Apparently, you had to call a prince “Your Highness.”
When I first heard about this at the palace, I’d smiled politely at my tutor, wondering why the heck nobody had told me this sooner.
We’d been engaged for a year already! Why was I only learning this now?! Wasn’t it way too late for that?
“You’re still little, so even if you’ve been calling him by name, everyone’s just let it slide,” my brother told me when I ranted to him about it. He’d been living with me at the estate in the capital.
So the adults had to be proper and say “Your Highness,” but kids could just get away with using “Lord” in front of the name.
“But if your tutor said so, you should start calling him Your Highness starting tomorrow,” Nadir added, without taking his eyes off his papers. He wasn’t interested in me at all!
How mean! We were siblings, living away from our parents! Why was he like this?! Why didn’t he want to hang out with me?! Coward!
I was mad, so I puffed up my cheeks and stomped on his foot as he sat on the sofa looking at his paperwork.
“Oww!” he yelped.
“Hmph! Stupid brother!” I said.
“I find it extremely unpleasant when you call me ‘stupid’!” he complained, finally putting his papers down on the table and turning to look at me.
I smiled triumphantly. He must not have liked that, because he started shouting.
“Lily! Come here!” he called out.
“Wow! That’s not fair!” I protested.
“Did you call for me, young master?” Lily asked.
“That was fast!” I exclaimed.
He’d only just called for her and she’d arrived immediately, but Lily wasn’t out of breath at all. Sometimes I wondered if she was one of those mechanical, wind-up dolls.
My brother looked at Lily and said, “Leticia stomped on my foot. It would appear she’s still quite far from becoming a proper lady.”
“Oh dear,” Lily replied, turning her gaze to me as I crept toward the door. I froze in place.
“That’s not true,” I said. “I accidentally stepped on his foot!”
“Do not lie!” my brother snapped.
“You believe me, right, Lily?” I pleaded, clasping my hands together to my chest and trying my best to make myself look as small as possible.
Lily kept looking at Nadir, then at me, then back at him, then sighed.
“I see,” she said.
My face lit up. Yeah! Lily was my handmaiden!
“Perhaps I shall also work on the young lady’s habit of telling lies,” Lily added.
My face immediately went pale, and I backed away from Lily as she came closer. But I quickly ended up against the wall.
“L-Lily, I didn’t lie,” I stammered.
“I can tell you did,” she said.
“M-Maybe my brother’s the one who’s lying!”
“No, I can see right through you.”
“Lily...” I pleaded, hoping that she would have mercy on me.
But reality was cruel.
Lily caught me easily, then disciplined me to her heart’s content.