The sound of light footsteps filled the tower as I ran up and down. Today, the princess had invited me to the ruby palace to have tea with her, Lucas was busy so he was not coming but I had to prepare myself visually for it. The tower had no maids, therefore I had to dress myself up and guess who woke up late today.
The 'busy' Lucas looked at me with an amused expression with his head resting on his hand while I struggled to comb my hair. I fumed at him angrily, "Do you have nothing to do?". He nodded his head a yes with a smug smile. I clicked my tongue and tied my hair up in a hurried ponytail. "Then why did you refuse the offer?", I asked as I fixed my dress a little, it was a cheap red dress with white and black flowers on it that Lucas had bought this morning. He replied, "Because I am Mr. Very Busy, remember?". So now he will use my own words against me huh? I sighed and quickly wiped my face a little.
"Alright then, I'll go", I said as I left the room, not waiting for his response. The ruby palace was just here, which nice since I was already ten minutes late. So this is how my first tea time with the princess will go.
I reached the palace and knocked at the front door. I was not sure if this was the front door, but it seemed as if it was. Soon, a young lady probably in her mid 20s opened the door. She was a maid, I figured out from the dress she was wearing. Her brown hair was done in a tidy bun and she had light blue eyes, a lean figure with light complexion. She gave me a confused look and said, "May I know your name, my lady?". I looked up at her and said, "Christine, I am princess' playmate, she had invited me here today". She suddenly recognised me and gave a kind smile gesturing to come inside saying, "Oh, welcome, the princess has been waiting for you". I smiled back at her and walked in.
The ruby palace wasn't much like the emerald palace, I can say because I had seen both. The ruby palace had more open spaces and less glass windows, the roof was comparatively lower and the walls were made of, what seemed, bricks, covered with wallpaper all around. There was also more wood used here than in the emerald palace. The surroundings had more trees and plants rather than decorations. From what I had heard, this is where the concubines of the emperor lived, but they had all been slaughtered in a wild massacre, although I do not know who caused that.
Soon, I met the princess, she was sitting in the shadow of a large tree, on a chair by a round table. In front of her, on the table, was a cup of tea with a cake. She was wearing a bright yellow checked dress and looked adorable in it. I went there, with the maid by my side, and when we reached near her, she beamed into a large smiled. The maid said, "Princess, Lady Christine is here to have tea with you! Enjoy your time, if anything would be needed, do call me". She replied, "Yes Lily, thank you!". The maid, so named Lily, smiled at her then left.
When, I was left alone with the princess, I held my dress on both sides and bowed down, wishing, "blessings and glory upon the star of the Obelian empire". She smiled and bowed her head a little too. I sat down on the chair facing her and looked down, there was a cup of tea kept, a strawberry cake by it's one side and some chocolate cookies on the other.
Well, when we began eating, it became kind of awkward, both of us didn't utter a word and stayed quite. Sometimes, I would just raise my head to look at her and would find her staring back at me and then we would both lower our heads again. I was nervous, I think, due to which no words came out of my mouth, she must have been too, I guess.
A while later we heard laughter coming from up the large tree we were sitting under. We both looked up to find none other than our dearest Lucas, sitting on the branch eating an apple. "Lucas?!", She said while he continued to laugh. "What kind of torturous tea party is this?", He said in between his laughs. Me and the princess frowned at him as he flew downwards. With a click of fingers he brought a chair for himself there, from god knows where and sat down on it picking up a plate of strawberry shortcake. "Not very polite of you to interrupt our tea time, Master Lucas", I hissed at him with a frown. Mostly, I was worried of what the princess will think of him, and if he gets any sort of punishment, I was too be in trouble too, sooner or later, as because he was the one to bring me here and keep me.
He looked at me and said in a lazy tone, "Well, not very polite of you to presume the princess would only invite you". My frowned deepened, here I cared for his life and there he was arguing against me. Well, surprisingly enough, the princess allowed to him to stay there. Also not to mention, he had absolutely no manners or so, he sipped so loudly and covered the whole chair in which he sat. But at least he kept the environment lively, the awkward silence had wore off, as me and Lucas bitterly argued and the princess laughed at us. The fact that Lucas will get punished by the princess was out of question, instead, she was quite fond of him and seemed nice friends.
When the evening came by, me and Lucas said our goodbyes to the princess and left. It was quite a surprising event, just when I had guessed our tea time was ruined, it actually became better. Also, Lucas had informed he was busy? Maybe he completed his work? Or maybe he had just put up an excuse before but came anyways. The third one was most probably the right one, he was not doing anything earlier that day anyways.
When we reached the tower, I was reminded of the princess' birthday being around the end of this week, I had to help in the preparations with the maids, at the same time manage a presentable dress and look. It was sure going to be a busy week. A ball was to be held, where the nobles from various kingdoms of the empire would be visiting. And even the head nobles of Obelia were invited.
I changed my clothing to another, more comfortable one and sat down in the chair with a book in my hand. I asked Lucas, "Hey, how about we go and buy something for the princess?". Lucas looked at me and said, "Sure but do you have money?". I scrunched up my nose saying, "Of course I don't! Don't you?". He slipped his hands in his pockets and said, "Nah, I don't. But not to worry. I can make some". I got up and kept the book on the table.
"Is that allowed?"
"Of course not"