(DARIAN)
It is unheard of for anyone in the royal family to stay anywhere aside from the royal residence in a given city. However, I don't need the staff of these mansions reporting my every move to Willow, so I prefer staying in hotels where I can, especially when I'm conducting the kind of business I don't want getting back to my in-laws.
I study the stack of files before me. After what happened with Alice, my father's attitude toward me changed. He became colder, more withdrawn. His health also deteriorated around the same time, compelling me to take over more and more of his duties.
Lucius, my father's attendant, never left his side throughout his illness, and when my father passed, Lucius withered away, too.
Despite my grievances with him, he did serve my father faithfully to the very end, so I set him up in a cottage on the palace grounds with double his pension. He lost his dearest friend the day I lost my father.
