I'm really really sorry for the long wait, guys. Life's been really hectic. In anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 6 ✿ Royally Stupid
The next morning, I woke up with my alarm clock screaming on my ears. I groaned in exasperation and slammed my hand over the end table beside my bed, completely—and accidentally—knocking the poor object off the table. As the crash resonated throughout the whole room, I cursed to myself and forced myself to sit up.
I rubbed my forehead and breathed in deeply as I realized that I’ll be facing a new day once more. “Smile!” I stretched my cheeks as I effortlessly tried to encourage myself to be positive, but thinking of the things that I’ll be confronting made my stomach feel queasy.
The things that happened until now were hard to believe. I yawned groggily before standing up from my bed. I then headed to the bathroom connected to my bedroom and took a bath to refresh myself. After that, I ventured downstairs and headed to the kitchen, only to find the prince working his way around the stove.
Dumbfounded, I stopped at my tracks and stood there with my mouth hanging open. My eyes were probably as wide as saucers, but that’s not completely the point. Why was the prince who just recovered from fever standing there . . . in front of the stove, stirring a pot of what apparently smells like a mouth-watering breakfast?
It took a whole minute for him to notice my presence. When he saw the stumped look on my face, he flashed a charming smile despite the bruises on his face and said, “I hope you don’t mind that I made myself home and decided to borrow your kitchen for a while.”
“No . . .” I answered. “I don’t really mind but . . . might I remind you, Your Highness. You still aren’t fully well enough.” I stepped into the kitchen and began pushing him out to the living room. “If you wanted some breakfast, you should’ve woke me up and asked me to prepare something for you.”
“But it’s just a simple bacon and egg soup. It’s not really a big deal.” He told me.
“It is a big deal. What if you pass out or something? More trouble!” I stomped my feet like a child as I forced him to sit down on the loveseat.
“But I . . . didn’t want to bother you for trivial things.”
“Seriously. It’ll be more bothersome if something bad happens to you. I don’t want to get my head cut off just because you died in my kitchen trying to get yourself something to eat. It makes me sound like a cruel lady.” I frowned at him as I pointed out the worst possible scenarios.
He laughed. “Your choice of words is amusing.”
“But it won’t be amusing if it really happens.”
“Alright, you win. I won’t cook anymore. But it’s one of my past times, so I couldn’t resist the thought.” He reasoned.
I then sighed and smacked my forehead. Without me knowing, I scolded a prince. Seriously, just doing this alone may send me to jail, nonetheless, kill me.
“I’m sorry.” I whispered. “If I offended you in anyway . . .”
“No, please. It’s my fault for making you worry. I know how much this is hard for you.” His face fell and a look of disappointment washed over his face.
It made me feel bad for some reason . . . because his expression looked lonely and sad. “Do you really like cooking that much?”
“Well . . . I did say I like doing it, and it’s the very least I can do to return a favor . . .”
“Okay. I give up!” I held my hands up in surrender and sighed. “You can continue cooking, but I’ll help you and you won’t do anything that will make your condition worse.”
His face lit up like a child was just given a jar of candies. The smile that curled on his lips made my heart skip a beat. It seemed that Lovely’s statement about him being a hot-shot was true. His smile was captivating.
I felt my cheeks burning so I turned around and headed back towards the kitchen. “Well, then! What are we waiting for? Let’s finish this so you can rest. We still need to do something important.”
“Then, I won’t take too much of your time.” I heard some shuffling behind me and a second after I faced the stove, the prince was then standing beside me.
His expression looked permanent. It was like the smile couldn’t be taken off of his face. If little things like this can make him happy, then he’s no different from a child.
The prince looked like he was enjoying himself while he mixed the ingredients on the pot. He babbled on about countless things of his palace life, and I shared equal things about mine as well. I figured with the talk we made that he was just an ordinary fellow. By the way his voice sounded, it seemed to me like he yearned for a company of someone who won’t treat him like he’s from the royal family, but wherever he goes, he’ll still be a prince. It would be hard not to treat him like one.
“My father died from assassination when I was just twelve. Because of that, my mother is now running the kingdom. But despite the heavy duties as a crowned ruler, she never lacked from being a good mother.” He said as he sprinkled something over the soup.
“I heard that news, too. But during that time, I was just like . . . ten or something? But if your father died, then I would be the opposite.”
“What happened?”
“My mother died from a car accident—right on the night of my eighteenth birthday. It made me think that she purposely left me when I stepped on adulthood since I was already old enough to handle myself.” I replied with a low voice as I turned my back to my guest to reach up at the cupboards. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that tall to reach the top shelf.
“Is that so? If so, accept my condolences.” His sincere voice rang on my ears before a foreign hand went up past mine and reached for the bowls I wanted to get for myself.
“Give me that,” I snatched the items out of his hand, insecure of my height. “I would’ve reached it myself . . . if I stood on something.”
He chuckled. “Shouldn’t I be getting a thank you instead?”
“Whatever. Thanks.”
“Well, anyway. What happened to your father, then?”
“Tch. I don’t wanna care about it, but he left us for someone younger and richer when I was just a kid. When my mother died, he tried asking me to live with him and his b*llsh*t family, for what? Ha! After all these years he shows up in a limousine on my mother’s funeral, pretending to be someone who cares when it actuality, he hadn’t really been there on the most important occasions in my life.” I grumbled angrily under my breath. I placed down the bowls on the counter and took out the spoons next.
“I see. So, is that the reason why you’re here?”
“Frankly speaking, yes. But that’s not all, really. This small house was bought by my mother. I just came to know she had it when the lawyer told me she owned a house here.”
“So that makes your mother a Bandarvian, then.”
It was stated in the law that one cannot have a land property in Bandarvia if he or she isn’t a citizen. So that must be the reason why he figured out my mother was a Bandarvian.
“Yup. No doubt about it.” I answered. “Is that soup ready yet? I’m kind of already getting hungry here.” I said and nodded towards the soup he was cooking.
“Just wait for it.” He scooped some of the soup on his ladle and brought it to his lips. He blew on it before sipping loudly. “Yes, this is just about good.”
I laughed. “I thought you weren’t supposed to drink soup that way. Didn’t you learn proper etiquette?”
“I did . . . but I’m in no mood to use it right now.”
“You’re one bad prince. Maybe that’s why you got yourself beaten up.”
“No way! That’s just too cruel.”
He and I expressed our amusements before he finally turned off the stove and asked me to pass over the bowls. I handed him what he needed and sat in front of the table, waiting for food to be served.
“Here we go!” He exclaimed and pushed a serving of his steaming, hot soup in front of me.
“Great.” I said. I tasted the soup and moaned in delight. “Wow. This is good.”
“I’m confident I can do more.”
“Ohoho,” I said. “Then maybe I should just make you my chef and let you cook every time.”
“But that stew you fed me yesterday tasted scrumptious as well.” He said.
“Oh, really? Well, sad to say it’s about the best I can do.”
“Not bad.” He gave me a laugh before proceeding to eat his own share. “This is awkward . . . but, I hadn’t really asked for your name.”
“Right, how weird.” I said. “You can call me Raine.”
“Well then, Raine. You can freely call me by my first name as well.”
“Sure, if that’s what you want . . . Edric, right?”
He smiled, nodding at me.
I stared at his face. He had a pair of matching, green eyes with tousled and slightly messy brown hair. I can’t help but think he looked like the model material. Strong, arched brows with high cheek bones, luscious, red lips . . . the contour of his face made him look really manly.
“You know, Raine . . . you’re stare is really making me uncomfortable.”
I snapped out of my daydreaming and looked away while I cleared my throat. I covered my face with my hand and drank the whole soup straight from the bowl. After that, I wiped my lips with the sleeve of my top and stood up.
“Alright, thanks for the wonderful meal, but we have some things we need to do.”
“Where are you going?”
I stopped at my tracks and raised a brow at him. “Don’t you want to go back to the palace already?”
He gazed silently straight to my eyes for a moment before speaking. “I just . . . want to stay like this a little longer. It . . . I don’t feel like going back just yet.”
My jaws dropped open in shock. “What? Are you kidding me?”
“I know there’s a lot going on back at the palace.” He admitted. “But for the first time, it feels like I’ve got an opportunity to live a normal life, even just for a moment.”
“Are you . . . running away? Seriously? But you have to go back to your home! Aren’t you forgetting that there are men who almost killed you! You’re only endangering yourself by staying here. You know very well that I can’t protect you, right?”
“They won’t be back any time soon. They’re probably expecting someone to find me and report what happened. It would take a while.” He said.
“You know . . . that’s not funny. You have a family back there—waiting for you to return. They’re worried sick about you, obviously! They even postponed the coronation because you went missing!”
“Maybe you’re right.” He paused and thought for a moment. “I think I can’t really be selfish. I am a prince after all.” He gave out a humorless laugh, which made him look entirely pitiful.
I sighed. For some reason . . . when he makes that face . . . “You . . . do you want to experience a commoner’s life that much?”
“I’m envious by the way they all lived their life in normalcy.” He told me. “I just wanted to know how their life everyday goes. What does it feel to be normal like every other people? How does it feel to walk among the crowd, without having someone run after you just because you’re someone from the royal family?”
“That’s totally weird, when a commoner envies the royal family for how they lived their life in luxury. You know that, right?”
“I know it but . . .”
“Argh!” I shoved my head onto the sofa and cried out in agitation. I continuously banged my head onto the soft cushion, pulling my hair from both directions before standing back up again looking like a crazy woman. I wobbled on my feet as I felt the room spinning around me. Edric held his hand out to steady me, but I pushed it away and told him I was okay.
I probably looked stupid, but who cares?!
Edric was staring at me as if I grew two heads. I stared back at him quietly before grunting in frustration. I then grabbed him by the arm and pushed him towards my bedroom upstairs.
“Raine?”
“If you want to blend in with the common people, we have to figure out a disguise that will work out—a disguise in which absolutely no one would recognize you!”
Well, so much for having my life back to normal. Just please tell me that I didn’t do the royally stupidest decision ever!