancing left and right at the properly seated Tess and Julia, then took a deep breath and continued.
“But late at night, as I lie in bed, I think about it—executing sixty criminals, what a grand ceremony! Thousands of residents coming out for the spectacle, hundreds of guards on duty from morning till night, burning the bodies until only ashes remained. And all of it—couldn’t it happen with just a single order from the Governor or Julia’s father?”
Julia hastily interjected, “That’s not true. The Grand Court delivered the verdict, and the decision was made together by the Ten-member Committee.”
Liv looked at Julia, her smile even a little mocking, as if to say—what a fine-sounding excuse.
“How easy it all is, isn’t it?”
“I just want to know one thing, Tess: Can I, with a single word, send sixty, or even six hundred people to their deaths, and people would say, ‘This is the Queen’s edict’? If there’s a reasonable justification, even better—no one from top to bottom would feel any guilt.”
Tess saw no point in explaining with lies.
“Yes, Liv. Whatever the Governor can do, you can do too—in fact, you have far more authority than the Governor. Only right now, you can’t use it. My mother, as Regent, wields those powers in your stead.”
Julia stared wide-eyed at Tess Veran, not expecting her to be so blunt.
Just a moment ago, she’d been blaming herself for Liv’s ‘illness’ after being unable to stomach the executions.
Liv withdrew her gaze and continued.
“Julia, you don’t need to blame Tess for being so direct. Haven’t you always played these tiresome games too? How could you not know? I know you’re trying to protect me, but it’s meaningless now. How could I delude myself into thinking that being ‘Queen’ is just about a bigger house, prettier clothes, and a few more people calling me ‘Your Majesty’?”
She gently pulled her feet up, curling herself onto the sofa, and gazed at the flickering crystal oil lamp on the ceiling.
“In the end, I’m already part of the game. Not just the elves’ game, but the Republic’s too. Maybe even the whole continent—how many people are watching the ‘new Queen’ with wary eyes? It’s ridiculous. The Book of Kingship is utterly ridiculous from start to finish. It’s like a blind man holding a lantern, and I’m the fool suddenly thrust into the spotlight.”
Julia felt her heart bleeding.
As someone steeped in politics from childhood, guided by her father, she could handle almost any political situation.
Now, she was already Chief Steward, even allowed to attend the Ten-member Committee’s meetings.
But Liv?
Julia knew all too well—Liv had never hidden anything from her.
She’d always opened her heart completely.
She wasn’t a hereditary noble of the Elven Kingdom, nor a princess of royal blood. From the start, she’d been the hardworking, self-reliant child from Hobrick Town, regardless of pointed ears or silver hair.
But how could she offer comfort?
Urge Liv to give up the throne and live quietly in Landinset?
Impossible.
The Governor himself didn’t dare resign in the face of such a mess, barely managing to hold on under his father’s support, hoping to retire honorably after another year.
And the Queen chosen by the elven ritual was even more a caged canary, with no way out but death.
Julia suddenly remembered that day in the Ministry of Civil Affairs office, when Liv showed her that pile of scavenged scrap paper, smiling like a child who’d just stolen candy.
She was already the fated Queen then.
But back then, she hadn’t resigned herself to it.
Julia lowered her head, unable to comfort Liv.
Tess spoke, suddenly using an extremely restrained and gentle tone, trying to soften her earlier harshness.
“Liv, Mother always writes to ask my opinion. In the end, I told her—if Liv can become a suitable Queen, then let her take the throne. If not, at least don’t let Liv’s efforts go to waste. I’ll always, always be by her side. Isn’t it strange? Because of you, I lost my status as Princess.”
“Elven law says the next Queen can’t be a blood relative of the previous royal family. But to me, I know how scalding the Queen’s authority is—so scalding that many candidates pray not to be chosen. For elves, a thousand-year lifespan trapped on the throne, never free, is truly hateful. Honestly, perhaps… humans can’t understand why it has to be this way.”
Julia pressed, urgently and without a trace of sarcasm, “Isn’t there any way for the elves’ prophecy to be undone?”
Tess Veran was about to retort and mock Julia’s ignorance, but a voice interrupted her, and she chose to fall silent.
It was Liv’s voice.
But it seemed less sorrowful now, instead full of resolve.
“A Queen who lives in the consulate, without even a proper coronation. A Queen who can only listen in, never command. A Queen whom elves can pretend doesn’t exist, and humans can hardly find a trace of.”
“If this Queen could exert some decisive influence on the Republic, help Julia achieve her family’s strategies, help Tess resolve her mother’s doubts—would you then personally beg me to wear the crown? I look forward to seeing your faces that day.”
A smile curved Liv’s lips.
She no longer curled up, but stretched out boldly, her fair collarbone tinged with a flush.
Playing with her silver hair, her gaze was sharp as a blade.
In this moment, she finally figured out the problem that had eluded her for weeks—whether the Goddess wanted her to ‘guard the crown’, or put on a ‘dual-nation show’, or insisted she have a grand ‘return of the King’—it no longer mattered.
This life’s stage was destined to be far from shallow.
What’s more, Tess and Julia were by her side.
So grandly ambitious was she, until everything went black before her eyes—a whole day without food or drink—and she fainted.
Just before her vision went dark, she saw the two of them rushing toward her in panic.