“Lady White, saint, and successor of the eastern duchy.” The master of ceremonies announced as soon as I stepped into the ballroom. It was filled with nobles who all turned their head towards me and Hannah while we both smiled brightly.
A few seconds later though, most of the conversations resumed as the situation threatened to turn awkward.
“So … how many do you actually know here?” Hannah whispered into my right ear as we still stood near the entrance while a butler walked towards us gracefully.
“I know their dirty little secrets … you can put that in a trash bin somewhere.” I said and pointed towards the gift Hannah held in her hands. Everyone had seen it after all and I seriously didn’t want to gift the second prince anything.
“Ladies, this way please.” The butler bowed down deeply and lead us through the gaps in between the tables towards the other side of the room, where a bored second prince waited for us looking at Hannah first and then at me. Apparently, I was still not very liked by him.
“I never imagined you would bring her here.” He said, nodding towards Hannah.
“There was written I could bring a guest with me, so I assumed-“ I said, but he interrupted me like always in the middle of it.
“That’s for single nobles who rather dance with someone they don’t know well, rather than sit on the tables the whole time.” He explained, rolling his eyes at my apparent lack of knowledge.
“Oh, please pardon my mistake.” I said, took the gift out of Hannah´s hand and handed it over to him. “Please accept this as a prize for winning our competition, my dear prince.” We couldn’t compete anymore thanks to the king´s orders and so he sadly won overall.
“Huh? It was only natural I would win. And?” He said confusing me a bit with the last part.
“And?” I asked, completely oblivious.
“Where is my birthday present then?” He said slowly so that even the dumbest one of us would understand.
“Today is your birthday?” I asked and looked around. So far, I could see no cakes … I did hope they had some though.
“… it is. I´m turning thirteen now. This is my debut to society.” I nodded happily, stepped forwards and took his hand with mine.
“Oh, congratulations! It is like you are an adult now.” I said teasingly. In front of the law, he was an adult after this day.
“I am an … are you making fun of me?” He asked and frowned slightly.
“I would never dare.” I said, stepping backwards and holding up my hands defensively. “But on a side note, shall we continue our challenges once I go to the academy as well?”
“You have no chance.” He said, a strange fire burning in his eyes.
“The gods will be on my side.” I said happily.
“It´s good that I am an atheist then.” He said and chuckled, even though I could remember reading he went to the church on Sundays.
“Oh?” I asked, tilting my head in interest.
“Yeah, since they selected you as their saint, I lost all faith in them.” He laughed loudly, and even I had to giggle slightly, knowing that nothing had changed between this brat and me. Sadly, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the relationship we had.
“It is great to see you capable of changing your opinion.” I said, finally breaking out of the incompetent shell I created for his sake.
“Wow, you changed.” He said, finally noticing that I couldn’t risk being bullied by him in public anymore.
“I did?” I asked innocently.
“Certainly. Not for the better though.” He said, making us chuckle once more.
“It is hard to do so if you are as amazing as I am.” I answered, clearly overstepping my bounds a little there, but the others were only looking at us from afar and weren’t able to listen in.
“You lost our challenges, so I am even more amazing?” He questioned a bit too full of himself.
“Definitely in the ego department.” I nodded and turned around as I heard someone approaching us. It was the king with two of his four wives, one looking kind of glad that I got along well with the prince, the other not so much. Well, they were just women opening their legs for the king, with no real powers themselves. Thus, I ignored them for the most part and rather concentrated on the king.
“Your holiness.” He said, nodding towards me.
“Your highness.” I nodded back while Hannah curtsied deeply.
“Olivia, if you could show Hannah where everything is. Your holiness, would you be so kind to go on with me on a short walk?” He asked, indicating towards a door on the side.
“Certainly. Louis?” I asked, turning towards him one last time.
“Yeah?”
“Happy birthday.” I said and extended my hand towards him.
“… thank you.” He took my hand, shook it a little bit while turning slightly red in embarrassment. The third consort begrudgingly accepted the task given to her and guided Hannah away from us while the King and I strode towards the door which led towards a rather deserted hallway, lined with large windows to the side.
“You look good.” I did not.
“Thank you.” I said nonetheless.
“No, seriously, the nobles in that room would do everything to have a daughter like you.” I highly doubted his statement, but for vastly different reasons than I presented him with.
“I fear my personality and their desire to marry me off to someone influential aren’t exactly matching.”
“Hmm, well, that’s the other side of the coin.” He muttered.
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“Soo … there is nothing else you notice about me?” I asked and tilted my head in interest.
“No?” He said after a little pause.
“Look, I think I have grown a little!” I said, and figuratively placed my hand on my hair.
“Hmm, now that I look at you more closely …” Yeah, four centimetres. Not a single one more or less, but I needed him to realize I was growing, no matter what I had said to him weeks before.
“I thought you stopped ageing?” He questioned directly. It was true that I claimed I stopped aging as I turned ten, but that didn’t have to mean I wouldn’t grow anymore.
“Apparently not?” I asked and chuckled happily.
“And … you aren’t sad about that?” I certainly wouldn´t be about growing up a little. This body had a few advantages … like getting into every corner while cleaning for example, but it still got on my nerves that nearly everything was too high for me. It was as if this world was made for giants … or adults.
“Why should I? As a certain god once said, living means change. And this change is beautiful, don’t you think?” I asked sweetly.
“It certainly is … Lucy, I need to talk with you about something.” Something? Food? His son? Or something bloodier?
“Hmm?”
“We need to do something about the murders. I cannot let it spiral out of control any further.” He said, which was only partly correct. The peasants in the slums weren’t that important to him. He showed that time and time again, but what he absolutely couldn’t portray was his incompetence to stop two murderers from wreaking havoc.
“And you think I am capable of stopping whoever is doing something this horrible?” I asked, wondering if the king suddenly turned naïve.
“I know you want them to stop as well.” He claimed, which wasn’t exactly the case yet.
“But unlike you, I don’t have any worldly powers to save the citizens in the slums.” I said. And truly, as the saint I wasn’t even expected to deal with such matters.
“I tried. We did send two hundred guards out three days ago, but seventy died and we still couldn’t catch that monster.” I stopped walking, looked up to him and tilted my head. Monster? Not monsters?
“… are you asking me for my opinion?” I asked, a bit surprised by his forcefulness.
“Yes, I am.” He stated and looked down into my eyes.
“… work with ‘The Crown’. Despite all my attempts to reduce their influence in the slums, their eyes and ears are everywhere.” I claimed. In truth, there was very little I did against but whatever.
“You are asking me to work with a criminal organization?” He asked in doubt.
“I would rather pick no evil at all, but I am not that idealistic. Sometimes, the lesser evil is the best decision one can make.” I said while looking away from him.
“I cannot do that. If the nobles are coming together, then it is because someone attacks them openly, and that group certainly did this.” That much was obvious. But I still hoped he would accept my proposal, purely because it would put him even more in a pinch.
“I heard these nobles were all criminals.” I stated calmly.
“… so does it seem, but that doesn’t stop the others from standing by their side.” Oh? Standing by their side is certainly a nice way to put ‘fear being the next one’, my dear king who killed his older brother to ascend the throne.
“I am not entirely sure what you are expecting of me. I fear that faith will not be the solution to this problem.” I said while frowning slightly.
“Well, faith didn´t work out too well lately, did it?” He said absentmindedly while I struggled to even react to this. He knew what happened to me … what happened to Laura and yet he still said something like this. Closing my eyes, I calmed down the emotions brewing beneath the surface, albeit barely.
“This is …” A bit inconsiderate? Hurting my feelings? At least he didn´t mention the six days I couldn’t remember …
“Oh … I´m so sorry. I rea-“ He said, but I interrupted him swiftly.
“It is okay.” I said, shaking my head a bit to get rid of the sad memories.
“No, it is no-“ He said, nearly touching my shoulders, but stopping just before doing so.
“Alphonso, if we could please go back to our original topic, you are making me feel uncomfortable right now.” I interjected and looked into his eyes.
“I´m sorry.” He let his head hang low and stepped back from me a bit. The news of what happened to me apparently didn´t stay within the coalition of churches that went for my aid, but I never expected that in the first place.
“The only thing I can say to you is that you aren’t the only one trying to catch this monster.” I admitted and turned around, ready to head back into the ballroom. After I made my first step though, the king grabbed my left shoulder, making me freeze in the process. Luckily it was really warm in the palace, but that wasn’t the reason why I froze in the first place.
A maid would probably gloss it over and turn around as they probably experienced far worse things sometimes, but a saint? A rape victim nonetheless? And his touch didn´t feel like he wanted to stop me either … it felt a bit too soft for that.
Trembling, I turned around, getting rid of his hand in the process.
“Your majesty, even when I am wearing a shoulder free dress, that doesn’t mean I want to be touched in any way whatsoever.”
“I didn´t mean it that way.” Woah. Living in the high castle made him really inconsiderate towards the woman who had clear boundaries. I mean, I get it that touching the butt of a maid ‘out of mistake’ was rather commonplace and he did have four wives … but still. He could get anyone, and that probably lowered quite a few inhibitions.
“Is being touched better if it has a meaning or not?” I asked, looking at him in utter amazement while naturally acting like a slightly scared, but also an intelligent girl.
“I am sorry.” He said and gazed towards the ground once more.
“… have a great night, your majesty.” I turned around once more, joyful to have made a fool out of the king with no recuperations whatsoever.