"Empress Mother!" Naveen the second prince called Alarice who was currently having tea in the garden.
He was with the First Prince Mael.
"Hello sweethearts. Why don't you join me in my afternoon tea?" Alarice said
"I want strawberry tart!" Naveen said. Mael on the other hand politely sit down on the chair.
Naveen looks around trying to find someone. Alarice chuckled.
"Hiciel was not here. She was with his father to go shopping." She said
Naveen blushes. "I-It's not like I'm looking for her or anything!"
"You're blushing, Naveen." teases Mael.
"So what brings you here?" Asked Alarice.
"Nothing. I'm bored so I wanna play." Naveen said
"Did you runaway from your teacher?" Alarice asked.
"N-no!" the second prince lied.
"You know that those lessons are very important. You'll need that to fulfill your obligations as a Prince of this Empire."
"Yeah but I don't like to be an Emperor. Brother Mael is here. I mean who would want to sit on the chair all day doing boring paper works." Naveen complained.
Alarice saw how Mael flinched and tremble from hearing about the succession. She held his hands on the table.
"Marl? Are you okay? You can always talk to me if you need someone to talk to." Alarice sweetly said.
Mael smile forcefully. "I'm fine Empress Mother."
Alarice is worried. She know that Mael was being pushed too hard by the Empress Consort in his lessons on being a successor but she can't do anything about it. She doesn't have the power to. It is now that she regretted not sharing the responsibility of educating the successors so she can at least help his load.
Naveen was also learning how to be a Crown Prince but he was much more spoiled and carefree. Must be because he was spoiled by her and the second concubine.
She did tried her best to lessen Mael's lesson when she first saw his schedule of 14 hours of study without rest or break by raising her concern to the Emperor but his loads were just lessen to now 12 hours.
The Empress Consort reasoned out that it was just the right load for a prince that needs to be equipped with lots of knowledge to help the country.
"Oh and my mom was busy fixing her dress." Naveen interrupted while eating his cookies.
"Fixing her dress? Why?" Alarice asked
"She just knew that Mael's mom and Father will wear matching dress at the banquet and now she learns the color of their dress and she tried match it with them. Honestly, women are so complicated. Except for Empress Mother of course." He said then Alarice pinched her cheeks which causes Naveen to flinch in the slight pain.
"As a child. You're not supposed to say the last point, are we clear?" She said while smiling teasingly.
"They have their circumstances brother." Mael said.
Naveen pouted. "Your brother's right Naveen."
"But mom and I were supposed to wear matching golden outfits. It standout the most! But now she's going to wear a blue one."
Sometimes, Alarice was worried if she ever did spoil this little kid too much. He's becoming more and more pouty and sensitive to small things and wants to have his ways all the time.
She looked at the mature Mael who was sipping his tea. At twelve years old he now acts like an adult. Unlike the pouty Naveen, Mael never complains nor throw tantrums. It's like he was forced to mature early which Alarice most certainly think he did and he felt so bad for this child.
She was always trying to show Mael that she can be depended upon but it was to no vail. Mael never asks for her help. She was even lucky that she get Mael to talk to her casually.
"Mael. Are you going to the ball with the young lady of Marquess Viazni?"
Mael looks at her and shake his head. "No. I plan to go alone."
"What do you mean alone? I'll just go with you! I'm alone either. Mom will probably enter with Father and your mother." Naveen said
I smiled. "Why don't you two just be my escort?"
The two looked at her puzzled.
"Come on. Don't look at me like that. I also don't have a partner at the ball. Plus my dress happened to be of blue color so I think it just works." She said
Actually, her gown was also in golden color. The day she was about to choose a dress, Nicholas visits her and said that the color must be gold as it represents the Royal family.
And now that she did know that the three will wear golden colors she'll just wear her spare blue dress. It feels like four is too much crowd, right?
"You'll let us escort you?" Mael asked
"Why not? Do you prefer me being escorted by another man?"
"N-no that's not what I mean. It's just we thought you're going to go with Father. You two are the closest after all."
"What? We're not close at all, Mael. Hahaha. We're more like boss and employee. You don't want to be with your boss on a celebration, right?"
"Well, I guess you're right."
"How about it, Naveen?" I asked him
"Are you kidding me?! Of course I'll go with the two of you! Brother and Empress Mother! It's like a dream come true." He said excitedly
"So brother what gems are you going to wear on your cufflinks? We should match each other!" He continued
Alarice smiled at the sight. At least he was glad that she get to make these two close.
--
That night, it was Alarice's turn to serve the Emperor at night.
"What time are you going to go to the ball?" Asked Nicholas after taking a bath.
Alarice was lying on the bed exhausted.
"I'm probably gonna be late for a while. I need to supervise the preparations for a while." She answered tiredly
"Just leave it to Madame Constance."
"Fine. Fine." She said as she doesn't have the energy to argue.
Nicholas also lay with her. He kissed her forehead and fix her blanket.
"Oh and I changed my dress, in case you need to know." She said almost closing her eyes.
Nicholas asked. "Why?"
"My partner said that he'll wear blue so I said I'll also wear one." She answered
Nicholas' facial expression darkened. She has other partner?!
All this time he thought they will be going to the ball hand in hand with the Empress Consort and Concubine behind them.
That was the standard entrance of the Imperial family after all.
"Who's your partner Alarice?" He asked in a low voice.
She just groaned. Nicholas clenched his jaw and kissed her neck aggressively leaving a mark on her skin.
Alarice woke up from his action. She held her neck.
"What did you do? The ball is tomorrow. What if it leaves a mark? I can't just go around having hickeys!" She complained trying to look at her neck
"Why? Are you ashamed to show your partner that we did made love before the ball?"
"Of course it's embarrassing!"
Well, it's embarrassing if his sons were to see their father's mark in her.
But Nicholas didn't know it were his sons who will escort her to the ball. Alarice on the other hand thought she answered his question as who is her partner.
Nicholas cupped her face and kisses her aggressively.
"Mph!"
Alarice was surprised but his body is now also in heat at the roughness of Nicholas so she just wrapped her arms around his neck not giving a d*mn on tomorrow.