Chapter 14

I was awoken by the consecutive knocks on my bedroom.

I stood up, groaning.

I felt like I just closed my eyes for a minute. I didn't get enough sleep last night thinking about my whole situation.

Funny how I was able to stay here for quite a long time already and was just bothered about these changes last night.

"What?!" I felt more irritated when I opened my door and saw Blaze standing in front of it with his usual smile on his lips.

I swear! If this is one of his antics, I'm gonna kick his freaking ass for disturbing my sleep!

"Good mor--"

"Yeah, yeah. Save the good mornings. Now, what do you want?" I ask impatiently.

He showcased an awkward smile after being abruptly cut off.

"Do you want to have breakfast? We can eat toge---" he stopped when he saw me impatiently massaging the gap between my brows.

"Did you seriously disturbed my sleep just to ask me to eat breakfast with you? Really, Count Fantilaga?" I sarcastically asked as soon as I put my hands down to my waist.

"My apologies if I ever disturbed---"

"You DID disturbed me, okay? Now, get your freaking face away from here. My morning didn't start right already, so please give me the goddamn peace of mind and just eat up your breakfast alone, okay?! Ciao!" I said pulling all the patience that I can get before slamming the door in front of him.

I do know it's rude, doing that to him is too rude.

But it's rude to wake someone up too, especially someone who didn't have enough sleep just to make a goddamn move at that.

I restlessly dived back into my bed and groaned after a while, realization hitting that I can't go back to sleep anymore.

'Cool.'

'What?!' I almost laugh out loud when I heard his hostile voice on my mind.

Looks like I wasn't the only one having to start the day on the wrong side of the bed.

'Let's eat breakfast.'

'Just eat with that Count, would you? Stop messing with my mind now!'

'Come'n! Let's eat! I'm starving! That bastard ruined my sleep, now I'm no longer sleepy but hungry. Let's eat, please!'

Ever since we concluded that there was a possibility that there's something more about their marks as my guardian and we, being able to talk like this, we decided to keep mum on it while Cool was trying to get his hands on any information he can get.

Though we learned to use this type of communication to our advantage since we can talk about certain things without being afraid of being heard by anyone, there are times like this when we, I mean, I used this unique way to pester him to answer to some of my biddings.

Cool, unlike all the murandas here and other royalties such as Blaze and his family are always ready to do any of my biddings, he, on the other hand always rejects all of it unless he sees it to be a very productive task or he can in any way benefit from it.

'Fhyra, you do know, you're the reason why I didn't have enough sleep last night, right?'

I snorted when I heard his response.

Well, I talked to him last night about the things that were bothering me. It was one of the rarest times that Cool would listen and comfort me.

'Sorry.'

When I heard him sighed helplessly, I knew that I'm having my way here.

'Fix up. I'm coming to get you for a while.'

'Where are we going?' I pretended.

'To eat breakfast.'

Cool was scowling as we eat our breakfast in the dining hall of the palace.

"What?" He asked rudely when he caught me staring at him with a triumphant smile on my face.

"Nah," I answered while shaking my head and just focused on eating the food on my plate.

"Wipe off that smug look on your face, Princess. It's very annoying." He said without even looking at me.

I chuckled at his remarks and just continued eating.

A little while later I heard him sighed exasperatedly and his utensils noisily fell on his ceramic plate.

"Are you so happy to ruin my morning?" He asked helplessly.

"I don't understand what you are talking about," I said innocently.

He stared at me as if he can't believe the words that were running out of my mouth.

"You could've just ate breakfast with the Count." He said as he once again picked up his utensils and resumed eating.

"No thanks," I said and took a mouthful of food.

We just finished eating and bickering when somebody opened the large doors of the dining hall.

Our heads automatically shifted to the door's direction to look who's coming.

My left brow immediately shot up when I saw Hailec entered the hall.

"Good morning, Princess. Good morning, Commandant." He greeted with a slight bow.

Neither did I nor Cool responded to his courteous greetings.

After lifting his head up from bowing, he immediately shifted his gaze towards my direction. My eyes met with his eyes and I stared at him, questioning.

A few more interactions with this weird dude here and my fear of him had vanished. Plus, the fact that he was one of my guardians and wouldn't cause me any harm had helped to put me at ease.

"Have you prepared enough, your Highness?" He asked meaningfully.

I was confused at first, but remembering his words before about his surprises, I started to get curious instead.

I glanced at Cool.

'I think it's gonna be today.'

Cool nodded.

I shifted back my attention to Hailec who was amusedly staring at us.

"Are you talking about the supposed to be the biggest surprise of my life?" I asked with a little bit of sarcasm on my voice.

He laughed a little before staring at me, challenging.

"You can say that. Now, let me ask you once again, have you prepared yourself?"

"Just spill it."

"No, Princess. Sorry but my surprise can't be expressed through words. I need you to come with me and see it yourself." I was surprised by his words. I thought he's just going to spill some beans about my identity or something again and show some evidence like he did last time.

But looks like he had another plan on his mind.

I glanced back at Cool who was silently scrutinizing Hailec.

Hailec knew of this and just raised his left brow in a mocking way.

"I'm coming with you but he is coming with us, as well," I said while gesturing my head towards Cool's direction.

"That's fine with me," Hailec said while nodding.

He then put both of his hands behind his back, just like what my teachers used to do during classes.

"Shall we go?" He asked.

I shared a look with Cool and we rise from our seats at the same time and followed the punong baylan out of the hall.

"We're leaving the palace?" Cool asked after a while of walking.

I looked around and realized that the place is really not that familiar to me anymore.

I never get to go out of the palace, per the Queen's order.

"Yes, we have to go to my place for it," Hailec answered with a mysterious smile.

'Keep close to me. Don't wander around.'

I snapped my head towards his direction when I heard him talking to me on my mind.

'I'm not planning to.'

I saw him staring at the baylan's back and looks around every once in a while.

I immediately took a step closer to his side as he ordered.

We past through a large red door with blazing words that says 'Flamis'. The guys told me that it was the main gate of the palace.

For the first time since arriving here in Narte Fantasia, I've seen the beauty outside the large corners of the Flamis Palace.

I looked around to see a lot of different creatures and people crowding the place.

"This is the Kabisera. The capital city of the whole Narte Fantasia." Cool informed me when he saw me looking around with amusement.

He held my right wrist with his right hand so that I won't get lost in the crowd.

I was in awe seeing how the people were solemnly interacting with other species that look different from them.

This is what I loved about this place though, unlike in the mundane world, people discriminate against other people as well. They were causing harm on their own kind.

I sighed with that thought and just continued following them.

We passed by a very crowded space, so Cool pulled me closer and put me ahead of him while he tightens his hold on me, afraid that I'll be lost in the crowd.

Hailec, on the other hand, kept on walking and just looks back from time to time, maybe to check if we are still following.

I released a sigh of relief when we finally got out of the crowd. I can feel my sweat dripping around my face.

"Here." I stared at the cloth that Cool offered.

"What's that?" I asked.

I heard him sighed and wipe the sweat on my face using the cloth he was holding.

I blinked multiple times before I opened my mouth to speak but he already finished wiping my face and had turned his back on me to follow Hailec again.

I just shook my head a few more times and just focused on following them, too.

We stopped in front of... a tree?

I confusedly stared at it, not until Hailec placed his palm on the body of the tree.

I saw water-like ripples formed around his palm before it opened as if it was a door!

"Wow!" I can't help but exclaimed when we finally get to enter the tree.

This doesn't look like a tree at all!

This is a mansion!

I was still busy looking around when I heard someone called my name. When I turned around, both of our eyes widened.

"S-sassy?"