The visit ended and so did the day.

The conversation between the prince and Diana had never left that hospital. The drama ended there leaving Louis dazzled and Diana changed.

The holiday that her Majesty gifted her made the maiden discover more about herself. About her sensitive character. Was that because she was too attached to her father? but it's been more than a year. Would the emotional link still tingle even with miles apart?

No matter the answer, from that day on, she swore never to vow her emotions to any boy in the palace. As it marked her decision to become more mature. Her feelings will no longer thrill her away from the real world. She won't get lost in her fantasy globe again. She will try to impose discipline on her life. Even if she was going to destroy a part of herself along the way.

Taking all of this into consideration.

She began her day as usual by changing her clothes to her usual maid clothes.

No matter how many she tried, she never brought herself to accept this custom. She never had foreseen that the rest of her youth would be spent as a servant for the ruling class of this palace.

She sighed, she couldn't help herself accept this idea, not at this moment at least...

She began her duty by bringing the one thing that her queen always orders every morning.

Her cup of hot tea.

"Tea is ready, my lady"

"Thanks, hon, put it on the table please" she gestured. Looking up through her window overlooking her garden. Enjoying the breeze of early morning fresh air.

Diana obeyed.

"Finally some pleasant moments for this cursed family" Anna joked around.

"May it always prolong" Diana wished with a fake smile.

"I Wish so" she smiled back. As she grabs the handle of the cup and the small plate below it.

"So..." she began. "Any news about your reward?" Anna asked about the request.

"In fact, I hold an answer" Diana decided.

Anna paused with surprise. "Well, that was fast. Sure you don't need more time to think about it? It's a one-time offer you know, mind you"

"I don't need it, your highness. I am ready"

"Alright, call it out and it shall be done for you," she said right before approaching the cup to her lips for the first sip.

Diana paused for a second. She felt the words stuck in her throat. They were too heavy to let them out. She looked at her happy queen. The lovely woman. She will miss her.

"I want to leave the palace and return to my Town"

On hearing the previous words, the queen spat the hot tea in the air. Just the reaction that Diana had anticipated.

She looked at Diana with wide-open eyes.

"WHAT? WHY? Did the king insult you again?! I will talk to him if you-"

"No, my queen. It's not him" she interrupted.

"It's just that I missed my father so much and I hated this place the moment I put my leg in it, you asked me to ask a reasonable request, so here it is"

The queen paused a bit.

"Oh, you mean periodical visits. It would be hard of course, but I can try to ease that!"

"No. Permanently, and I don't want to come back" Diana rebated.

"B-But that doesn't make any sense! You were happy yesterday after I gave you that day off and I met your demand by allowing you to visit the bo-" she suddenly stopped. It popped to her.

"Wait...Is Louis the reason why are you so pissed?"

Suspicion began to arouse.

Diana's anger began to grow as she noticed that Anna was digging for the reason rather than fulfilling her promise.

"Please just let me leave the palace," said Diana with a slightly angered tone. Bypassing the question. Deep down her interior. The sadness never faded. It just hibernated, and it woke up in the hospital.

She never said anything about yesterday to anyone. She didn't need to. Her face was doing the talking for her.

The queen chuckled. "So it is him, ha? I will talk to him, that boy needs some behaving lessons when talking to my girls!"

"Look like you are not giving me what you promise. All you are doing is asking questions and creating excuses, your majesty"

That statement sparked Anna off and the queen's voice tone began to Escalate.

"Do you know what are you asking for!!? even if by a miracle I managed to convince the king to let you leave. You are living a luxurious life I bet the crown that I am wearing that you have never dreamed of and I treat you just the same as my two long-gone sons.

WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE THAN THAT?!" Anna shouted.

"Well, let's begin with my father who was about to die trying to make me escape the captain and his men. My friends. My village. My old free life...shall I continue?...and with all due respect. You are mistaken, my queen. I didn't ask for that life. It was forced on me"

After hearing her defence, the queen put a halt to her argument. There was no use to put the excess effort into stopping her request. Diana had a point.

She gasped. Slowly putting the tea aside.

Diana noticed and stood silent. Waiting for the judgment.

"May I share a secret with you?" Anna asked.

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"O-Of course". Diana's hesitation was clear. She wasn't that eager to know the answer. Royal secrets were never discussed around velvets and maids as it always led to disasters if they reached the public by mistake.

"Do you have any idea, of all those girls beside you, on that very first day you came to the palace? Why did I choose you to be my subordinate?"

Diana blinked."Because of me protecting my necklace, that's what Your Highness told me"

"That was a lie. The true reason was that I found what I was looking for, inside your soul"

"M-ME?" she pointed at herself with disbelief. "I really don't understand"

"You. My dearest was a warrior. Your fire was too bright, that's why Wain didn't comprehend it. And in what we don't comprehend, we tend to exterminate. That's the real reason for shielding you from him because I wanted to learn how to have that fire of yours to light my rusty heart again. I wanted to know how you maintained such wits when you were facing death eye to eye"

She paused for a bit. To take another sip from her slightly colder tea.

"But I am not that special, my lady. I was just rude back then. You yourself admit that!"

Anna put the cup down.

"That is correct, and that's why you missed your potential. The potential that I could use to lead my people to prosperity, away from my fiendish husband and his crimes"

"Strange" Diana sighed. "If you hated him that much then why did you marry him in the first place?"

"Because he was the only one left to support me when I was trembling between my untold pains. The common won't take a vote for a weak queen, and they were right. He used this to his advantage. At that time I didn't have the current strength to oppose him in any matter, even when it came to our marriage. Despite me being the sole person who had the rare ability to alter his decisions...

After my own family's demise, I lacked the will and the purpose, till the moment I saw you defending that necklace of yours...

I asked myself if she, a simple villager, could stand her ground with her bold attitude against the mighty king of this land. Why am I - the queen of this same land- can't do the same for myself and for my people?"

"But you don't need me for all of this. Couldn't you find that potential yourself?"

"Where? between these walls? It only brings memories of despair and agony. Do you know how many times I went to my room crying endlessly from my despicable unhappy life?

Every time I glance at my husband's picture I realize how lonely I have become. Even those other maids. They only carry the fear of punishment. They fear me and they don't even try to hide it, despite I had never treated them the way Wain treated his girls.

You. My loyal girl. Proved twice to be more than capable of helping me mend the cracks of my soul, healing my loneliness with your clumsiness. While protecting my family just the same"

Diana blinked. She ran out of expressions to describe how she felt.

"Will you still leave me when I am so desperate to have you?" Anna sighed with full honesty. Leaving it for Diana to decide her fate for herself for the first time in her life.

With both options available.

Diana began a conflict with herself.

Would she stay with the queen, the one who saved her a year ago from hanging, and fight through her homesickness and unstable feelings for the rest of eternity? The title 'Maid of the queen' was not an easily overlooked rank in the canterpool...

...Or rather she bashes all those past incidents away and travels back to her father and her village for good. She gets everything back, her father, her friends. However, in return for her wish, she will lose her queen, and she may actually hate her. She will lose all her love of hers and succumb back to becoming the nauseating washdisher she was, and back to the poverty and shitty but free life.

"So what is your answer?" Anna stared, linking her fingers in waiting.

"No..." Diana trailed with her voice

"No what?" The queen demanded a decisive answer.

"No...I would never leave you alone for that monster" Diana smiled widely. "I am staying" she finally said, defeated with tears grouping in her glimmered eyes.

Anna's eyes widened while a great pretty smile washed over her face.

"Oh. My dear. Come here" Anna opened her arms receiving her beloved daughter in kindness between her arms, feeling empowered again as Anna wrapped her fingers around Diana's cheeks, wiping them from tears.

Anna chuckled. "And don't worry! you still have your request. The offer is the same"

Diana blinked. "Um...ok, well now you mentioned those visits..."

"Then it shall be done! let's-"

Knock knock

"Your majesty, the chariot is ready," said a royal guard from behind the door.

Anna slammed her head.

"My visit to my charity hospital! oh. How did I forget that!?" She blamed herself.

"I can wait, Your Majesty" Diana smiled.

"Don't worry. I promise I will see through your request when I return, ok?"

Diana nodded.

With that promise of seeing her father again. Diana waved goodbye to Anna. She left towards the north for a long trip that would take 3 days.

○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○●○

In the middle morning of the third day

Diana's excitement never reached such heights. After a long painful year of homesickness. She finally will see her father again!

While at the same time maintaining her unbreakable bond with her beloved mother figure queen.

Speaking of the queen. The palace went sombre in her absence. So by the royal code, all of her maids were transferred to Wain's palace to keep them secure.

The palace wasn't special in anything. Though it was way more noisy than the queen's place and ten times bigger.

Fortunately, his owner rarely made any contact with Diana or any of her friends. They were only kept in custody till Anna returned and were used to serve the king in minor things. One of those minorities that Diana was assigned to was to clean one of the long hallways.

She used that to enjoy some moments of silence during the assignment...

...Until a certain familiar black boot disturbed it. The owner of those boots was watching her for some time. Skeptical about approaching her. He kept thinking about how he should propose his display without making a clown out of himself in front of her.

After some time he got enough courage to steadily approach the girl, stopping some feet in front of her.

She kept mopping the floor while talking. "You should have stayed longer in the hospital. Your arm needs to rest more, sir"

She didn't give him a face.

"I know..." Louis sighed. His arm was still engulfed with the same amount of bandages. But he seemed to be in better shape now.

"Could you spare-"

"No"

"Oh come on! Give me a chance at least". He protested how she was neglecting him.

"For what?! To insult me again!? I am maybe a maid but I do have some remaining dignity left"

"And that's what I admire the most" he smiled. In strange unexpected behaviour.

"What?" She was pulled by a surprise.

He came closer, leaning his back to the left wall, crossing his arm. "Do you know why am I here? Talking to you, Diana?"

"Well, since you are flirting with me now. I would say you are trying to present an apology". She raised one of her eyebrows.

"Flirt" he sadly grinned, "That action that I never know how to perfect", He said before continuing. "Look...back at the hospital, I lost my way with the words. That's why I couldn't disclose my real intention back then"

"Which was?"

"Your beauty..." His spontaneous reaction was natural but was irrelevant within her eyesight

Her eyes went dull. "Ha Ha, very funny. I see your ways with me, trying your gallant strategy for me to forgive you. Ha?"

"No, Diana. You are wrong. I am not joking around. Not with how I behaved that day towards you"

She stared at him, noticing his sharp face and his hard-lined mouth. His features were not warm anymore.

He was serious.

She stopped mopping, to hear him out.

"I am sorry, from the bottom of my heart for my irresponsible behaviour"

She blinked coldly. "Whatever", her words came out like throwing a bone to a skinny dog as she continued mopping the floor.

However, indifferent from the outside as she was, her inner self was pleased and was more than welcome to forget the past. Not because how his apology was sincere in itself but because he was thinking of her all those past days. Or he won't be breaking his resting period just to stand in front of her now, proposing his goodwill.

Louis's eyes dropped a bit, seeing his apology hitting a frozen wall. Without any response from the other side. That said, he didn't lose any of his resilience.

On the other side, she was losing control once more, feeling the past pure emotions bumping through her heart again. Not noticing her small cheeks returning to their merry blushful state.

He came one step closer. Extending his head to meet her gaze.

"All my life I never had a friendship with a girl, I bet they all thought me an idiot with a noble title. They would go befriend strong boys with stronger bodies instead, a fervent gift that I lack. I am not an arrogant boy like you think. It's just that I had never talked to a girl long enough to know how it's way different from talking to my limited carefully picked friends of boys.

What happened in that hospital was coming from the real me. A simple, clumsy boy who had wild feelings towards you"

"A...A wild..." Diana's eyes widened in astonishment that she was about to have a stroke.

"You heard me, right". He smiled widely preparing to shoot the next oversized words of his...

"I am in love with you, Diana"