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     Days passed, weeks passed and Hyacintha found herself spending more and more time with King Baldwin. They shared a strong bond and feelings now, even tho ... she hadn’t found the gut to confess about her love to him.

      And that morning in King Baldwin’s palace, Hyacintha was seen walking happily while carrying a glass jar filled with stacks of origami cranes. She would give them to the king.

     “I will give him these one thousands cranes so that his highness’ wish can come true!” Hyacintha muttered happily, her eyes twinkling.

      Suddenly Hyacintha heard a very familiar hallucinatory laughter in her ears. Baldwin’s voice. With a cheerful smile, she immediately ran to the source of the sound, about to run loudly to the king. But suddenly her feet braked and carried her body hiding behind a large pillar in the palace courtyard.

      Hyacintha frowned as she witnessed the sight before her. Baldwin was seen walking with a beautiful woman with a slender body and a luxurious dress that was quite revealing. And the woman’s breasts were very large, making Hyacintha pout and rub her own chest which almost ... felt nothing there. From her clothes and jewelry, Hyacintha knew that the woman was a noble. The woman’s blonde hair was neatly tied up with a sparkling headpiece. The woman looked very graceful like a goddess and the look in her eyes made it clear that she had special feelings for Baldwin.

     “Who ... is she ... ” Hyacintha whispered while pursing her lips.

      The two of them seemed to be walking while chatting intensely and occasionally laughing. That made her heart tightened with jealousy, Hyacintha hugged ... Or more like strangled her stork jar tightly.

     “How dare she make His Majesty laugh! That should be my job!” Hyacintha hissed with a sharp gaze.

      Baldwin walked alongside the noblewoman, his bandaged hand resting lightly upon the small of her back as he guided her through the winding corridors of the palace. The silk of his robe whispered against the marble floor, the golden embroidery catch the morning light and casting it back in a dazzling display of opulence.

      On the other side; Hyacintha widened her eyes as she saw Baldwin placed his bandaged hand on the woman’s bare back. Hyacintha frowned even more, her eyebrows twitching sharply. She unconsciously squeezed the leaves from the bush in front of her.

     Behind the silver mask that concealed his features, Baldwin’s brow furrowed slightly as he listened to the lady’s playful banter. Her laughter, high and tinkling, grated upon his ears like the screeching of a thousand nails upon a chalkboard. It lacked the pure, unbridled joy and innocence that he had come to crave, the sound of Hyacintha’s giggles echoing in his mind like a bittersweet refrain.

      Yet, even as he pasted on a smile and made the appropriate responses, Baldwin’s thoughts remained fixed upon the petite, doe-eyed girl who had captured his heart. The memory of their shared moments, the stolen kisses and tender embraces, played through his mind like a fragment of a dream-a dream that he longed to make a reality, a truth that he ached to confess.

      Dear God, but he loved her. He loved her with every fiber of his being, with every beat of his traitorous heart. She had become his sun and moon, his air and sustenance, his very reason for living. And yet, the words remained locked within him, trapped behind the silver mask that concealed his face and the walls of his own crippling insecurity.

      Baldwin’s gaze flicked over to the noblewoman, taking in her voluptuous figure, the way her gown clung to every curve and contour like a second skin. And yet, as he looked upon her, he felt nothing. No spark of desire, no surge of longing, no answering hunger in the depths of his soul. For in his eyes, only one woman existed-one petite, delicate flower with a spirit as fierce and untamed as the winds of a storm.