Episode 13
“Apologize at once. Then the Crown Prince’s son will kindly forgive you.”
What a gracious voice that was.
“I will accept a single apology.”
Maximilian put on a heavy, magnanimous face.
Nobody thought anything strange. No one suggested checking the facts.
“Goodness, even at such a young age, His Highness Maximilian is so generous. Unlike someone who won’t even apologize when they’re clearly wrong.”
A middle-aged woman in the crowd raised her voice.
The corners of Theodore’s eyes reddened with the threat of tears.
Like predators circling tasty prey, the crowd’s attention closed in on the little prince.
Theodore forced his lips to move. He hated the whole thing, but staying silent would only let it go on.
“I-I….”
“Maximilian, are you all right where you fell earlier?”
Then a calm, gentle voice cut through the noise.
People looked around to find the voice and were startled. Roxana, Duchess Kailani, stood there. Their eyes widened. Interest and curiosity spread across their faces.
Roxana stepped forward through the gathered people. As she moved toward where Victoria was standing, the crowd made way.
Not only Victoria, but other nobles clearly wondered what Roxana was doing there.
Roxana didn’t care what they thought. She looked directly at Maximilian and asked again.
“Your Highness, I saw someone fall badly on the garden path a little while ago. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I didn’t fall.”
Maximilian tilted his head and frowned. The other boys nodded like they agreed.
“Oh, now that you mention it, you’re not wearing black clothes but white.”
Roxana clapped her hands once.
“Duchess Kailani, what rude behavior is this? And such odd remarks.”
Lady Mallory, one of Victoria’s attendants and a countess, stepped in to scold Roxana. Her face was sharp, like an older sister who loves to pick faults.
Roxana barely noticed Mallory’s glare.
“I was walking on the garden path and I saw a boy in black clothes. The other boys stood still and then shoved him.
He fell so hard I was worried, but everyone left right away and none of them checked on him.”
Heads turned. Everyone listened.
Mallory glanced nervously at Victoria. Something had made the countess uneasy.
Victoria’s kind expression vanished. Her eyes turned cold.
Before she could speak, Roxana continued.
“Also, Your Highness and the other young lords are wearing different colored clothes. So…”
Roxana’s green eyes drifted naturally to the boy in black clothes — Prince Theodore.
Theodore’s black top and trousers were still dusty, streaked with dirt he hadn’t brushed off yet.
Only then did people really notice how disheveled Prince Theodore looked.
Maximilian and his friends were dressed in matching, pristine outfits of white, navy, beige, and deep purple. Their clothes were spotless.
“Because His Highness Maximilian is taller than most kids, I thought he was Prince Theodore. This is the first time I’ve seen you both up close. I made a big mistake. I’m sorry.”
Roxana bowed slightly, offering a late greeting.
Some who had seen Maximilian from afar before now let out quiet gasps as they understood.
They realized Roxana had witnessed what happened between Maximilian and Theodore. Her version contradicted Maximilian’s story.
So, according to Roxana, it wasn’t Theodore but Maximilian who started the trouble.
Seeing Theodore’s dirty clothes next to Maximilian’s spotless outfit made Roxana’s words seem believable.
Maximilian blurted out, fuming.
“N-no! I pushed him.”
He immediately clapped his hand over his mouth with a shocked sound, because he had just admitted the truth.
Maximilian’s face went beet-red.
Victoria’s face hardened. The crowd looked stunned.
Even if it was just an eight-year-old’s mischief or mistake, this could not be shrugged off easily.
This was about honor and reputation.
The royal family stood at the top of the empire; their words carried weight heavier than any treasure.
They had to be careful and responsible for what they said.
From infancy, royal children were trained because their words mattered. If they spoke carelessly and lied, how could nobles and the people trust the throne?
A murmur spread.
“So, does this mean His Highness Maximilian lied?”
“Why would he make up such a thing…?”
“Poor Prince Theodore was framed.”
The mood in the garden shifted toward sympathy for Theodore. The nobles’ cold looks softened. Some glanced at him with pity.
Theodore, who had looked darkest and frozen, went blank with surprise. Someone he did not expect had appeared and cleared his name in an instant.
His amethyst eyes, which had been clouded, locked onto Roxana.
Until a moment ago, Theodore had been trapped in a thick fog. The damp weight that pressed on him vanished with Roxana’s arrival.
The world around him came back into focus. Roxana stood there like a patch of summer green.
Victoria stepped forward a beat too late, trying to fix things.
“I overreacted without thinking. When children play together, small misunderstandings happen.”
Victoria smiled, and it seemed genuine enough. She scanned the crowd.
“Theodore isn’t much older than Maximilian, so Maximilian often looks out for him. Maybe there was just a small misunderstanding. Right, Maximilian?”
Maximilian answered slyly under his mother’s prompting.
“Yes, Mother. I must have misunderstood. I thought he was blocking the way because he wanted to pick a fight. My friend stepped forward and we bumped him a little… and he fell.”
Victoria beamed at her son’s words. Her brown eyes flashed golden in the light, but they also had a predator’s glint.
Roxana met that gaze without flinching.
Most people there were trying to be in Victoria’s good graces. When she called it a simple accident, the sympathetic looks for Theodore began to fade.
People would rather side with the woman who might become the Empress.
Powerful people are terrifying.
Roxana had witnessed this whole incident by chance.
When she and Asterion arrived at the palace, they met Count Piper, head of foreign affairs.
He asked to speak with Asterion. While the two men talked, Roxana told them she would walk in the garden until Asterion returned and moved away.
She had been avoiding the crowd and walked along the tree-lined path.
Thinking the Kailani family would enter the ceremony later than others, she wandered deeper into the garden.
That’s when she saw the boy sitting alone. His back looked as lonely as Roxana’s. The boy was Theodore.
Roxana had never seen Theodore before. She hadn’t known he was a prince — his clothes looked older than the other noble kids.
Only when she heard the Maximilian group shouting did she learn he was the Seventh Prince.
If Roxana hadn’t witnessed what happened, the boy with no protector might have been forced to apologize to his nephew, even though he did nothing wrong.
Even when you cry out the truth, many voices can still bring you down.
Roxana remembered the scene, then walked to Theodore and stood beside him, like someone offering to be his defender.
She noticed the tiny twitch in Victoria’s eyebrow and spoke.
“Now that it’s clear there was a misunderstanding, you should apologize.”
Roxana glanced briefly at Maximilian and his friends, then looked at Victoria.
“Apologize for what?”
Victoria snapped, outraged.
Roxana slipped an arm gently around Theodore’s shoulders.
Theodore looked up at her carefully. His eyes were a fresh lilac bloom. Roxana’s gaze was warm and kind.
“Prince Theodore, I’m glad the misunderstanding is cleared. If Maximilian, his friends, and… Lady Lowell would apologize, would you accept it?”
Lady Lowell.
The crowd fell silent, shocked. The palace garden, once noisy, went still as if the air itself had stopped.
A crack appeared across Victoria’s beautiful face like a breaking mirror. Theodore’s small body froze, too.
