Was this a chance to break everything? Would I take this? If I accepted her offer, and broke the betrothal, what was the point of being here? What was the point of the royal decree? What was the point of the royal family inviting me to become the royal courtier? So the story of mine in the book would end. I would not die in the future neither my father. My family would be saved.
I looked at her, and said, "YE–" but suddenly I stopped in the middle of it, because when I looked at the Queen, I felt something fishy about it…Was it worth it for me to break the betrothal? Yet, it would save my life and my family's. Again, the agreement was created to prevent the royals from intervening in my family's territory and business…Did the Queen expect me to break the betrothal so they could intervene in my family territory?
"What’s the matter, Aurelia? Are you going to accept my offer or not?" The Queen asked.
I was silent for 5 seconds, looking down. After that, I lifted my face to her, and said "No, your majesty…This bethoral shall be continued…"
"If that’s your answer, surely the royal family will accommodate the best for you in the courtier and support your relationship."
"I’m thankful, your majesty.."
I left the room; everyone was waiting for me outside the room. We were escorted by the guards to leave the palace. Outside the palace, my carriage was waiting; the stuff above the carriage was gone. I immediately wanted to go inside the carriage, but the guard who got ordered by the queen told me that the surveillance of me started tomorrow. After that, I went inside the carriage, and the others—Adel, Cassius, and Valerie—hopped to the front of the carriage. We left the palace.
In the carriage, I was questioning my decision about the bethroral—was it right to maintain it?
…
The carriage was stopped, and the door was opened. We were in front of a big house. When I took a step to the ground, Adel said,
"Welcome home.."
"Is this my residence, when I am here?"
"Yes, how about my lady go inside.."
I walked toward the door. In front of the door, there were some stairs. While I was walking up some stairs, I heard something on the carriage. I looked behind me, and it was Cassius and Valerie; they were walking away, trying to leave. I saw they were leaving, so I turned around and started to chase them. I lifted my skirt and ran toward them.
I shouted, "WAIT!!"
Their heads turned around, and they stopped walking.
In front of them, I asked, "Where are you going?"
Cassius answered, "The job is done, so we will leave from here, trying to find another job.."
"I will rehire you, not as my escort, but as my guards; how about that?"
Valerie said with a high tone,"Listen here!! You have a capable person, or I can say a monster, behind you…" suddenly her voice became lower, "or inside of you.." and back to normal, "So why do you still need us to be around you? You are Aurelius; the people around you are more capable than us.."
I didn’t want them to leave me; I still needed them to survive.
"Surely people around me are capable and strong, but they are hired by my parents, not me, or trained by my parents…You two, are the first people that I hired, not my parents, I need you two to stay with me…and you two are the only outside persons, that I know; maybe you two have more common sense, knowledge, and hear rumors than people around me…So I need you, you can live inside the house—"
Suddenly, Adel behind me wanted to interrupt me, after she heard they could live inside the house.
I said to her, "It’s alright, they can live inside the house.", and turned my head back to them, "Not just you two can live inside the house; you two get the monthly wages too, and you two who evaluate the wages……Do you accept my offer??"
They looked at each other for a few seconds, without speaking; Cassius just stretched out his right hand toward me. Seeing that, I was so happy; they were not leaving me. I immediately shook his right hand.
While shaking his hand, I said, "About the wages, you can talk it out with Adel…She will arrange it for you.."
.
We were walking back to the front of the door. I opened the door, and after the door was opened, I was greeted by some servants in the house. One of the servants walked toward me, and introduced himself as the one in charge of the maintenance of the house. I counted all the servants in front of me, it was a total of eight servants. I told him about Cassius and Valerie, who would live inside the house, and arranged for them. He started to lead us around the house; he showed each of the parts of the house to me and the others. The last room he showed us was my room; it was on the second floor. The room was the same as my own room—the bed, the furniture—even though there was a big glass window beside the bed, all of my belongings were already in the room, which was why there was nothing above the carriage. After the tour, I told Adel I wanted to get some rest and knocked on the door when it was lunchtime. Everyone left the room.
I walked beside the bed and found the book sitting above the bedside table. I took the book and brought it to the desk. I sat at the desk, read it, and checked it. The first event of the book was 761NE this year; the month was the seventh month of the year; that was this month, but the day was still in two weeks. Today's date was 761 NE-07-12, so the book started at 761 NE-07-26. I started to read what would happen on that date from the book.
There would be a party in the ballroom, and the main character of the book would start trying to get closer to the crown prince because her status was low. She tried to get closer to the royal guard in the ballroom first; the royal guard’s name was Milo. Her action in the book was to be hapless to get attention from the royal guard, which made the crown prince see her hapless being and take care of her. In the book, there was no mention of the main character’s name. It was just mentioned as "I", not a name; every time her name was mentioned, I could not read it from the hallucination book. Later, people called her Paragon, not her own name. So I needed to know who this main character was. I kept reading it; what would have happened that day?
Some time passed by, and I finished reading it. Now, I needed to make a choice between letting what was written in the book happen or preventing it. If I chose to prevent it, I needed to find Milo, the royal guard, and, of course, the identity of the main character of the book needed to be known. It raised more questions when I thought about unraveling the identity of the main character. What I needed to do if I knew her name I knew the person who would kill me in the future and my family; was it necessary to bring them eye to eye for this one?
I took a deep breath and said, "*Sigh* I don’t want to take that path, just because she tried to get closer with my betrothed, even though the crown prince is closer wit…………..Wait a second, is her name or her family mentioned in the book?"
I checked page after page, and there was not a single page that mentioned Justina. The position of regent was kept vacant in the book until the king, who chose my father as regent at one point in the book, asked, So where did this family’s name come from? Even Lady Octavi never told me about the regent position in her tutor past these seven years; did the royals purposely keep the regent's position secret? And the book didn’t mention the goddess or the transmutation. Why was there a difference between the book and the real world? Was it because of my action and my consciousness of the book? So it was different. When I found out about the book, they were gone.
The most important one was, "who is Ainur Nala? And what the hell is the world she is living in?".
Somehow her existence was so important to Delia and Gena. They didn’t provide me with any information about her, except for showing me her appearance. They just wanted me to follow what the book wrote, but when I finally read the ending of the book, somehow they were gone without a word. Ainur Nala, the realm you lived in, was so strange to me. Did she live in a magical realm? Where the chandelier and candle were brighter, where words from the book were perfectly aligned with each other, where a dead object could emit a bright light...
Suddenly, I could hear the sound of doors knocking. I got up from the desk, walked toward the door, and opened it. It was Adel; she informed me that it was lunch time.
I looked around and asked, "where is the meal??"
Adek was confused and said, "Does my lady want to have your lunch in your room? Or you can come down to the dining hall to have lunch?"
"Ah!! Yes, this is not home anymore, and I don't need to eat my meal in my room again… " For seven years, I ate my meal in my room; surely it would become a habit for me, "Let's go down and have lunch… "
I left the room, and Adel and I went to the dining hall. I arrived there, and it felt empty. The wide and long table only had one chair; it was just for me. Surely it was the same as when I ate my meal in my room. Before I took a seat, I got an idea to fill the emptiness of the room. I looked at Adel and asked,
"Where are Cassius and Valerie??"
Adel answered, "I think they are in the backyard…. Is there anything you need from them?"
"I just want to invite them to have lunch with me here… "
"Why do you want to invite them?"
"It is empty here; it is just me who eats here…Will you bring them here? So we can have lunch together.."
"But—"
"There is neither a father nor a mother in here; surely you will obey my words, right, Adel?"
At once, Adel left the room and searched for them.
..
A few minutes passed, and Adel brought them in front of me while I was still standing beside my seat. They wore plain white clothes, and their faces were confused. Valerie asked me,
"Do you need something from us?"
I immediately looked at Adel; she avoided my gaze. From her question, I assumed Adel didn't tell them to have lunch together.
I said to them, "I don’t need anything from you…I just want to have lunch with you two.
Their faces were shocked…
"Have lunch with us?" Cassius asked.
"Yes…As you can see, there is only me beside the servants in this house; surely having a meal will be empty and lonely... Now you are staying in this house with me as my guards. I want to have lunch with you to fill the emptiness of this house. All of you can take a seat. Including you, Adel…"
Adel pointed to herself with her finger and said, "Am I too, my lady??"
"Yes….." Suddenly I realized a crucial thing and asked Adel, "I invite all of you to have lunch with me all of a sudden; will there be enough meals for all of you?"
Adel answered, "You don’t need to worry about that, the kitchen will have enough food, no matter what the situation is.."
"Great then…"
I took a seat in my seat, followed by Adel who took a seat beside me. After I was seated, Cassius and Valerie still stood up..
"What’s the matter between you two? Why do you not take a seat?" I asked them.
Valerie answered with a nervous tone, "About…that…is this…really…okay?? For us to sit with you and... have lunch with you..."
"It’s alright… Don't be nervous with me.
After hearing from me, Valerie kept asking and insisting.
Contrary, Cassius took a seat. It made Valerie irritated, and they started to exchange some arguments.
"What are you doing??"
"What am I doing? She ordered us to take a seat and have lunch with her; surely I obligate it.."
"Are you a fool or what?? Your status and our status are different from hers. Why do you casually just sit like that?"
"Because she asked for it. You are the fool one in here. The woman of the house asked you to take a seat, pleased to have a meal with her, and here you are standing and rejecting, you surely a fool…"
"YOU—"
Their arguments became obnoxious and loud.
I asked her for the last time, "Valerie, this is the last time. I will ask you, do you want to take a seat and have a meal with me or not? If not, you can excuse yourself from here.."
She immediately pulled the chair up and took a seat.
"The fool finally realized the merit.
"YOU—"
"Can you two please stop? And don’t argue at the table." I said to them..
After they became quiet… I did what my father did every time we had a meal on the table. I clapped… At once, the servants came out and brought the food. and we enjoyed our meal.
