Hey there, what’s wrong? Did something happen? she almost wanted to ask the knight, but she also realized a lady of status hyperventilating in front of him put him in quite the bind. Not to mention the prince is right in there with the door wide open, looking like he’s ready to wrestle! Sorry, but I really need to drag you into this!
Though she wordlessly apologized to the knights who’d come bounding into the room, Sophelia couldn’t contain her joy at the growing sound of footsteps rushing inside.
Oh Gods, thank you for giving me the ultimate opportunity! I vow to use it to the fullest!
Sophelia caught herself nearly gazing up at the heavens, only for a dignified, quiet voice to call her name.
“Lady Sophelia.”
While she certainly wasn’t a particularly prideful woman, as a serious and graceful noble lady, His Majesty the King, her family, her servants—oh, and that dirty bastard over there were the only men to have ever addressed Sophelia by name.
“Huh?”
Locking eyes with the knight in surprise, Sophelia noticed his blueberry-candy-drop eyes staring back at her with care.
“Please, try to relax. Lean against me and inhale slowly. Take slow breaths. Follow my voice. Breathe in...and out. There, just like that.”
Almost as if he were stroking her back, the knight gently patted between her shoulders over and over again with the flat of his hand. The knight cradled Sophelia’s head in his other hand, gently guiding her breathing. Calmly folding her body into the knight, Sophelia found herself with her head against the knight’s uniform, almost as if it were an embrace.
You don’t need to worry! It’s not like I can die from hyperventilating. You really don’t have to take it so seriously, you know. Sophelia could’ve laughed. He was an interesting knight, this one. His Royal Sleazeball the Prince was a rotten, smelly excuse for a man, so Sophelia didn’t quite know how to make heads or tails of a knight this dependable.
I’d hoped to make a kingdom for people like him...a kingdom that wouldn’t punish the kind, Sophelia thought to herself, only to realize that she was crying.
The knight took a quick breath, gently patting Sophelia’s back again with the palm of his hand.
“There’s no need to hold back, m’lady,” the knight said. “No one is looking at you.”
He did have a point, didn’t he?
“Your Highness...!” screamed none other than the prime minister.
“Lilly!” shouted Sophelia’s father.
At this point, there wasn’t a soul who could simply turn a blind eye to a commotion like this. And every single person who’d come bounding onto the scene of the disaster found themselves in the middle of utter chaos.
Even then, Sophelia’s attempts to stop crying only left her breaths more and more shallow. Trying to hold back would only defeat the purpose, especially since she’d just now started to calm down. The knight was simply stating a fact.
But it was a kindness.
This knight certainly was something, wasn’t he?
Sophelia had always considered such kindness the stuff of fairy tales, a flight of fancy forever out of reach. She’d always thought it akin to the cuisine of the country to the east that she’d never tasted. I wonder what that spicy red soup of theirs tastes like? I’d love to try it, but I’ll likely never get the chance! It was just as simple as that, and yet...
Sophelia cast a nervous glance up at the knight.
At first, he looked as if the weight of all the world’s troubles rested on his shoulders, only to seemingly push it all down and gaze back at Sophelia with a caring smile.
“You’ve worked harder than anyone else, m’lady. You can rest now.”
“Why...?”
Why do you know that? And why are you being so kind to me?
Her voice barely above a whimper, Sophelia found her words washed away by the tears rolling down her cheeks.
His uniform had to be a mess by now. Wrinkled and tearstained, it had to look terrible. And yet, the knight neither mocked her nor struck her. He was kind. As if he’d stepped straight out of the pages of a fairy tale, he was simply kind. He was a shining, handsome man with a soft, gentle smile for her, even though his wrinkled brow made him seem on the brink of tears himself.
Sophelia gasped in surprise as the knight wiped a tear from her cheek with his fingertip. Before she knew it, Sophelia found herself grasping that same gentle hand.
You mustn’t! You mustn’t drag him into this!
She had no business laying hands on such a kind, stunning soul, but even as she reminded herself of this, Sophelia found herself holding him tightly anyway.
She yearned for those blueberry eyes that seemed to wrap the shattered remnants of her self-esteem in a warm embrace. She wanted nothing more than to lose herself in those sweet, pain-tinted eyes.
For the first time in her life, Sophelia felt something overwhelmingly ravenous within her, and yet words escaped her. How could she hope to find them? How wonderful would it be if he might only listen to her? Ashamed of herself for even thinking such, Sophelia pulled her hands off the knight’s clothes.
She would stand on her own—as she always had.
And yet, Sophelia was happy. She was aimlessly, boundlessly happy. To think that having someone recognize her efforts could be such a release! It was as if she’d been born anew.
Everything was fine. She could go anywhere.
“Thank you, Sir Livionis.”
Livionis’s eyes snapped open—those deep, blueberry eyes like a night so searingly clear you could catch a shooting star bounding across it any second. Eyes wide open, he pulled Sophelia’s hand as she tried to stand up.
Sophelia softly collapsed back into his warmth, blinking in surprise as Livionis’s soft, low voice washed over her.
“Run away with me.”
That night, everything Sophelia had scraped together and claimed for herself in her fifteen years of life transformed into stardust, shimmering in the night sky.