Day: 2

Noon

Only at this moment it crossed my mind that it's very necessary I have a few words with my parents.

Because all of a sudden I'm living in the castle! I wasn't exactly... Prepared for this? But my parents aren't often at home so It's not making me too homesick either.

I should probably speak with them before they get busy, and while I know that they're still at the mansion.

Will I need permission to leave? I won't know unless I try.

Dressed in cloth of lighter fabric, this dress is a lot more comfortable to move in compared to what I had been wearing the other day. I already had a purse with my important things with me, now I just need to leave the castle.

I head out to the exit of this part of the building, where two guards stood out on watch, and multiple carriages were left outside. "Am I... Allowed to leave?" I ask one of the guards.

He looks at me and stares for a while. "Who are y-"

"That's the prince's guest, Miss Astor." The other guard sighs. "And yes of course you are allowed to leave, but only temporarily. Where do you plan to go?"

"To house Dahlia."

The two guards look at each other for a moment and nod. "We'll get a carriage ready for you." One of the guard says and they both hurry off.

"Riselle." A familiar voice comes up from behind me. "You can't be leaving the castle on your own you know."

"Luca? Why?" I turn around and face the male.

"Oh, I just feel that's something the prince would say. And I do believe he doesn't want you going out on your own."

"So you're going to stop me?"

"No I'm going with you."

"Oh..."

The two of us stand there in silence until the guards return with a carriage, being controlled by a different man. One of the guards opens the door and both me and Luca get inside.

"Have a great day, Miss Astor." The two guards spoke in unison and we were off to House Dahlia.

"Soooo... Have you been to any of the five houses?" I ask Luca. The silence felt kind of awkward, and he sat in front of me staring at my face. "Luca?"

"Oh, no. No I haven't."

"There isn't that much to it anyway. Just noble drama."

"Is that so."

"Mhm! It's usually between house Alstroemeria and house Echium! They're kind of having this war on something like which noble girl of the house will marry the prince." I giggled.

"Of course it is."

"I'm boring you aren't I."

"Yes, yes you are."

I sigh, followed by a pout. "Then why don't you make an effort to say something! It's awkward with just you and me here and you've just been staring at my face!"

"I-i'm not!" He turns his head and looks out the window.

"Whateverr." I roll my eyes. "It's still a long way till we reach house Dahlia."

"Say, Riselle."

"Hm?"

"Are you interested in marrying the prince?"

"Isn't the answer to that already obvious? I'm definitely not!"

"But why?"

My gaze shifts down to the carriage's flooring. "I guess... I'm just not interested? And marrying the prince is kind of a big thing."

"Ah... But are you interested in marrying at all?"

"Maybe- but wait what's with all of these questions?!"

"You told me to make an effort to say something." The mage turns his head once again to look at me. "Right?"

"Yeah, I did... But why about marriage, of all things? We could talk about herbs or flowers I don't know!"

Luca grins, and for the rest of the trip we talk about all kinds of things. It was rather entertaining, and fun.

We finally reach house Dahlia, the man who controlled the carriage stepped out and opened the door for me and Luca to exit, there I was greeted by the maids who were busy trimming the bushes at the front of mansion's entrance.

"Lady Riselle, welcome back!"

I greet them with a smile and reach to the doorknob and enter the mansion. "Mother, father?" I call for them. While using my eyes to look around for the two, I tell Luca to take a seat.

"Riselle!" I hear my mother's honey-like voice, the woman rushed over to me and pulling me into a hug, and my father also came around from the staircase. "How are you? A man from the castle came yesterday and took all your stuff, saying that the Prince ordered you to live in the castle and I was shocked!"

"Yeah, I'm doing fine though mother."

She finally lets go of me and notices the mage chilling on one of the sofas. "My my, and who is this lovely man?"

"That's uh...-"

"Luca Donovan, the court mage and appointed as Riselle's personal guard to assure her safety." He stood up and walked towards my mother, taking her hand and kissing it.

My personal what now?! I thought this is a one time thing?

"Aren't you a lucky girl Riselle!" My dad says cheerily and shakes hands with Luca. "I hope she isn't too much for you to handle, she's a stubborn one."

"Oh but she got that from you." My mom responded. "Are you two going to stay for dinner? It should be served in a few hours."

Ah that's right, from the castle to House Dahlia it takes a portion of a day and now it's almost evening.

"We'll stay until then, and leave after." I respond.

"Good good, shall we chat until then? I'll have the maids prepare tea!"

While my mom rushes of to inform the maids, my dad heads back up to the second floor, saying he was still in a game of chess with my uncle. So I take Luca with me and we head out to the garden where a couple tables were set out for tea.

"Your parents seem to be nice people." Luca says, as the two of us take our seats.

"Yeah, They're pretty optimistic and carefree."

"That's nice."

This is the last time I'll be here in a while. Suppose I'll make the most of it. Ever since I was young, I never really left house Dahlia since I was taught everything at home. If I were to be taught to dance, to play an instrument, to paint, my parents would just hire someone. But man did I do so horribly with academics.

And because of how I never really left House Dahlia, I was only able to make friends with the other nobles when those from the other houses would visit. But I still wouldn't mind making friends with those that aren't nobles.

While I was zoning out, my mother returned followed by the maids coming with tea.

"Do you like Earl Grey?" My mother asks Luca.

"Earl Grey is very nice."

"Great then!"

The rest of the day went well, we had our tea, and our dinner, a few parting words with my parents who planned to go to the neighboring kingdom tomorrow morning, and then we returned to the castle late at night.

By then, a few guards were making their night rounds, some maids cleaning, but it seemed most were asleep, and the prince hasn't yet returned from his duties. Perhaps he'll be gone for a few days.

While I still planned to ask Luca why he called himself 'my personal' guard, the poor thing fell asleep in the carriage on the way back and seemed to still be in a daze after he was woken up.

The day was tiring for me as well, but just before I head to sleep a warm shower would be nice.