39.2 An Undesired Role
The game was about to start. Cold sweat flowed down Sharina’s neck. She didn’t know what was going to happen starting from there.
“I’m unworthy of doing something such as evaluating the crown prince. Please forgive me.”
What was the queen implying? Was she telling her to cut all contact with Roland, or to get along with him?
Sharina didn’t know how much the queen knew about her son’s misbehavior. Sharina also couldn’t tell what her prime objective was.
During her short strategy meeting with Riol, she was told to speak in an indirect way so as to not fall into either.
“Don’t be anxious. Just be honest with me.”
“I apologize, but…”
As of the present, Riol wasn’t beside her. Sharina had no choice but to survive alone.
“I said it’s fine. I will forgive you. Who else can give you such permission?”
“That’s…”
She couldn’t determine the queen’s goal. There was no way she could talk rubbish about the crown prince before the royal family. As such, Sharina’s answer had to be favorable towards Roland. However, if it was like that, then it was too easy.
What would the queen get by making Sharina praise Roland?
“Even if Your Majesty forgives it, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.”
“So, permission isn’t enough? Alright, then, I hereby order you to.”
If what Tobias had said was true, then queen is the busiest person in the kingdom now that the king had fallen and was unlikely to recover. Not to mention watching the tournament, the shouldn’t have any time to chat a student. Whatever the queen’s purpose was, if Sharina kept vaguely hesitating, the queen wouldn’t be able to spend so much time on her.
“Do you want to disobey my order?”
“…He’s confident, has a different perspective from others, and can accomplish things that are beyond the realm of common sense.”
After hesitating for a few moments, she came up with that.
“Hmm. You seem to value my son very much. I see, Roland seems to be truly loved—that’s a relief.”
“There’s no one in this school who doesn’t yearn for His Highness.”
Not good.
The words that she minced so as not to be rude, and were never meant to be a compliment, had easily been transformed into the finest compliments by the queen. Moreover, the queen appeared to have conclude that Sharina was yearning for Roland. At the very least, she tried to be general about it—‘everyone yearns for Roland’ Therefore, it’d sound like the entire school, rather than Sharina personally longing for him—but, was it effective?
“Umu. Of course, the crown prince must be adored by a lot of people—but I’m glad that you like Roland.”
“…No, no, I’m not qualified to receive such words. Especially considering that I am insignificant for His Highness.”
She had to act as according to the script.
Sharina no longer thought that the queen was merely having a conversation with her. The queen had to have something in mind. She was trying to manipulate Sharina into giving her the exact answers she wanted—and so far, the queen had received exactly what she wanted.
Despite that, Sharina was still in the dark. She was unable to uncover the queen’s objective.
“Then, Sharina, let me affirm one last thing—how long have you known about my son, Roland?”
That was her last chance to escape. But she couldn’t understand the meaning of said question. Naturally saying she had only learned of Roland after he had returned from studying abroad would have been disrespectful. Regardless, what would happen if she answered, ‘since I was of an early age?’
“What do you mean, Your Majesty? There’s no one from this kingdom who does not know of His Majesty!”
“I see. I understand everything, now.”
As a result, Sharina could only give mundane and general answers.
“I understand that you’ve longed for Roland ever since you were a child. Hence why you turned down Leonardo’s proposal. I apologize for not giving appropriate support.”
“Wha—”
Sharina couldn’t breathe. She finally understood the queen’s intention. She realized it, but had no way of escaping.
“Sharina Clydea, let me welcome you into Roland’s fiancée candidate group—Dahlia Garden. Be aware of your responsibilities as the future princess. Work hard.”
The queen who had achieved her goal swung her hips with satisfaction. When the queen thought the conversation was over—
“—P, please wait, I cannot, please reconsider, Your Majesty!”
“Refrain from meaningless chitchat! Her Majesty the Queen is about to leave!”
Sharina desperately screamed, but was easily blocked by the academy director and the other teacher whom were waiting by her side. The queen was about to leave the room.
“—Future! I’ve vowed my future to someone else! I love that person and that person only!”
“I don’t believe you are engaged. I’ll forgive your uncouth behavior for your future engagement with my son. But, never again. Keep that in mind.”
Sharina, who turned deep blue, let out a shrill scream, but all she got in return was a doll-like, cold, gaze. Not a shred of mercy could be seen. Now that the king had fallen, national stability was the top priority. The love affair of a girl didn’t have any place in that kind of consideration.
“Ah…”
After sparing a single glance at Sharina, whom was on her knees, the queen left the room.
Shortly after the queen’s footsteps had disappeared, the school directors left without even a word to Sharina.
“Why…”
In the empty, quiet room, only Sharina, and the role she never wanted—the future princess—were left behind.
E/N: Roland is the Queen’s favorite??
***T/N: Red… I’m seeing red… someone, please refer me to a good anger management class…
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things that would have solved a number of issues if Riol had freaking done it a while ago, for some reason Riol seems to be hyper competent in every respect, except this one singular thing.
yeah, this even was forced by the author, everytime the plot demands it, Sharina suddenly holds her tongue.
You know, I don’t usually like revenge stories, but I need this kingdom to topple and run red with the royal families blood. Now.
The training of queens end up with people not listening to anyone. Noted.
Couldn’t Sharina have have just told truth instead? It seems that the Queen is also putting on a show.
Btw, why aren’t these recent chapters linked to all the previous ones?
If she said what she really thought about the prince, she could have been executed for lese majeste. If not executed, her family would be in trouble for treason if they did not immediately disown her. Even if they did tho, they would still take a bit for raising a daughter that spoke I’ll of the royal family. There’s a reason why no one wanted to go up against either prince despite their outrageous behavior.
Jeez, it looks like the royal family still hasn’t learned its lesson. Insert ‘How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?’ meme here
::sigh:: I told you, Sharina, you should have said you liked his corpse…
Vanessa!!! Why do u need anger management class? Turn ur anger to war!!!! This kingdom’s royalty is hopeless. We need the unnamed prince!!!!
Well, I knew this was coming since last chapter but…sigh
Anyways, it’ll be nice to see how Part 2 of this gets the turnabout treatment as well.
I knew it! I knew the queen was gonna try and force a marriage on Sharina!
I hope the next chapter starts with Sharina on her knees, head down, and then she looks up with a blank face and is like “welp, time to elope with Riol”
(and then Riol is like “slow down, please, we can still turn this around. Let’s make running away the backup plan”)
Omg.. sharona.. you should have just been straightforward and crushed him
Good lord. Here we go again
Many thanks
Whoops sharina* got autocorrected??
Even not that straight, but she should have said she engaged to another first , like , ” your majesty, excuse my question but why do you demand my opinion since I’m already engaged ?” then speak of the prince as a friend’s or something clearly putting wall.
As she is not a great noble, the queen don’t have any reason to make her a candidate, a role only fit for ducal or another kingdom princess, who have queen education since birth.
As of this point, Sharina and Riol aren’t engaged yet.
tfw you discover Leonardo was actually the most sensible royal…
Oh no, medieval kingdoms engaging in arranged marriages, I am shocked. And appalled too I guess? Whatever.
This whole royal lineage should disappear. They are insane, dishonorable and inept. In fact, in all of European history, the only King that was as inept and insane as that was Louis XVI who refused to listen to reason when he decided to unban a group of people that lead to his beheading. And this says a lot.
to explain my thought :
There is a reason why you NEVER force a role upon someone who has honestly no wish to bear the weight of it. And Sharina both do not care about this country nor does she wish for the crown, as such the only logical and reasonnable end to this arc is : Sharina and Riol leaves the kingdom and either they end in the hands of an ennemy country which will make quite the good use of Riol’s talent or they’ll simply live in secrecy which will lead to a lineage that abhor the country more than anything else, furthermore a lineage that has both magic power and knowledge about magic engineering. Both cases are actually worse that instability for the country as you never want to either create powerful and long lasting archenemies nor do you want to empower already existing one. This sure was a power move, but one that the country never needed nor wanted. This is true tyrany and if the Nobles aren’t that dumb (the adults I mean) they’ll see the issue with this quite fast and funnily enough it’ll also not resolve the unstability issue.
Yeah… long story short : this is the worst decision they could make as it does not solve anything is Sharina stays (worse, they lose a magic scientist for ever, even risking his departure for a more favorable country) and actually makes things worse if Sharina leaves. This is incompetence at its finest gents.
Also, since Leonardo the people have been aware of the love between Sharina and Riol. Now the queen is suddenly forcing Sharina to marry the other prince using her Royal authority. Wouldn’t this be a huge, red warning sign to every other noble that the Royal bloodline is abusing their power again? And they are also making an enemy out of Riol. The guy who is able to mass produce Charms that will cancel stronger magic spells. So they are abusing their power to maintain their pride and turning important assets to the country into an enemy. As far as I know the Royals can’t just force marriage one-sidedly, right? Wouldn’t this just spark a rebellion from Sharina’s family?
There is also that and her county is one with a shit ton of insane talents. This is why I said what happened is the epitome demonstration of incompetence.
Can I kill??
Plz??
Or better… Can Riol just burn the kingdom??
I’d like to see Riol all pissed off and razing the kingdom to the ground with his amulets!
Well, time to leave kingdom, Sharina