Bon Voyage! [Ace x Reader x Law]

[𝖙𝖜𝖔]

Days had turned to months, and before you knew it, months had turned to years. And in those times, you had always enjoyed every seconds of being a part of the forest gang. However, actually being able to have fun was not the sole reason why you enjoyed spending time with them. Despite not being formally educated, you would say that these people know the current sociopolitical climates better than your privileged counterparts who could only regurgitated redacted version of your home island's history.

The boys, in particular, know a lot about what's going on beyond the island, having dreamt of becoming pirates for so long. You could not wrap your head around their ideals and longing for the sea but you definitely enjoyed listening to them rambling and spazzing on pirate stories, sea mythical creatures, legends of hidden treasures, and whatnot.

2 years then passed and your favourite chaperones slash moms (also your favourite cushion) finally sailed out to the sea they had always dreamt of. You couldn't believe that on such important as that day, you just had to have classes in the capital. As much as you would like to cut them short, you couldn't since your busy parents couldn't have picked you up from classes and thus had to ask your relatives, who still belong from the same House as your father, to pick you up along with your twin cousins.

Speaking of those devils, you were dreading the long journey spent next to Hanna, your female cousin twin, in the shared carriage. Too bad for her that her mother, Countess Anasthasia, adored the male in the twin pair and had told her to share the other carriage with you. You could only hope that she knew that the feelings were mutual. However, if you had to choose, Hanna was a lot bearable than her brother Hansen for so many reasons. Both of their attitudes sucked but Hanna never resorted to violence unlike her brother. With how he treated you and your group of friends, you were pretty sure that you were actually in his hitlist but the brute never laid his finger on you, most likely due to the fact that your father was still the Head of the House.

Ah but he did try to trip you this morning!––

"Hey," Hanna suddenly called you, breaking your train of thoughts and the thick silence between you two.

"Yeah?"

"Just because your father is the Head of the House, don't think too highly of yourself.." you were quite surprised with how she suddenly brought up the idea of your father as if she had been reading your thoughts on her brother.

"Where does this come from?" You calmly defended yourself.

"Don't pretend to be this two-goody little snowflake in front of the adults, I know you are being all touchy with the boys, flirting like a harlot," she retorted as she pushed you to the wall of the carriage which caught you off guard. At the same time, the thing she claimed was all loud and clear for you to hear and you couldn't believe that she actually said it. She must have a screw loose, you thought to yourself.

"Like I said. Where does this come from?" You dusted yourself as you fixed your sitting position, slightly wincing at your injured sides, silently hoping that you would not get any bruises.

"Fred. Christensen. Don't pretend like you don't understand what I mean!"

"Huh?" You wondered out loud at the name. Hanna scoffed at your confused expression.

"Huh?! So you don't remember the 'Ah I'm so clumsy. Catch me~' stunt you were trying to pull off this morning just in time when our campus prince showed up?" To be honest, you couldn't care less about the thing that Hanna always made a big deal of, so you truly did not want to waste any more time understanding what she actually meant. But what she brought up did remind you of Hansen's little prank you were just thinking about earlier. The jerk had actually tried to make you trip into the school fountain, and you would have been soaked throughout the day had it not been for a random passer-by who had managed to catch you just in time. Was that the Fred?

Just thinking about what these twins always tried to pull around you made your blood boil and the anger had distracted you from the thought of this so-called campus prince, so you couldn't help but scoff at Hanna's pompous allegation that you were clearly not interested in.

"For your information, it was dear cousin Hansen who decided it was just the nicest time to trip me, so spare me these shoutings and go do that to him instead."

"What!?"

Fortunately, just in time, you could see your mansion in the distance and so you quickly called out to the driver and had asked him to stop just nearby, half wanting to go on with your much more important agenda of the day, and half wanting to get away from Hanna as soon as possible.

But since it was not your usual drop-off point, Countess Anasthasia's carriage had to stop abruptly as well and you could see from her expression through the window in the other carriage that she did not like your overbearing request. You felt bad but you could only make a silent promise that you would not do it again in the future.

"We are already almost there, so what is it?" She peeked out through her window to ask you. Inside the carriage, you could see Hansen mirroring her annoyed expression as well.

"Ah, I apologise for abruptly requesting the carriage to stop. I figure since it is not so far anymore and the carriages would have a difficulty making their way in and out the hill that I spare them those efforts and walk back on my own," you said, bowing your back a little as a polite gesture.

The Countess could only sigh at your reply, but to tell the truth, it was not like the thought had never crossed her mind. Your aunt always hated how her brother dragged the status of their lineage by living outside the capital and spending his time to help out the slums, not to mention when he had decided to marry a mere peasant. But at the same time since her husband is only of low-class nobility, she had to suck it up and did him favour in return that the father of her children could make it as an official in the court.

Gods knew what had befallen onto House of Egret that the long glorified bloodline had now ended up outside the Holy Land of Mary Geoise, a small isolated kingdom in North Blue, nonetheless.

With that said, she obviously wouldn't pass the opportunity that the daughter of that cursed peasant decided to walk home on her own. The road to the manor was of cobble anyway. And if the little devil ever dared to use it to incriminate her, Anasthasia knew that she couldn't since her drivers would serve as her witnesses anyway.

"Okay, go on then. Would be great if you sound this concern to your father as well. Let me know before tonight if it is also okay to pick you up here from now on," your aunt quickly let you go, flicking her hand fan and diverting her eyes away when she made the additional requests.

"Noted. I thank Aunt for her graciousness," you curtsied as Countess Anasthasia fixed her sitting position in the carriage, before you immediately dashed off to the direction of the wall at the sound of the clacking horseshoes fading away behind you.