"I wish to go back." Jisoo whispered with her eyes unfocused and just stared at the violent sky above her and the last thing she saw was the blade coming for her neck.
"Nooooo!!!" Jisoo screamed as she suddenly sat up from her bed, breathing heavily...
Jisoo saw her maid and Suga running towards her. After her conversation with the magician, she suddenly remembered that her companions might be worried by now and decided to go back. Jisoo looked apologetic after seeing Hyeri almost in tears.
"Milady! Don't ever do that again!" Hyeri whined.
"I'm sorry, Hyeri." Jisoo replied, giving an assuring pat to her maid.
"Milady. Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?" Suga asked in worry and gave Namjoon an annoyed look. "I didn't know that the lord magician is here."
Namjoon's brows creased in displease. "The lady was safe with me, sir knight. So stop with your crappy look or I'll—"
"That's enough." Jisoo quickly intervened. "We better go back to the palace." She added, turning towards her knight. "Thank you for your time, lord magician." Jisoo exclaimed to the magician who just shrugged before disappearing.
When the carriage had finally arrived by the palace gates, Jisoo noticed that there were imperial guards huddled around with their horses just on standby. As the carriage stopped, Jisoo quickly got off from the carriage, assisted by her knight.
"Milady!"
Jisoo looked up and saw the crown prince marching his way towards her. "Where have you been? I was just about to search for you."
Jisoo tilted her head to sneak a peak at the guards behind the prince. "You mean you almost sent a search party for me?" Jisoo smiled in amusement after seeing the embarrassed prince.
"Apologies." The prince cleared his throat. "I was a bit worried when the lady has not come in this late at night." He added, making Jisoo stopped from smiling.
"That. I am terribly sorry, your highness. I was mesmerized with the preparations at the night market that I forgot the time." Jisoo bowed.
Taehyung's worried face relaxed a little and gave Jisoo his warm smile. "That's alright. You should head back to your chambers and rest. Tomorrow I shall introduced to you your assigned ladies in waiting."
The following morning, Jisoo finally met the ladies in waiting that were assigned to assist her. It was customary that the royal women should have ladies in waiting and in preparation for this, the queen decided that it would be better to assign them to the future crown princess candidates.
"Hello lady Kimberhald. We are the assigned ladies in waiting. I am Jennie from the house of marquis Soloveign and I will be your chief handmaiden." The lady with brown hair introduced.
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"I'm Chaeyoung from house of Count Rosewood." The lady with strawberry blond hair stated.
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"Uh— hello, milady." The last lady with full blond hair started looking nervous. "My name's Lisa. I'm the daughter of Count Manoban. I am pleased to meet you, milady."
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"Hello everyone. I am happy to meet you." Jisoo smiled a little. "I know you ladies heard some nasty rumours about my personality.." Jisoo started to say and saw how the ladies looked worried. "But don't worry. I am a changed person, you see." She finally said and the three ladies all looked suspicious but tried to hide it. "Oh well. I guess I'll just have to show them in the future."
"Milady, we shall help you prepare for your schedule today." Jennie broke the awkward silence.
"Right. The volunteer works." Jisoo remembered.
It was also decided by the queen that the candidates should do volunteer works in order to show the people how gracious and kind hearted the future queen. And it was also became one of the basis to help choose the crown princess.
"Where are you volunteering, milady? Did the queen decided yet?" Hyeri asked as she helped combing Jisoo's hair.
Jisoo nodded. "I heard it's one of the shelters that the palace was supporting."
A shelter for mostly abandoned children ages 10 years old and below. It was one of the shelters that the palace has been supporting. It was well known that the current King is a kind and righteous king that made the whole people love him and the royal family. And even the nobles supports the King to the point that they would do anything in order to protect them from threats. Maybe it was one of the reasons that they didn't like the ducal family of Velvet since they were traitors that had threaten the life of the past ruler.
"We've arrived, milady." Suga informed from outside the carriage.
Jisoo was escorted out from the carriage and noticed another carriage stopping at the other side. She saw Irene coming down from from her carriage too. Jisoo tried to give her a warm smile but Irene didn't even smile back, pretending that she didn't saw her at all.
