Chapter 52: Lady Elizabella

Prince Zander had received word that his mother would be arriving soon, but she still did not specify when she would be coming back home. He had wondered what her reaction would be when she found out that his cousin married the Marchioness that she had had her eye on for him to wed potentially. He was sure that she would not like it and may even throw a fit. For that reason, he had decided that he would not say anything for the time being, especially since he was under the suspicion that there was something off about their marriage.

If there was really something like that going on in their marriage, he hoped that that would mean that he would have a chance to prove his worth to her.

"Mother is right. Which future bachelor King would not want to marry someone like Lady Elizabella? She has all the right qualities to be the next Queen. No one who is ambitious would give up this chance. Why should I?" thought Prince Zander as the thought of him sitting on the throne toyed in his mind.

He had never been overly ambitious in his past, but now knowing that he was so close yet so far off mark made him rethink things through. It was true that if his uncle passed away, he and his cousin would be the next contenders. Technically, his cousin being the Crown Prince, did have first rights. If Prince Zander proved that he was the better future heir, he could get support from the other nobles and the people.

"Maybe, I could even impress Lady Elizabella that I am the better choice."

Prince Zander smiled to himself as he then began to look through the list of people who would be attending the charity event next week. Since he had been away for so long, he did not really know many of the nobles on the list. He had decided to memorize them and see if he could learn anything about them to get closer to them.

He had also been given the list since he was a member of the Royal Family. When he came across the Miles family, he noticed that they had a daughter around their age and even knew of her from school.

"Right, her name is Lady Margarette. I think she is a dancer or something. I heard that Lady Elizabella liked to dance in front of the Queen of Edalelia and the two Princes. I never had a chance to see that myself since I did not live in the capital. However, I had asked her if she could dance for my birthday. I am sure that she would give it her best shot since she always gives her best in her performances. I have never heard anything bad about any of them in the past," thought Prince Zander as he seemed to remember her flyer in her locker. "What was their name again?"

Curious, Prince Zander looked them up on his CD. He quickly found their online page and began to look through the past performances. He saw them in one clip and knew that their level was outstanding. He was in awe over the clips that he saw and wondered if it was possible to have them perform for them.

He thought that if Lady Elizabella saw them live, she would really like that. He began to look through their contact page when he noticed that they were holding a competition. Interested, Prince Zander looked through the rules. Basically, one had to submit an original creation for a chance to not only meet them but perform with them.

"I wonder what Lady Elizabella would do if she knew that I wanted to submit one of her productions for this contest. Since she is so popular at school, I am sure that she would have a high chance of winning. I am also sure that she would be so happy to win," thought Prince Zander as he imagined Elizabella smiling and beaming shyly at him, making him feel smug. "I should secretly do this and hope that I can get them for my birthday. That would be a great present to give Lady Elizabella."

With this goal in mind, Prince Zander went to the school website, found all of Elizabella's past productions, and looked through them to see which one he should submit. After scrolling, he decided that her first one was very much like her, with the dancing ballerina doll. He liked the singer's voice, and he liked the overall performance. The costumes and stage props were just like how he imagined Lady Elizabella must have lived back in Edalelia.

Happy with his choice, he quickly sent them a copy with her "name" but his contact details as he wanted to give her a surprise. He hoped that they would answer before his birthday, and maybe they could even perform on that day as well.

**********

In a neighboring city to the capital of Glear, a few young friends watched their leader through a crack in the door as he listlessly looked through a few submissions on their web page. They worried that he was going through them and not doing anything else these days. They sighed before they silently left and began to talk amongst themselves softly in the living room.

"We traveled as soon as our last performance, but we only made it when Beauty had already left the church. No wonder Leader is like this right now," said a young man as he sighed on a chair and massaged his temples.

"She really married quick. Honestly, I wonder what happened? One moment, she and Leader are an item, and the next, we hear she is getting married to some random Prince. He is not even the Prince from her kingdom! How did she travel to this one only to marry some other guy!?" said a girl as she puffed out her cheeks in frustration. "She should not have played with the Leader's heart like that if she was not serious, to begin with."

"The point is, it is not just our fearless Leader that is feeling gloomy over her marriage. Have you forgotten Beast?" said another young man as he sat in a contemplative position while he felt like frowning. "Our Leader has a broken heart, but Beast is over there raging. Tell me, who is better to try and cheer up out of the two?"

"Ugh! Please do not mention this problem. We all tried our hardest for Beast not to cause a scene when we did make it to the church. Who knew Beast was so strong?" said a second girl as the others remembered the day of the wedding and how Beast nearly went out of control.

"I could understand when she was not receiving any visitors when her family passed away since the Royal Family of Edalelia was in attendance at the funeral. But she also did not invite us to her wedding. Though, I wonder why she is going under a different name now..." said the first girl as her words made everyone begin to think. "Do you think that she lost her memories and fell in love with this new guy?"

"I highly doubt that. She still sent a 'Dear John' letter to our Leader, which proves that she remembered him being in a relationship with her. We have to remember, Beauty was different from us. Although we also come from noble backgrounds, we are easily expendable, whereas she was the Marquess family's first daughter. With her family suddenly dying like that, it makes sense that she had to marry an affluent member of society. I believe that she and our Leader's relationship was bound to end in ruin," said the first young man as he looked serious. "If anything, we should be happy that she was able to meet us and travel with us when she did. Now that she is married to a Crown Prince, it will be impossible for us to meet in the future."

Hearing his words, the group grew quiet as they contemplated his speech. They knew he was right, of course, but it was still hard to come to terms that a good friend of theirs will not be able to contact them the same way as in the past.

"We should quickly forget about her-" they were interrupted by a surprised shout from where their Leader was.

"Beauty!"

Hearing her name, they quickly stood up, and cautiously approached the room they had just left. They looked at each other before they knocked on the door.

"Hey, Leader? Did you say something?" asked the first girl as they opened the door further in to see a tall young man standing in front of a screen watching a video, supposedly one of the contest nominees. "What did you say?"

"It is Beauty! She has submitted an entry!" said their Leader as his eyes were glued on the screen as the performance continued.

"Really? She still has time even though she just married?" asked the second girl as they came inside to see what he was talking about. "Is this her entry?"

Their Leader did not respond as he only focused on the screen, making the others to watch the performance. They noticed two girls on the screen, but they never seemed to appear at the same time. One was a dancing ballerina doll, and the other what seemed like the owner of the doll. Their eyes widened when they saw the ballerina spinning and playing her violin as they recognized the dress she was wearing.

"Is this not the dress 'Fantasy Cloud' that was made specifically for her in that one spicy video of her dancing with our Leader? We got a lot of funding and more advertisement after that performance with them two. I cannot believe she would reuse that dress for another recording," said the second girl as they looked closely and noticed a few differences on the dress.

"I think Beauty altered the dress a little for this performance. But this is definitively her dress. That is also her voice as the singer. Did Beauty really send a submission for our contest!? But why? She is married to a Crown Prince, and she should have nothing to do with us anymore! What could be the reason?" asked the first girl as she gave a confused face alongside everyone else.

After the performance finished, they started to critique it, as they often did.

"Vocals were on pitch, and the visuals were stunning. But this is very different from her past performances."

"The tones were rather dark, but at least the ballerina doll had a good ending. Who is the girl in the tower suppose to be? Is it a person or a group?"

"Overall, the message seems to be a cry for change. But exactly who does the ballerina doll represent, and why does she want freedom all of a sudden?"

"This, for sure, is Beauty!" said the Leader as he continued to watch the dark screen.

Suddenly, his face changed to that of their fearless leader.

"So, what do you guys think? Does she pass the contest?"

"Based on her performance and the video quality, I say that she should definitely place in the top five of all of our participants."

"I agree. The performance was not too complicated, and the song was simple to the point of being too mainstream; however, I cannot help but think that it is actually more complicated than first glance."

"I also see the layers that the performance has. It is indeed more complicated, yet it seems simple. I like it."

"The more simple, the better. A song does not need to be too overly complicated to be art. Yet, it can have layers to give it an air of mystery. I say she passes!"