chapter ix. secrets

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"Me?" you ask her almost teasingly, while turning your attention to the sweet delicacies you have in front of you. You hide your smile when you can almost see Nanny Abigail shooting a glare at you as she takes a drink.

You wait until she lowers her cup of tea to see her pressing her lips to a grin as she softly scoffs at your feign ignorance. "Who else would I be talking about"—she squints her eyes at you—"Your Highness?"

You give her a smile in return. It isn't often that you can joke around with your guardian this easily, so it pleases you when it happens. "Oh, you're right. How silly of me," you say this with a chuckle. An expression that she would often comment as un-ladylike, though she rarely does ever scold you for it when you do it while you are spending time with her in her private quarters like this.

As you carefully take a sip of your tea, you wonder to yourself just how you are going to respond to her question.

Nanny Abigail has always been perceptive. Even when she is not looking, she would still be able to see what is happening around her. So it shouldn't come to your surprise if she has already noticed about your afternoon exploits. About your recent pastime activities and your newfound interest with the rows and rows of doors that you get to find in the long hallways within the home castle.

It isn't like you had done a good job hiding it, after all. With how often you have managed to slip away right after tutoring hours had ended and nearly always rushed to make your leave in the late afternoon once you were done with your royal duties, anyone would have started questioning what you have been up to.

Sometimes, you would find yourself wondering if she may have known anything about these magic doors, or that perhaps she would know about the magic behind those portals.

But she appears quite nonchalant about your secret adventures as she brings it up. There is not a sight of the familiar pointed look nor the accusing tone in her assumptions. All you can sense coming from her is a deep curiosity that makes you wonder if she truly was just wondering about your past afternoon activities instead of prying to know where you have been disappearing to.

Your father's words ring back to you right at that moment, reminding you about your duty to keep the magic behind those doors as a part of your family's secret. After experiencing and witnessing the magic for yourself, you are beginning to feel a sense of obligation to protect it of behalf of your father and the royal family.

While Nanny Abigail has seemed unfazed with all the peculiarity that exists here in the Stargrave Castle, you still have no clue just how much about your father's magic that she may have any knowledge of. So you quickly make a decision to keep silent about it, keeping your questions to yourself and refraining yourself from mentioning about the magic doors to her.

Not until you know for sure that she is to be trusted with your family's secret.

"I do try my best to keep busy. This is a new place, and it makes me feel a bit anxious to be here without His Majesty being around. I feel—" you stop to make a grand gesture of glancing around. Your eyes fall on the stone walls surrounding the palace's ground which is visible from this little balcony, and a wistful feeling overcomes you. "I still feel a bit out of place, to be honest."

You turn back to exchange looks with your guardian who has been listening to you closely and give her a reassuring smile. "I figured that I would try to learn more about the castle by getting around and explore the territory as much as I can while I have the chance to."

And explore the castle you did.

Every single day, from that late afternoon until right before nightfall, you would spend your time travelling across the home castle. Not only have you been venturing through the hallways where the magic doors are located, or the special rooms that your father had given you access to, but you have also gone through the other parts of the castle that you would have never paid attention to. Sometimes, you would have Lord Gordan joining you to act as a guide, guarding and showing you around the areas within the palace's grounds while making sure that you wouldn't get lost.

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