"Her Lady Roselia Light Hogan has arrived!" The Imperial guards opened the giant door to the throne room as Mister Borguis announced to His Majesty about Roselia's arrival at the palace.
Roselia entered the room and curtsied towards His Majesty, "Greetings to the Sun of this Risen Empire."
"Ohh Roselia you're here? Come closer, let me see you." His Majesty brought his hand forward and called her.
"Your Majesty-"
"Why are you being awkward? It's not your first time visiting the palace plus nowadays you rarely visited the palace."
"B-but..."
As Roselia was about to speak, His Majesty cuts her off once again, "How long has it been since you last visited the Palace? You have grown to be a beautiful and lovely young lady."
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The Hogan family and the Von Ritzer family have known and helped each other ever since the first discovery of the Elftarise.
They have been partners and friends with each other and their partnership has lasted for generations. It was not surprising that the Emperor of this Kingdom considered himself close to Roselia.
Roselia's father, the current head of the Hogan family, is also one of the Royal Advisors and the personal knight to His Majesty. When Roselia was younger, her father would bring her to the palace once in a while when he was visiting the Emperor, for some business meeting, to play with His Highness, the current Crown Prince of Elftarise.
However, despite His Majesty calling out for Roselia, she kindly rejected it and continued with the discussion of why she was invited here in the first place. "Thank you, Your Majesty, but didn't you have something to discuss with me?"
The Emperor laughed, retracting his hands, and coughed, "Always down straight into business I see, haha. Now let me ask, how old are you this year?"
Roselia place her right hand on her chest and replied, "Turning 18 this Fall, Your Majesty."
His Majesty placed his hand on his chin and looked back at Roselia, "You're almost of age to get married, why don't you and my son get married?"
Roselia's eyes widened, and her head shot back up, facing His Majesty when she heard the question.
She thought to herself, "Was this really the reason why His Majesty asked me for an audience?" but she remained calm and answered the emperor.
"I beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but I am currently not looking for someone right now."
"Don't worry, you don't have to answer right now but my wife and I do love to have you as our daughter-in-law." His Majesty laughed.
His Majesty's reason made Roselia even more speechless than she already was and while she stood there blankly, someone came into the room.
Both Roselia and the emperor turned towards the sound of doors opening.
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"Hello father, I have just completed my training for today," the person greeted His Majesty confidently.
It was the Crown Prince, His Highness Damien Von Ritzer.
Damien was popular amongst the ladies in the Imperial. One could say he is the only thorn among the roses, he is also the apple of everyone's eye. His silver hair and golden eyes, a cold and confident demeanor somehow match the taste of this current generation of young ladies.
Roselia, having spent her younger days with Damien whenever she visited the palace with her family, knew what his true personality was like. As the saying goes and being the "only thorn amongst the roses", unlike what he shows on the outside, he is a flirt, a cheater or one might say, a well-known player within the Imperial.
During the day, he looks like a gentleman towards everyone, but at night, who knows how many young ladies' hearts he has toyed with?
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His Majesty looked up at where Damien was and pointed towards Roselia, "Damien, look who's here!"
When Damien saw who was standing before the emperor, he immediately recognized that rosy-red hair color anywhere and went straight toward her.
Roselia quickly turned back towards the Emporer, "Since His Highness, the Crown Prince is here, I'll take my lea-", as she was about to end her sentence, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around again, but this time, facing the Crown Prince.
"Yo! Rosy! Why are you leaving so early?" Damien greeted Roselia excitedly.
However, Roselia's face said otherwise. Though they have known each other since young, with his personality, she did not expect to meet Damien nor would she want to be in the same room as him. "Good morning, Your Highness," She faked a smile and greeted Damien monotonously.
A few seconds passed and the Crown Prince continued to smile at Roselia while his hand was still on her shoulder. Roselia tried to slowly remove Damien's hand from her shoulder however his hand would not budge, "Your Highness, do you need me for anything?"
Damien sighed as he removed his hand from her shoulder. He slowly lowered his hand, moving closely towards Roselia. He grabbed her right hand, which was covered with a white laced glove, and kissed the back of it.
Roselia paused for a split second but then quickly shook off Damien's hand in disgust and wiped her hand off, against her dress.
"Aww I'm sad, are you not happy to see me?" He pouts and wiped his nonexistent tears off his cheeks.
Roselia sarcastically replied, "No Your Highness, it was nice seeing you, I have something else to do so I'll be leaving now."
"Well, since you are busy, you should go back first, maybe I'll head over after I'm done with my business with father," Damien said.
"There's no need, I may not be free to even entertain Your Highness too," Roselia gave a straightforward answer.
"..."
"Then I'll be taking my leave." Roselia turned back to His Majesty and bowed.
"Well...since you are busy today, I will not take too much time off your hands. Please go ahead." His Majesty coughed, "And also, please do think about the 'thing' that we have discussed."
"Thank you, Your Majesty. Now, if you would excuse me."
"Bye Rosy~"
As she was walking out, Damien and His Majesty started to talk about something else. Even though it was barely audible, she was still able to hear a bit of their conversation.
"What about the Blood Moon Night?" She thought to herself.
However, since it's a conversation between Damien and his father, Roselia did not think much about it and went ahead to meet Amy and Leo who were waiting just right outside the room.
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Roselia and the others left the imperial palace and continued heading toward the carriage. As they were walking, they saw a familiar figure waiting outside the Imperial Palace gates.
That figure turned towards Roselia and the others and started to aggressively wave at them, shouting, "Rosy!"
As they got closer, the figure started to become clearer and Leo whispered to Roselia, "I think Lady Seiza is here to see you, my lady."
Roselia laughed and waved back, "Hi Eve! What brings you here?"
"Oh my god! Rosy! I knew it was you!" Eve ran towards Roselia and hugged her.
Roselia was happy to see Eve after quite some time and returned the hug, "How have you been?"
Roselia then quickly released the hug and saw someone standing behind Eve. It was her escort, Jax. She acknowledged the escort passed Eve's shoulder.
Seeing that he was carrying multiple luxurious goods bags, they must have just finished shopping, "Eve, don't you have the magic to carry the items yourself? Why trouble Sir Jax?"
"Well, I have but sometimes I like to cause trouble, if you know what I mean," Eve jokingly winked at Roselia.
"Eve..."
Lady Evelyn Seiza, who also goes by the name "Eve", she is one of Roselia's closest and best friends since her childhood. Including Amy, the three of them share everything with each other, from perfumes, clothes, and even their deepest darkest secrets.
When Roselia used to have breakdowns, both Amy and Eve were always there for her. Even though Eve can be a bit crazy sometimes, she still appreciates Eve for being with her during those rough times.
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Quite some time passed...
"So...Rosy...why don't we have a tea party?" Eve nudged Roselia on the shoulder.
Roselia's eyebrows raised and questioned, "Hm? Suddenly?"
"Well Rosy, I've seen that you are not really yourself lately, like honey, look at those dark circles under your eyes, are you sure you're taking care of yourself?" Eve examined Roselia's face.
Roselia places her fingers between her eyebrows, "Mm...Maybe your right."
Roselia realized that they were still standing in front of the Imperial gates. Thinking that someone else might be listening to our conversation, she suggested, "Why don't we continue the conversation in my room?"
"Perfect! I bought your favorite cheesecake from Heinz Bakery," Eve turned around, looking in Jax's direction. With a click of her fingers, she made a box, which was nicely and neatly wrapped with a pink ribbon, float.
"Let's go then. Oh yeah! Jax, you can go back first and put all the bags before coming over," She ordered her escort.
Jax nodded, "Yes, My Lady."
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