The Broken Prince's Love

The ballroom was as dazzling as it had been during the last ball.

The worst part about entering through this door was without a doubt the bright light that suddenly met Cedar's face after the dark hallway. He was used to ignoring the urge to close his eyes, but Lucille next to him flinched. He patted her arm before slowly leading her inside.

All eyes landed on them, and he could feel how Lucille shrank in herself. It seemed like she always hated attention, not only when there had been an uncomfortable situation before.

Cedar tried to make up for that by holding her hand and being as confident as he could be. He would guide her through the moments in which she was too uncertain so that she could slowly get used to this. After all, she would receive attention as the empress' lady-in-waiting no matter what.

The ballroom was full already, so it wouldn't take long for the royal couple to arrive. Cedar used that time to scan the guests and quickly found two unpleasant individuals.

Jenna Peril was at her husband's side and showed him a bright smile that didn't reach her eyes before she scanned Lucille. She was unhappy. Avoiding her should be easy when he had a companion though.

The other woman was more problematic.

Camille had claimed half of the room for herself. Countless guests stared at her before glancing at the couple that had entered. Certainly, they wondered what the prince and his mother would do, but that didn't seem to matter to the dowager empress. She just sat there on one of the armchairs and was surrounded by the two or three more stupid followers of hers, who didn't think about hiding their role. She drank from a small porcelain cup and met Cedar's gaze with a cold expression.

And frankly, Camille didn't need to do more than that to be intimidating, even when she had far less support than last year.

As soon as her eyes fell on Lucille, the young woman took a small step back and hid a bit behind Cedar, probably without noticing it.

That was enough to remind Cedar of what he had to do. He squeezed Lucille's hand and turned to her. “Ignore her. We might have to greet her later but only if she comes to us. She might be too arrogant to approach us, so I think that we'll be safe.” He hoped that. He really didn't need to talk to his mother now.

Lucille relaxed a bit, but it was obvious that she had forced herself to do that. She still stood closer to him than before and used him as some sort of shield. “Alright... Then we'll just wait for His and Her Majesty?”

“Yes. Theodore will come in, greet everyone and sit down on his throne. Then we will give him our gifts, and the others will bring theirs after us. When everything is done, we will dance. And after, we have time to converse with others or eat at the buffet.” Normally, he would choose the first option since he had to improve the public's opinion on him at least a little. But since he was with Lucille, he might avoid forcing her to meet too many people.

Lucille nodded quietly and looked around. She was probably searching for her father. Cedar gave himself a moment to find him too.

Viscount Valerian wasn't happy, but at least he wasn't fuming. Maybe it would be good to go greet him now that the ball had not begun completely yet.

Cedar was about to propose that when the door on the other side of the room opened. He bowed and Lucille made a curtsy, much like all of the others around him.

The royal couple strode into the room. Theodore was beaming, which was probably thanks to his wife's efforts, and Blanche was naturally glued to his side. They didn't act like cold rulers would but happily cuddled even while the emperor spoke up. He thanked everyone for attending his birthday party and then brought his empress to the thrones. They sat down, and the orchestra began playing.

Slowly, the chatter came back, but many people still stared at the different members of the royal family.

Cedar ignored that in favor of glancing at his mother. The dowager empress was the most powerful person after the royal couple, at least officially. She had to greet the emperor first. The fact that she didn't stand up immediately showed that her strategy seemed to be passive-aggressive behavior.

Cedar quietly sighed at that. “How petty she is. She thinks that we can't go first if she doesn't stand up. Should we go greet Theodore?”

Lucille turned to him before glancing at Camille. She quickly looked away again before speaking up. “Her rank is higher than yours, so she would normally begin, right? She was always the first one to speak when the two of you went to greet His and Her Majesty.”

The prince nodded while slowly pulling her toward the thrones. “Yes. But, frankly, I don't care. She had her chance. It's not like Theodore will scold me for this. Let's go meet them. Our presents should be lying on the table already, so we just have to say some nice words.”

Lucille hesitantly followed him as the guests made way for the couple.

As expected, Theodore didn't gaze at them with skepticism to show that it wasn't their turn yet and only smiled. He was the most powerful person, so he would technically have to speak up first, but he just turned to his wife. Apparently, he was still in the middle of proving that his empress had the same rights he had, which didn't surprise anyone at this point.

Blanche stayed quiet for a moment before sighing and giving up. “Good evening, Your Royal Highness and Lady Valerian.” Didn't one only address couples or relatives in such a double greeting? Seemingly, the empress didn't care much as she gave them a bright smile. “It is a pleasure to see you here on this wonderful day. I sincerely hope that you are enjoying these festivities as much as we are.”

It was likely that the royal couple didn't actually enjoy the balls. They just loved celebrating their anniversary since Blanche had come to the palace exactly three years ago. That was the only reason they were beaming like this.

Cedar didn't mind showing them a radiant smile in return as he bowed again. “Good evening, Your Majesty. How could we not enjoy this wonderful event to the fullest? The ball has only begun, but it is quite obvious that it will be a joyous evening once again.” It would certainly be exhausting, but they would have to deal with that. When he finished, he glanced at his partner.

Lucille seemed to be paralyzed for a moment before she nervously curtsied. “I wish you a beautiful evening, Your Majesty. I am certain that this event will be perfect in each and every way once again. I hope that you will enjoy it to the fullest.” She appeared to be more nervous than normal, which might be connected to every single person in the room watching them.

Cedar barely dared to do it, but he carefully brought his hand to her back to remind her that he was here to help. It didn't do much, but she glanced at him with a forced smile for a moment. It would be better to get this over with quickly. He made eye contact with Theodore, which was enough to make the other man understand.

The emperor smiled at the couple before speaking up. “I thank the both of you for attending my birthday party. It has been a beautiful day, so I am sure that the evening will be just as wonderful.” He glanced at his wife before turning to the guests again. “It is a pleasure to see you here.”

Cedar bowed again as he replied. “Good evening, Your Majesty.” Normally, he had always alternated between addressing his brother by name and using the title if Theodore was angry, but his current position made him reconsider. He needed to prove that he didn't have any intention of stealing his brother's crown, so he would have to show that he respected him. Using the other's title like this was a simple and effortless way to do this. “I wish you a wonderful birthday. May the following year bring you as much joy as the past one did. I hope that you will continue to stay healthy and successful in all of your endeavors as you lead Artias to a prosperous future.”

Hopefully, the emperor would also become a bit more cautious from now on, but that wasn't the important part. What mattered was that Cedar had openly stated that he wished his brother to rule, which had caused some people to murmur. This went pretty well in terms of gaining positive attention, at least if people believed him.

Theodore responded quickly. “Thank you very much. I hope so too. I will do my best to fulfill the desires of Artias' citizens. Our nation will flourish as much as it has in the past few years, and it will only get better.” He turned to the side to give the second guest the chance to reply.

Lucille quickly curtsied and hurried to speak up. “It is an honor to be invited to Your Majesty's birthday party. I sincerely hope that this joyous event will be wonderful for you and that you will enjoy this day and the following year. May the gods bless you with happiness and health.”

Theodore's smile widened at that. “Thank you. They already did.” He demonstratively lifted his wife's hand and kissed her fingers.

Blanche beamed at him, and for a moment, it looked like they had forgotten the world around them.

Cedar almost sighed and glanced at Lucille. This conversation would be problematic if she was so uncomfortable while the royal couple happily got lost in their displays of affection. He could only hope that it wouldn't take too long.

It didn't seem like his prayers were heard.

The emperor insisted on having much more small talk than normally, most likely to show that he and his brother were on the same side now. In the end, even Cedar, who had always excelled at talking until people got annoyed, was getting bored.

At that point, Theodore finally allowed them to hand over their gifts. The usual phrases were exchanged, and the emperor opened the box. Cedar could read the other's face and saw exactly what the other man found. First, the less special items were examined with the typical perfect smile.

Then Theodore froze for a moment when he recognized the two other things in the separate box at the bottom. He slowly lifted his gaze.

Cedar had only waited for this. Last time, he had brought a gift from the past, and this time, he had done it too. The meaning greatly differed though. It wasn't a sword he had threatened Theodore with before but something much kinder. “I was not sure what you would like, so I searched out some special things.”

Theodore was certainly impressed. “No way. To think that you found this. I thought you broke it.” He lowered his gaze to examine the items again. Then he carefully reached into the box and stroked his fingers over something with obvious fondness for this object.

The prince assumed that this was the music box. He waited until his brother looked up again before replying. “I would never dare. They still sat in the same room I put them in. Maybe you should have a specialist look at it before you twist the handle though. I'm not sure how much it liked not being used for twelve years or so.”

The emperor nodded, and his soft smile betrayed that he was already reminiscing about how he had received this gift years ago. “Thank you very much. This means a lot.” Not only because the items held a sentimental value to him, but also because Cedar gave back what he had unrightfully stolen.

It seemed like doing that had been a genius idea.

For a moment, Theodore stayed quiet before speaking up. He should have offered the guests to leave now that they had given their gifts, but he said something else. “Why don't you stay next to us a bit longer? It would be unfortunate for you to leave so early.”

That invitation was surprising. Normally, the whole royal family was allowed to stand next to the thrones or had small chairs up on the platform, but it was different for this generation. Until now, the emperor had sent the prince and the dowager empress away after they were done to show that they were merely guests. If Theodore invited Cedar to stay here, he wanted to prove that he and his brother were closer now.

The gifts seemed to have been chosen really well.

The prince still wasn't too happy about this despite it being a great success. He had hoped to get Lucille away from here as soon as possible. He would have to stay here a bit longer though. “Of course, we will gladly accept that offer. We will not bother you for long though. We could stay for a few more conversations.” That was his way of saying that he couldn't stay more than ten minutes.

Theodore seemed to accept that, and Cedar led Lucille closer to the platform with the thrones so that they stood to the right in front of it.

Lucille was much more intimidated than the prince was. She kept glancing up and didn't act like she was comfortable positioning herself in front of such an impressive structure. The reason she acted like this was probably because she had never been one of the two princes who liked to sneak into the ballroom to sit on top of the thrones when their father wasn't there.

Cedar gave her an encouraging smile and leaned over to her. “You can feel more confident. We are officially standing at the royal couple's side. There is no need for you to worry about anything now. No one will cause problems for you. Do you want to know what gift I brought?”

Distracting others always seemed to work. Lucille relaxed a bit and nodded up at him.

Cedar quickly responded. “There were some items for his office, but that wasn't the important part. What he really liked was the other half. A music box and a teddy bear. I stole them from him when we were children. He received both from Althea, so I guessed that he still cares about them a lot. Giving them back to him might be a nice sentiment. Just to symbolize that I want to stop troubling him.”

Lucille listened to him, and by the end, a small smile grew on her lips. “That's nice of you. I think that he will really be thankful for that.”

“Maybe. I didn't do anything special though. I only gave back what belonged to him. There is no need to be especially happy about that. Of course, I'm content if he-” Cedar cut himself off when he saw that the next guest was approaching the royal couple.

The next in line would be the Duremont family, but it seemed like someone who had forgotten their turn was moving now.

Camille's expression was icy when she strode forward with much more grace than normal. She probably wanted to pick up the shambles of her reputation, which had splintered into a thousand pieces when she had caused problems during three or more successive events.

It seemed to work.

The crowd split in two to make way for Camille, and she kept her head high the whole time. She glanced at Cedar before turning her gaze to the thrones. She didn't even seem to care that the royal couple was sitting above her, and even while looking up, she was as arrogant as ever. She didn't curtsy, which wasn't a surprise.

For a moment, it was silent. Theodore took his time before he responded, most likely to show Camille that he could let her wait for as long as he wanted to. He didn't even speak up first but gave his wife a knowing smile.

Blanche's gaze was unusually cold when she looked at the dowager empress and spoke up. “Good evening. What a surprise to see you here on this wonderful day.” She didn't even hide her dismay upon meeting the other woman. It seemed like she also didn't think about being polite enough to use the corresponding title.

Theodore added another insult by not letting Camille speak and simply chiming in. “It is indeed a surprise. I already thought that you had forgotten to come here. It wouldn't have been strange. Is the annual curse that makes you sick on my birthday effective again?”

It wouldn't be surprising if Camille lost her temper now. But instead of that, her face remained unmoving, and she scanned the royal couple for a moment before speaking. “Good evening. I did not wish to make you wait.” She glanced at her younger son. “I presumed that Cedar would escort me as always, but that does not seem to be the case.” That might actually be true. Maybe she had expected her son to run to her side as he had always done it.

Cedar demonstratively turned his head away and pulled Lucille a bit closer to him. He didn't know whether his mother understood that, but in the end, it didn't matter.

Camille focused her attention on the royal couple again. “I wish you a beautiful birthday. May you stay in good health and be blessed by the gods for the years to come.” When she said that, it almost sounded like a threat.

Still, Theodore managed to keep his bright smile. “It's good to hear that. You seem to be much calmer now that you've been alone in confinement for a while. Let's see how long this will continue.”

The dowager empress surely had to be angry at that, right? She didn't show it though. She wordlessly turned to her other son, ignoring Theodore as well as she could. “Good evening, Cedar. It has been a while since we met.” Her gaze told him that she wanted to say many other things but held them back. Good.

Cedar smiled at her and bowed again. “Good evening, Mother. I sincerely hope that you had no issues traveling to the royal palace.”

Camille seemed uncharacteristically calm despite the situation. “Until now, no issues arose. Unfortunately, I have a bad feeling about this evening, so there might be some unpleasant things coming.” As if she wanted to direct the others' attention toward Lucille, she glanced at the other woman. “Good evening, Lady Valerian.” Her voice sounded so cold that she might as well have been speaking to the person who had murdered her whole family.

That might be why she had held back her anger. She wasn't furious with the royal couple or Cedar right now.

The poor Lucille was the target of that hatred at the moment.

The young woman already had noticed that and shook slightly while the dowager empress' gaze met hers. Even her voice trembled a bit as she curtsied and replied. “Good evening, Your Majesty. I wish you a wonderful evening.” Even after Lucille said that, she was still so uncertain that she seemed to fear being subjected to more than cold glares.

Cedar wanted to hold back to keep his mother from getting even more angry, but he couldn't help it. He didn't want to let Lucille stay in this situation. He grasped her hand tighter and allowed her to come a bit closer.

Lucille almost seemed to fight the urge to hug him, but she definitely stood close enough to him to signal everyone else to back off. Hopefully, the dowager empress would understand that hint.

Camille's gaze only seemed to become more icy, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she just turned to the royal couple again. That was concerning. When she didn't show her wrath outright, it meant that she was thinking logically. This could only cause problems in the future. No one knew what she might come up with if she started to be more cautious. Right now, she was known as the hysteric dowager empress, so her being calm might improve her reputation. If she gained more followers again, winning against her would become harder.

Cedar cursed inwardly but was also thankful at the same time. He didn't need his mother to insult Lucille here. Then his partner would probably cry, and he would get angry. That wouldn't be a nice mix. It was better like this, even if it might give Camille an advantage later.

Theodore seemed to read the mood and intervened at that point. “It has been a while since you attended an event. So, we won't keep you from moving around for too long.” He waved to the servants, who brought a big box that had to be filled with Camille's gifts.

Cedar tensed for a moment but quickly relaxed again. His mother had never been the type of person who messed with gifts to put something strange in. In public, at least. So, she probably hadn't done it this time either, right? He wasn't sure. He would rather keep an eye on everything instead of being too careless.

Theodore was cautious while he opened the gifts as well. He put on a perfect fake smile and made eye contact with the dowager empress. “Thank you very much. This is quite the usual choice. I didn't expect you to come up with something like this.” He lifted a small package that seemed to contain dried herbs, keeping it far away from his face. “It smells interesting. Like a mix of anise and ginger. I think this is familiar.”

Cedar only took a glance to recognize those herbs. Theodore wouldn't be able to find out what they were, but he knew very well.

Camille had often ‘encouraged’ the cooks to put some of those in Althea's tea or food. The result might or might not have been that poor woman's infertility. Cedar didn't know whether this had truly been because of the herbs, but he knew that his mother had hoped for that. And while he doubted that the royal couple would keep anything that came from Camille, he was still a bit worried.

It would not be good to give anything like this to Blanche at all. The empress was in the last month of her pregnancy, and the child would be born soon, so letting her eat something risky would be more than stupid.

Cedar glanced at his mother, who already watched him. So, Camille wanted to test him? Fine. He would gladly show her that he wasn't on her side anymore. He turned to his brother and gave him a bright smile. “Ah. Your Majesty, do you remember that green soup dish the cooks always forced us to eat? This looks like it might be part of the ingredients for that. You know, the one they refused to give to Mother while Althea often drank it.” A soup like that didn't exist, but it was enough to prove that he knew something about the herbs.

Theodore would take that as a sign to be careful. Luckily, the emperor was quick to get what his brother was referring to. His eyes narrowed for a second. “Of course, I remember. The one pregnant women definitely shouldn't eat, right?”

Cedar nodded before quickly adding something else. “I wouldn't put those in children's meals either. It never tasted good to us when we were at that age. Maybe one has to be more mature to like the taste. That is all I will say.” He made eye contact with Theodore to underline his words.

It seemed like the emperor had already understood. Those herbs were probably harmful to anyone who consumed them, but pregnant women and children might be more affected. In any case, it would be good if Theodore just put those herbs away and burned them. He looked like he was planning something like that when he smiled at Camille. “Oh, I will find some use for them. But of course, I have to be careful when it comes to my wife. I would never let anyone I don't completely trust close to her. And since this may not be too good for her, I will refrain from putting it anywhere in our food. It seems like the dowager empress is still not fond of children, or she might have checked twice.” His insult was even less veiled than usual.

Camille still stayed calm, which only made this seem even more strange. Why was she so composed? Normally, she should have gotten angry about being accused of something like this already. But she just gazed at the emperor with her cold look while replying. “I was always fond of children. It just happened that mine was taken away from me. How would I know which items would be dangerous when I never had the chance to learn about that? I barely received any help when I was taking care of Cedar either. If I made a mistake, do not blame me. It was not my intention to give you anything that may be harmful to you or the royal heir.”

She was good at finding excuses. One had to admit that.