I suppose having those two here won’t be absolute misery if dinner is anything to go off of. There were no tricks done on me, which isn’t by any means an amazing metric for success. Still, it’s in the right direction.

That’s rather pleasant for me, and maybe I should relax a bit with Salt and Pepper staying over. Right now, I’m having some privacy from them with Saffron.

“Those two are such nice girls, aren’t they?” She’s none-the-wiser about what I’ve been through. Saffron’s known them since they were very little, to her, it’s like talking about a pair of nieces. “It’s hard to believe that Pepper’s gonna be queen soon.”

“Yeah, she certainly didn’t look the part to me when we first met.” I chuckle. It’s a little silly to think of that girl being the one to rule the realm. “But, I think she’ll make a wonderful queen.”

“I wonder what Salt will do when her big sister takes the position?” She wonders aloud. It’s something that’s been on my mind a little bit, but I don’t know enough about this place to understand the options.

All I’ve been able to gather in the books I’ve read is that she’ll continue being considered a princess. Because should something tragic befall her sister, someone would have to be able to take the reins. I know that right now she may not look it, since this girl is more busy with her tricks than anything else. But I do have to remember that she’s not even a teen yet. Surely she’ll be a lot different upon growing up to being a woman.

I wonder what she’ll look like by then? She’ll probably end up looking a lot like her sister does now, which certainly would be pretty good for her prospects. Um, you know, because of whatever princes might catch her eye. Yeah, that’s why I’d be cool with that.

“Anyway.” I change the subject, it’s my turn to initiate some intimacy. “I believe the two of us had some plans before they showed up.” My finger runs up her body, which is wearing that cute little night gown of hers. I’ve grown to enjoy this outfit, since it feels so soft up against my body.

“Right.” She smiles at me, moving her face up to mines. “This might not be my secret place, but our bed is always nice.” Saffron lands a slow kiss to my lips. Her sweetness can always get me started. Now this would normally be the time I’d start to reach under her gown to feel her up. As well as to get that pesky piece of clothing out of the way, but something’s a little different.

That something being a certain little girl making her presence known.

“Hello!” Salt pops her head out from the base of the bed. Her appearance frightens the both of us, and I even fall of the bed from the surprise.

“Hi.” I greet her back plainly, rubbing my back from the pain of hitting the hardwood. Good thing I didn’t fall face down on my hard wood. “Another one of your little pranks, right?”

“Actually, I wanted to hang out with you two.” She tells us. “Hope you two weren’t too busy.” Come on, as if she doesn’t know what we were about to do. I didn’t hear a door opening, so she must’ve been here since the start of our conversation. Well, I guess it’s a good thing she interrupted us then. The thought of doing it with a 12 year old girl under the bed is a bit much. Certainly not one of the things I’d want to do after being sent to a new world.

“I suppose if you want to spend some time with us, you’re free to stay.” I can’t believe how accommodating Saffron is about this. “Perhaps you should invite Pepper too, it’d be a shame to leave her alone.”

“Don’t worry about that, she’ll be here in about…”

“Okay salt.” Pepper barges into our room. I take back what I said earlier, misery will be coming after me with these two around. The teen girl doesn’t look very happy, and I wouldn’t either if I had a suction arrow stuck to my butt. “What’s up with your contraptions and sending me letters this way? What’s wrong with just knocking on my door?” In her hand is a piece of paper that simply says, ‘Their room’.

“Well, I couldn’t keep things that simple, could I?” Salt is giggling as she remembers the way she set this whole thing up. Of course she had a manner in which things would happen, that’s something like knocking on a door wasn’t an option. I take it back about her ever becoming queen. This girl is much more suited to becoming an assassin with these stupid setups.

“Wow, I see that you’ve learned a lot since you were little and dropping ice down my clothes.” Of course Saffron’s amused with all this. She’s not the one that has to suffer through all of it.

“I’ve learned a lot thanks to all the soldiers, and Alan of course.” Why am I not surprised to hear her compare us to guinea pigs. I don’t know how those men were able to keep sane when she’s the one they have to babysit. I nearly died trying to take care of her for just week. Sure, there was a dragon involved, but she was pretty hard on me too.

“Since we’re all apparently having a party here.” I speak up. “Was there anything anyone wanted to talk about?”

“Actually, I did have something in mind.” Saffron responds. “I wanted to hear more about your time at the castle before the dragon showed up.” Of course she’d be curious about that. Whenever she asked me about it, I told her the truth about some things. Like how Salt always pulled a prank on me whenever we cooked breakfast, which was every morning. Or that I got to see Pepper training outside.

However, I never brought up anything that would be viewed as negative, like how Pepper hated me, or that kiss that lead to the duel. Good thing she hasn’t asked for what exactly we were doing before the dragon showed up.

“Did you give Alan any trouble? Or did he trouble either of you?” I feel like she only included the latter part because of how I met Salt. To be fair, I was about to beat up a 12 year old.

“Of course not.” Salt is the first one to respond. “We had lots of fun together.” It seemed like a perfectly good response to me, but Saffron knows them better than I thought

“You know I told you that lying is bad, right Salt?” She has that tone of an older lady talking to a child who got caught. I guess because she is an older lady taking to a child, but how can she tell that Salt’s lying? “I’ve known you two long enough to know when you’re hiding something.” Even though we’re dating, she must not have found my tells yet. Not that it matters when she can just go to the others.

“Please don’t be mad at me.” While I don’t know their prior relationship well, I can assume that upsetting someone that’s been a mother figure for her isn’t something she wants to do. “But, I kind of gave Alan a kiss on the lips.”

“And when I saw them, I challenged him to a duel to the death.” Pepper blurts out. She wasn’t even talking to you, why would you need to tell her that? Wait a second, that was supposed to be to the death?

“Is that true?” She turns her head towards me. I give myself a gulp at the idea of how she’s going to react to all this.

“It’s not his fault, I’m the one that kissed him.” Salt tries to plead her case for me. Who would’ve thought a child would be the one defending my infidelity. Even then, regardless of my supposed actions that occurred.

“I’m sorry.” I have to take responsibility. The truth was hidden from her, and it’s hypocritical of me to want her to open up if I won’t do the same. “I should’ve told you when I had the chance before. I was just so worried that you’d get really mad at me.” Perhaps since I’ve already known the pain of losing a relationship, that I don’t want to lose another one. “You have every right to be though.”

“Why would I?” She looks at me puzzled. I can’t help but return the favor since I have no idea what’s up with this reaction. Shouldn’t she be yelling at me? Or perhaps she’s more the tearful type of girl?

“I don’t understand. Shouldn’t you be upset that I kissed another girl?”

“Alan, she’s 12.” She responds. “Aside from the fact that I believe she’s the one that kissed you.” Which is what we said after all, so she seems to trust us a lot on a matter like this. “I doubt that you’d leave me for a literal child. Then again, maybe you like those features?”

“Of course not.” Come on, just because I’m dating a loli means I like kids.

“I am a little upset about you hiding that from me.” So it’s not all positive after all. “But to be fair, I haven’t been entirely honest with you either.”

“I thought that honesty was the most important thing in a relationship?” Pepper reminds me that this conversation that’s should be private is pretty public right now.

“You are correct.” Saffron replies. “Take this as a lesson from auntie that you should try and be a little open to others too.” That’s directed at the sisters, while her next statement is directed towards me. “And I promise that I won’t hide things from you anymore, if you won’t hide anything from me.”

“Right, I promise.” That’s the easiest decision of my life.