"What?!" Mary exclaimed while placing a hand over her forehead in disbelief, "Why?! You need to choose wisely, Emily! First, why did you picked us? Most of us have very little experience and we're really young. Next, why Yukiko? She just tried to kill you yesterday!"
Emily sat calmly while she took a bite of a warm Belgian waffle, covered in fresh strawberries. She chewed it slowly, to savour the taste. "Man, it's so good."
"Well, it's fine isn't it? I believe in you guys." She shrugged nonchalantly.
"It's not fine!" Mary replied almost instantaneously, "We can get you killed! You should seriously consider once more, you can't just choose whoever you want. They will--"
Emily calmly interjected before Mary could finish, "I'm actually done considering. If they are going to be my comrades for life, step one for it to be successful is to able to work with them, right? If that's true, then I've already cleared that step. I'm sure I can work with you guys now or in the future. Besides, I'll rather work with you all than with some strangers."
Gah! There goes another awkward silent.
Emily broke the silent as she said, "...Well, if all you you don't rejected my offer, I guess it's decided then."
The queen let out a chuckle, "I guess that decides it."
Lavi broke into laughter, "Ah, you are sure interesting. I will be glad to serve you."
Ben joined in while smirking, "Same here. We can also be more than comrades, if you're willing to." After hearing that, the King cleared his throat loudly while he shot a stern look at Ben.
"Don't do that, you'll scare your daughter away." Ben teased jokingly which caused the King to narrow his eyes at him. That prompted him to take back his words. Nervous, he backed down, "Hey, it was just a joke. Calm down, Sir."
Mary gave up persuading Emily and huffed, "Alright, Emily... I guess I'll go tell Yukiko later."
"Okay, thanks M--"
"There's no need to." A voice spoke behind Emily, followed by the sound of footsteps. "I've heard everything."
She turned to see who it was.
It was Yukiko.
"Oh... Hey!" Emily greeted her with a hint of enthusiasm in her voice.
Yukiko's eyelids twitched before she yelled, "Don't you 'hey' me! What are you doing?! I tried to kill you! Are you pretending to be dumb or are you actually retarded?!"
Emily already expected this from her. "You're sure energetic!" She teased with a grin, "Well, you haven't reject my offer. So, I'll take that as a 'yes'."
For some reason, Emily enjoyed talking to Yukiko, to the point that she can openly tease her without feeling bad for doing so.
"That's not my point here!" Yukiko retorted loudly.
"It will be fun, trust me. It's always great to have your friends in the same group as you, right? So, just accept it, best friend!" Emily said the last two words energetically.
"I hate you." Yukiko snarled.
"Well, too bad. You're sticking with me until your death, buddy." Emily joked with a playful smile, "Come on, you should join us for breakfast."
The queen let out a giggle, "You two already seem like best friends. I guess that's what the say 'today's enemies are tomorrow's allies'."
"I know right!" Emily agreed while Yukiko replied with a droll look on her face, "No way."
Yukiko unwillingly sat down with them for breakfast. Her parents asked her about some more stuff to catch up with her and to get to know her better.
Everything was all good, until her mom asked, "So, do you have a lover of some sort back on Earth?"
Emily almost choked on her tea when she heard that, "W-what? No." she flustered.
Her mom nodded to herself, "I see." She paused for a moment before she shot her with another question, "So, what kind of guys do you like? I should probably set a match up sometime soon."
"Why? I'm only sixteen." She tried her best to keep her composure, but it was difficult when her mom decided to talk about these topics.
"Oh, I know. However, here in Fiore, it's normal for nobles to be engaged at this age. It's always better to find a partner as soon as possible, so you can rule this place in the future, followed by your offsprings and then your grandchildren..." The queen just went on and on, before returning her glaze back to her and questioned, "So, what do you look out for in a guy?"
"Um... I don't think I want to find a partner right now." Emily replied while shaking her head.
"Well, I saw Beck carrying Emily out of his room early in the morning." Yukiko spoke out of the blue. "I've asked the servants and they said that she entered his room around midnight and both of them were inside till sunrise."
Everyone's jaws almost dropped after hearing that, except for Emily. She had no idea what was so shocking about that.
Yes, it's weird for opposite genders to be in a room together for such a long period of time. But, why did Yukiko bring this up? They did nothing. Also, everyone probably knew what was going on, besides herself.
"Wow, little Brother! I didn't know you've already made first move." Ben said while giving Beck a pat on the shoulder.
"What first move?" Emily asked feeling increasingly puzzled. "We didn't do anything, I just help him with his fever."
"It's a misunderstanding, she came in because she was concerned." Beck supported Emily, "We had no intention of doing anything at all."
"That might be true, but rules are rules. You can't change them." Yukiko debated while hiding a grin.
"What rules?" Emily asked for the second time, "I don't get what's going on. I know it's weird but I don't think it's significant enough to bring this up. Especially since, both of us did nothing."
"Oh, you actually did something without knowing anything." Yukiko smiled 'innocently', before reciting, "This only applies to nobles, if both nobles of opposite gender were to be in a room alone after midnight for more than four hours, he and she will be declared as engaged."
"WHAT?! No. Freaking. Way."
At this moment, she knew what was going on. "Is this a joke, Yukiko? I know you hate me and all, but this is something serious." She asked while laughing uneasily.
"Yeah, this is something serious. That's why I'm not joking." She replied while keeping that fake innocent smile of hers plastered across her face.
"Oh." Emily tried to processed it all. Once she did, she immediately defended herself, "We seriously didn't do anything!"
"Well, you don't have to do anything for this rule to be applied." Yukiko rebutted.
Ethan shot an disgusting look to Ben, "I mean, compared to Ben, Beck seem to be a pretty good choice."
The queen nodded, "Beck is a pretty decent gentleman. Well, I guess it has been decided. What do you think, Anderson?"
The King had a serious look on his face, but it soon softened as he looked over to Beck, "Beck, take good care of my Daughter."
"Wait, I can't just be with him jut like that! We barely even know each other. Besides, It's the 21st century we don't set up this kind of marriage." Emily protested.
"Well, that is just too bad. I know it's the 21st century back on Earth, but you know, cultures still run here. So, congrats." Yukiko shot back while having a slight grin hanging at the side of her mouth, as if she's enjoying whatever she done, "Also, you don't have to worry, feelings can be developed as time passes."
"That's true." The queen followed up, "I guess this is it. Don't worry, we'll prepare everything else for you, okay?"
"WHAT?! NO WAY."