Rosaline wasted no time upon returning. She sent her personal guards to investigate who the assassins worked for. Meanwhile, while preparing for her coronation, she related her terrifying yet romantic adventure to Marybeth, sharing how she felt she met her true love.

"He sounds valiant as a knight," Marybeth sighed. "And he promised to come today?"

"Yes," Rosaline replied positively, "and when he comes, I shall declare him to be the man I will marry."

🌹

The ball finally arrived. The castle was decked from ceiling to floor in honor of the coronation ceremony. The ballroom was filled with affluent guests, waltzing and engaging in the jubilations. Rosaline, clad in a breathtaking red gown, searched only for the archer, inattentive to the festivities. Compared to the liberating dance she shared with him yesterday, this seemed tamer.

"A dance, your highness?" Rowaine appeared, offering his hand. Knowing it was rude to refuse, she took it stiffly and waltzed with him.

"I hope you've reconsidered my proposal. Then again, you have no choice," Rowaine stated arrogantly. Rosaline glared at him.

"Yes, I do."

"No one will dare ask your hand, not while I hold it." Rowaine sneered at her. "After your escapade from death yesterday, I should've thought you'd learned your lesson." Rosaline gasped. She told no one but Marybeth and her private guard about the assassins, how did Rowaine know? Unless...

"You sent the assassins to kill me!" Rowaine's eyes gleamed dangerously as he led her to a private balcony away from the crowd.

"I will take the throne with or without you, Princess. Choose well."

"I will never marry you!" Rosaline cried out. Rowaine pulled out a dagger with an emblem—the same one the archer had found on the mercenaries.

"So be it." He raised the dagger to strike her heart but an arrow shot into his arm and he dropped the dagger falling down, screaming. The archer appeared behind him, dressed in regal attire and holding his bow. Rosaline gasped upon seeing him.

"I'll have you hung for this!" Rowaine roared at him. The archer held out the emblem he took from the mercenary.

"First explain how mercenaries sent to kill the princess bore your duchy's emblem." He threw it before a horrified Rowaine and went on with fire in his eyes, "Then explain why you just tried to kill her highness."

"Guards!" Rosaline called, regaining her composure. Her guards appeared along with all the guests, drawn by the commotion outside. Rosaline instructed them, "I charge Duke Rowaine with high treason. Take him to the dungeon."

"NO! I will be king!" Rowaine's screams tore through the air while everyone watched him in disgrace. Once he was gone, Rosaline sighed in relief and turned to the archer, running into his arms.

"You saved my life again," she said, tears falling from her eyes. "How can I repay you?"

"I only ask for your forgiveness for not revealing myself sooner," the archer bowed to her, "I am King Alistair of Avelis, at your service." Rosaline gasped. She suspected he was more than an archer but a king?! The guests began murmuring in feverish excitement.

"Your majesty," Rosaline curtsied to him, "you have my undying favor. But I must ask, why the mystery?"

"Duke Rowaine cut off the alliance proposal I offered Lapulisto two months ago," he explained. "He said you had more to gain from Schonwen. I feared my offer had not even reached the princess's ears. So I came to your kingdom to investigate. I wished to live here to get to know your people and I planned to meet you at your coronation—but fate seems to have brought us together before that." He took her hand and got down on one knee.

"Now I am before you, princess, not as a king, but a man in love with you. Will you," he pulled out an exquisite ring, "do me the greatest honor and be my queen? Unite your kingdom and your heart with mine?"

"Alistair..." Rosaline wiped a tear from her eye and accepted the ring. "Yes! I will, Alistair!" He stood up and met her lips in a long kiss, the guests applauding the union in the background.

"I adore you, Rosaline," Alistair uttered with all his heart. Rosaline smiled saying, "And I you, Alistair," and returned her lips to his. She had found her true love at last—and he turned out to be a partner and a man worthy of the crown.

Within time, they were married and Alistair provided a vast military regimen that secured Lapulisto's safety. There were no more war threats, no losses in the royal treasury. Duke Rowaine was stripped of everything he had, his title, his wealth, and sentenced to life in prison. Rosaline opened all the storehouses for her people and quenched the famine in the land. A great celebration followed at her wedding to Alistair and Lapulisto became the most powerful, most prosperous kingdom of the century.

All because a King without a crown won the hand of the Rose.

THE END.

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