Chương 22: Regent Prince

The Janah envoy looked at the two satisfied individuals in the hall with a smile in her eyes, her heart feeling full on feeling their happiness.

"Alright, everything is set then. Crown Prince Lail will marry Princess Qamari and Prince Noore will marry Princess Nari. The Empirial wedding tomorrow will proceed as usual, only the brides will be switched. I wish the four of you a successful union." The envoy finished as she rose to take her leave.

Now that the matter was addressed and resolved, there was no reason for them to waste their precious sleep time anymore.

The rest of the crowd followed along and left after giving the four individuals in the hall a thoughtful glance. They could not help wondering what their future hold.

The Regent Prince left without looking back as Prince Noore followed behind.

"Princess, get some rest. I will come to pick you up tomorrow." Crown Prince Lail said with a smile on his lips. He was not aware that there would be such a day in his life one day where he would eagerly await for the break for dawn.

"Good night, your highness." Princess Qamari said with a smile before turning and leaving.

The Crown Prince watched her receding back until she was out of sight, before leaving the mansion and heading towards the imperial palace. It was a long night but unexpectedly, he felt refreshed as if a new dawn was waiting for him.

Outside the Regent Prince's study room, the sound of breaking objects and screams and grunts of anger and frustration could be heard.

Prince Noore, who was standing outside the door, felt his scalp numbing upon hearing the animalist growls. If he was only suspecting earlier, he was now certain that his marriage with Princess Qamari was not as simple as it seemed. Steeling his heart, he entered the study room to confront his father's rage.

Inside the study room, the Regent Prince's face was red from anger. Cheeks flashed, nostrils flaring, he flung the vase in his hand at Prince Noore with all his might.

Prince Noore narrowly dodged the flying vase, shock on his face as looked at his Royal Father.

"Trash! You ruined everything. All my years of planning, patience, and expectations have gone to waste because of your one mistake. All because of you!" The Regent Prince howled with madness and despair, his eyes flashing with murderous intent as he looked at Prince Noore.

"Royal Father, do you have to be angry? You think about it. I was clearly framed, otherwise, why would I be in bed with that princess and not remember anything about it? Moreover, I had never planned on getting into a relationship with Princess Nari. I had something else planned. It was not only your plan that got ruined, mine was as well." Prince Noore said, approaching his royal father cautiously, fearing getting hit by a flying object.

"Anyway, what is the important deal with Princess Qamari? Why are you so enraged about the fact that she is going to marry the Crown Prince and not me?" He continued asking.

The Regent Prince, once known as Kreme Amhei, was just an unknown prince of the Amayan Empire. But after the sudden death of his royal brother, the then Crown Prince of Amaya, he rose to power so rapidly, the ministers and officials of the court were not able to associate the brilliant man in front of them with his past self. Assuming that he had been deeply concealing himself, they did not overthink the matter.

Unbeknownst to them, he had not been concealing his abilities but had no abilities at all. It was only through a certain fortuitous encounter, as he liked to believe, that he was able to change his destiny. More importantly, from that encounter, he also came to know about the existence of a 'golden bird' that would rule the seven realms in the Jinn Kingdom. And the 'golden bird' appears there due to the presence of a girl with violet eyes.

He was not sure how Princess Qamari was related to the 'golden bird', but if its appearance had something to do with her then there could be more to her than met the eye. To possess the 'golden bird' that would help him rule the seven realms, and solve the mystery behind Princess Qamari, he had devised the scheme of dowry bride and Empirial wedding.

Everything was going according to his plan as he was soon about to acquire not only the 'golden bird', but get Princess Qamari under his control as well. But at the last moment, Princess Qamari escaped out of his grasp, leaving him with only the 'golden bird'. For the past few years, after achieving only continuous successes in every endeavor of his, he had forgotten the taste of failure that he used to experience every day in his elder brother's presence.

But that taste had suddenly returned in the most unexpected and unlikely form; his son. How could he not become mad with rage and anger?

"That is not something that you need to know. Prince Noore, I will give you one chance to fix this folly of yours. Do whatever you need to do, but I want you to get Princess Qamari to leave the Crown Prince and come to you, entering our family as your princess consort. Do you get that, Prince Noore?" The Regent Prince, Kreme Amhei, said darkly with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Yes, Royal Father." Shivering, Prince Noore replied fearfully. For these many years, he had never felt scared looking at his Royal Father as he did not. Somehow, he could not help wondering what his father will do to him if he failed to accomplish this goal.

In the Aquamarine mansion, Princess Nari and Princess Qamari entered their separate chambers without speaking a single word to each other.

Princess Nari was angry at her cousin for not caring about her future happiness and marital life, seemingly willing to marry Prince Noore even when they were already involved with each other. She took Princess Qamari's wording of marrying a 'promiscuous man' as insults directed at her for sleeping with the Prince. And for being insulted in such a way when it was not even her fault, she felt enraged.

Of course, Princess Nari did not find any fault in herself for even having designs on her cousin's intended husband. From her point of view, Princess Qamari was only able to get married to a prince in the great Amayan Empire because of her. Because the dowry marriage between the Jinn Kingdom and Amayan Empire was settled between her Royal Father and the Regent Prince, with her as the main character and focus and Princess Qamari as just a fill-in. And as such, she had the right to choose the one she wanted to marry between the two princes.

As for Princess Qamari, she should be happy with whatever she got, after all, it was not like she was losing out. She would still be marrying an Amayan prince.

On the other side, Princess Qamari was relieved to be free from the double-faced man, Prince Noore. To save herself from any possible pursuit or retaliation from the Regent Prince after behaving so unrestrainedly in the hall, she accepted the proposal to marry the Crown Prince.

Even though she had a backup plan to live a free life after breaking off all relations with the royal family, it would take time and effort to arrange everything. And time was not a luxury she would be given if the Regent Prince decided to hunt her down.

Without the farce today, she would have married the hypocritical man. If she had to choose between the arrogant prince and the hazy prince, she would choose the arrogant prince. Although both men were people she wanted to steer clear of, at least she could see through the arrogant one clearly and would not have to worry about being controlled and backstabbed.

Moreover, she got a say on the type of marriage she wanted with the Crown Prince, making the future seem not all that bleak. If worse came to worse, she could just pick up her marriage agreement, throw it in his arrogant face, and leave without hesitation.

"It will be a big day tomorrow. Let's get some sleep to prepare for the battle." She thought excitedly, her purple eyes flashing with a hint of silver.