Years have passed since the change in throne.
So did Aurelia. Today, she is becoming twenty one. A very risky age to be in. You are supposed to be bethored by seventeen, and be married by nineteen. But she is way past those lines. This is also making someone very worried.
Aurelia gets down from her tower. Her horse was ready for a small journey into the deep forest. Today is the day she is going to visit her mother. Oliver was standing beside with his own horse. He is stationed in her mother's manor but he always come to escort her. Aurelia bid Martha goodbye and started for the Garnet manor, her mother's current residence.
"You know, I have gone through this road so many times. I think I can still find the way even if I were blind."
Oliver shakes his shoulders, "That might be nice."
She rolls her eyes. "What I meant is that you don't have to come to escort me each time."
"Father will beat me up and hang me from that willow tree if that ever happens."
Oliver is not just her bodyguard, he is practically her brother from another mother. While they chat casually about their mundane lives, Aurelia could not help but go back to wondering how things would have been, or should have been, if her father was still alive.
***
Once upon a time, the Kingdom of Noxan was in its glorious days. The great ocean to the south, forest to the north, the subjects of Noxan had very little to ask for. And the Kingdom was also ruled by a very just King.
The people loved their king. The king had a Queen, a daughter and a son. But other than them, there was another person who also stayed in that palace. It was the King's older brother. The King respected his brother. But he did not. The brother felt betrayed because he always expected to get the throne.
On one unsuspected day, the brother staged a play. Everyone heared that the King died. The queen lost her mind in grief and killed her own son. The family suddenly broke into pieces. But thankfully, the brother took everything under his control. Instead of punishing the Queen, he sent her to the Garnet manor, a resting place in the middle of deep forest, to find her peace. He also took the daughter under his wing, giving her a good life.
But the real story was far more twisted than they could imagine.
The brother, finally getting what he always claimed was rightfully his, went mad with greed. The corrupted families who help his orchastrate his plan gained power. Everything went off balance. The rich lost their moral compass. The common subjects began to suffer. The once glorious Kingdom finally crumbled down.
The daughter, Princess Aurelia, can only watch them lament their fate from the ruins.