Oceana's P.O.V
"Prepare the carriage." I ordered.
"Yes, Your Highness." the butler replied when suddenly, Mother came.
"Leave us for a moment, Eliz."
"Yes, Your Majesty." she bows then leaves.
"Dear." Mother called.
I know the purpose of her arrival in my chamber. She will open the topic about what happened to us earlier with King Levin.
"Mother, there's no need to talk about that. I'm fine. Besides, I was just surprised and a little confused because it happened unexpectedly." she smiled at me as she places her palms on my cheeks then caresses them.
"My dear Princess, You are already a full-fledged woman." she proudly says.
"Your Highness, the carriage is ready." the butler informed.
"I'll be there. Mother, I should go now."
"Hm? Where are you going?"
"To King Levin's palace."
"Oh, alright. Take care."
••••••••••
"Welcome, Your Highness of Starnstadt." the butler shouts.
"Welcome to Mondreich, Princess Oceana!" everyone in the palace greeted me as I entered, including those working in the kitchen. And I saw someone come down the big stairs in the middle.
But it's not him.
I waited for him to come down so I can recognize who he is.
He is a tall man. Much taller than King Levin. He has black hair and skin as white as snow. I can see his jaw is sharp, which drew my attention to it as I began to enchant his features from head to toe.
"Good evening, Princess Oceana." he greeted then dropped a curtsy.
I never thought that I would see the man I admire for a long time in person is now in front of me.
It's Prince Ephraim Rodd Gruber.
"My Queen." someone spoke from behind.
"I was at the headquarters. I am sorry I didn't wait for your arrival. I just finished doing my duty so that we could eat and talk while having dinner without worrying about something." he walked over to me as he took my hand and kissed it.
"You don't have to apologize, King Levin. I just arrived."
"Well then, shall we go to the dining hall now?"
"As you wish, Your Majesty." I replied then he smiled.
"Oh, wait. Brother, you can join us." he invited Prince Ephraim.
"I would also love to but I need a rest for now."
"Okay. Mr. Caddel, please assist Brother to his chamber."
"It's okay. I can walk by myself. Don't worry."
"No. Don't be so stubborn, Brother. You know it's not good for you."
"Don't call me stubborn. Plus, I will walk. I'm not going to run."
To the one who turned to speak, my head was turning left to right. Because of the little squabble between the two brothers, I felt a little awkward.
"Uhm..." they immediately stop when they heard me.
"Pardon for our little argument, Princess Oceana. I will go now." Prince Ephraim apologized as he starts to walk in disappointment as King Levin signaled the head butler to follow the Prince.
"Shall we?" King Levin spoke as I put my hand on his palm and proceed to walk.
As we entered the dining hall, I noticed several old photographs of young men glued to the wall. At a glance, I recognize them as the former rulers of the Kingdom of Mondreich. It has names on each photo, as well as the dates of their birth, the start of their reign, and the end of their reign. It also includes their death date as well as their age.
I stopped in my tracks when I catch the sight of empty space in the wall.
"They will put my photo there once I have retired." King Levin spoke all of a sudden then I just nod.
We arrived at the dining hall, and plenty of food are already placed on the table.
But they are all fish.
We sat down oppositely, facing each other.
"As you can see, it was mostly fish. But I asked Queen Cliodhna earlier before I leave about your favorite meal." he snapped his finger as the handmaid enters with a traditional roast dinner and Yorkshire pudding as an appetizer.
"I made sure you're comfortable eating with me because I forgot to ask Her Majesty if you don't like fish."
"Actually, I like eating fish. Like that one." I pointed to the meal which is just in front of him.
"Dover sole with spinach and zucchini." I added.
"Is this also your favorite meal?" he asked and I nod.
"I can see that it's your favorite too." I said and he nods back.
"My Mother is just a daughter of a fisherman. She fishes with Grandpa every morning until noon." he began telling me a story as I started eating.
"She can cook. And this meal was the first recipe she'd ever made" I could see the sadness in his eyes.
"One day, Father was now a King that time. He organized an event, somewhat of a cooking battle then Mother joined."
He misses her.
"Mother won and Father invited her to be a chef here in the palace. A year after, they developed feelings, then got married. And so they had Brother Ephraim and years after, they had me." he is still looking down while he's eating and talking.
"That's just a short story about how Dover Sole became my favorite food because it's my Mother's specialty. And as long as I can still sit on my throne, I will not remove this food in every day's meal." he finally raised his head then smiled.
"Well, I mostly eat meat rather than fish. It's not that I don't eat seafood. I just prefer the flesh ones. "
"Hm... I see. But you can try these, the pheasant or this venison." he said then hands it to me.
Suddenly, the quick object that hit it caused the plate to spill out of my hand.
The plate was shattered into pieces, and when I turned around, I noticed an arrow agglutinates into the wall. We noticed a paper on the nock after King Levin ran and picked it up.
Something is written on this thin silk paper that can be seen at the back of the paper with a red tint.
We look at each other with our worried expressions as he slowly opened the note.
'How's your dinner? :)'