Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: The Sorceress of Ashtown

The Gaunt Knight

Tomorrow did not, in fact, bring a brighter day.

When Caspian woke up that morning, he had a crick in his neck, probably from sleeping with his head tilted. His back was also sore, most likely due to sleeping on nothing but a set of flimsy sheets. Not to mention there was a strange weight pressing down on his chest, which made breathing a bit difficult.

Blinking as the haziness clouding his vision disappeared, Caspian tried to remember where he was. He stared up at the ceiling, a lovely red ceiling with golden designs, concentric circles and waves blending together in seamless harmony. Who in their right mind would bother creating such an intricate, not to mention expensive-looking ceiling... ah. That's right. He was sharing a compartment with Cassidy, Erica Angelo's maid.

He looked over at the cot, expecting to see Cassidy there. When he saw that she wasn't, he frowned, but shook the slight worry he felt off. She was probably already up. Didn't maids wake up at the crack of dawn so they could attend to their master or mistress? Something like that.

Seeing how his cabin mate wasn't around, Caspian decided that he should get up as well. Maybe he could take a shower, too. He probably smelled rank from all that fighting and sweating he'd done the other day.

Do trains even have showers?

Caspian tried to move, but found his movements restricted by something-he didn't know what-when he attempted to sit up. It must have been whatever was pressing against his chest. Now that he was a bit more awake, he could feel that it was a physical object and not one of the metaphorical variety, like a set of crushed lungs or something, which he supposed was good to know.

Looking down to see if he could ascertain the reason for his inability to move, Caspian was greeted to the sight of brown hair. Brown hair and a white nightdress. Brown hair and a white nightdress attached to a familiar girl who was currently using his body as a pillow.

He blinked once, twice, thrice, the time it took for his brain to fully register the sight and realize what it meant.

"What is going on here?! Why are you in my bed?!"

***

"I-I-I am terribly sorry!" Cassidy apologized, again, for what had to be the one-hundredth time.

Ever since what shall be forever known as the "Spirits be Damned, There's a Girl in my Bed!" incident in Caspian's mind, the young maid had been apologizing to him nearly non stop. It was honestly getting kind of annoying.

"Ha... it's fine." Caspian waved off her apologies. "I'm not mad or anything. It just really freaked me out. That's all."

"Oh." Cassidy squirmed, her already reddened cheeks growing several shades darker. "I-I see. W-well, I'm still―"

"If you apologize one more time, I'm going to shun you."

"..."

"That's better," Caspian smiled at Cassidy to show there were no hard feelings, "you really shouldn't feel the need to apologize so much, especially when I already said it's not a big deal."

It was a big deal. It was definitely a big deal. How many people woke up to a cute girl in their bed? Well, maybe a few, but most of those people were probably expecting it, and he most certainly had not expected it. Either way, he didn't want her to feel bad when it was clearly an accident.

"Um, okay," Cassidy mumbled, looking everywhere but at him. "Thank you, Mr. Sol ."

"You can just call me Caspian, if you want. I'm not really the 'Mr.' type."

"Okay, Mr. Sol―I-I mean Caspian."

Cassidy looked at him, smiling ever so slightly, and Caspian couldn't help but return it. Their moment of bonding might have continued for a while yet if the other member of their party hadn't become impatient.