Chapter 69 – Safe Sanctuary

Five days passed by quickly and before Levisia knew it, the dreaded day of the Fairy Festival was a distant past and now they have a full day left until Chess Black Market opened.

“Pel.”

Pel in his wig appeared before her as he visited his room early in the morning. Admiring his thorough appearance, it showed that he wouldn’t tolerate the same thing that happened before.

“Did something happen this early in the morning?” Pel asked, wondering about the early visit, though he had an inkling of what the princess had in mind.

“Just checking if some news arrived.”

The news was obviously about the black market and the lifter. Pel, who knew something about it for sure, merely shook his head after a short silence.

“Nothing?” Levisia asked again.

“Yeah. Nothing important.”

“But the black market opens tomorrow?”

“It’s hard to figure it out,” he replied, in a plain and dismissive tone.

Levisia could feel that something is strangely amiss with the way he looked, but she did not push through inquiring more for it might be dimmed as an overreaction on her part.

‘Looks like he’s hiding something, too.’

Pel started to tidy up the room as if Levisia was not standing at the door waiting for him to say something more. He flattened out the wrinkled bed sheets, opened the window to air out the room, and watered the flowers he got on the day of the Fairy Festival.

“Do you have anything else to say?” he asked Levisia who remained standing still just watching until he was done tidying up everything.

“Pel, is there really nothing?” The idea of using her problematic ‘wet rabbit’ expression, that he pointed out on the day of the festival, came to her. So she made sure that her expression was exactly that when Pel looked at her.

‘Did it work?’

For a split second, she saw him flinch when their eyes met. Her hope was quashed though when he carried on in his usual voice and said, “Nothing.”

She remembered him saying that he’d tell her everything, yet what he just said was a bold-faced lie. Unable to get any clue from Pel, she left the palace as soon as the time for the king to come find her came.

‘Fifth day, success.’

She had been thoroughly avoiding the king since the day after the Fairy Festival. By heading out ahead of his arrival, she had been succeeding to not cross paths with him. Today, she left once again without revealing to anyone where she was headed. At some point, without specific destination in mind, she wandered around the fortress recklessly until she arrived at another place she has been frequenting for the last two days.

“I knew it! No one’s here,” she said to herself, pleased.

The maze garden in front of the central palace was quiet today. With everyone in the palace busy minding their daily affairs, no one would suspect that she was up to something nor even have the time to aimlessly roam around.

Levisia discovered that the beautiful maze garden’s vast and intricate landscapes are the best place for her to hide for a little while. She walked among the garden trees and found her secret space at the innermost part of the maze.

‘I can relax here.’

She had to crawl her way inside her safe sanctuary through a dog-sized hole beneath one of the bushes. It wasn’t visible when seen from the outside as trees and tall bushes surround it. Inside, the princess sat on a small chair and breathed a sigh of relief.

Unlike the previous day when she lost most of her time figuring out a way inside and just went back to the palace after, today was different. She would kill her time by reading the book she brought along with her.

But right when she’s about to enjoy herself…

A crow flew into her secret spot.

“Caw!”

It flapped its wings and settled itself down by Levisia’s feet. Its black feathers are glossy and unlike a normal crow, it looked like someone had been taking good care of it.

‘What the…’

As if understanding her reaction, the crow tilted its head up and made direct eye contact with her, like a normal person would do. ‘It’ll fly off in a little bit’, Levisia thought. Then, she finally opened her book. Well, she was about to when the crow aggressively jumped up top of it, as if demanding for her attention.

“Caw!”

She waved her hand at it to chase it off, but it just dodged her and flew up only to sit on her knee briefly and then finally nestled on her shoulder.

‘What in the world…’ Levisia had been avoiding the king, but now what? Now a random crow from nowhere was acting mean toward her and annoying her to be forced out of her favorite hiding place. When she turned to look at it on her shoulder, it just cawed loudly without looking at her. She cringed at the sound it made, so close to her ear. If someone were to claim it as human, she would have believed it for being so sly.

‘Clever bird.’

“Come out, Herol. Stop hiding,”

Suddenly, she heard a deep voice coming from not too far away when she stood up trying to shake the crow off of her. But the crow made its cawing noise again in response to the voice.

An ominous wave swept through the hidden place. Someone was obviously finding his way inside.

“How long are you gonna play hide-and-seek?”

Levisia felt her body shudder; though the voice was not directly addressing her. Her eyes finally met with a man who appeared before her as he emerged from under the bushes.

“Cow!” The mean crow seemed to playfully hide behind her, avoiding its obvious owner.

The man who was staring at her looked at the crow behind her and then met her eyes again.

“You’re…”

Levisia found herself locked eyes with a man none other than… 1st Prince Cassian Robel Kraiden.