Rania, daughter of Nero Agron and queen to be of all things that go bump in the night was laying inside of her much more Simpleton-like Room fiercely clenching her fists and holding back oh-so-bitter tears, she felt both resentful and slighted at what she had discovered inside one of the rooms, an affront towards her very existence; the door to her guest’s room was locked as to avoid any unexpected visits, she furiously scrubbed clean the charred marks on the wooden floor.

This place sucks, everything about it does, the sheets on this bed, the bugs, the closet, the house, the town, the people, and the entirety of this hideous so-called “country” for humans, all of them, I just… hate them all.

The target of her disgust had been turned to ashes. And as she tried and failed to swallow the bitter sensation on the tip of her tongue, she remembered.

“it’s unbecoming of a princess to cry. They are but a show of weakness both towards your subjects and your enemies,” her teacher said to her once.

“Such things, if you really need to, you can do them, but only in complete isolation, a princess cannot be seen crying,” the maids remembered her.

That’s what she had been taught from a young age. So, whenever she felt things were too much, she locked herself somewhere where her cries wouldn’t be heard.

The smell is strong. Guess it only makes sense for such a hideous thing to reek this much.

She opened the window of her “closet-sized” room on Alden Donn’s house, the place she would be staying at for “a season or two” her home away from home, a new prison she would have to endure until her father’s friend “decided” she was ready to face the world outside.

A new cage

As soon as the window sprung open, Rania locked stares with a short and slow-looking blue-haired elf girl. Lan realized Rania’s presence and promptly initiated her tactical social retreat maneuvers.

Fine! If this is how things are going to be, then I won’t bother being your friend either. Trying to get closer and being “friendly” with a peasant is useless. It’s clear her manners are as clean as her clothes.

During her journey to this forgotten town Rania had grown just a little expectant of meeting this person, the so-called Lantana Donn, the prodigal daughter of the man escorting her, not for any other reason besides the fact that she was one of the few non-humans she would be able to interact with for “a season or two”. A like-minded individual in this putrid hellhole called Ostara.

But alas, when the time to meet her came, the young heiress of the old blood couldn’t have been any less interested in speaking to her, even worse, at this point it was clear as crystal that she disliked her, what other reason would she have to be openly avoiding her in such a fashion?

“I know you won’t like what I’m going to say princess, but you have to stay put, at least for now since the cat was out of the bag as soon as we stepped into town, things have gone out of control and the people are losing their shit, but I’m going to fix it… so in the meantime, you are welcome to investigate every nook and cranny of my home” Those were Alden’s words, as crass as they may have been to Rania’s ears.

Simply put, she was prohibited from leaving the house; the elf knew this. That’s why she took longer and longer to return each day, why she skipped meals or took longer baths.

Great, she’s avoiding me. I’m royalty. You should be grateful to be in my presence, not actively avoiding it… you doofus!

Fortunately, not everyone in this house was quick to spurn her.
unlike the youngest kids, the adult members of the household had been most welcoming and accommodating to her. There was Ms. Madina, Mrs. Joanne, Mrs. Freesia, and Mrs. Gabrielle.

Among them, Madina was the one she liked the most so far, her mannerism and personality reminded her of her nane… a human version of her at that, but she was an experienced old woman wise beyond her years and even if her skills lacked far too much polish to be compared to nane’s she was still proficient enough at her job.

Over these past few days, she had seen just how much effort the woman put into her work in taking care of the family’s needs, she seemed to do most of the housework around since Freesia works a lot and Gabrielle seems to take on a more “Noble-like” lifestyle.

Surely a few more decades of experience will make her a maid befitting of a place in the palace.

Mrs. Joanne was one of the first people she met when she first met her Joanne seemed very excited, and she hugged Rania as soon as she saw her, Joanne was one of the warmest people she’d met so far, both brash and rough around all edges, but her honesty and forward-facing personality was a breath of fresh air; Anne had even “instructed” her to never use “Mrs” on her, which was very odd for Rania, who was already very accustomed to formal etiquette.

Gabrielle, the second wife was a quiet person and Rania hadn’t yet talked to her enough as to make a good judgment on her character but from the outside, she struck her as a cool sort of beauty, an intellectual, frail and cunning type of lady that spent a lot of her day reading, practicing cooking, talking to Madina or the children. She leads the life of a wealthy lady, which was weird since for all intents and purposes she wasn’t.

She was but one leftover daughter of the head of a small fishing village at the edge of the world. How wealthy could she possibly have been to grow up with a golden spoon of that size?

Moving over to the last woman of the house and the first wife of Alden, Freesia; She was good, kind, diligent, and fun to be around. Her first meeting with her came just a scant few minutes after arriving, having heard Raanan’s cry she came running downstairs looking ready for a fight and despite her disheveled looks, messy bed hair, and graveyard skin complexion and looking like she had been drinking herself to sleep, her eyes radiated determination, she was completely ready to do whatever needed doing to protect her “son”?

Rania respected that part of her immediately.

“Miss Rania, are you okay? I could smell something burning.”

The worried voice from the other side of the door brought the princess back from her thoughts and into reality.

“Madina? I’m fine don’t worry I was just practicing my magic.”

“Oh? Really? Well, it’s okay then, these kids and their magic, please do try not to burn yourself up”!

“Don’t worry, I won’t! There’s nothing to worry about.”

She returned her thoughts to the pile of ashes and vile.

I’ll show them just who they are messing with!