Somewhere in the deep forest, Iris was standing still. In front of her was an old and musty castle. She crossed the gigantic gateway with her frost-white horse reminiscing the last time she came here. Entering the castle's territory, she made eye contact with her 3 besties. 

"Shit! They must have waited long", she murmured. 

She walked towards them as they saw her. 

Just as she went towards them, Elina charged at her howling like a mad person. "Why the hell are you so late? We have been waiting for like 30 minutes. Don't you have any punctuality?", Elina said smacking Iris' back.

"Hehe, I'm sorry. Actually, it was hard to convince my parents you know!?", Iris let out a nervous laugh. 

"But, you are always late. Don't make any excuse now.", Harlin added. 

 "You are 'DEFINITELY' not the one to talk. You arrived just now.", Aylin said side-eyeing Harlin. 

"You know, I had to lie to my parents. It was really hard to convince them.", Harlin said trying to defend herself. 

"Not any better."

"Well, we 'had' to lie. Do you think they will let us come if they knew we would be here? Of course, that's a big No-No", Aylin said as she walked wisely. 

"Hm...you are not wrong. But, that doesn't mean you get to be late.", Elina said.

"Hehe, I am sorry. It won't happen again. But, don't you think we should now go in? Or we will be late!", Iris reminded them trying to avoid the topic that she was late.

"Oh, yeah." 

They all left their horses in the front yard and went towards the castle door. The door was covered with cobweb. It was kinda eerie with all the sound bats flapping their wings deep in the forest. On top that, it was daytime and it was almost as dark as night. They reached for the doorknob. But to their surprise, there was no lock in the door. They pushed their way in. The large castle is 4 storeyed. There are two staircases going up in two different directions. There could be seen many rooms upstairs. 

"Hey, would you all even go inside or go back from here??!!!", Harlin shouted in despair.They were observing the whole castle from the door all these time. 

They finally entered the castle. There were cobwebs here and there, but light could be noticed  everywhere. There was a big chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was dimming now and then. All the suspicious sounds from nowhere gave them a chill down the spine. They wandered around and saw nothing of interest. 

"Let's go upstairs and see if we can find anything ", Aylin offered as they were looking around the ground floor. They nodded in agreement. 

They took the stairs. They started walking through the corridor; it was kinda slippery foe some unknown reason and finally they stopped in front of the right-most room. 

"It's so spooky. I don't want to open the door. Hariln, go forward.", Aylin said with a shiver coming down  her spine. 

"You think I 'WANT' to open the door, dummy? I can't also. It's creepy."

"None of you dummies has to do it. I'll open the door.", Iris said with a brave yet dull face. 

"I can also. Because I am not a 'dummy'.", Elina said. 

"Don't have to.",Iris said as she opened the door. 

Everyone was looking at the room with eyes filled with shock and surprise. Because, everything in this room was suprisingly crystal clear. The whole castle was musty yet there was no sign of dust in this room. 

They entered the room in slow pace. There was a bed with long curtains, dressing table and many other.. 

Iris' attention was dragged to an aesthetic flower vase placed by the window. The flower was of light purple with sky-blue in the middle. It got her enchanted. 

"Hey, what are you looking at? Did you find anything?", Elina asked in curiosity. 

"Oh, nothing much. Look, aren't they beautiful?" 

"Hm..yeah. But this is not the time Ris.You should now think about this castle.Think think...think hard." 

"Hehe, yes. Let's look around the room and see if we can find something." 

"Yes, let's ." 

The 4 of them started looking for clues. But nothing of importance could they found. 

Iris observing the curtains thoroughly, Aylin looking at her with eyes full of disappointment as she thought there could be nothing in the curtains hanging and Harlin trying to pull off the cobweb from her hair. They all were drifted in their own world. Then Aylin turned around to look for something useful and she couldn't find Elina. 

"Where did she go?"

"Who are you talking about?", Harlin asked as she turned around looking at her hair sticky with cobweb.

"Eli? Where is she?", Aylin said with a concerned voice.

"She was with us just now.", Iris said drifting her eyes from the curtains looking around.

 

They started looking for her .She wasn't to be seen around in the room. Suddenly, Iris' gaze turned towards the curtain falling off of the bed. She saw a dark cream colored cloth falling off. It caught her attention as all of them wore dark cream colored gowns today. 

She slowly moved the curtain. But wasn't ready for the scenario inside. Aylin came stood beside her. Her eyes burst into shock. 

Inside, there a handsome looking boy was stranding Elina with the bed with one hand and pressed shut her mouth with the other. Eli's eyes were bursting out....

The two of them were staring at each other with shocked eyes. Then, he saw the other 3 looking at them with their mouth open and trying to say something. Elina jumped behind the other 3 as soon as the boy let her go. Her hands reddened as the bulky boy held her hands as though she was a thief. The boy elegantly came and stood in front of them. His clothes were now to be seen. He had a navy blue pant with a bottle green top. He had royal blue glove on his right hand, a golden badge hanging from his left shoulder. His shining sword could be seen on his left side. He was clearly dressed as a prince should be. 

Not a single word came out of their mouth yet they had so many questions to ask. At a point, breaking the pin drop silence, the boy stated, "Why are you here?" 

"No, you tell me why. I mean the castle looks so spooky from the outside. But all shiny and clean from the inside. And you look like some kinda prince. I don't understand." , Harlin said this looking dumb all in one go. 

"Who would live in my castle if not me?", said the boy with complete arrogance in his tone. "And you are the Princesses of the 4 neighbourhood kingdoms, aren't you? So why are you here?" 

They were too stuned to speak. How could someone live in a castle in this state? 

"You know who we are?" 

"Of course. It's my duty to know about the neighbourhood kingdoms as the prince .Oh, I didn't introduce myself. I am the 3rd prince of Wistaria kingdom , Zen Wistaria." 

They were kinda shocked as they didn't expect to meet the prince of Wistaria kingdom here of all places. And Eli was still in shock about "that" incident. Zen pretty much figured that. 

"About the incident awhile ago, I saw an unknown girl standing in front of my bed as I entered the room. To be cautious, I held her hand and pressed her mouth but slipped on the bed as I stepped on her gown.", Zen explained. " Now tell me why "you" are here." 

"Uhm..eh..", Harlin hesitated as she felt dumb.

Elina started, "Actually, a few days ago when a grand festival was held in Wistaria kingdom, as neighbourhood kingdoms the royal family members were invited here. When we were visiting this forest , our parents didn't let us go in and told that there was something here that we shouldn't know. And thus our curiosity grew deeper and now we are here to know the unknown. Though, our parents are unaware of that." 

"Oh, so that's the case.", Zen tilted his head to the left a bit. 

"But, when we visited, neither you nor your brothers were here.", Aylin said with curiosity. 

"We were out on a business trip." 

"Oh, I forgot about the most important thing. What about  this castle? What's all this about the mystery?", Aylin asked with concern. 

"I hope you can figure that out yourself." 

Just as they were going to rebel someone knocked on the door. "There is someone else here?", the princesses thought. 

"Come in.", Zen said. 

"Zen, who are you talki-", two boys said as they entered but the people inside had taken them aback. 

"Come with me for a sec.", Zen said to the boys as he pulled them on another side of the room. They murmured for some time. Then they came back. 

"Take my greetings , princesses. I am Eren Wistaria. The 1st prince Wistaria kingdom.', he said elegantly. 

"I am the 2nd prince, Erwin Wistaria." 

"I am Elin-", stopping her Eren said ,"I am already aware . Zen told me." 

"Do you two also live here?", Aylin asked. 

"Yeah", they said in sync. 

They then started discussing about things. But Iris' mind were somewhere else. All she could think about this enigmatic castle.The brothers also seemed strange to her. Seeing her distracted Zen said ,"What's on your mind, princess Iris?" 

"Nothing much." 

"Hey, we all are disgrace to the royal family, you know? We are keeping the beauties from another country standing. Shouldn't we serve them ?", Eren said with a disappointed tone. 

 "Shouldn't some servants serve us? I mean , who in the world serve someone when they are princes?" , Harlin thought as her gaze turned towards Erwin.

"Won't mind if he serves me, though. He is cute. Te-he." 

"Oh, yeah.", the other two said in sync. 

"Come downstairs with us, Elina, Aylin, Harlin and Iris.", said Zen. 

"But it's all dirty and musty there.", Harlin said as she furrowed her eyebrows. 

"No problem. We will deal with it.", Eren said reassuring them. 

 

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A/N: Follow my profile. So, when I announce something important, you will get notified. Thanks for reading. Love you always. Bye...