Nereus walked on the grounds of the castle, barely nodding at the bows he received from servants. With Daphne's new status as the crown princess, his own popularity had surged. Despite his best efforts to remain as hidden as possible, it didn't take long for the servants to notice the missing chickens from the coops, or the sudden lack of random vegetables right before dinner time.
While no one had ever seen Nereus steal from the kitchens, some servants have reported puddles of water lingering at every corner of the scene of the crime. Others have seen a mysterious man speaking with the crown princess every once in a while before jumping into the lake, not to resurface even after hours.
Reaweth always had a history of kelpies roaming the land up until the recent decades. As such, it wasn't out of the ordinary to spot one in real life here. The servants quickly put two and two together― the mysterious man the crown princess was speaking to was no doubt a kelpie.
