"Grant your wish?" she tilted her head, the motion slow and almost absentminded, like she was trying to recall something buried deep but coming up empty. "What wish? I don't think I've ever really wished for anything."
Her tone carried a quiet certainty, yet there was a faint hesitation underneath it, something that didn't quite line up with her words.
"You did, Your Highness," I said, keeping my voice steady. "Deep down, you wanted a normal life… didn't you?"
That was the truth. Just like the King, the Queen had long grown tired of everything tied to the throne. Responsibility, expectations, appearances, all of it. From the very beginning, she had been placed in a position where her value wasn't measured by who she was, but by how well she could stand beside the King and look the part.
A decoration. That was all she had ever really been treated as.
More than anything else, more than power, more than status, what she wanted was simple.
She just wanted out.
