That night, Claire was given a bedroom to sleep in. It was a large bedroom, probably intended for Henry, but it was never used, so it was given to Claire as her own room. It had a large table in a corner, a mirror, and an antique wardrobe with words Claire did not know how to read.
There was a book on the table. Claire picked it up.
"The World below Hell, or above Heaven," read Claire. "That's a nice title!"
It was a large novel. To pass her time, Claire read the book.
"Half of my time, I was in heaven, healing myself so that I could fight the creatures below the flaming earth again. During those times, I wonder where the dark magic that stained me went to. Do they just disappear? I doubt so. In Mathematics, there are four classes of numbers: positive numbers, nullified numbers, negative numbers and imaginary numbers. If heaven represents positive numbers, the normal universe represents nullified numbers and hell represents negative numbers, then what represents imaginary numbers?"
The door of the room then creaked open. "Claire?"
"Hello, Harry!" Claire said while closing the book she was reading.
"What are you reading just now?"
"The book on the desk. It's nice," said Claire.
The book's gold lettering gleamed a bit.
"Hmmm... that book... Someone gave it to me when I was four. It's probably a story from Crepetown hundreds of years ago. Do you want me to give you spoilers?"
"Nope, I'm fine, thank you."
Harry picked up the book. "Do you know where the story came from?"
Claire looked at the author's name. "From the name of the author, it looks like it came from northeastern Shafterlands."
"Have you been there?" Harry asked again while pushing Claire onto the bed.
"Yes..." Claire said while yawning. "I'm very tired. Can you please let me sleep?"
"I'll be glad to."
Harry switched off the lights in the room and left.
*****
In the morning, Claire found herself hugging a cute and cuddly object. She sniffed it.
"This feels warm..."
She let go and found a toy creeper on the bed. Picking up the creeper, she went out of the room and turned right, thinking that the dining hall was on the right.
"Claire, breakfast's on the left," said Harry, suddenly appearing behind her in a club car. "Hop in."
Claire sat down beside Harry, who was driving the club car.
"Claire, remember what I said a few months back?"
"The flower in the forest?"
"Whenever you're in trouble, just go there."
***
Soon, the duo reached the dining hall, where breakfast was prepared. They sat down together and waited for the food to arrive.
It was quite a long wait. The King of Aquaria was no good at waking up early, so the chef did not know what to cook. Meanwhile, Harry introduced Claire to the Eleven Knights and chatted with them with an appalling informality.
"As you can see, Claire, they're called the Eleven Knights because there are eleven of them. By the way, I was the one who appointed most of them because Dad couldn't find eleven males with exemplary conduct."
"So... what is the gender ratio?"
"5 females and 6 males. The Union was unhappy with us at first, but I pointed out that the International Law said 'At any given time, a country must have 11 high ranking officers who are loyal to the King and his subordinates'. Note that there are no rules on gender."
"Huh. You're quite smart."
A knight spoke. "I grew up with Prince Harry as best friends, but he's still dumb enough to fall in love with another woman!"
"What are you talking about, Lucia!? You're at least 12 years older than me!"
Lucia let out a small laugh and said, "You're always funny, Your Highness."
A huge laughter went out from the room. After the laughter died down, the King came to the dining hall, accompanied by his two attendants.
The King cleared his throat and began addressing the rest.
"Ahem... Don't eat ham during dinner."
Everyone listened intendedly.
"Firstly, umm... Ham and bacon would be fine... And by the way, Claire..."
Claire jumped up a little. "Yes?"
"You do look a little like my... umm... how do I put this... Harry's mom when she was younger. You're just... cute!"
The King's ham and bacon arrived. After that, the chef came around and took orders from the rest and the King stopped talking.
The breakfast was very well suited for a king. There were lots of ingredients, even though the finished product is just ham, bacon and eggs. It had spices from the north, meat from the south and was cooked by someone from the sea. Having sources from so many places, the dish was sure to be delicious!
After breakfast, Claire decided to hang out with Harry as Harry told Claire the history of Aquaria.
"Once upon a time, there was a rebellion in Tynamides. Don't ask me why that country is called that and how it came to be in charge of the United Undersea Nations; I do not know such information. But anyways, a group of people overthrew the King and the Prince fled, together with some people who are for the King. Two years later, the Prince suddenly came back and a civil war happened. The prince's knights easily took back the country and those who survived the war had to flee east to where we are today. They started a small village among the coral reefs. As the water was shallower and warmer here, the knights cannot get into the village since the transport they use were large whales and sharks, which will easily alert the people on the surface.
"Over time, the villagers found out that it is important to have materials to sustain the village. A batch was deployed to survey the seaside towns in The Shafterlands. They came back and reported that fishing was very profitable, and as a result, many villagers became fishers.
"However, something was still amiss in Aquaira town. The technology was very primitive, and the fishers from the Shafterlands were still catching more fish that them. As a result, the small town started to lose out on the market... until..."
"Until what?" asked Claire.
"Check it out in the museum. I do not know how those guys found magnesium."
Claire rolled her eyes and went off without a word.
Lunch came fast, and went fast. In the afternoon, Claire went to visit the Aquaria National Museum, which was just two units away from the palace.
There were schoolchildren at the museum. Their mouths were never closed and their hands always wanted to touch something, making their teacher annoyed. However, when they spotted Claire, their formality level increased by a hundred times.
"Good afternoon, My Lady," they said while bowing.
"Thank you. But there's not a need to bow; please rise," Claire answered while blushing awkwardly.
The schoolchildren came back to their feet.
The teacher then said, "My Lady, these children were taught to be respectful to anybody of great power, like you. If you feel uncomfortable, you could always tell the media."
"I'm... not uncomfortable!" replied Claire.
"Ok then. Anyways, I would like to ask a question. Are you here to see the discovery of magnesium?"
"You can say that I am."
"Oh, I see. Would you like to join us then?"
Claire decided not to and continued on without any help.
________