Prince Ignis had a strange dream yesterday. It was a dream where he saw Anna, that insolent maid, did a short sequence before jumping to the deep pond near the pavilion. Anna then emerged as a beautiful black swan that swam around the pond gracefully.
She turned long neck at Ignis and said, "Your highness, why are you standing there dumbfounded? You are the one who told me to come to you, and I did."
Anna swam to the edge of the pond and walked towards the prince. Prince Ignis looked down, astonished with Anna, who had turned into a black swan. "Are you… really that insolent maid?"
"Don't call me insolent maid!" the black swan flapped her wings and bit Prince Ignis' leg. "You are the one who said you'd rather marry a black swan rather than those annoying noblewomen. Now you should take responsibility for your words and marry me!"
"H—How could I marry a maid!" Prince Ignis denied. "I am Ignis Lunaris, the Crown Prince of Lunaris Kingdom. How could I marry a commoner, a maid that is!"
Anna paused for a moment and then turned her head. She walked away from Ignis, "Well if you don't like me, I will leave."
"Then leave!" Ignis yelled.
Anna flapped her wings, ready to fly away from Ignis. At first, Ignis was nonchalant about the black swan leaving him. But when he realized that Anna actually flew away from him. He reacted immediately.
"Wait!"
Ignis shapeshifted into a fiery vermilion bird. His majestic wings fluttered bright orange like the sun. Ignis flapped his wings and flew towards Anna, who flew further and further from him.
When he finally caught up to Anna, he said to her, "Don't leave me! I will… I will marry you! Do you want to be my queen? Then so be it, as long as you don't run to another man!"
"How could I run to another man when you are guarding me around like a hound dog?" Anna joked with a small giggle. "Then follow me, my handsome husband. I want to fly far away with you, far far until nobody can see us…"
Ignis watched the black swan who kept flying far from the kingdom. Prince Ignis looked at his kingdom for a moment before turned his gaze back at the black swan. It had been a while since the last time he turned into a vermillion bird because he didn't want to be associated with his bastard brother, who turned into a dark entity after he forced himself to turn into a raven.
He followed the black swan to fly far away from the kingdom, like an escape from the torment in his heart. He kept his eyes on Anna and said sincerely, "Anna, I will fly with you as long as you are with me. Let's leave this kingdom and live somewhere else."
"That's what I wish for, husband," Anna affirmed.
They flew far away tirelessly until Ignis opened his eyes. He woke up and realized that everything was just a dream. 'Why is it only a dream?' Ignis pondered. He felt lost the moment he woke up. Because he actually wished that it was true.
"Why does it feel so real?" Ignis asked himself. He was questioning this for the whole day until his servant knocked on his door and said,
"Your Highness, Her Majesty Queen wants to come here."
"Mother?" Ignis frowned. He didn't think he had done anything wrong yet. He was still in his free day before he joined the military again, and he spent the whole day pondering about his dream. He didn't have time to create some problem.
"Let her in."
Queen Seria entered his son's chamber. She saw Ignis was sitting at the chess table. He looked at the neatly arranged chess table. He sat at the black side of the chess while the white chess chair was empty.
Queen Seria walked in and sat on the opposite side. She was worried about her son.
"Ignis, my son, why do you look so down? Is there something wrong?" Queen Seria asked.
"Nothing, mother," Ignis sighed as he tried to brush Anna's image from his head. He looked at his mother and asked, "Is there something you want to talk with me?"
Queen Seria watched her obviously distraught son. She spent the whole night thinking about how to ask Ignis whether there was a woman in his heart. Thus, she first asked nicely.
"Ignis, do you happen to see any noblewoman in the banquet or after?" Queen Seria asked.
"Huh? No, I haven't been close to anyone as in right now," Ignis replied. He felt funny at first because he was really not close with anyone except Anna, that insolent maid. "Well, except that maid whom I danced with in the banquet, of course."
Queen Seria remembered the maid who danced with Ignis in the banquet. She was a completely average woman, and she was sure that maid couldn't be the black swan because she was not a noble. But she couldn't be a witch also, since she didn't look ugly or deformed like the rest of the contracted devil witches.
And Queen Seria doubt she was a natural shapeshifter born from the line of witches, most witches are infertile, and the chance of witches to pass down through generations was very small.
"Any noblewoman you fancied?" Queen Seria asked again.
"No," Ignis looked down at the chess piece in front of him, and he a thin smile on his face and said, "I don't like to marry those noblewomen. I would rather marry a black swan."
"A black swan?!" Queen Seria almost got a heart attack when she heard that. So the prophecy was true. Prince Ignis was in love with a black swan.
"What is with your exaggerated reaction, mother?"
"Who is this black swan? Did you give your jewellery to her?"
Ignis frowned. It was just a figure of speech. There was no way for Anna to shapeshift as a black swan. And he was not in love with that insolent maid.
"Wait a minute..." Ignis paused by himself the moment he realized something.
"What is it, Ignis?" Queen Seria asked eagerly.
'I am not in love with that insolent maid, right? How could I fall in love so easily with that maid! She is not worth my attention!' Ignis denied in his heart. 'She is not pretty, not from a noble family, and she is not even gentle like a lady she should be!'
'How could I… how could…'
Ignis swallowed his saliva. He was unsure of his own feeling and needed to sort this out by himself. He looked at his mother and said, "Mother, can you please leave now? I have to sort things out myself."
Queen Seria opened her mouth. She wanted more information. But it didn't seem to be the right time for her to press him.
Queen Seria sighed and got up from the seat, "We will have more conversation about this, Ignis."
"How could I… how could I…" Ignis was too shocked by his own feeling that he was unable to accept…
That he had fallen in love with a maid.