The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Fiore's castle, Emily's room]

"What am I going to do...?" Emily said quietly to herself as she paced back and forth around her room. She had already promised Erik that she would definitely get him out, but right now she could not.

She thought that Zack would vouch for him.

She really did.

"I guess you don't always get what you want, huh." She muttered under her breath and she crashed onto the huge bed.

She knew that was the case, but even so, it still was frustrating.

She placed her hands over her face, "Will Erik get mad at me? I broke my promise... Is there anything else I can do? ...Dammit."

Unknowingly, tears began to form at the bottom of her eyelids.

"What the hell, Emily?! Stop crying like a baby! You're crying so much lately." She yelled as she wiped her tears off vigorously.

However, it was no use. They just kept multiplying.

...And she could not stop them.

She was just so frustrated.

Ever since she was young, she never bothered to set goals for herself. She was not good at anything, but she was not bad either. She was just average at everything that she does and she was okay with that.

She always admired her best friend, Hailey. There were times when she was rude towards others and there were also times when she got mad over the littlest things.

However, she excelled in every aspect.

Sports, studies, fashion, sociability and so much more.

...And the thing that Emily admired the most was her determination.

Once Hailey set her eyes on something, she would be stubborn about it. She would do it no matter what, and nobody's opinion would make her budge. She would not give up until she achieved her goals.

Yet, compared to Emily, she never had the drive in her. So, whenever things started crashing on her, she just felt indifferent, since she was not serious, to begin with.

With that being said, the reason for her to feel so frustrated was that...

For the first time, she actually put in the effort and had genuinely...

Tried.

[Fiore's castle, hallways]

After that sparring with Ben, Beck was exhausted.

He has almost forgotten how strong his older brother was. Even though he put up a good fight, he still lost to Ben, but he was not upset. All that did was motivate him to become stronger. He tightened his fist and said quietly to himself, "I guess I need to train harder."

He grabbed the towel that was slung over his shoulder and cleaned his face with it. He needed a bath since he was perspiring like mad, as compared to Ben, who bȧrėly broke a sweat, after that killer workout. He headed to his room to grab a set of clean clothes before heading to the bathroom.

Once he reached, he gently opened the door to only be greeted by sobs. He walked in and shut the door behind, making Emily noticed his presence. Despite knowing that Beck was there, she continued crying. For some reason, she just could not stop.

Beck dropped his towel onto the settee and trudged towards her, "...Emily?"

The only response he got from her was a series of sobs.

He kneeled by the bed and tried his best to comfort her, "Hey. Hey Emily, what's wrong?"

She wanted to tell him everything, but words just would not come out. She hid her face behind her hands, trying to cover her tears from him.

Beck helped her up with a concerned look on his face. Once she was sitting upright, he continued, "Emily, I'll listen to anything. So, just tell me what's wrong."

He was already exhausted, but he could not leave Emily alone, not when she was crying this badly. His heart did actually ache a little seeing her in this state.

Beck pulled Emily's hands off her eyes, as she looked at him with her reddened and swollen eyes, after a few seconds she immediately buried them in her knees.

Without thinking, he pulled her in for a hug.

He kept her close to him for a good minute, before releasing her. He reached out for her cheek and wiped most of her tears meekly while she stared at her knees as she wiping her nose with her hand.

"Look, I know things didn't go THAT well, but that doesn't mean that it's over." Beck comforted as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. He looked at her for a second before giving her hand a gentle squeeze, "I know, you're stronger than this, Emily. Don't give up just like that. I'm sure there's something we can do about this... Maybe, we can just convince his majesty instead. I mean, you can exercise your rights as Fiore's Princess."

Emily rested both her arms on her knees and buried her head in them, "I know that there are other solutions... I really do. But, this is the best solution and I just really thought that what I did would work. But, it didn't, of course. Why did I thought that anything I do will work?" She let out a sad laugh, before she continued, "I had a really good feeling about it as well. Stupid, huh? I'm really just a—"

"Don't say that." Beck stopped her. "I know it's not fun when things didn't go the way you wanted. Especially, when you worked really hard on it. It just felt like—"

"—An 'eff you' to the face." Emily completed his sentence, without raising her head.

"Yeah, that." Beck paused for a second, before continuing, "But, sometimes we got to just deal with it and accept that things are and will never be that easy... And, that's okay. We will just wait it out or use other methods."

Emily raised her head and argued back, "But, we don't have time!"

Beck was a little taken aback because of the sudden rise in Emily's voice, but it did not faze him. "Then let's go now. We can talk to his majesty." He quickly changed into a new shirt, being oblivious of Emily in the room.

Besides, he was just changing his top, so that should be alright.

"Sorry, Beck. I really shouldn't be lashing out at you. But, I really don't want to—" Emily protested, but Beck grabbed her arm and pulled her off the bed. He led her to the hallways and her dad's study room.

He knocked on the door and asked for permission to enter. A familiar monotonous voice replied from the inside, "...Come in."

"Beck, I really don't feel—" Emily wanted to protest, but Beck refused, "Emily, right now, the only one getting in your way is yourself."

"You want to save Erik, right? If your resolve is that strong, don't be disheartened just like that. Otherwise, you'll regret this." He said sternly.

Emily had never seen Beck this serious. She was almost intimidated but how serious he was, but as much as she did not want to admit, he was right. She should not have let her frustration get in her way, Erik's life was in the line. If she continued to sulk, she would not find a proper solution and that would not be nice on Erik's side.

Beck was acting the way he is so that he could wake her up and make her realised that it does not matter if things did not go the way she wanted. The only thing that matters was the ability to stand right back up after a failure.

That was the type of leader that she needed to be.

Before Emily could say anything, the door swung opened.

"Oh, Emily!" Her mum greeted her with a surprised look on her face. "I didn't know, you're here with Beck."

"Yes. Sorry to disturb, your majesty." Beck said as he gave her a bow. "Um, I think Emily has something to say."

"Ah, I see." The queen replied as she smiled at Emily, "Well, you can just come in and tell both your Father and me about it."

Emily nodded hesitantly and went in. Before Beck could follow behind, the queen stopped and looked at him, "You know, you can call me 'Mum' now, right Beck?"

Beck's face began to turn red as he froze for a second, "I-I..." He could not complete his sentence, because of how embarrassed he felt.

The queen giggled charmingly and said, "Alright, I'll stop teasing. But, you should relax. You looked really serious right now, I don't want you scaring my Daughter. Anyway, just come in and join Emily."

Emily was shocked to see that Zack beat her to the King's study room.

"So, are you sure that Erik was involved?" The king asked in his usual husky voice as he placed his arms on his table, with his fingers laced together. The way he looked at Zack was already intimidating for Emily, let alone a twelve years old boy. His glaze was yelling the words: "no bullshit here". Or at least, that was how Emily would interpret it.

"...Yes," Zack replied as he mustered all his courage to make eye contact with the prestigious figure.

"Hm. I see. I guess we can cancel the execution then. I'll inform Jai about it and Erik will be freed as soon as possible." The King replied before looking over to Emily, "What brings you here?"

Emily was too surprised that she could not reply. "What just happened? It's over? So, Erik will not be executed?"

"Err... Zack. I thought you— Wait, what?!"

"Yeah, I know Emily. I changed my mind. You were right, I was being the immature one here." Zack replied as he looked down, feeling culpable l for the way he talked previously. "I'm sorry, for the way I spoke just now. I was just mad."

Even though Emily could not able to process everything, Zack's apology still got to her. She let out a laugh and accepted his apology, "I'm glad you changed your mind Zack, and honestly that's all that matters."