Villainess Of Hearts

"I didn't say that you aren't the Queen, but you're more than just a Queen, Rosalyn."

Her mind was coming to a blank—she had seen the personification of time, knew of stories of old and had seen many things that might have been unbelievable to common sense, but what had come out from the King of Hearts' mouth was by far the strangest and uncomfortable thing she had encountered.

Excluding her own death she could suppose.

A disbelieving smile crossed on her lips. If she was not a Queen then what else would she be? The hand outstretched out to her was tempting and the gaze on the man's eyes was hopeful, soulful and even promising. Rosalyn Lockhart had told him to prove himself, but she did not expect him to suddenly just shift the paradigm in her mind.

More than just a Queen.

Ordinary people.

Someone like anybody else in the Kingdom.

"What nonsense is this…" Rosalyn Lockhart placed a hand over her forehead and tried to breathe. There was a tightness in her chest that was about to burst. It pounded heavily in her chest and she caged it in. 

The Queen of Hearts had managed to dealt with the Nobility, the people who were sometimes cunning and sometimes stupid, cloying group that wished to grasp more power. The Queen of Hearts had talked with the Time Man and convinced him to turn back time for her and she had even faced the consequences of her neglect of her Knight. Those were the things that she had done under the banner of being a Queen.

But this was…

"It's too much," the Queen of Hearts gave a look at the King of Hearts and laughed, "If you weren't the King then I would have asked my Knight to lop off your head—be grateful that he isn't awake now, because even with your position, I cannot guarantee that your words are something that fits to leave the mouth of a King."

The look on Alexander's face went grim, a deep-set determination in them.

He wasn't saying any apologies and for once was stubborn in his thoughts, almost similar to the Prime Minister's insistence that she came to the Royal Dining Hall to eat and drink. Put the other people in their place for trying to think that they could stand equal to that of a King—and here was the man saying that they were all the same.

She looked back at him and managed a weary smile, "I thought you wanted to better your relationship with me?"

His expression flickered momentarily.

Rosalyn Lockhart shook her head. "I could begrudgingly respect you, for you are a person who had survived the Card Trials and was ordained to be King. I had accepted it even if my brother was the one who was supposed to take the throne—I had to be Queen because of you. You gave me no option but to do this and now you tell me to stop acting like a Queen and simply be me? You're ridiculous."

He looked like he was about to say something but then held back himself.  Alexander Hartsmichdt was back to his tactics of silence.

Wasn't this such a typical event?

The Queen of Hearts tilted her head and glanced at him, a crooked smile on her face. It was almost the same thing all over again, she would burst out into emotions—mostly anger and rage and he would stand there quiet and unassuming. It made sense that she looked like the bad guy here when he couldn't even bother to say a word. 

She raked her fingers through her hair and gave him a look, "When I talk with you—it's like I'm talking with someone who's not even of this world. That's how different you are from me, Alexander."

The man's eyes widened.

Possibly because now he understood how far apart and detached she felt from him. When she was with him, it felt like she was shouting at an unending valley and with no man in sight and except for a few instances of where they had to work together in harmony—they were out of synch.

Far too different.

"You are right, Your Majesty."

"Huh." It wasn't strange that he'd be the peacemaker and agree, but why did he have to agree now? The Queen of Hearts raised her head, straightened up and met the man's gaze, pursing her lips in confusion. "Do you acknowledge that our stances are too different then, King of Hearts? What you ask from me is too difficult."

"... Yes." a tired smile formed on his face.

Now that might have been mirrored by one of her own, but even then she furrowed her brows at him. This was the unsatisfying part of their interactions. Right at the moment when she felt like she was pushing him to the edge of the cliff—he would turn things around and reveal that he had actually been walking through clouds.

That he could change it all.

Another long and deep sigh escaped his lips, and the King of Hearts would step backwards from the door. "I am sorry for saying too much, I didn't mean to say such upsetting things… but I had thought that they were, er, nevermind." the man would falter in the end and shake his head. He muttered something underneath his breath. "It was a little far too ahead of this time."

She narrowed her eyes from him—her heart was still pounding itself in her chest. Repeat it again. This was aggravating. Say it again. He should shut up and bite down his own tongue. "What did you say?" Those words of his mumbled to himself were enough to make her frown. Was he acting too high and mighty?

Or was this something else entirely.

Time.

Far ahead of this time?

"Nothing, Your Majesty."

"I heard what you said—repeat it."

"Far ahead of this time?"

"What are you trying to say about that?" Rosalyn Lockhart crossed her arms over her chest. She gave the man a look up and down, his posture right now was sloppy and worn down. Was it possible that he was the reason why her request with the Time Man to have her Knight remember the past denied? Was Alexander Hartsmichdt someone like her…?

"I thought you could see things my way."

The Queen of Hearts lips pressed down together in a line. "Were you trying to manipulate me?" Her heart pounded louder in her chest, as if saying that this wasn't what he meant. And yet it sounded that way to her and she didn't like it. "You who is the King that is far ahead of our time?"

"No!" Alexander shook his head. "I didn't mean it like that—and I guess, I can't really say that I'm more advanced or anything. That's just plain arrogant. But I had thought… that maybe you'd understand how I see things is different."

"... I know that the two of us don't see each other eye to eye."

"I mean not just that, Rosalyn!" he said. There was a hint of desperation in his eyes and he rubbed his face. "It's normal enough that the two of us don't get along, maybe our personalities are too different… but maybe that's because the two of us were raised in very different environments."

She frowned at him and at the racing of her beating chest—she didn't like how her heart pulsed. Rosalyn Lockhart tried for a simple question, "You mean that you were not raised as a Noble or as a Royal." Even when she had gotten her informant to look into him, there were no records at all and not a singular trace.

"Yes, I wasn't raised that way at all, we have no—" the man paused. "Well, we do have people with the titles of Lords and Ladies, even a Queen, but it's been so long ago that they have actually used their powers at all. It's more titular than anything."

She narrowed her eyes at him and tried to recall any countries or kingdoms that operated in a way similar to that of what he claimed to be his birth place, or at least the land he had grown up in and she could not name one.

"You wouldn't know of it, Rosalyn." Alexander told her with a look that was fully sure.

It was enough to make to her scowl and look away from him. Whether the Joker had managed to keep his records pristine and clean and that was what she expected from someone like him. He was a person that was more ancient and knowledgeable than her, more well-versed in the acts of governing that it made sense that the Joker would hide vital information to prevent it from being used against them…

But it was too clean.

As if nothing was actually there and that the King of Hearts, that this Alexander Hartsmichdt had simply popped out of nowhere. Was it the same for the Queen of Clovers as well? And yet there was something that nagged at her, not something.

Someone who also 'popped out of nowhere' and then was somewhere.

Somewhere across her lands and had dealt far too much damage than she would think that a simple woman could do. A person that the King allied himself with, along with the others, and had thrown her out to exile. The Queen of Hearts blood pounded in her ears and her nerves sparked. She jostled back up and then looked back at the man in front of her.

But a name was on her lips.

Alice.