"Sora! We can't just run away from the crown prince!?" Arein exclaimed.
"Who gives a shit! He can go flip himself!"
"Sora! I'm going to die!" Arjen wasn't kidding, he could feel his legs giving up.
"I'll deal with that later!" Sora ignoring her siblings, dragged them both back too their room, right in front of the door.
Arien and Arjen fell too their knees and started to gasp for air, panting and catching their breath again. Sora looked at her siblings and snicked, "Aren't you guys the one with the most stamina? Why you two panting already."
"Well maybe is someone didn't pull us out of a nerve racking situation, we wouldn't be gasping for air!" You could tell the sarcasm in Arjen's tone.
"...the crown prince isn't following us?" Arein looked behind but there was no one.
"Shit! We're screwed!!!" Arjen cussing was something new, "We cursed the imperial family in front of the crown prince...!"
"It's fine" Arjen, who was panicking, looked at his sister who was just shrugging it all off. "I've done worse, and I'm still here. See!"
"Sora! This is serious" Arjen just couldn't get used to how chill Sora was every time they were going to die.
"Don't worry Arjen" Arein held onto her brothers hand, clenching it tightly. "We did nothing wrong...maybe Sora did something wrong, but still."
"Hey-!"
Sora was going to argue back that she was the one in the right, but a voice cut her off, "What do you mean by, 'we did nothing wrong'?"
"..?!" The only person that spoke in a tone like that...! Ishina!?
Ishina looked like she was going to murder someone, "Your highnesses should be resting peacefully in your bedroom. So, what's going on here?"
"Ah...umm...dunno...?" Arein fumbled out nothing.
***
"How did you leave?" Ishina looked at the three siblings, Arein and Arjen fiddled with their nightgown. Then there was Sora, who sat there on the couch, giving the servants an eerie smile.
Arein glanced up at Ishina and mumbled, "How...?"
"We just walked out..." Arjen added, he clutched tighter on his nightgown
Ishina sighed, shaking her head. She looked over too Sora, she just shrugged, "We really just walked out, you guys just disappeared."
"Haa...Yes, princess" Ishina dead panned, she couldn't really scold the princess. "Prepare a bath for their highnesses" Ishina ordered.
"Yes lady Ishina."
"This is the second time, that your highnesses disappeared. We made sure to conform that the three of you were asleep, and the servants were outside the door. But then you suddenly vanished."
'What is Ishina talking about? We looked outside, there was no one'
Arein thought. "But weren't the servants the one's who disappeared."
When Arein said her thought out loud, Ishina looked at her with a sharp gaze. "Please do not hide anything and just tell me."
"We aren't hiding anything-!"
"Arein"
"...Sora?"
Everyone's attention went to Sora who was still just chilling on the couch. Sora played around with the needle she had leftover, "Ishina, I must say that, we are not hiding anything. But if we did just vanish out of thin air, making you servants worry, tell me. I'll see what's going on, cause indeed that there was no one outside" the sudden change of maturity coming from Sora shocked Arein and Arjen, just a bit.
'Didn't Sora just nearly get our head killed...huh?'
"I see" Ishina lowered her head, "I shall inform you when we do. But we must begin your daily lessons, please get bathed and get ready."
"Already!?"
"We haven't even eaten breakfast..." Arjen rubbed his stomach.
"Alright" Sora willingly agreed. Sora doesn't really mind the classes, she just roast all the teachers anyway.
"It's clearly, too early for the kids too start studying" A cold monotone voice echoed throughout the room.
Arein, Arjen and Ishina turned their head's to where the voice came from, being shocked by who was there. Sora also took a peek up from polishing her needle, seeing who it was, she just shrugged and ignored.
The crown prince!!!
Ishina immediately bowed down to the crown prince, "Greetings to his imperial highness, the crown prince."
"W-when did he enter!"
"He ended up chasing us anyway!"
Arein and Arjen started to shake, they were thinking all about how the crown prince was going to kill them.
"We cursed the imperial family in front of the future emperor...we're doomed!"
"Do you think he'll only hit us once...?"
Sora sighed after hearing her siblings thoughts, "Calm your arses down, he won't do anything."
"How do you know that!?" Both Arein and Arjen exclaimed.
"Cause-" But before Sora could say anything, the crown prince kneeled in front of Arein. "Welp, does that answer the question."
Arein didn't belive her sister one bit, she expected the crown prince to hit her or something, but he just extended his hand out. "..This" he was holding the shawl that Arein dropped.
Arein slowly reached out to grab the shawl, once she did, she did some sniffing. "Hey Arjen, this smells really nice...!"
While Arein was checking out her shawl, she suddenly saw the crown prince's hand hover over her head. Instinct kicked in, and she lowered her head in a defensive position. Arein expected the crown prince to finally show his true colors, hitting her. But instead, she felt a warm hand on her head, "Ah..?"
Arein opened her eyes, she was met with the crown prince patting her head...wait what? The crown prince also patted Arjen's head next. After that, he looked up, facing Sora, who was still polishing her needle.
"Hah?" Sora seemed to get what signals the crown prince was sending through eye contact. "No."
The crown prince looked away, Sora saw the crown prince suddenly have a sad puppy look. 'What in the actual heck?'
"Ishina" The crown prince got his composure back.
"Yes your imperial highness" Arjen looked at Ishina, observing how she bowed...was it just him, or does Ishina bow lower to his sister...?
"Give me their lesson schedule" the crown prince ordered.
"Yes" Ishina walked away, bring back the schedule.
When the crown prince red the paper, his face scrunched up. "Even is father ordered you to manage everything for them..." he clenched the paper, "Are you insane, Ishina?"
Sora, who was ignoring the crown prince, since she was too busy doing other things. She didn't want to bother talking too the guy, but when he said that line, the word insane caught Sora's attention. Raising her head up from the needle, Sora had her ears listening.
The crown prince scrunched the paper, he looked at Ishina, releasing his bloodlust. Sora caught onto what the crown prince was doing, and quickly set up a barrier over Arein and Arjen. She placed the needle in a pocket, then walked over to where Arein and Arjen were standing.
"Sora...what is the crown prince doing? The atmosphere changed" Arein asked.
"Just let him be. Arjen, hand"
"Huh?...Oh" Arjen opened his palm for his sister to inspect. Sora used this time too check Arjen's wound, not paying much attention too what was going on outside the barrier, but she still was listening.
"What's with the ridiculous amount of studying? Are you planing to overwhelm the children" Arein and Arjen looked outside, but they couldn't hear a thing. It was like what Sora did when they were behind the tree, they could see the crown prince's mouth moving, but they could hear anything.
Sora felt a small smile creep up on her face, a snicker. "Arjen, tell me when it hurts" Sora squeezed some droplets of blue liquid onto Arjen's wound, he flinched a bit, making Sora look up. "You good?"
"Yeah...it just stings a bit."
"...done!" Sora released Arjen's hand, letting him check if the wound. Arjen looked at his hand, moving it a bit, the wound no longer hurted, nor was their any blood.
"Cool..!" Arjen looked at his sister with stars in his eyes. "Don't you usually use healing magic? What did you do?"
Sora huffed, placing her hand on her chest, "Another amazing experiment I created! I'm just too cool."
"Don't get over yourself Sora" Arein lightly smacked Sora's head, "Remember what happened last time!"
"Yeah, yeah" Sora rolled her eyes, making her attention go back to the outside, now that Arjen's wound was delt with. Though Arein and Arjen couldn't hear what was happening. Sora heard everything, very clearly. She was the one who set the barrier up.
"I will not repeat myself, reduce the children's studies by half" the crown prince spoke in a serious manor.
"My apologies your imperial highness" Ishina bowed lower to the crown prince, "I can not follow your orders."
The crown prince was taken back by how Ishina denied his order, "What?"
"Pfft" Sora couldn't hold in her laughter, she was using her arm to cover her mouth. Arein and Arjen looked at their sister in question.
"It was his majesty who placed me in charge of their education. I can not disobey his majesty's order" when Ishina said those words, the other servants in the room all started to shack in fear, they couldn't believe that a mear maid defied the crown prince's order.
While the servants were over reacting at Ishina's boldness, Sora had her respect for Ishina raise. In Sora's eyes, Ishina held her place even in front of the crown prince, that was earning her respect points from Sora. Meanwhile, the other servants where just being pussys.
Ishina will always be just Ishina, even in front of someone with much higher status. But Ishina lowered her head to Sora, without every questioning anything...maybe it's because Sora threatened her life when they first met?...
Nah. That's not possible. Ishina just really respects Sora, even over the crown prince. Yeah.
"...you cannot obey my order's because of father?" The crown prince furrowed his eyebrow's.
"That is the rule, your imperial highness"
"There is no option then" the crown prince let out a sigh. When he did, Sora got rid of the barrier, since it looked like the conversation was over.
"I understand, Ishina"
Now, Arein and Arjen could hear the crown prince's voice, and too them it seemed the atmosphere went back to normal. But hen, the crown prince glared down at the twins.
"If you need anything, let me know. You can always visit my place" and like that, the crown prince walked away. But he stopped in his tracks, looking back at his younger siblings. More precisely, Sora. "If you had time, I would like for us to have some tea."
"Got it crown prince guy!" Sora said, she knew that the last message was directed towards her.
Now the crown prince has finally left, for real this time, Arein and Arjen could let out the breath they held in for all this time.
"What was that?"
Arjen stood there beside his sister's, looking down at his palm. "...Who knows."
"Well what I know, you guys no longer need to work your arses of" Sora said.
***
Knock
Knock
"Enter"
As followed, the crown prince opened the door, there in the middle of the room sat the emperor. He was filing through a stack of paper work, he looked up from his desk to look at the crown prince, who handed him a pice of paper.
"This is the children's schedule, father. I think this is too much work for them, they are only five."
"Is that so. I heard that they were doing just fine with the studies" the emperor says, he checks the schedule given to him.
"That is indeed true, but that's only for my youngest sister. Arein and Arjen seem to lack the intelligence that their younger sister shines in" Lloyd, the crown prince says.
The emperor hums, "So all the praise and achievements are only directed towards the youngest princess?" he askes.
"...yes" Lloyd was hesitant to believe the word going around the servant's, that the youngest princess was excelling in her studies. Even excelling to the extent to not have to pay attention to classes and still ace everything.
Mocking, humiliating and even hurting the teachers was a daily thing for the princess. There were constant messages to change and hire new teachers.
Lloyd would just shake these rumours off, but when he really met the princess, the rumours were no longer just rumours. His first meeting with her was...quite something.
"So this is what's happening...I will go there my self"
"Thank you, father" Lloyd bowed to the emperor, leaving the room.
Leaving the emperor alone in the room to think. Eric sat there, reviewing his thoughts.
Tap...
Tap...
Tap.
"Haa. What a handful...Aries, you do surprise me"
[]
SO
An early update! Cause why not, I have too much time on my hands✌
Fun Fact!: The name Sora was deliberately chosen! Sora in Korean means; Conch shell.
Why Conch shell?🤔
You'll just have to find out later😉
ᴴⁱⁿᵗ; ᶠᵒʳᵉˢʰᵃᵈᵒʷⁱⁿᵍ