The plans of marriage became known to Sahara, so she started to get a little scared. She had utterly forgotten that the parents, in this kind of era, had full authority over their child’s marriage. That…It was normal to marry before even getting to know the other person! That…That she had no choice, that it was completely out of her hands!

So, before Sahara could be happy over the future departure of one part of her ‘doom’, she became uneasy about the future…Her future!

How would I be able to live with my own choice? Hell, I don’t even want to get married!

…This was probably something that Sahara couldn’t accomplish…She doubted that Talon would let her live the whole of her life not getting married at all! Especially her stupid ‘grandfather’, she was a pawn so she would be used to his advantage with marriage! How in the world can she accomplish to not marry someone if she didn’t want to!?

 

Through becoming depressed over these matters and wanting to make some kind of plan, Sahara dropped the days routine and threw it out the window!

Sahara didn’t practice cultivation, nor train Martial Arts, nor did she go to ‘school’.

She simply stayed inside of her ‘house’, remembering how disgusted she was with olden times.

If one didn’t have a mother, nor father, one could make a choice? Actually, she wasn’t too sure about that either…Plus, it wasn’t like she was going to kill her adopted mother and father…

Doom!

 

 

With Sahara’s mood strange like this, Talon finally had an excuse to come and see her. His arrival had startled her somewhat, but she didn’t tell him to go away. It was indeed a good time for Talon to break the ice between them as Sahara was still somewhat stuck with the marriage problem and how she might be able to fix it! She was caught completely off guard, somewhat even forgetting what pain Talon had brought her over the years…

“Sahara, what’s wrong?”

Sahara sighed and continued to look out the window.

Even if I told him, nothing would change the outcome…Talon is one of the ones that’ll probably just agree to whatever grandfather tells him!

“Tell father. Perhaps I can make you feel better! Mmm?”

Talon might have spent a lot of time coaxing his wife recently but just being able to see this adorable, little girl, made him feel better.

 

Her sigh sounded seriously heart breaking but he couldn’t help but smile! Just being able to see her and talk to her again made his heart jump for joy!

“Come! I will make you smile!”

Lifting her up, Talon put her on his lap and pinched her cheeks.

Sahara pouted at him but stayed silent. Honestly, it was nice to even get her cheeks pinched…He hadn’t done that in ages and being on his lap, well…She wasn’t even sure when that happened last…

“I heard your teacher finally relaxed today!”

Sahara nodded but wasn’t impressed.

Of course he relaxed! I wasn’t there!

 

“Mmm, but you didn’t hear that someone came to visit!”

In fact, even Talon himself had been surprised!

Sahara’s curiosity about this was alarmingly high. But if she talked…

She blinked, and her head went to the side, as she was in contemplation.

Talon laughed happily, seeing her like this, finding himself relieved and reminiscing. The first time he had seen her, she had done this exact same gesture!

 

“Do you not want to know who?” Coaxing this cute, little bundle was fun indeed.

“Who?” Sahara asked, as she gave in…

“Mmm, should I say?” Talon pretended to wonder, wanting more of her attention. How he had missed this!

Sahara pouted again, she really hated people say one thing and not follow through.

Talon let out a small laugh, then said, “Okay, Okay. I’ll tell you. It was His Highness, the Second Prince himself!”

Sahara raised her eyebrows.

Uh? Is that something that I should care about? Even if the Emperor were to show up…What were the odds of seeing him, yet alone having a conversation with him…That kind of thing only happened in stories!

Talon was surprised at Sahara’s lack of reaction.

Did she not care that he was the same Second Prince who had brought her back home that night?

 

 

Strangely, when they had said that they were looking through suiters for their daughter’s marriage partner, the Second Prince had insisted on following the Right Minister back to the Rolland estate.

Since His Highness had brought home Sahara that night, they hadn’t heard from him at all. It was a relief that the Prince hadn’t told anyone of what had happened, and finally they could relax!

Then, His Highness had suddenly demanded to come to the estate!

Talon looked at Sahara and wondered if they had rushed to the conclusion that the Prince had been interested in Sahara.

Perhaps, this whole time, he was interested in Gabriella instead…

 

When the Second Prince had seen Gabriella, he hadn’t asked to see Sahara. Instead, he just stayed within the room while the teacher taught the children for at least half an hour!

Talon became utterly confused…

So…It had been another reason to come here to see Sahara. To try and understand it more through her. But her reaction was not giving him any kind of indication at all!

In fact, because of the way the two were acting, both Sahara and the Second Prince, Talon was a bit at a lose to how…Similar they were, at least in this prospect…

 

After father left, Sahara didn’t care to ponder much of the almighty royal person, that seemed to be here in the estate. She told herself that not only would she be better off staying far away from the wars within and around royalty, but she knew this was real life!

She couldn’t deny the dream of possibly every girl under the stars of wanting their prince charming but, honestly, it’s so rare for it to really happen! Sahara wasn’t about to pine herself away to something so unrealistic!

So, she finally left her ‘house’, forgetting her marriage problem, and went to train her Martial Arts. She normally did this alone but today there were people there.

Sahara stopped walking and turned away.

I will do something else instead…

 

The other in question, also gave no indication…

As he was just returning from relieving himself, he saw the little lass turn and walk away from the Martial Arts area. Not bothering of thinking to tell anyone that he had changed his path, the Second Prince followed after the little lass.

Just seeing her, after all the letdown he had on this day, made him feel better…For some reason…

Hearing that they were looking for suitors seemed to have done something to his heart! Without further ado, he could not contain himself and gave the Right Minister no choice but to accept his presence lingering beside him, since before they even left the palace!

 

Only finding out just recently, that they were looking for a suiter for their other daughter Gabriella instead, he had spent half an hour getting over his joy of relief. The class that happened before him, while he was in this state, was something he practically ignored…

Honestly, he hadn’t thought that far ahead with this lass, he just knew that he liked her and wanted to see her again. But, thinking that she might be in a position that would stop him from going further, he just felt like he couldn’t let it happen!

Going through today’s events, he had been gaining his courage to speak about the little lass to the Right Minister, but he didn’t know how to say, ‘Is she betrothed?’ or ‘Don’t marry the girl off!’.

Never being in this kind of predicament, Matthew hadn’t much of a clue on how to go about it…The last time, it had been decreed upon and he hadn’t felt this way, but asking for it, it’s totally different!

 

Discretely, Matthew went through a bushy garden and to a small cliff, where upon he saw the lass sit down.

Not sure upon why he didn’t just walk up to her, he watched from afar.

Matthew saw as she laid down on the grass, and he heard her humming. In her hand, she had a big leaf and was playing with it.

Wanting to see and hear better, he quietly walked closer.

“Closer…Further…”

Her voice traveled to his ears, and he smiled.

What is she thinking?

The leaf was now a green line and she knotted it.

Interested, he couldn’t peel his eyes away!

What she made suddenly turned into a green star!

Matthew chuckled, unintendedly, and it was heard…

 

“Uh! It’s you!’ Sahara said, sitting up and looking at him in surprise.

The man smiled, for this girl, he didn’t care for pleasantries, “Can I see?”

She shrugged, as she could make it again anytime, and handed the green, small star to him.

Sahara watched as the man pulled it apart and attempted to put it back together again…But it broke instead!

She let out a laugh.

The man pouted at her, “There’s no need to laugh at this…Situation!”

Sahara nodded her head and said, “Yes there is, it’s a laughing matter because you are a butcher! If the poor, little star saw you coming it woulda ran a mile away! You butcher!”

The man’s mouth twitched, and he looked away.

 

How can something like that run away! That’s absurd!

Sahara shook her head at him.

Can’t he take a joke?

Then Sahara laid back down on the grass, not bothering about him anymore. She got out another leaf and started to lightly rip it into another long green strip like before.

As she finished making the strip, she felt him come closer to her and sit down.

 

The silence was sweet, as she continued to make another star. Sahara went slower, just in case he wanted to attempt to learn how to make it himself. When she finished, she used her spiritual essence to have it stay in the air by itself.

Sitting up, Sahara looked around and thought of an idea!

Normally, she didn’t much care for what time it was when she did her cultivation training, but why not make the best of it?

The sun hadn’t quite set yet, so she decided that they needed to wait.

“What are you going to do?” The man asked, purely curious.

“Send it off.”

 

In her past life, she was never really good at dancing with words. Sahara much preferred getting straight to the point by being upfront, blunt and honest. It wasn’t a good strategy to finding friends though, she has to admit. For some reason people don’t like ‘blunt’ and most of the time ‘honestly’ isn’t appreciated as much as she thinks it should be...

Although, in this life, since having to have to live in olden days, words were used a hell of a lot. Sahara has had to learn how to hide some things and word something out in twenty words, instead of just two or three. But she hates it!

 

It’s a waste of time and energy to say so much when meaning very little of it…Actually, Sahara felt the same about a few other things too, like getting angry. She thinks getting angry is also something that takes too much wasted time and energy, you’d be better off staying cool, calm and collected.

So, being with this man beside her, Sahara felt like she didn’t want to be somebody that she wasn’t…For some reason…

Why is it that I feel like I can be myself around him? Normally, I act myself with only people I totally trust…Or…Could it be my instincts that are telling me that I can be myself?

 

While he was questioning what Sahara had said, she looked back at him curiously. When he caught her obvious staring at him, he stared back.

Sahara blinked, putting her head to the side a bit, but continued to look back at him. His eyes seemed quite charming actually, staring at her like she was worth staring at…How long was it, she asked herself, that someone stared right at her!?

With a quick intake to her breathing, Sahara felt a burning sensation over her whole body. It wasn’t completely like she was blushing, it was more to it than that…It was like a wake-up call, or…Or perhaps just her body getting a shock from being seen…Whatever it was…Her body felt like it was tingling while his eyes were so fixated at her…