"Irene passed," Ronan answered briefly.
Arthur sighed with relief. He held his chest, which had been rumbling with worry. He was very grateful to hear that. When Priest Elis first said that Irene was taking a test to enter an academy, Arthur had so many questions because his daughter only stayed at the palace not long ago.
"But, aren’t there any cons during the interview because Irene is over three years old?"
"No. Who dares to criticize the Royal Princess of the Kingdom? Besides, Irene won’t start from first year’s class. She will be put in according to her age class," Ronan answered, making Arthur even more surprised.
"B-but... what about the other lessons? Isn’t she far behind?"
"Of course, if Irene doesn’t study, she will be left far behind. However, she had studied hard and proved herself that she could do it. This ans that Irene deserves to be admitted to a class according to her age."
Arthur fell silent for a mont. Many doubts were gathering in his mind. Irene couldn’t read or write at all before. How could she do it in just over?
Ronan could see the doubt in his father’s eyes. Perhaps the man still didn’t believe what he had said. So, he called a guard to take the letter from the academy he received this morning.
After waiting a few minutes, the guard returned with a letter from the academy stating that Irene had passed with a revised score. Arthur’s hand trembled to receive it. Before, when he received Ronan’s test result from the academy, he had never been this nervous.
His arrogance used to be so high that he missed out on precious things like this. Arthur started to shed tears. Feeling that it was impolite to cry in front of the king, he put the letter from the academy back down and reached into his pocket to take the handkerchief, but he could not find it.
Ronan took the initiative to give his own.
"Use it, I don’t really need it," he said simply.
Arthur looked at his son for a mont and imdiately averted his face because he knew that behind the coldness of that mask remained traces of past trauma that could never be erased completely. Arthur received it with trembling hands and thanked the man. He wiped his teary eyes.
"Thank you for taking such good care of Irene. Sorry if I haven’t done anything proper as a father before."
"No problem. Irene is my sister. And the past is the past. We already agreed to forget it, right?" replied Ronan who was answered by Arthur with a quick nod.
Yeah, they had agreed to forget the past, but it wasn’t as easy as it said. The scars of the past were still there, and it would never disappear completely.
***
Arthur tried to hold back himself from crying too much. He was still calming himself when a maid ca to bring him a cup of tea at Ronan’s request. It was Chamomile tea. His favorite tea, which also beca his late wife’s favorite. Arthur took a deep breath because there was still one more thing he wanted to say.
"I... have also heard about your plan to visit Grandmother Bertha," Arthur said while folding Ronan’s handkerchief again, which was already wet with tears.
Ronan nodded. He did ask Priest Elis to convey this news to his father. His father was Grandmother Bertha’s favorite grandson. However, because of the incident a few years ago, Grandmother Bertha increasingly closed herself off from the Royal Family.
His father was quite the spoiled grandson. Although Grandmother Bertha was terrified by the sight of them, she had quite a lot of beautiful mories with her sister’s grandchildren, especially because she had no children, making his father even more spoiled.
"Yes. Next week, I plan to take my wife and Irene to see the sea. Before that, I’m going to visit Grandmother Bertha to ask about a few things."
"Grandmother Bertha was a closed person."
"Everybody knows it."
Arthur fell silent again. He tried to rember the simplest things about Grandmother Bertha. It was possible that the old woman was already over a hundred years old. How did she survive all this ti? Arthur also had heard about Grandmother Bertha’s condition now.
Priest Louise said the old woman refused to attend Ronan’s coronation because she had heard of the tragedy that had befallen him and his family. Even when Ronan ca alone to visit her, Grandmother Bertha did not allow him to enter at all for fear that Ronan’s wolf could no longer be controlled.
"Maybe if you bring her so premium chocolate from the bakery in the town square, she’ll allow you to et her. That’s if she still likes it," said Arthur, who wanted to help his son as much as possible.
He didn’t rember much about Grandmother Bertha. He only rembered that he always prepared those chocolates when he visited the woman’s residence.
"I’ll rember it," Ronan answered simply.
Both Ronan and Arthur fell silent again until the door to the room opened again. Then, Irene and Aie appeared. Ronan frowned slightly. His sister still needed rest. Besides, judging by the clock on the wall, it seed the child had not slept enough either.
"Father!"
"Irene!"
Arthur imdiately stood up, spread his arms, and hugged Irene tightly. Irene laughed freely, and this was the first ti Ronan had seen Irene laugh that loud. Perhaps because the child had spent more ti with their father than he had.
Ronan then ca out to give the two of them ti to talk. He didn’t leave imdiately but held on to the door first to look at them.
If they were indeed family, the three of them should be together right now, but his presence would only make the atmosphere awkward. Ronan told Aie to wait for Irene because he was going back to Arielle’s room.
Ronan walked dispiritedly. It seed he really longed for a family that he had never really felt before. Soone who would call him father with as much enthusiasm as Irene did when the child called their father just now, he really wanted it.
Ronan looked at the snow in front of him. He wondered again, would his children be happy growing up in a place like this? It was cold and gloomy. Ronan’s heart felt heavier because he knew that he had never felt a father’s warm embrace all this ti.
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