'How have you been faring, Amber?' Leticia asked.
They were in a visitors' drawing-room in the Royal Palace.
'I have been well.' Amber answered.
Amber could not help but wonder what Leticia was doing here. She was Countess Reinfeldt, so she could enter the palace with the only minimal procedure.
The room they were in was staffed with only Katri for privacy.
If she had some errand in the Palace, why did she not ask to see Matthias rather than Amber?
Amber had been stupefied when she had been informed that her sister was requesting to see her.
Leticia laughed softly, calling Amber back to the present.
'In just a few weeks, you will become Queen.'
Amber remained silent.
She was planning on leaving the palace soon, once Ernest was freed from the love potion. She had sent the letter to Matthias, who had told Ernest. Since that day, Ernest held her with maddened passion every night. Even when she lost her mind from pleasure, he put his hot thing inside her and forced her back from the world of sleep.
It was as though he was trying to keep her tired to stop her from escaping. From another point of view, it was his behavior was equal to torture and rape.
Nevertheless, Amber felt a dark joy more than sorrow (Zuben: These two and their dark joys). She understood that the love potion was still in effect. While it was not a good situation, in the corner of her mind, there was a foolish part of her that was relieved.
'-Amber! Amber!'
'Hmm…?'
'Have you been listening to what I have been saying?' Leticia puffed her cheek out in displeasure.
'Oh, pardon me.'
Do not give Leticia an opportunity. Though she had learned this enough, she seemed to have been at a loss for a moment.
When Amber apologized, Leticia's eyebrows lowered.
'Are you ready to be Queen with that attitude?' Leticia chided Amber.
Looking at her green eyes, Amber had a bad feeling.
Leticia placed her hand on her cheek looking troubled.
'There's something I'm worried about. Do you know what it is, Amber?'
'What's that?'
'You're going to be Queen, so after your marriage, you have to give birth to a good boy.'
Leticia's discussion was taking on erratic leap after another, Amber was finding it difficult to understand. Still, she managed to work out what Leticia was trying to say.
'It seems you have forgotten sister, in this country, a boy or a girl can inherit the throne.
They both studied the same things as daughters of a noble family, but it looks like Leticia may have forgotten.
'But Amber forgets. As a girl, you can never be happy unless you marry a nice man and give birth to your loving husband's child.' (Zuben: How is this your business, Leticia?)
Just waiting for her beloved husband to return home to the manor is the best happiness. So Leticia insisted the Amber had a boy. Certainly, being Queen would be hard work, Amber may not be able to spend the day elegantly and calmly as Leticia did.
Amber was about to retort, but she remembered what Ernest had said at the last ball,
"Countess, you're an important relative of my beloved, so I would like you to be more considerate to your sister."
Her sister Leticia may be her only close relative, but it was not necessary to think that her words were absolute. Amber now had someone who understood her, though it was love borne from a potion.