ARIA

Chapter Twelve

Prince Noah was busy reading the reports he got from his assistants. He had not leave the palace for the whole week due to the case with the appearance of the black dragon. He wanted to leave the palace to meet Aria but the knights would always find him in action of leaving the palace and he would be sent back to do his works.

Knock... Knock..

Noah looked up to see his cousin leaning her back at the door. "Liliana." he said as he stood up. He was surprised to see his cousin in the palace.

He knew quite well that Liliana hated coming to the palace. Not because she hated them but she hated the bad memories she had there. That's why Noah who wanted to know something from Liliana, wanted to go to Liliana's mansion instead of having her in the palace. However, Noah's business at the palace were too many that he had to postpone the journey.

"What's with that sad face of yours?" Liliana chuckled. She had not seen his face for about two years already. They sent letters frequently but never met face-to-face for the past two years.

"Liliana.." he said as he quickly walked his way to hug Liliana. Of course he missed her. She's his best friend. "Are you okay?" he asked Liliana while still having her in his arms.

"I'm fine." she replied as she slowly patted Noah's back. Liliana had not move on from her past but she surely tried her best to keep her anger from burst out. It was the same place she killed her beloved father who was controlled by the man she hated the most.

"Now now." she released herself from the hug. "You're not a child anymore." Liliana chuckled.

Noah pouted but later smiled. "come take a sit." he signaled to his maids to bring tea for them. The maids bowed before leaving the room. "Have you met Father?" he asked as they sat down.

"I haven't meet His Majesty. I will meet him after this." Liliana then took a glance to Noah's desk. "You have a lot of works to do."

Noah turned his head to look at the paperworks on his desk. He sighed as the sight of it. "Yes, because of what happened last week, I couldn't go to the sword practice."

"I'm pretty sure your knights would love a whole week holiday from the practice." Liliana laughed.

"Hmmm I bet they do."

The maids then came in to bring the tea. Liliana smiled to the maids as one of the maids poured the tea for her. "Thank you." she said before turning her attention back to Noah. "How is your relationship with the lady of MacGregory?"

"She says words of rejects but her actions say the otherwise." Noah replied as he took a sip of his tea. As he put down the cup, his expression changed to a slight panic as if realisation just hit him hard. "Wait a minute!"

"Hmm.." Liliana's eyes locked with his. She saw his weird expression and knew quite well what he was thinking. She wanted to laugh but she held it in as she did not want her cousin to feel embarrassed.

"How do you know about my relationship with Aria?" His tone got higher.

"His Majesty told me about your relationship through some letters." Liliana replied. "You don't have to be so embarrassed about it. Love is hard at first." A playful smirk formed on her lips.

"She is just too hard to handle." Noah sighed. "I haven't even meet her sister to explain everything." He mumbled. He could imagine Riana's wrath when he could finally meet her. A man should not make a woman wait for him.

"About the letter I sent you last week." Noah sharply stared his cousin with curiosity. "Is there anything you haven't tell me?"

Liliana smiled.

"Why do you ask me that?"

"Are you avoiding my question?" Noah sensed that Liliana was hiding something important. "The news about the dragon." He stopped for awhile as he tried to read his cousin's expression but it was futile. Liliana was as if wearing a mask to cover her reaction. She was calm. "You knew about it."

"Yes, I heard it on my way here."

"I saw the dragon with my own eyes."

Liliana was quiet. She did not even try to continue the conversation. She needed to change the topic.

Noah sighed. He knew he would not be able get any information out of her simply by telling her that he met the dragon.

"It wasn't happy to see me." He continued. "It tried to attack me."

Liliana chuckled but her eyes were not looking at her cousin. She was avoiding him. "I heard you pointed a sword against the dragon. He was angry because of that."

But Liliana knew that was not the reason.

"Ohh. I'll be staying here until you marry her." Liliana tried to change the topic. "Make sure she feels the love she needs."

Noah noticed her sudden change of behaviour. He could see Liliana did not want to talk about the dragon. She was hiding the truth and did not want him to know everything about it.

"You're making me doubt about who I really am. Perhaps I'm not the reincarnated king." Noah mumbled by himself.

"What did you say?"

"I said I'm trying my best to win her heart." Noah replied.

"I don't see your best effort." Liliana said before she took her steps out of the room.

"Wha— Jeez, she always have everything in her way." Noah sat down and took a look at the paper about the case with the dragon. "Why is the dragon appear out of nowhere when he had not shown himself for about a hundred years now."

Liliana sighed as she was on her way out of the palace right after she met the King. "I don't think I can avoid him again if he asked about the dragon again." Liliana said to herself. If the dragon showed himself again to be hostile toward Noah again, Noah would know the truth.

"It's still to early for him to know."

"Welcome back, milady." one of the servant opened the door to the carriage. The duke who was waiting in the same carriage smiled at his wife as soon as he saw her.  Just as she was about to take a step into the carriage, she heard her name called by a man.

She took a step back and looked at the man who called for her. He was quite slim and shorter than her.

"Milady, I have something for you." The man took a step toward Liliana.

"Thank you— Wha— did you"  The knife met flesh, soft and pudgy, and made a satisfying squish as the tip of the blade sank deep enough to her stomach. She slowly fell down but when caught by her husband who was also shocked to see that happened in front of him. "You!" she said as she looked up to see the face of the man who stabbed him.

"Catch him!" said the duke who was still holding the weak Liliana in his arms.

"I finally know who that child is. You can't stop me." the man laughed before he disappeared into thin air with black magic.

"I need to—" Liliana could not continue her sentence as she lost her consciousness due to the loss of blood.

End of Chapter Twelve