Chapter 252: First Life, Alice. (19)
Springton.
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Never came a dawn quite like this one where even the trees and flowers mourned on a day of spring. It appeared as if someone had cast a dark cloud on the whole of Springton and instead of cheer and festivities, there was silence and grieving.
The queen had departed this world after years of battling an unknown disease. Although the king was yet to deliver a formal address, gossip had already found its way out of the Castle walls and into the streets. The subjects now knew that their queen was no more.
The cause? There was no room left to rumour mongers as the king had provided them with the most fascinating tale of the year. Alice’s father had told everyone present that Theodore had snuck into the palace for that sole purpose alone.
Prince Theodore of Firseria infiltrated Springtons castle and murdered the queen.
It was left for the simple to believe it and the curious to imagine how the prince of the Firseria was able to pull of such a feat. Many would say he enlisted the help of sorcery while others would blame it on traitors. Only a few would question that outcome.
And Alice was amongst that few. Everything she knew about the war was what her father permitted her to know or what he told her himself. Up until the previous day, she had no cause to doubt that the enemy kingdom was out for their lands and her father’s throne.
But something changed and it did the moment Harley told her that her father had rejected a truce.
Everything started to change the moment she laid eyes on Theodore. She knew who he was now, she was no longer in doubt that the stranger who looked at her with so much warmth was the enemy prince as he was fondly called amongst the subjects of Springton.
She could feel kindness in his speech and also in his actions when he decided to spare that guard’s life. She could feel tenderness in every word that he wrote in that poem he risked his life to give to her.