"Ferdinand, stop right there!" Queen Xenia said furiously.
"What is it, darling? Who has upset you again?" Ferdinand asked in confusion.
"Cut the act, Ferdinand! Tell me—how has Boris offended you?
Why are you exiling him to Finland, that godforsaken place of ice and snow, to suffer?" Xenia demanded in a towering rage.
"How could that be, darling? Boris is so lovable—how could I bear to exile him?
He's going there to be king, not to suffer. I'm doing this for the sake of his future!
Besides, Finland isn't all ice and snow. The climate in the south is quite pleasant. He can put the capital in the south!" Ferdinand explained.
"Hmph! Spare me that nonsense. Don't I know what Finland is like? It's nothing but a poor backwater!
Find me a major city there, then. Which city can compare to Sofia? If there is one, I'll agree to let Boris go there and be king!" Xenia said with a cold sneer.
Ferdinand had a headache. Finland truly was not very developed in this era. By Sofia's standards, even Moscow and Saint Petersburg would not qualify; there was not a single such city in the entire Russian Empire.
"Stop, Xenia. Can you be reasonable? Sofia is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and one of the world's top five metropolises. Where am I supposed to find another city that compares to it?" Ferdinand said helplessly.
"So you admit it! Finland doesn't even have as many people as Sofia, and it's poverty-stricken. Rather than send Boris there to be king, he might as well stay here and be a city lord!
Even if he is to be king, it should at least be somewhere like the Kingdom of Poland or the Kingdom of Belarus—those would barely be worthy