Finding Stardust

She agreed it looked bad. However, Emma was sure that if her mother forced herself to marry Prince Darius without love ... their marriage would not be happy.

"If my mother asked permission to cancel her engagement to Prince Darius ... would Your Majesty be able to accept it?" asked Emma earnestly.

"I already considered Arreya like my own daughter," answered King Cassius. "If she didn't just run off and embarrassed us ... maybe it would have been a different story."

Emma was pensive, hearing the king's answer. She actually did not understand why her father and mother waited until the last moment before they decided to run away from Akkadia and get married.

The humiliation suffered by the Akkadian royal family was so great because the groom was left on the night before their supposed wedding. Maybe it would have been different if Arreya dissolved her engagement long before that.

This was something Emma really wanted to ask her mother the next time they met. Why ... her mother didn't just amicably end her engagement to Prince Darius before marrying her father?

"I'm sure my father and mother have their reasons," she said to King Cassius.

The king only smiled at Emma's efforts to defend her parents. This smile surprised Emma. It seemed, the king really had forgiven Arreya and no longer held grudges against her. 

This development made Emma feel somewhat relieved. 

Now she felt hopeful that she would be allowed to go to Thaesi and see her mother if she could make the king liked her too.

Her relief was in contrast to Queen Ygrit's resentment. The queen's face was grim, and she scoffed when she heard Emma defend her mother.

"Arreya was acting like a shameless woman by running away with another man on the night before her wedding. I'm afraid her daughter will take in her mother's footsteps," said Queen Ygrit as she glared at Emma. "You both are a disgrace to women."

"Grandmother! Please don't say that about my future wife," Therius said softly but firmly. "We don't know what really happened in the past. It was a long time ago. Besides, Emma is not Princess Arreya. I trust her."

Emma was grateful that Therius defended her in front of his grandmother, but deep inside, she didn't really care what Queen Ygrit thought about her. She didn't want to marry Therius and didn't feel the need to be friendly to the queen to get her approval.

It was different with Haoran. Emma was kind and respectful to Haoran's mother because she did love Haoran and wanted to marry him. That's why she wanted to get Haoran's mother's blessings.

Yared involuntarily coughed and Yldwyn's face flushed red with embarrassment. It was obvious that she liked Therius dan wanted to be his bride, but having the fact laid out in the open like this was bound to make her embarrassed. Especially when the man in question just defended another woman and called her his 'future wife'.

She touched Queen Ygrit's shoulder and gave her a pleading look. But the queen seemed annoyed enough and didn't want to hold back on her words.

"Yldwyn, you don't have to keep defending my grandson. He has let me down as his grandmother." The queen shook her head and downed her wine. Her face looked very displeased.

"Grandmother ..." Therius was about to say something, but Emma grabbed his arm and shook her head. She didn't want Therius to say unnecessary things and wasted energy.

In this kingdom, the most important opinion was only the king's opinion, not his wife's. So, according to Emma, there was no need for Therius to spend time and energy arguing with his grandmother. After all, he would only be an unfilial grandson if he refuted the words of his elder.

Therius froze when he realized Emma was holding his arm. His chest was pounding with excitement. He understood that the girl didn't want him to talk anymore. Because of that, he could only nod and whisper softly into the girl's ear.

"Please forgive my grandmother. Of all my family members, she was the one who hates your mother the most. Uncle Darius is her favorite child," said Therius. "I hope you don't take it to heart."

Emma nodded discreetly. She then smiled faintly at King Cassius, completely ignoring Queen Ygrit.

"Your Majesty. Prince Licht has told me everything. Forming a new alliance by marriage to bridge the peace between Akkadia and Thaesi, which will then result in peace with the other colonies .. I think it is a noble idea. By doing so, we can prevent war," said Emma to the king.

Her demeanor was very calm and collected. She had practiced these words in her bedroom and learned to hide her real feelings behind her flat expression.

"You think so too?" asked King Cassius to Emma. "So, you and Prince Licht have agreed to get married?"

Emma shook her head. "Yes. However, I can't get married without my parents' blessing. Especially at this time, my mother is grieving. I think getting married right after my father's death is not wise. Everyone will think that this marriage is forced."

Therius nodded, confirming Emma's words. He also added, "I already told you that, Grandfather, didn't I? Now you hear it from Emma in person. I think getting married as soon as possible is a reckless plan. Emma is still too young anyway. She needs at least a few years to prepare herself."

Therius' words that seemed to corroborate Emma's argument stunned the girl. She did not expect Therius to support her like this. The man even had already given his grandfather the same view about why he and Emma should not be forced to get married immediately.

Emma turned to Therius and smiled. This time, she gave Therius a kudoz point. Initially, she suspected that King Cassius' request that she and Therius get married was just the prince's scheme to make Emma marry him.

But apparently, Therius himself had tried to convince his grandfather that it was best to postpone his marriage to Emma. He even added the reason that Emma was too young to get married.

"How old are you now, Emma?" asked King Cassius to Emma.

"I'll be 19 in six months," said Emma. "Where I come from, women don't marry until they are in their 30s. Therius was right when he said I am too young to get married. I'm afraid I'll just trouble him with my immaturity, while he needs to focus on other more important issues."

Since Therius had already made that excuse, Emma decided to say the same thing. She wanted to postpone the marriage with the crown prince for as long as possible. She needed to convince King Cassius to let her leave Akkadia safely and then go to Thaesi.

Finally, King Cassius nodded. "Yeah, 19 is too young."

"So, I am begging you, please let me go see my mother ... Prince Licht can come along to ask for my mother's blessing and ensure that I will return to Akkadia. If all goes well, he and I will get married when both of us are ready. I really like Prince Licht, I do want to be his wife." Emma looked at King Cassius intently. "If Your Majesty is worried that I will run away, you can provide me with security to ensure that I will not disappear."

"I don't believe her," said Queen Ygrit suddenly. "Your Majesty ... I hope you don't get fooled by this girl's sweet little mouth. She is just like her mother. They can act so nicely before you. But she will stab you in the back when you are not looking. How could she even not be mad at you after you executed her father? This is all so fake!"

Emma was disgusted by Queen Ygrit's words. Somehow, this old hag just couldn't keep her mouth shut. Emma narrowed her eyes and looked at the queen and the princess sitting by her side.

For some reason, her instincts told her that Queen Ygrit was trying hard to make Emma feel miserable in Akkadia, because she wanted Therius to marry Yldwyn.

Emma actually had no intention of keeping her promise. Later, when the opportunity arose, she would not return to Akkadia.

While she was going to Thaesi with Therius and his entourage, Emma would ask Xion to secretly kidnap Haoran from the hospital and flee Akkadia. She would think about the details later. Xion did owe her one wish after all.

What's important now was ... she must convince King Cassius to let her go. If necessary, Emma would take advantage of the king's fondness for Arreya in the past.

"Your Majesty ... what do you think?" Emma repeated her question to King Cassius, ignoring Queen Ygrit entirely.

King Cassius looked closely at Emma. "What do you think about your father's death? You haven't said anything about it all along."

Emma clenched her fists under the table. Only Therius could see it from the side. The girl's expression was flat when she answered the king's question.

"My father is dead. No matter what I do, I cannot bring him back to life. I prefer talking about people who are still alive."

Her reply caused silence in the dining room.

"What tricks are you playing?" Queen Ygrit could no longer hold back. She rose from her seat and pointed her finger at Emma. "Your father was recently executed, but you don't even talk about his death. You pretend to act as if you don't feel any grudge for your father's death. This makes it difficult to trust you. I'm sure you are planning something. How can you not be angry when your father was executed? Don't you think of us as your enemy? I know you're lying when you said you are okay with his death. Because if you are not, then it means you are an unfilial daughter and you don't deserve your parents!"

Emma narrowed her eyes and looked at Queen Ygrit, whom she thought was trying too hard to incite her rage by mentioning Kaoshin's execution over and over again.

Was it..

Emma's chest was burning with anger as she thought about this possibility.

Was it, Queen Ygrit, the mastermind behind Kaoshin Stardust's execution? Only the king and she knew of Therius' mission to find Emma and bring her home. And Queen Ygrit clearly had an agenda to make Therius marry Yldwyn.

Suddenly it dawned on her.

Maybe, the traitor wasn't one of Therius' men who told Heron about the crown prince's plan, but his own grandmother.

And when Heron failed to stop him from bringing Emma, they went with Plan B... to kill Kaoshin.