Alina strode beside Brendan happily as the summer sun soaked her skin and the flow of traffic brushed by them without a bow or curtsy…

Thankfully, Alina had been able to procure clothes that hid any evidence of her nobility. She had managed to borrow a senior maid’s beige dress with a white apron and white hair covering, that once she donned, made her admit that she looked just like any other serving wench.

It was wonderful!

The only thing that was dampening the day, was the fact that Brendan was being shot all kinds of angry, hostile glares, and as a result he kept Alina close to himself and his expression guarded as though expecting someone to pick a fight at any moment.

“It might help if you smiled,” Alina announced suddenly after Brendan frowned at a particular group of children that were staring at him and taunting him by sticking out their tongues.

“Why would I smile when they look at me like I am something vile?” the King demanded gruffly.

“Meeting hostility with hostility means that is the only road the exchange can go down. However, if you greet it with a friendly smile you open up three possible options. Hostility, a friendly change in demeanor, or… neutrality. You’ve increased the likelihood of a better outcome from zero to more than a third.”

Brendan paused.

It was strange logic, but he had to admit it was a strategy he had never tried before.

His eyebrows and corners of his mouth grew tense as though already imagining trying to smile.

“If a situation escalates in hostility I will have the upper hand in an altercation.”

“It will only create more hostility though,” Alina pointed out evenly.

“What if I let them win?” Brendan tried again, as he realized he was starting to lose his footing in the debate.

“Then you fought with them proving that you are what they assumed, and now they have no reservations about treating a Troivackian like that again, because they learned nothing. Only that violence confirmed their original thinking.”

The Troivackian King let out a guttural grunt, indicating his displeasure over the idea.

Alina did her best to hide her smile.

Despite many people in the street shifting away from him as a result, to her she was beginning to find his reactions rather funny…

He was like a grumpy dog.

“Is there something you like to do for fun, Your Majesty?” Alina asked while clasping her hands behind her back.

She’d let the topic go for the time being and hope that a shift in the conversation would help him lower his guard a little.

“Not particularly.”

Alina blinked up at his stoic face. Was this just another facet of his personality he was used to keeping to himself?

“What about viewing plays? Do you like any of the popular performances circulating these days?”

“I’ve seen one or two plays at my court. They were mediocre at best.”

“Which plays were they?” the Princess managed to ask despite beginning to flounder on how to keep the conversation going.

“They were accounts from the soldiers present the day my father died re-enacted.”

Alina halted in her tracks, making several people along the side of the road exclaim in anger as they stepped around her to continue hauling bags of flour or baskets filled with flowers.

The Troivackian King didn’t notice until he was several steps ahead of her, but when he turned back around was perplexed over her stunned, mortified expression.

He slowly stepped back to stand in front of the Princess, and stared down expectantly at her.

“Who… the hell… made you watch that?! That sounds horrible! Why would you use that as a point of reference! Don’t you know there are plays that aren’t about tragedy, but are comedies? I’ve seen some that had me laughing until I cried!” Alina exclaimed passionately while Brendan failed to have any outward reaction.

“Did… you… want to see a play today…?” he asked hesitantly. He wasn’t sure if that was what she was getting at.

“No! That isn’t my- well… maybe! I mean… I honestly can’t believe that you have never seen a play that wasn’t about your father’s death!” she continued on her rant while growing slightly more breathless.

Brendan remained unmoved.

“Alright, that does it! We are going to find a matinee somewhere! Then, we are having an early supper, and I don’t want to hear any arguments!” Alina snapped, finally seizing the Troivackian King’s hand and tugging him along.

Brendan allowed his fiancée to pull him further down the street, wondering what in the world had her so fired up. Meanwhile, he failed to notice that a good number of people watching the terrifying mountain of man be dragged by a woman who was less than half his size, were suddenly more amused than fearful…

After all, any fellow that size who allowed his sweetheart to treat him thusly couldn’t be all bad… Troivackian or not.

*

Brendan regretted caving to the Princess the moment she had forced him into the shadowy seat of the rustic theater.

There were rough wooden benches placed before the stage in several rows- enough to seat a hundred people. The only saving grace of the situation was that because it was in the middle of the day, most people were at their jobs, and only about fifty people were present including the Knights and the royal couple.

They had gone into the nearest tavern and the Princess had demanded to know which performances in Austice were taking place. After an annoyingly lengthy discussion and a few copper coins, the tavern keeper had finally referred them to a theater located on the dodgier side of Austice down by the docks.

“Apparently this play is so popular that they might have to run it for the rest of summer!” Alina whispered to him, her hazel eyes dancing with excitement.

Eyeing her flushed face and sparkling eyes, Brendan heard himself let out a long sigh as some form of resignation took over himself. At the very least her Knights were seated directly behind them, though he wasn’t entirely trusting that they wouldn’t stab him in the back either. That being said, he sincerely doubted the King would subject his daughter to the gore of his death.

That was one thing that was irrefutable and admirable about the man in Brendan’s estimation…

The Daxarian King loved his children with everything he had.

The only problem was it was becoming clearer by the year that the love for his children came before the love of his kingdom.

“I think I just saw one of the actors backstage!” Alina’s hushed tones once again drew Brendan from his thoughts as he turned to face her with his arms remaining crossed.

“Is it possible, Princess, that you have seen a public play before? You seem oddly comfortable in this surrounding,” the King observed quietly while his eyes had moved to the actors behind the dusty maroon curtains.

“Oh, well… you see… my mother and Viscountess Jenoure once snuck me into one.”

Brendan’s head snapped back to look at her as she blushed.

“I was perhaps about nine years old and we had gone to Sorlia to visit my brother. The Ashowans were there doing their routine inspection of the schools they’ve established, and my mother begged the Viscountess to help us sneak off, and… well, we did. We went and saw the most marvelous play about a music teacher who-”

The Princess’ story was cut short as a performer strolled out onto the stage and a single beam of light was angled onto him from someone maneuvering a mirror above the benches.

The room fell silent, and Alina, without thinking, had reached over and gripped Brendan’s sleeve in anticipation, her face bursting at the seams with joy.

The Troivackian King suddenly found himself incredibly grateful for the poor lighting of the room, as he felt a strange expression relax his features…

He stared at the small hand gripping his sleeve, completely ignoring the actor introducing the play, and when they had moved off stage, Alina released his sleeve in order to clap along with the rest of the attendees.

In a move that surprised even himself, Brendan’s hand shot out and grasped the Princess’, stopping her clapping immediately before pulling her hand awkwardly between them.

For some reason once he had done that, aside from remaining alert to noises from the audience in case someone tried to attack, he barely registered anything happening on the stage. Even when a man pretending to be a woman with literal melons slung down the front of the costume pranced onto the stage earning several rounds of laughs and catcalls from the audience.

At first, Alina was equally quiet, and in the dark Brendan couldn’t make out her reaction to the gesture, but eventually the story on stage pulled her in and she was laughing with the rest of the audience easily- yet she never let go of his hand.

… Even when his palm began to sweat.

He wasn’t sure if that was a normal phenomenon. His hands usually only sweat like that when he was training outdoors in the heat.

Eventually, Brendan began to recognize from the cadence of the actors, that the story was nearing its finish, when all of a sudden, the actor who had been prattling on the most during the entire blasted production, turned to the audience.

“Who amongst you can help us guide this poor, poor man,” he gestured to a fellow actor who was on his knees before the bloke with the melons.

“We need one of you, one of the common man to teach this poor soul what his lady needs to hear! You there!”

Brendan watched darkly as the actor pointed directly at his face.

“Won’t you come tell this man what he needs to say to his woman!”

“No.”

The actor hesitated for a brief moment, his smile frozen on his face, but he recovered instantly.

“Come on there chap! You have a beautiful lady friend at your side, does our hero not deserve the same?”

Brendan could hear the Daxarian Knights behind Alina struggling to stop their laughter as he continued to stare flatly at the actor. He was about to repeat his original answer when her hand left his, and her quiet voice whispered to him.

“Come on, they’ll make you say three words then it’ll end the play.” Her tone was teasing, but Brendan turned to look at her sharply.

“Three words and we’ll leave? You swear it?”

Alina laughed, and in the soft light from the stage, she looked more beautiful than ever…

That was when after a dazed moment, Brendan realized that he had stood up and was approaching the steps on the side of the stage as the entire audience burst into applause for him.

“Right, there’s a good man! See, some of us are just a bit shy and- uh… oh.” The actor had not realized precisely the size of the audience member he had summoned. Nor had he realized how terrifying he looked.

He nervously reached out to grab Brendan’s arm once the man had stepped into the stage lights, but one flash from the dark eyes had him snapping his hand back and dancing further away.

“C-Come over here! Err, sir! Come tell this poor… poor man… what his sweetheart needs to hear!” The actor nervously summoned Brendan over to the side of the stage so that the scene might continue to play out.

A small growl came from the King’s throat and several other cast members shifted away from him as he strode over to the spot they’d hastily cleared for him.

“Say the words,” the actor whispered nervously to Brendan as everyone remained frozen in a tableau.

It hadn’t been at all how they’d rehearsed that scene, but they all were rather aware that the man standing in front of them was capable of single handedly strangling them all quite easily, and quite quickly…

“What words?” Brendan countered back quietly, his gaze unimpressed.

“I am sorry!”

“You’ll be forgiven when this waste of my time is concluded. What are the words I need to say?”

The actor’s face grew pale and sweat began to drip down the side of his head for a number of reasons…

“Th-Those are the words you need to say. You need to tell him ‘I am sorry.’”

Brendan stared at the actor attempting to direct him, then to the man on his knees, then to the man with the melons. He returned his attention to the fool that had summoned him on stage.

“I will say three words, walk off this stage, and you will end this immediately, are we clear?”

The actor genuinely could not tell if the giant was threatening or ordering him. Either way, he wasn’t about to disobey and risk his life.

“S-So, chap! What is it our dear… sweet… good hero- whoprobablyhasafamilytotakecareof,” the actor added under his breath with a weak wheeze. “W-What does he need to say to win the heart of his lady?!” the actor’s voice had grown louder and the crowd cheered and whistled.

Brendan faced the melon-filled bloke (who for some reason felt as though he should be bowing in response), and said the three words he had promised everyone.

“I’m always right.”

“I-I-I’m a-always right,” the actor on his knees repeated faintly as though he were about to wet himself.

The audience fell silent as Brendan’s heavy boots then turned and clodded off stage and the creak of the bench could be heard as he resumed his seat beside Alina.

The actors remained petrified, until Brendan cleared his throat loudly.

The bloke with the melons suddenly broke free of his fear and slapped the male hero across the face in a moment of inspired improvisation.

“You’re always right?! My sister was right about you after all! I suppose I-I-I I SHALL TAKE A VOW OF LIFELONG CHASTITTY! Yes, I can feel that while this heartbreak weighs heavily in my bosom,” he hefted the melon and earned a rejuvenated wave of laughter from the audience. “Good day to you, sir!”

The audience clapped and whistled as the narrator of the play stepped forward and pointedly ignored Brendan’s stare.

“A-And from that day on, our young… lovers… lived alone! Happy, but alone, and our hero would forever rue the day he failed to learn the words; I am sorry!”

The actor swept into a bow, and the audience rose to their feet cheering.

Satisfied to see the actors lining up to bow for the finale, Brendan then realized he hadn’t had the gumption to look at his fiancée to see how she had felt about his interference with the play she had been enjoying.

Feeling rather weak, he immediately chastised himself, and turned to face her.

Only to find that she was laughing so much that tears were running down her face, and her hand was covering her mouth in an attempt to silence herself.

At seeing her reaction, her small body shaking as she snorted over and over and tears continued to stream down cheeks, he couldn’t help but release his own boom of a laugh-

Completely unaware that the cast members and audience around them all leapt back in surprise.