All that sighing won't make that text any easier. You know that, yer grace?"
She puffs her cheeks and looks up from the thick, boring tome detailing the history of the country to the bright blue eyes of her teacher. "Sorry, Professor. I've got other things on my mind than the economic aftershocks of the battle of Kamino 157 years ago."
"158," the man says, lazily leaning back against his seat. "And what's with this professor shit? I told you to just call me Dabi, right?"
She peers at him with mild scorn. He isn't dressed in his proper scholar robes like he's supposed to. Instead he's wearing a slightly tattered shirt and trousers, showing off the patchwork of burn marks on his skin. His dark hair isn't even brushed today. Anyone would call him a vagrant first and the princess' personal educator last. "I'm supposed to call you that. Or Lord Dabi. If Yaomomo sees us like this, she's going to have another fit about us being improper and unbecoming vassals."
"I'm not a proper lord. I'm just some homeless kid your parents took pity on and adopted. So I don't count." He shrugs. "You ain't thinkin' about Yaoyorozu, though. You're thinkin' about that prissy brat from Kanagawa you're gettin' engaged to next week."
She groans and hits her forehead against the musty volume. "Why did you have to remind me? I'm tryin' to forget about my impending doom, you know?"
"Gotta face reality sooner or later, brat," Dabi says with a lazy smirk. "He ain't that bad? I mean, he isn't ugly. I dunno why you're so dramatic over this."
She scoffs. "I... just don't like him, okay? And I don't like that I'm gettin' married just for the money!" She almost tells him of Monoma's true nature and catches herself on time. Might not be a good idea to run her mouth off while their engagement isn't proclaimed far and wide yet. "Gosh, how am I gonna get out of this? I really don't wanna marry him!"
Dabi hums. "You know, there's a way for you to get outta this--"
"What is it!" Her head snaps up so fast it makes a sound. Her teacher chuckles.
"Solve the kingdom's debt and crime problem before the week is over."
She groans and lets her head drop on the textbook again. "Haha, very funny. Like a naive little brat like me, who isn't even allowed to go out unless I'm heavily guarded by my private army, can figure out how to do that..."
The scarred man chuckles and stares at her with interest. "You know I don't literally mean that you have to solve this shit in a week. I'm just saying, if you start to figure out how to save the country without borrowing Kanagawa's gold, then you don't need to marry that pretty blonde bastard anymore, right? You can take over, make that nerdy broccoli kid your king, become the Dowager Empress until you're a hundred and one."
She blushes furiously at that. But also stares down on her hands, unconfident. "That would be nice... but I don't even understand what's going on outside the castle walls."
Prince Neito had told her about the drugs, and Shizuoka. How much of that was true?
"Then I guess... you gotta go outside the castle walls...?" Dabi says slowly.
She huffs. "I just told you that it's not simple, my Lord. There's no way that I can explore freely without the Princessguard hovering about me--"
"Then you sneak out. Duh, " Dabi says with a snort. When she makes a face, his eyes dart to the closed door, and back to her again. "Your castle ain't exactly the most secure place on earth, you know. There are other ways out of the castle if you know where to look."
The look on his face compels her to whisper her reply. "... are you... you mean, you're just going to--"
"Mhm." He tears a bit of their arithmetic exercises and begins to draw a simplistic map of the castle gates and his secret exits on it. It takes him only a short moment before he's done and shoves this in her hands. "I didn't tell you anything. But if you want a way out, then... that's a way out."
