Chapter 374 - The Proposal
"What about my daughter?"
Reginald didn't directly want to jump in and say that the Prince that they thought was a Prince of Romania was in fact a fraud. He wanted to build a good image of himself in front of the King and the Princess at first.
Thus, he put on his decent face and then began weaving his story, "I know that our Kingdoms didn't exactly look eye to eye during the late King's term. But after the responsibility of the throne fell on me, I wanted to change that."
Rebekah almost wanted to giggle hearing her brother speak in the softest voice which he had never done before.
She began looking around at the paintings of beautiful sceneries that were being hung in the walls of the meeting room in order to distract herself and not end up slipping out a burst of laughter or two.
Reginald looked at Dragomir and kept on building the context, "I wanted to have this meeting way before. So one day, I came to Wyverndale to see the people and villages for myself. I wanted to familiarize myself with Wyverndale and its people before I had a meeting with you."
Adeline leaned back on her chair and watched that liar of a King as he kept on spinning the lies. She was thinking to herself, "Wanted to familiarize yourself, yes, but to extract information and attack on Wyverndale later on… And look at the audacity! He doesn't even fear to say that he came here like a thief."
Dragomir was unable to hide his displeasure upon hearing that King openly admitting that he had sneaked into Wyverndale before as well.
Reginald was quick enough to pick up their feeling towards him. He knew that if he would pause for a second after confessing that, it would be like giving King Dragomir the opportunity to speak against him.
So, without missing a single beat, he instantly put on an apologetic face and said, "And I accept that I went a little out of my way by sneaking into your Kingdom like that. I deeply apologize for my behavior. I hope you can forgive me by thinking of me as a young King who is just learning his ways."
Adeline found Reginald to be very repulsive. She was willing to listen to what he had to say about the peace between the Kingdoms. However, she couldn't digest a word that he was saying. Everything that he said felt like poison to her, no matter how softly he was talking.
Adeline was cursing that Vampire King in her mind, "Look at this man talking so smoothly. Had I not known about his wicked plans already then he would have duped me with his sweet talks."
"But I am glad that I came here that day." Suddenly a smile appeared on Reginald's face and he shifted his gaze from Dragomir to Adeline, "Princess Adeline, I don't know if you remember it, but we happened to meet each other in the market the day I came to visit Wyverndale."
Adeline looked into his blood-red eyes and replied a bit satirically, "I do remember, Your Majesty. Your red eyes are hard to miss. Had I known that you were the King of Mihir then I would have gladly familiarized you with Wyverndale myself."
And that idiot King did not get the satire and gave a wide grin to Adeline, "I would love that. I hope you will give me a tour after the meeting is over."
Adeline forced a smile while regretting saying that. "Like hell, I will! Why did I even expect him to get the sarcasm," she thought to herself.
Dragomir could sense that Adeline was fuming inside so he filled in the silence, "Of course, King Reginald. We shall show you around."
To make the atmosphere less weird, Dragomir asked a question, "So, you were saying that the matter that you were going to discuss concerned Adeline. May we know what it is?"
"Yes, of course." This was the moment that Reginald was waiting for. He confidently looked at King Dragomir and started, "Ever since I happened to meet Adeline on that day…"
His eyes trailed towards Adeline and he spoke like a love-struck kid, "I couldn't help but think that a marriage between you and me could be a great way to establish peace between our Kingdoms."
He paused for a moment so that Adeline and Dragomir could register what he just said in their minds.
There was pin-drop silence in the room for a while.
Theodore smirked and thought, "Ah! He finally said it… Now let's hear my dear's response and then watch him get his heart crushed." Theodore was leaning on a wall with his legs crossed and was observing everything happening in the room with great interest.
"Di-Did he just put forth a marriage proposal?" Adeline was dumbfounded and looked around the room while getting nervous. She was looking for Theodore but he had concealed himself from her as well so that she wouldn't be distracted by him in the meeting, or accidentally give away that there was another person present in the room.
Rebekah, on the other hand, furrowed her brows and looked past her brother because she felt like she was hearing an extra heartbeat in the room. But the sound was so dim that she thought she was hearing the heartbeat of someone who was standing outside and let the matter slide.
"You are implying that you want to marry Princess Adeline?" Dragomir finally broke the deafening silence in the room with his stern and direct question.
"Yes, King Dragomir." Reginald didn't hesitate one bit to confirm.
And he even got an opening to share the future plans, "Princess Adeline would still be the Queen of Wyverndale even after we get married and I would still be the King of Mihir. But we could run both of the Kingdoms together, share resources, open several roads for trade, share the culture, and whatnots."
"Argh! This fool brother of mine! He made it sound so political…" Rebekah adjusted her position and busied herself with the paintings again.
Reginald gave an assertive look to Dragomir and added, "In my opinion, there is no better path to peace than the marriage between us. I'm sure you know it yourself, King Dragomir."
Dragomir gave a light chuckle when he played that 'You've also done it' card on him.
Adeline was waiting for that mad King to stop blabbering so that she could outright reject him. She was itching to shout and say 'No, thank you!' to his proposal.
And the moment he stopped talking, she tried her best not to sound furious or irritated and said, "I'm sorry to disappoint you, Your Majesty. But my marriage has already–"
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