This Charming Game

⚜️~ Part Four~⚜️

(A/N: Sorry for the late upload, the next chapter is going to be a long one. If you're reading and enjoying please let me know! I hope you guys will start to have favourite of the princesses!)

The other girls in that room were not wolves or monsters. But the room was not friendly by any stretch. High crystal chandeliers cast their warm glow on two young women about my age. Servants stood silently against the walls, but the table that stretched the length was still more than half empty. One showed me a seat from the end of the table, however a girl in yellow caught my eye. Her red hair was wildly curly but chopped short and unevenly around a round face set with a fierce scowl. She was no wolf, but I felt she could eat my heart out all the same. Her puckered face screamed out her hatred, and I dropped my eyes to the ground as I took my seat.

At my left sat a girl in sea green silks. The colour was not far from the royal seal and the draping of the dress hugged close to her body, highlighting the deep brown of her skin beautifully. Her long curling hair was left hanging loose and threaded with red flowers.

She wasn't ugly with rage, instead as I eased my dress down, she smiled at me winningly. A servant rushed over to pour me a glass of pale wine;

"Hallo" she said in a thick lilting accent, "my name is Asta, how may I address you."

She turned to the thin man who had been standing behind her for reassurance, I had assumed him a guard or taster at first but he inclined his head to her and over Asta's shoulder he introduced himself as her translator, Asta could not speak fluent Mira.

Despite the nervous churning in my stomach that a whip of the juicy wine couldn't ease, I found myself smiling back. There was something genuine and enchanting in Asta's wide dark eyes and open face.

"My name is Ruemielle," I told her, inkling my head, "but I have no title to be addressed by, my father was a merchant who owned ships and my mother was a dressmaker," I amended, aware of how low my status seemed when said out loud. I may have looked the part but I was no princess. "What about you?"

Asta said something to her translator in a soft flowing tongue, "Her mother was a priestess for the ocean." He said in a clipped voice, "her father is the king of her island. Making Asta the princess of Atlaneasa."

My heart leaped, though whether it was a swan dive or a flight I wasn't sure. Cheeks flushing i made my attempt at a courtesy, dipping low into the table

"your majesty!" I stammered, but my attempt at pageantry only got a delicate laugh from the island princess.

"Do not worry," she said, "my family does not care much for titles, what do we have to rule; the tides? The sun? No, only our people. And we are people too."

The translator's lips twitched with Lei's words but before I could pay it mind the doors opened again without fanfare and in stepped a familiar face in pale lavender.

Gone were the colours of the servants for Penny, the warmth of the purple brought a life to her face and made her long blonde braid almost glow. Though the cut of the dress was very childlike and emphasised her diminutive features. When she spotted me she lit up, her wide smile giving her deep doll-like dimples. Following a servant she sat opposite me, and beside the scowling girl in yellow, but Penny bounced in her seat like it was the greatest thing in the world.

"Isn't this exciting!" She loudly whispered across the table at me as her glass was filled.

"I'm so sorry," I found myself blurting, as a thousand thoughts hit me at once; "yesterday I thought you were a servant, I mean you knew everything so well, are you secretly a princess as well?"

Penny laughed raucously, drawing a sharp huff from the girl beside her, who had no measure to introduce herself.

"I'm not a princess," Penny continued to laugh, "I've just been here for five months now, ever since the prince rescued me, I can't believe that nobody like me could get the chance to marry a man like him!"