Alpha's Rejected Mate Returns as Queen

Chapter 574: Troubles of Youth

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Yarin’s POV:

I was glad that no one noticed me. Heller was always unwilling to look at me directly. As for Lily, she seemed to be in a daze, but I somehow felt that she was very sad. There seemed to be no place for her in the bustling hall. She was embarrassed and out of place, but she could do nothing.

I looked at the people exchanging greetings, then at Lily, who was drifting away from the crowd. I quietly tugged at her cloak.

“Do you want to go out for a walk?” I whispered. “I had a little too much to eat this morning. I want to ease my digestion a little.”

Lily looked at me for a few seconds and nodded in agreement.

The morning wind was still a little cold, and music and laughter could be heard from the commercial street not far away. The garden of the manor was very large. Lily walked in front, and I followed beside her. We didn’t say a word.

I wanted to say something, but Lily didn’t seem to need any words. She needed a quiet environment to sort out her emotions quietly.

Honestly, this was not a situation that a child could understand. The superior conditions of my birth allowed me to be more mature than my peers, but mediating family conflicts? I was still far from becoming a qualified family judge.

“Thank you, Yarin,” Lily suddenly said. She rarely called me by my real name. “I’ve made a fool of myself. It’s about me and my mother.”

“No, Lily, it’s nothing. Everyone has their problems. Other than yourself, no one has the right to comment.” I looked at her seriously and replied, “This is what my mother once told me. People should respect themselves and respect others. I don’t think there’s anything funny between you and Aunt Teresa. On the contrary, I’ll be here and happy to help you if you need me.”

Lily looked at me for a while and suddenly burst out laughing. “Thank you, little one. However, I’m not so cowardly as to need a child’s help. I appreciate your kindness.”

“I’m serious!” I knew Lily was treating me like a child again – she was right, I was a child, but somehow I didn’t want her to treat me that way.

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward. Lily stopped smiling and stared at me, making me uncomfortable. Before I could ask anything, she sighed and said slowly, “I know, Yarin. Thank you. You are a good friend, and I am very happy to have your friendship.”

She didn’t seem to treat me as a child now, but I still didn’t like her attitude toward me. Everything was fine, but she seemed to be avoiding something. I couldn’t think of anything, which made me inexplicably anxious.

How annoying. Since I came to the Silver Moon Pack, I’d spent more time worrying than I’d in the past twelve years combined. I’d become unhappy. How annoying! Annoying!

I suddenly remembered something Cynthia once said. There was a time when she was obsessed with studying psychology and always analyzed the psychological state of everyone around her.

A few days before my twelfth birthday, she pestered me to observe my every move. Her pestering annoyed me, so she pretended to be helpless and said, “Yarin, my dear brother, you are about to turn twelve. The beautiful puberty is coming. Fretful, irritable, capricious, sometimes unrestrained, and sometimes restrained. I’m so happy that you’re about to usher in the most exciting period of your youth. Let me give you a blessed hug!”

In the end, I pushed her away in disgust while Cynthia looked at me mysteriously, mumbling like a fortune-teller.

Back then, I only felt irritated. Now, I seemed to understand her words a little.

Anxious and fretful, was this a sign that I was about to enter the next stage of my life?

It was difficult for children born in the royal family to compartmentalize their lives into distinct stages. I loved my family, and they loved me too. They did their best to give me a happy childhood.

However, there were always some responsibilities that I couldn’t avoid. Moreover, I was in a high-ranking position, but I was young and ignorant. This made it so that some people always took advantage of the loopholes to come to me and scheme against me.

So my ‘childhood’ was chaotic and divided. My family and I tried our best to make me an ordinary and happy child, but I could see myself being divided into two halves. The other half watched coldly, switching between the mentality of a child, a youth, a middle-aged man, or an old man.

I thought that I would always be like this, but at this moment, I realized that all my previous thoughts were foolish and arrogant delusions. I was just an ordinary child who thought that I had escaped the age limit, but only realized the truth at the moment when I was about to enter the next stage of my life.

Lily looked at me, and I looked at Lily. We looked at each other wordlessly, and the atmosphere became even stranger.

There was no doubt that I had screwed things up again.

I had hoped to bring Lily out of that suffocating place, and I promised Francis that I would make Lily happy, but look at what I’d done. I made things worse, and Lily went from one predicament to another.

Just as I was at a loss, my savior appeared.

“Hey! Yarin, Lily! We’re leaving. Come back quickly!”

Ah, Heller, the cute little angel.. I could kiss him now!