Chapter 34 — The Spoiled Princess
The next morning, Roseline woke up alone in the bed.
Kingston had already left.
She vaguely remembered hearing him muttering before he went.
"Your brother is a pain in the ass. He was doing her work just fine before I got here, and now he's telling me to wake up like him and join him for court duties? I wonder how the court officials will take it. I'm not even one of them. There'll be rejection."
And now, almost an hour had passed, and he still hadn't returned.
Roseline sighed.
He's probably helping Louis with his work until they leave.
She got out of bed, dressed, and left the chamber. Since it was still very early, she decided to take a walk and enjoy the fresh morning air.
The palace was already coming alive.
Maids hurried from one place to another, carrying out their morning chores. Officials walked in and out of rooms, some carrying stacks of documents, others engaged in quiet discussions as they moved through the corridors.
To put it bluntly, the palace was busy.
Far busier than Lovera.
Roseline disliked using the old-fashioned term kingdom. Countries had changed, and so had the world. So, in her mind, she simply called it a country.
She continued walking, taking in her surroundings, until—
Thud!
Someone slammed into her shoulder.
If not for her stamina and quick reflexes, Roseline would have gone down hard on the polished floor. She took a step backward to steady herself before turning sharply toward the culprit.
Her eyes narrowed.
It was a woman.
And not just any woman.
She was dressed extravagantly, from her elaborate gown to the expensive ornaments adorning her body. She looked as though she had dressed herself to be mistaken for the Queen.
Roseline stared at her.
"Apologize."
The woman looked genuinely shocked for a moment before her face twisted into a frown.
"Why should I apologize for something I didn't do intentionally?"
Roseline raised a brow.
"You didn't do it intentionally?"
"Yes." The woman lifted her chin arrogantly. "And if you would excuse me—"
She didn't get to finish.
Roseline stepped forward and did exactly what the woman had done to her.
She drove her shoulder into the woman's with enough force to catch her completely off guard.
The woman stumbled backward.
Then—
Thump!
She landed squarely on her backside.
Roseline didn't even spare her another glance.
She simply walked away.
What nonsense.
Behind her, the woman sat frozen for a few seconds, too stunned to react.
Then her face turned red with fury.
"HOW DARE SHE!"
Lady Chloe's eyes shot daggers in the direction Roseline had disappeared.
How dare that stupid pumpkin throw her weight around as if she owned the palace?
She had completely forgotten that she had started the whole thing.
Several maids had witnessed what happened.
They quickly lowered their heads and pretended they had seen nothing.
But inside, their thoughts were very different.
Wow.
Our princess isn't a pushover.
We finally have someone who can put her in her place.
Alice, Chloe's personal maid, quickly hurried over to help her mistress.
"Princess—"
She reached out a hand.
Chloe grabbed it and allowed Alice to help her to her feet.
Then, in the next instant, she shoved the girl away.
Slap!
The sound echoed through the corridor.
"You idiot!"
Alice staggered backward, holding her cheek.
Chloe didn't wait for a response. She turned and stormed away.
That was Lady Chloe.
Spoiled.
Entitled.
Never satisfied.
She always pushed the blame onto someone else and never accepted responsibility for her own actions.
And she behaved that way because she had been raised to believe the world belonged to her.
Chloe was the only child of the Prime Minister.
Her mother had spoiled her rotten, while her father adored her so much that he convinced himself she deserved anything she wanted.
More importantly, they had already decided her future for her.
She would be Queen someday.
At least, that was the castle of lies they had built for themselves.
And they had lived inside it for so long that they had begun to mistake it for reality.
Louis, however, wanted absolutely nothing to do with Chloe.
He couldn't stand her behavior.
He found her arrogance, entitlement, and constant schemes completely unacceptable.
He never spoke to her.
Never gave her attention.
Never acknowledged her presence unless absolutely necessary.
It was almost as though she didn't exist.
And Louis did it deliberately.
He knew exactly what Chloe and her parents wanted.
They wanted his attention.
So he refused to give them even a drop of it.
Yet the three of them—the father, mother, and daughter—had somehow interpreted his indifference as approval.
They continued claiming that Chloe was the chosen one.
The future Queen.
Their certainty was almost laughable.
Chloe's behavior within the palace had become so unbearable that, if not for the influence and position of her family, Louis would have ordered her banned from the palace totally.
But perhaps there was another use for her.
For now, he could let her continue playing her ridiculous little game.
She was proving useful as a shield.
Whenever the court brought up marriage, Chloe's name and the rumors surrounding her conveniently created enough distraction to keep the matter from becoming too serious.
The court still brought up the subject from time to time, but nowhere near as often as before.
The rumors surrounding the Prime Minister's daughter had already begun spreading.
Unfortunately, some people who supported the Prime Minister were taking the rumors seriously and were even hoping to secure Chloe as Louis's future wife.
Let's see who is using whom.
Royal letters had already begun arriving from both neighboring and distant countries.
Marriage proposals.
One after another.
Yet Louis had no intention of accepting any of them.
For now, Chloe was the perfect shield.
He would let her family continue building their fantasy.
Let them continue believing they were one step away from placing a crown on her head.
Because eventually, he would pull away the blindfold they had wrapped around themselves.
And when that happened, the fragile structure of lies they had spent years constructing would collapse without a doubt.
Louis would never marry such a spoiled brat.
Never.