Taking several steps back, Aurelius closed his eyes tightly shut as he shook his head in hopes to clear out the foggy sensation of confusion that slowly crept into his mind.

"Uh-What?" Taken aback by the sudden outburst, Aurelius had nothing else to say. Nor could he say anything that would help him regain the initiative in the conversation between the two of them.

"I said to get out!" Anna roared as she stomped her way towards the blonde-haired prince as he brought up his hands to stave off the approaching teenaged girl.

Boiling with an unchecked source of rage, Anna's face burned with a fiery passion as she slammed her fingers against the shocked elven prince's chest again and again as she forced the stammering blonde-haired bastard back against the wall, cornering him between a proverbial rock and a hard place.

"You know that you're not the first one to come here, right?" The enraged teenager yelled into Aurelius' face, looking up at his eyes with fiery rage as she jabbed her fingers into his chest. "Frauds and schemers who have all claimed to be in acquaintance with a list of my concerned friends. Friends that have long gone silent even before the death of my parents."

Anna spat in the face of the young elven prince before swiftly delivering justice to the blonde-haired teenager's absurd notions of a promised prosperity by slapping him across the cheek.

Aurelius brought a gentle hand to help soothe the reddened mark left behind by his wife's friend, taking it all in pride as he stammered out a swift response.

"I'm not like that!" The prince yelled out, shoving the visibly frustrated girl to the side as he desperately sought out enough space between the two of them. "I'm telling the truth, so why won't you believe me?"

With nowhere else for him to go, Aurelius danced around a gorgeously designed, but badly beaten table as the two teenagers shifted from one position to another. The two of them continued like this for some time before the young lady's servant, Maria, started to move towards the young elven prince's back, forcing the spry teenager to change quickly change tactics.

"The truth?" Anna spat out with venomous hatred as she dashed towards the source of her ire, but found that she was far too slow to catch the blonde-haired bastard. Even with the assistance of her servant, the fiery teenaged noble girl came nowhere near close enough to touch even the thinnest of threads upon the weighty coat that the fleet-footed bastard wore over his slender form as if it was no more than a thin strip of paper.

"You speak nothing more than lies and slander upon my good friend's name!" Anna jumped towards the elven prince, flying across the tabletop but found that the target of her ire was nowhere close to where she had landed.

Maria rushed towards the young girl and helped her up to her feet; hastily brushing at the bruises that had occurred upon the glaring teenager's bruised form.

"You may take me for a fool, but I still have my pride as a nobility of Ranislava. Even if that title will soon be gone for good."

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Aurelius cried out, sticking out his hands as a sign that he didn't wish for this rage-induced song and dance to continue any further. "Please wait!"

With a worried expression, the hurried elven prince shoved his hands deeply into the pockets of his magically altered coat as he desperately sought for the last remaining chance that he had at convincing his wife's friend of his genuineness.

Not wishing to yield any more time for their now-unwelcomed guest to concoct any more tricks, the two women dashed towards their target from both angles.

Their attempts were once again unsuccessful as they found themselves bashing into one another, their target having seemingly shifted in and out of reality, reappearing at the opposite end of the room within the blink of an eye.

The two women let out frustrated huffs of air as they moved to engage their adversary, but the young elven prince was quicker on the draw and easily avoided the pair of pursuers without so much as a worry.

'My Glorious husband,' The letter read as Aurelius scanned the contents upon its snow-white pages with his dazzling black-and-silver eyes. 'In case you have failed to convince Anna of your sincerity, I am writing this letter to you so that you may be able to convince her of the truth behind the words that you have spoken to her. Please do note however, that whatever circumstances you find yourself in, please take extra care to-'

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"This isn't helping me!" Aurelius tore the page out of his hands as a frustrated growl rumbled from deep within his body. Now was not the time for him to be reading a long-winded letter from his wife.

Another page of the multi-page letter was torn from the young prince's hands as he hurriedly read through its contents, weaving in and out of the reach of his now haggard-breath pursuers.

His wife was incredibly insistent that her husband not reveal the truth behind his identity, but Aurelius had already made such a constant demand from his wife moot.

Finally, somewhere near the final half of the third page, Aurelius found the information that he was looking for.

"Alright! Listen!" Aurelius cried out as he slid across the table, leaving the pair of women to stop their pursuit in its entirety as they simultaneously planted a hand over the other's shoulders as they fought to catch their breath.

"When the two of you were little kids, your group of friends had gotten lost in Iskra's family's hedge maze," The dazzling elven prince smiled as he read aloud the first of many childhood memories of his wife and her friends. "But it turns out that it actually wasn't a hedge maze. Instead, it was a bunch of bushes that were arranged in such a way that the whole bunch of you just ended up going in circles until the servants found you all crying in a circle, crying your eyes out."

Anna and Maria looked at one another, confusion abundantly present upon their faces as the manor's young madam quietly mouthed several words to herself.

What came next was a list of various memories, both embarrassing and cherishing to either of the two now-teenaged youths that they had experienced together in one manner or another. Some were mere private moments that the two girls had shared with one another while others were personal secrets that one or the other had sworn their friend to secrecy, lest their friendship end.

The list of memories was quite long, and as he turned over page after page, Aurelius quietly wondered just when it would end.

As he turned to the last page, Aurelius paused in embarrassment, looking up at his wife's friend as he silently wondered if he should read aloud what was next.

"Enough," Anna called out, not liking the look upon her guest's eyes as a half-embarrassed and half-shocked smile spread across his lips. "Let's just say that I believe in your words that you know Iskra to some degree, but for me to accept that the two of you have gotten married in such a short amount of time is absurd."

Hoping to give her young mistress the courage needed to speak further on the matter, Maria quietly nodded her head as the barony's young madam continued to explain by what she had meant.

"Amongst Ranislava's many social circles, Iskra was well known to go out of her way to avoid even the tiniest amount of contact with men who held no familial relations with her." Anna explained as she dismissively waved her hand in the air, confidant that the beautiful teenaged boy standing before her was nothing more than someone who loved to play games. "And even though she was engaged to the Crown Prince, she never made mention of any sort of interest in sexual activities. So this whole story of yours is nothing short of absurd."

Far too embarrassed to lock eyes with his wife's dismissive friend, Aurelius brought a hand to his mouth and let out a soft cough before a gentle, arrogant smile had strangely found itself upon his gorgeous features.

Ever since the two of them had started their relationship, sleep was a luxury that neither of the two expectant parents could afford. A fact that was further exasperated by his wife's constant reminders that he needn't worry about her permission and for him to do as he pleased whenever he wished for it.

"There's also the fact that blonde hair is unheard of in Orul," Aurelius thoughts were abruptly broken apart as Anna continued to poke holes in the young prince's story. Totally unaware of the idea that she had been told the truth. Even if it had been slightly altered to help preserve Iskra's moral innocence. "Dying one's hair is expensive and fairly uncommon in the first place, but because of your accent I can't deny the fact that you might have somehow met Iskra in some capacity."

'Well, she's definitely sharp to point out stuff like that.' Aurelius thought to himself as he quietly began to place praises upon his wife's friends. Once again, a gentle smile found itself upon his lips as a lighthearted chuckle danced throughout the room's stuffy air. 'Though I guess that her friends would have to be that way if they were to interact with their kingdom's future Queen.'

While there was some truth to the young prince's thoughts, Aurelius had been woefully unprepared to accept the possibility that there might have been other meanings behind whom and why Iskra had chosen her selected group of friends.

Iskra's vanity was something that the elven teenager was aware of at times, but his naivety towards just how bad she had been infected by such thoughts blinded him towards the truth that there was only one reason for why his wife had chosen who would become her friends. The truth being something that could only be discovered by looking upon the physical appearance of those that the former Queen-in-training had surrounded herself with.

"Now just wait one minute," Aurelius spoke as he held out a hand to put a stop to the young girl's accusations.

With a nervous glance, the two women took several steps back as Anna raised an inquisitive eye at the sudden outburst from the eye-watering beauty that stood before her.

"I know a way that can put your mind at ease and end your worries about this deal," Offering the two women a polite, disarming smile, Aurelius rubbed at the back of his neck as his face became flushed with embarrassment. "All I need is a large enough mirror and some of your patience."

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