"The Crown Prince and Saintess Ophelia Seen Together Late in the Afternoon on a Romantic Courtship Date — Palace Sources Suggest Royal Marriage Imminent."
For several long seconds after reading the headline, my heart simply stopped. Not metaphorically. Not emotionally. It genuinely felt as though something inside my chest had ceased functioning entirely, it felt like something disturbingly physical, as though my body had simply forgotten how to continue its own function.
The corridor around me blurred into something distant and hollow, the kneeling informationists reduced to quiet silhouettes at the edge of my vision while even Maribel's presence beside me felt strangely far away, as if I was suddenly separated from my own surroundings by glass.
The newspaper trembled faintly in my grip, the inked letters refusing to shift or change no matter how long I stared at them.
Romantic courtship date.
Royal marriage imminent.
