Three Days Before the Wedding
Crown Prince Demetrius addressed me in a cold voice:
“Hermia, I don’t love you. Helena is the only one who fulfills me.”
My younger sister, Helena, nestled in his arms, smiled maliciously.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, dear sister. His Highness prefers me to you!”
“Yes,” he declared, “I will make Helena my wife.”
I had long known about their relationship.
Helena, blessed with dazzling beauty, always called me a “boring woman” and tried to take everything from me. I despised both the unfaithful Crown Prince Demetrius and my scheming sister.
Yet…
Maintaining my composure as a lady, I calmly inquired,
“Do you intend to annul our engagement, Your Highness? However, our marriage was arranged in our childhood. What does His Majesty the King have to say about this?”
Helena interjected with a smug smile.
“Oh, the King and Father both said it’s fine! Isn’t that right, Your Highness?”
“Yes,” Demetrius replied. “Father agreed that if I take you as the primary consort, I may marry Helena as a secondary consort. And your father, Count Calokia, is overjoyed. It’s an unparalleled honor for both sisters to marry into the royal family.”
Primary consort for me? Secondary consort for her?
Helena pouted dramatically.
“That’s so unfair! I could fulfill the duties of a queen just as well as you! We don’t need you, dear sister!”
Demetrius comforted her with a tender whisper.
“Helena, you must understand. Hermia received the education necessary to become a queen. But she’s nothing more than a figurehead. The only one I truly love is you.”
“Still…!” Helena pouted in dissatisfaction. Why was she the one complaining?
No one cared about how I felt—unloved by my husband, destined to live as a mere figurehead, the nation’s ‘mother.’
Still, I affixed a polite smile and bowed.
“I understand, Your Highness. It is an honor for the Calokia family that my sister and I will both join the royal household.”
I must not cry.
I must not become angry.
‘Be a woman worthy of being the nation’s mother.’
‘Never show your emotions to others.’
These were the lessons drilled into me from a young age. Somewhere along the way, I forgot how to cry or be angry.
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