The king's sudden burst of laughter caught nearly everyone off guard, Selena and Lirien included.
After all, receiving such high praise directly from the king himself was no small thing, something everyone present understood immediately.
That said, while something like that would normally leave anyone thrilled, it didn't seem to matter much to Selena.
Her opinion of the kingdom had always been low, for a number of reasons, chief among them being how easily the system allowed the powerful to walk free while punishing others for nothing more than being related to someone who'd committed some minor offense, one that some noble or another had decided to blow up into a grave crime.
There were plenty of flaws woven into the entire system, flaws that had struck Selena's own family directly, which was precisely why her opinion of the kingdom, and by extension, of those who governed it, had never been high.
That didn't mean she would openly show it, though. Not yet, at least.
