AHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I hate myself.
Hunched over on my desk, I was filled with regret.
Today was the day before the Meet the Parents.
The. Day. Before.
Since it was very important, I repeated the phrase once more to refresh my mind.
THE DAY BEFORE!
I found my fake boyfriend, but I didn’t want to waste the days I had left, so I was going to work really hard and check everything off my Princess Schedule. But alas! Instead, I found myself a bedridden invalid for three whole days.
On the way back from the Nightfellow villa, I came down with a fever. From the symptoms I felt, I figured it was the common cold. Except we didn’t call it the common cold in Esfian, we called it “sky sickness.” It was something along the lines of, by the whim of the Sky God, you fell ill. You had all the symptoms of the common cold, though comparatively milder.
But no matter how many times I mulled it over, I couldn’t figure out how I caught my sky sickness. Nobody else around me had it for me to catch…
But anyway, I was diagnosed with sky sickness and my fever was pretty darn persistent. And even though the first day included my visitation to the Nightfellow villa, three days was a new record for me. Sister-dearest in the books had a rather frail constitution…but in reality, my Octavia was quite healthy. I’d never gotten sick once. I was secretly really proud of that.
Even if I did get a case of the sky sickies, it would never last more than a day.
And yet this time my fever lasted a whole three days!
According to the doctor, it was likely brought on by compounded fatigue from the junior ball and the survey.
Was that really it…?
I mean, looking back, I guess every single day in the past week had been jam-packed with eventfulness.
And even after my fever went down, the doctor gave me all sorts of stern warnings. I mustn’t exercise. I should stay in bed. Any plans to go out should be postponed. I should not let myself get cold, etcetera, etcetera.
As a result, the finger of suspicion fell on Klifford, and I was basically returned to my caged state from before. Until the Meet the Parents, I had to spend my days in extreme quiet. I wanted to see Sil, but after a lot of mulling it over, I decided to restrain myself—not out of coercion, but self-discipline.
I could walk freely about the castle, but not for very long. I stared down at my wrapped left hand. It was still not healed. My foot blister was mostly healed and did not hurt a bit.
I felt perfectly fine. Having said that, even though I only had the sky sickness, if it had gotten worse, the problem would have spread beyond myself.
Self-care… Maybe I ought to up my efforts in that department? That’s what the past three days taught me. Then again, I never meant to neglect my health, even now…
It was so bad that Sirius came to visit my bedside several times. But it was always when I was asleep—to the point that it made me assume he planned it that way—so I never got to speak with him directly.
My father and Edgar each came to visit once, but separately. I was awake both times, but since I still had a fever, neither stayed long.
I received some flowers from Lucinda: a bouquet of yellow and pink gerberas. They were exactly the same in name and appearance as their real-world counterpart, and even though Lucinda’s name was on the card, I guessed they were really from Derek. Since I was going to see him today anyway, I was planning to ask him.
Especially since there’s a new thing I want to ask him about.
I had resumed my rounds as princess now that my fever was down. This involved visiting the library on the daily. My first and second times, Sasha accompanied me, insisting, “You’re still not fully recovered, Your Highness.”
The library…was a place of unexpected encounters.
If you could believe it, I actually bumped into Guy there for the first time since the survey, and not just in a nodding-as-we-passed-each-other way. I also met with Guy’s soldier friend with the big, dead-looking eyes. It was probably the sane person he’d been chatting with at the training grounds.
The dead-eyed soldier was checking out The Legend of King Eus—Abridged, the very book I read when I was struggling to learn the Esfian language. That alone made me feel a kinship with him, so I made a mental note.
And Guy was checking out a book called, How to Tame Your Wreven!
Unlike Heller, he denied it himself, but this proved that he was okay with Blackfeather!
When Guy sets out to make a name for himself, maybe I should give him a wreven feather tassel for his sword? Oop—but I’ll need Alec’s permission…
The moment Alec popped into my mind, I couldn’t sit still anymore, so I jumped up from my slumped position on the desk. I could never act with such unladylike disgrace when Sasha was around, but since it was only Klifford today…whatever.
“You said you’d come back in ten days…”
The complaint tumbled from my lips.
Alec had never broken a promise with me before, but it was the day before Meet the Parents, and he was not back at the castle yet.
There must be some problem—there was no other possibility. Then again, there not being a problem would be ideal. And if there was a problem, hopefully Alec and his men would be okay! Something like, the road they were going to take home was under sudden construction and they had to take the long way back.
Since Alec was on a secret mission, I couldn’t contact him even if I wanted to. That being said, as Alec was busy on aforementioned secret mission, he couldn’t exactly contact me, either.
Also, since the story was that Alec has been ill in his room in the castle this whole time, people were surely starting to suspect something.
Alec coming back in ten days…that was a promise just between me and him.
From my father’s POV, it wasn’t at all peculiar that Alec wasn’t home yet. Because of that, I couldn’t ask my father about him, either. It would reveal to Father that Alec had told me about the secret mission anyway. Even if Alec returned home from a successful secret mission, his success would be marred by my actions.
AHHHHHHH.
I slammed my book shut.
I was in the middle of reading through Esfian royal history to glean any information about King Eus that I could, and also anything about Nightfellow family origins.
But, as I feared, I couldn’t find a word about Queen Idéalia. Not even a shadow of her. The only thing I was able to loosely confirm was that traces of Queen Idéalia were around when King Eus was enthroned.
I foresaw many library trips in my immediate future… Libraries were the best places to research history, but the catch was that history cut off at the present.
Like Siehalt Esfia, my grandfather. Since his era remained in recent memory, it was perhaps a bit difficult for scholars to write about.
I heaved a sigh and stood from my chair. I returned my book to the shelf and turned to Klifford.
“We’re leaving.”
Klifford silently nodded.
I already knew our next destination—the side gate.
My other daily activity was visiting the side gate after the library, mostly because the side gate was by way of the library.
And why the side gate, you ask?
Because Alec used the side gate when he left, so I figured he’d use the side gate to come back.
And, at present, my hopes had been betrayed again and again. If the drawbridge by the side gate was up, it meant nobody was going to come that day.
Okay, side gate…what’ve you got for me today?
I opened Blackfeather and put the library behind me.
I saw the side gate in the distance—and sighed in disappointment.
It was the same sight I always saw. The drawbridge was not lowered. In other words, Alec was not coming home yet.
But then I shifted my gaze.
The side gate, by nature, was not the sort of area people passed through unless somebody was using the drawbridge.
And yet a soldier stood near the closed side gate. He had healthy-looking tanned skin, black hair, and black eyes.
Wait… Isn’t that Guy?
I jogged—or I was about to jog, but then thought better of it—and walked at a normal speed to meet him. I would obey my doctor’s orders for a little while longer!
Since Alec had an eye on him, Guy had to be talented. Though Klifford and I were both still quite far away, Guy lifted his gaze from the ground and turned to look at us as soon as we began our approach.
Is it an aura thing? Can he sense auras…and he picked up on ours? Even though we’re so far away? As we walked, I glanced back at Klifford. He was so perfect at his job that I hardly noticed him even though he was standing right behind me.