His eyes opened from the deep sleep, taking in the rare view in front of him. His gaze stopped at the figure of his wife sprawled beneath him. Her head was resting on his one arm while her hand clutching around his waist. Her raven hair spread over the mattress gleaming in the early morning sunrays.

His fingertips automatically stroked her hair in loving manner. He felt at ease seeing she was sleeping with peace. After witnessing those fearful expressions in her eyes last night made him deeply concerned. He wondered what was that dream made her so frightened.

His thoughts stopped as she twitched a little in her sleep. His hand froze for a second which was in her hair. A sigh escaped his lips as she drifted back in her slumber. He carefully separated himself from her before he lingered kiss on her cheek. It felt like he was stealing something that was his own. He knew he should show patience with her. But only for now until the time comes, he would wait for the day.

Even if she wanted to stir away the thoughts of that horrible dream, it didn't seem to abandon her. It further followed by the thinking of that old lady. Her whole day was nearly spent in her office, working with worry.

But comparatively today was quite peaceful for her than yesterday. As all the guests were gone back, there was less work for her to do, making her relax a bit.

Meanwhile in the castle, everything was working smoothly. Ryuu and shirayuki were doing their work as royal court pharmacists under the assistance of garrack. While the second prince was on his short trip to wilant with kiki and mitsuhide.

Also, surprisingly lord haruka was out of the castle for few days. And it lead his daughter to queen's office again. This time maids were helping too, even if they were told not to. They were not having any option but to help.

The door of the queen's office creaked opened, revealing young yerin. Anna instantly glanced up from her desk as she saw the girl. The girl entered the office while hiding her hands behind her back. Her maid followed after her into the office.

Seeing her again brought smile to anna's face. She slowly rose from her chair as she approached.

"Aren't they beautiful?"yerin smiled giving a bunch of neatly arranged flowers to her that she was hiding behind,"I picked them for you."

Anna smiled back adoringly as she looked at yerin. "They are beautiful. Thank you." she remarked in a soft voice while ruffling young girls hair playfully.

"By the way, why did go through the trouble for collecting them?"she asked, little amused by her action.

"I heard you were upset today. So i brought them for lightening up your mood."she explained.

"Ohh, i see." anna was genuinely touched by her effort, but at the same time she wondered who informed her about this. Anyone should not had told a little girl about her problem. "And who told you that?" she asked further.

Yerin pointed while looking at her maid, who was standing next to her. The maid panicked and looked at queen's personal maid which stood next to them.

The maid swallowed fearfully and looked in other direction as she found no one to blame further. She expected to get scolded but instead opposite of that happened.

Anna sighed and then smiled slightly seeing they were concerned about her. She did not want to concern anyone because of her. She had already made her husband worried because of this.

Even if that dream of her was going be reality someday, she promised herself she would face it rather than concerning people around her.

The day spent in an blink of an eye with not much of unusual happening. At the night time, she found herself in the room writing a letter to her brother. She was missing him badly, so she decided to write a letter. She didn't let him know about her worries but all the good things.

Sometime later, to her surprise yerin came in the room. The young girl requested her to tell her the bed-time stories. And she gladly accepted her offer.

Yerin sat on the sofa by her side and after that anna started her telling the stories.

"And then prince married to the princess..."she was on the ending page, finishing the last story.

"then?"yerin asked in a sleepy voice, still wanting to listen further. She listened to the whole story with unusual interest.

"Then they had little prince and princess and they lived happily ever after." anna finally finished, closing the book shut.

The young girl's mind wandered in thinking as the story ended, her eyes still blinking with sleep.

"You were also the princess and then you also married to the prince." she then spoke being curious.

"Yes..."

"When you are going to have little prince and princess?" she questioned, curiosity got best of her.

Anna swallowed hard at her question. She always found herself at loss of words because her such questions. Was handling the kid this difficult?

Meanwhile, unknown to them Izana was standing at the doorway while trying to hold his laughter. He was there for quite sometime, silently watching them.

"It takes time, yerin." She told her.

"How much?" she asked.

"Few years..." she hesitated to utter single word further.

"What? Its lot of time." she whined. "I want to befriend them. How about a year...?"

"Not possible..."

"How about two..." her eyes sparkled with hope.

In the end, anna had no choice to nodd just to console her.

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"That was quite interesting bargaining going on."

She looked at doorway, her mind stopped functioning because of embarrassment. And judging from a smirk on his face, she could tell what was coming.

"Yerin, you should sleep now." she then announced and instantly called for her maid.

As soon as the maid left bringing yerin with her, she clarified "I was just trying console her innocent mind."

"I see." he hummed, then further added, "But if you insisted, it won't even take two years."

At his response, she flushed rose red. She instantly stood from the sofa wanting to go to the bed. She better thought of sleeping than being teased for too long. But instead she was pulled back on the sofa by her arm.

"What are you doing?" the words barely formed in her mouth. She examined his blue eyes filled with mischief.

"Can't a husband have talk with his wife?" he said, who was now sitting by her side.

She blinked few times before answering, "Are you sure if you want to talk or want to tease?"She knew how much fun he was having teasing her.

But before he could respond to her question, her eyes landed on his hand noticing something. His fingers of the left hand were wrapped in bandage.

"What happened to your hand? "she asked concerned, while unintentionally took his hand in hers.

"Its just a papercut." he simply stated.

"Couldn't you be more careful?" she scolded, her eyes looked serious.

"Does it bother you that much?"he spoke in intension to tease her more.

But she didn't answer. She was thinking of something else. It was just mere cut, yet made her think of the worst. The images of her dream flashed before her eyes. She felt sick just thinking about it again. What if she couldn't do anything?

He was looking clueless at her for a moment. But then realized what was the cause.

"You are thinking about that dream, aren't you?"

"I am not." She shook her head, not wanting admit it.

"Liar.."

His right hand got hold of her cheek, thumb pressed against the cheekbone.

"Stop thinking about it." His left hand gave her comforting squeeze, which she was still holding. "Whatever it was, it's not going to happen." he said, trying to vanish her worries."I promise."

She was realizing how much he was showing care towards her. She could see it in his eyes. Very clearly. Worth adding, she was herself realizing how much she was getting worried about him.

The next day in the afternoon, while walking through the court yard she came across zen, who was just returned from wilant.

He bowed to her as he greeted her formally. They talked for a while as she asked her about his inspection in wilant.

But being in a hurry, he then asked her urgently, "Could you tell me where lord brother is?"

She noticed how stressed and irritated he was.

"He is in the library." she told him instantly.

"Thank you." he then bowed and left.

"Did something significant happened in the castle? " she questioned her maid who was standing behind her.

"Ahh, I forgot to inform you yesterday."

"What is it?"

"I have heard that young pharmacist ryuu and miss shirayuki are being transferred to lyrias." the maid informed the news, cautiously.

Anna became stunned after listening to the unexpected news. She didn't have slightest idea about it.

When zen recahed the library, he called out to his brother who was on the second floor of the palace library.

"How was wilant , zen?" Izana asked while looking down at his brother from the books on the shelf he was observing, "Did you have nice chat with mother ?"

"She's still rather lively, brother." zen answered.

"Good work, you are next inspection has already been decided."he then announced even after seeing how upset zen was. And he definitely knew the reason why.

"Brother... "the second prince was now more irritated.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked further, referring to the reason of his upset behavior.

"We should talk this in private." Izana
announced, knowing his brother's impatience.

As they reached his office, zen stood in front of his brother, wanting a clear explanation.

"I already had plan of sending ryuu to wilant castle." Izana told and zen listened with same irritated look on his face. "But before that both ryuu and shirayuki needed more training."

Even if this decision was best for shirayuki, zen was still not happy about it. He couldn't bare the thought of living away from her for long time. And he expected his brother to understand his feelings.

"The thing you should know is their mission could take two years or may be more than two years." he added later making the second prince filled with more shock.

2 years. It rung in zen's ear like bad dream. He was only informed about ryuu and shirayuki being transferred. He didn't know how much time it would be.

"You did it on purpose, right?" Anna asked, her tone serious. She walked up to the bed where her husband was, reading a book.

"What?"

"You have reason for sending shirayuki away."

"Of course i have."

"The research in the pharmacy would be great help for clarines in the future."

"That's not it."

"The another reason."

"I don't understand what are you talking about." he replied, letting irritate her more.

"You understand it very well." she pressed on, her eyes straight looked in his, finding the truth in them.

"You have already figured it then." he closed the book, giving her his full attention.

"I have..." she sighed.

She knew his reason was not that simple for sending shirayuki away. So she thought about it deeply. She racked her brain all day until she reached the answer.

He always had habit of pre-planning things for the future. And that also included for shirayuki and zen.

He knew no one would be accepting shirayuki as zen's partner as she was commoner. Let alone, her being palace pharmacist wouldn't work, as no member of royal family ever married to a commoner.

So this was a chance given by him, so she she could create her own status within kingdom, by using her talent as pharmacist. The main goal was to gain the support of all the lords and royal famalies in the kingdom.

"I have to admit you have unique way to help the people you care about." she then said with a small smile plastered on her face.

"Same could be said for you."

He was right. She had help her own brother and sister. But now that she thought about it, her way was dealing with the situation was definitely not right. She felt stupid for actions. She realized how wrong it was, but at the time she had no option. And the fate played it's own game.

"I am sorry." she suddenly said.

"For what? "

"For my words and actions i said since back then."

How could you marry someone who's in love with someone else? Do you have any emotions ? Or being the king is more important than anything. She recalled her own words from before.

"Back when..." he asked even after knowing what she was implying.

"When i grabbed the collar of your shirt... " she specified, hesitantly.

"You were first ever person to do that." he replied, making her filled with more guilt. And she knew he wasn't going to accept her apology straight way.

But as memories of that day flooded her mind, one questioned remained unanswered. Why did he lied to his mother?

She always had wondered about the reason and got no answer in return. But now seeing him always showing care about her, made her think about the possible reason. One single answer slashed within her, but she refused accept it. Could he really possibly...?

Wishing all of my readers splendid Christmas time. May you enjoy all of your holidays.

And thank you for your warm reviews each time. They keep me motivated for writing more.