SIR ALEX POV —
I'd spent years—years—quietly admiring Princess Millabuella from a distance.
The way she walked with grace. The way she spoke with soft dignity.
The way she held her quill in council meetings, calm and steady, like a true royal raised for greatness.
She was my ideal. My unreachable star. My quiet foolish dream.
But today? Today the dream cracked.
Because I saw her. I truly saw her.
Earlier in the council chamber, when Lady Seraphine walked in, the princess's expression shifted—sharply, dangerously. A split second but enough for a trained knight to notice.
Hatred.
Envy.
A hurt so old it had begun to rot.
It unsettled me.
This wasn't the gentle princess I put on a pedestal.
And yet… Now, in the mage's kitchen, as she tasted Seraphine's peanut butter and that tiny, fleeting smile appeared…I saw someone else. Someone I remembered from years ago.
A girl who once smiled at the castle gardens when she found a lost kitten.
