Chp.20: Overwhelming

Is princess Claudia a friend? Is she a foe? Will she influence any big decision that might come henceforth?

All these questions were too overwhelming to even think about. "But yeah she did have a young brother." Regina got stuck on the point.

"What was his name though?" She kept the question in her mind. Until she slowly started getting uncomfortable by it.

"What was his name? What was his name? ", it was stuck inside her mind like a song on a loop. The sound of the rain and the wheels if the carriage as the slowly got closer to the Central Palace made her even more engrossed in thinking.

"WHAT WAS HIS NAME...." Regina stressed on the question, but she was interrupted by a voice.

"Your majesty, we are here at the Central Palace." Lara said to Regina.

Regina looked up at the massive structure that stood in front of her. It was no joke.

Although her days of poverty were long back in the past and currently she was used to seeing royal castles and mansions, still this was huge.

The tall marble pillars and the white marble structure of the Central Palace, made it look like it was some kind of a temple.

A temple to worship the greatest god of all time. Power- the god that favors royals, the rich.

Regina slowly got down from of the carriage, but the expanse of the structure made it sure that she shouldn't be looking anywhere else.

"We welcome you, your majesty. I will be leading you to the princess' guest room." One of the maids said.

"It was supposedly that Princess Claudia arranged her maids to receive me at the main entrance of the Central palace." Regina made a clear assumption.

Well it wasn't necessarily surprising since she had married the king after all. On the other hand, it was hypocrisy. Since Regina that is Rachel D'Azure was the queen and thus a ruler counterpart of the kingdom, inviting the queen to her own residence was a bit of turn off. Regina knew at once what was going to happen. An unintentional frown appeared on her forehead.

The rain was coming down heavily and the gown she had wore was almost soiled at the bottom. But whom could she blame? After all the reason she was send here as a reflecting replacement of Rachel was to find out flaws and fortunes in the palace games.

The head maid and the other servants lead Regina inside. The question - Who was princess' brother had taken a back seat inside her mind, since she was now more focused on observing her surroundings.

The palace was grand and there was no doubt in it.

But as the maids and the servants walked through the corridors of the palace, Regina suddenly felt the expanse of the royal family.

The weight of her mission suddenly burdened her heart and she realised that it was always going to be this way. "I've trained at the D'Azure's for five years. Those five years already felt like an eternity, so now I need to do this job appropriately. I need to get out of here after setting up everything properly for Lady Rachel to come here." Regina thought as she kept her eyes straight on the road ahead and her heart clenched. She felt a sudden stab as she thought of those words. Although she was unware of the reasons.

"Standing in here is itself suffocating." Regina took a deep breath. She almost came near to the chambers where the princess was supposed to be.

"Your majesty, this is the room." One of princess Claudia's maid bowed and showed the doors. The guard standing there made an announcement of her arrival.

"Her majesty, Queen Regina Amalde..." the guard was announcing when the princess herself opened the door and interrupted the announcement.

Her face, expressionless and her gestures, egoistic. It wasn't the first time Regina was taking a look at the royal attitude these royals had. She decided to stay calm and observant

It seemed as though she did it purposely. Why stop the announcement? Regina was already not in the state of liking the princess.

And suddenly the princess made a bow to Regina. Regina's maids as well as Claudia's maids were caught a little off guard. Even Regina herself didn't expect the drama. Although she was the queen and it was expected that everyone should ultimately bow to her.

"Long live your majesty, Queen Rachel." Princess Claudia said as she kept her head. The awkward thing was that Claudia decided to invite the queen to her chambers in the Central Palace, and then make a bow to her as she arrived at the door of the room.

"Talk about hypocrisy." Regina mumbled as she looked down on the princess. Claudia flinched a little as it wasn't hard to catch the words Regina said.

"Oh, please there is no need princess. After all you invited me here as if I don't belong to this place at all." Regina poured out those words like burning broth.

Claudia stood tall as she finished bowing and looked Regina in her eyes. "It's really a joke to invite me here afterall right? When the Central palace is supposed to be a queen's destination other than the king?" Regina chuckled.

The atmosphere was heavy and princess Claudia decided to stay quite. But while keeping quite as well she looked into Regina's eyes.

Regina's eyes - calm but in hopes, looking forward to Claudia's answers and Claudia's eyes were dreadful. Beautifully dreadful if that is the right word.

Claudia smirked looking at Regina and in that very moment her smirk turned into a full fledged smile. "I am sorry your majesty. I apologize for the hospitality that you didn't like. I must've been careful." Claudia said.

Regina could tell that she had carefully picked her words when she wanted to insult her. Claudia opened her arms and welcomed Regina and her maids inside the room.

Regina took a moment of stop, and looked at Claudia. "I am not upset because I didn't like the hospitality. You didn't intend to be hospitable. That was upsetting." Regina said and entered the room.