Abandoned Princess [Old version]

Chapter 92

"This Master Jawn. . . Didn't you said he's like—. . . He's an old man right?" Lucas asked looking slightly perturbed.

"Ah yes, like a grandfather," Jiro said, so so innocent.

I looked at him in bleak and asked unsurely, "And you're alright kissing him?"

"Other than his lips really chapped and kissing him was like drowning in water, I don't mind kissing my master. It's part of the rule in the social queue and I don't want to defy the rules. After my master saved me, I guess, my habits in my past made want to please Master Jawn at some point. . ."

I think both Lucas and I had a momentary aneurysm or something. I could feel my throat dry up, feeling so disturbed.

"Thank the gods, you killed him."

With a baffled look Jiro gasped, "What!? Why would you say that, Sir Bismarck?

"Oh, did I said that out loud?" The captain asked glancing towards my spot.

I stared back at Lucas incredulously, an eyebrow slightly raised. "Does it matter?" I then turned to face Jiro and said, "What he said is true. The man might be your savior but he isn't a person who is worth to be praised by you."

Jiro's brows furrowed in confusion, trying to comprehend why Lucas and I seem to not like his dead master.

"What the princess is trying to say, the old man isn't nice. He lied to you in order to gain your loyalty and. . . to take advantage of you."

I climbed off the bed and pulled Jiro gently so he could sit.

"There never been a rule that says after being complimented you have to kiss the other."

"He. . . He manipulated me?" His eyes were wide and moist, lips were quivering that he bit the lower part. "I never was free."

Placing my hand over on his now wet cheeks I made him look at me. "What matters is you are free now, Jiro. Truly free. And I'll make sure you'll have your own happiness, never will you be in the dark, alone and cold." I gingerly grazed the pad of my thumbs on his skin wiping the warm tears. "Trust me on this."

"You're already under the princess's protection the moment she stepped in front of you risking her life yesterday," Lucas added patting both mine and Jiro's head with a smile. "By the way, you shouldn't do that again, princess, we almost killed you."

An hour later Jiro had retreated to his room and Lucas just finished brushing my hair with my eyes getting heavy.

"You know princess, you should stop fearing your father. He's not that bad than what people think," Lucas spoke suddenly as he tucks me on the bed that made me jolt in awake.

It took a few seconds to process what he said before I said a soft, "I know." My eyes fluttered as they close back again.

"He loves you."

By the time I opened my eyes the room was dark with flame had already blown from the candles and Lucas was gone.

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third pov

A week after they came back from the Bismarck's party Elaine had been a little bit different and few certain people noticed this. Worried about the reserved princess, who continues to keep her distance towards the people that surround her, they couldn't much do anything but to watch over her. Elaine was different from the other children in her age and they knew that. Peculiar in a way that her body language and how her eyes stare wasn't from a child.

The first princess took a deep breath ignoring the noise making way to her ears shattering her concentration. The chattering noise from two specific people she didn't want to be with. They joined her this afternoon when Magnolia saw her in the training field and decided to try it. Eliane was forced to teach her the basics just to make Magnolia leave her alone.

The fairly cool wind blowing came to a stop, Elaine then changed the trajectory of her ready arrow and removing her hold. A satisfying thwish came from the sound of the string after the release. Swiftly, she reached and pulled another arrow, nocking it on the bow, and changed her desire location in the target before releasing once more. Then another and another.

Air silently escaped between her delicate lips as she looks at the target that was roughly fifteen meters away from where she stood. She went to the target to take a closer look and also to pull the arrows.

"That was a close one sister!"

Elaine turned at the enthusiastic looking Magnolia. The girl was the same as her mother who was also there supporting her daughter with a smile. Rose and Elaine exchange greetings and went to their own business which the princess was somewhat grateful for.

She then looked back at the target where an arrow almost hit the center circle. A mere one-inch gap.

Unconsciously, she clicked her tongue.

"You can do it, sister! So don't let it get to you!" Magnolia said with an attempt of cheering the older before pulling her arrows that hit on the ground, still far from her target. "I will also do my best in order to surpass you."

A small frown appeared on her face with a thought, Surpass me?

Hitting the center of the target was never her goal in the first place but to aim at where the two colors of red and white meet, the lines were her target. It was what Edmund made her practice, an additional task, after she was able to hit the center in the twenty-meter distance. Her guts told her that next two years Edmund will make her practice shooting the target while riding a horse. Her frown deepened at the thought. The laziness inside her didn't like the outdoor activity.

The silver-haired girl didn't notice that she was watching Magnolia walked to her mother who gave a motherly hug while Elaine was lost in her own thoughts.

With a sigh, she decided to call it a day and left after taking all the arrow she used.

"Ah.. I should try that again," she mumbled.

Little did she knows that someone was watching her from afar. Someone who unknowingly to him misunderstood what he saw.

Edmund's heart squeezed seeing his daughter stared at the mother and daughter and walked away from the training ground with her usual expressionless face. His piercing gold eyes glanced over at Rose and Magnolia.

"Elaine," he whispered the child's name thinking that what if his wife was alive.

Will Elaine be a cheerful girl? A ball of sunshine? A daughter who always smiles?

But it didn't matter now. His beloved was dead. All he could do was face the present and change his and his daughter's destiny.

A destiny that made him decide to place his daughter at the Silver Palace, away from him, that he now regret.

A destiny where the first princess dies in his hands.

Edmund became a father at age of nineteen with a wife who was two years older than him. He was aware that he was a bad father but he tries, putting effort. And his efforts have become useless, it wasn't enough when it comes to Elaine. That girl ever since Rose and Magnolia arrived at the palace Elaine had become more reserved as if pulling herself away from her family.

Doing things alone as she puts herself in danger.

A week ago, anger beats him like poison in his blood. He was aware that anger is irrational. He should be relieved. But he couldn't help but be upset, to be too upset. Before he realized it he activated his magic frightening his daughter.

As the king turned to look for Elaine, Edmund wishes that his daughter to put her trust in him. He wanted her to know that he's there for her.

What he saw when he peaked inside her daughter's room was heart-shattering. As if his world was once again collapsing before his eyes.

A dagger pointed to her small beating heart.