"Nope, not happening," Estoria replied immediately.
Isabella stared at her in disbelief for a minute before speaking. "Why not?... Do you not like me? I thought we were becoming friends."
Estoria wasn't expecting Isabella to consider her as her friend, so she felt bad, but she still couldn't. "I already have previous engagements with Asher, that's why I can't go with you. But if you insist, you can go there and wait for my return. We will be more than happy to accommodate you at the Stallions' residence," she said sincerely with a smile.
Isabella was a bit disappointed since it was Asher she obviously couldn't compete with, so she sighed to her fate. "I'll be on my way then, but please accept my invitation for the prosperity banquet of this year. I'll send you the written invitation when I return. I will await your welcome," Isabella said before leaving with her guards.
Although Estoria had no idea what Isabella was on about earlier, she didn't give it much thought because she had more pressing matters to attend to.
Asher and Estoria went back to Café dele. Asher excitedly entered first and found a corner table to sit at.
"Order everything you want," Estoria said while taking a seat at the table.
Asher nodded and ordered a whole bunch of desserts which he'd never tasted before, and Estoria ordered some tea and sandwiches to go along with them.
"Now let's get to the main dish," Estoria said as she sipped her tea carefully.
"I can't do it," Asher replied with annoyance in his voice.
Estoria glared at the table. Asher was having trouble placing all the desserts in front of his side of the table because there were really too many plates and not enough space on the table.
"Taste each one of them and give me the ones you don't like," Estoria said after making space at her side of the table.
Asher tasted everything, ranked them, and pushed the lower-ranked ones to Estoria's side while keeping the higher-ranked ones to himself.
With the problem easily solved, Asher happily ate his desserts one by one.
Estoria watched for a while before speaking again. "Asher, what about the task I gave you?"
"I have the list. It was quite easy to get, but the information is not reliable. They're just rumors, to be exact," Asher said, taking another bite of the velvet chocolate chip cookie. "He rarely makes a public appearance these days, and he doesn't have many people by his side that can reveal his secrets or anything. That's what the owner of the information house told me."
Estoria remembered Aluxio's words when he left. He said, "You still don't know anything about me," which was true. She didn't know anything about him besides the fact that he's the second prince of the kingdom and that his mother died before he was even born.
"Just tell me. There has to be some truth in it."
Asher patted his hands together to get the cookie crumbs off and drank a sip of his tea before taking a scroll out of god-knows-where.
"Should I start with the strong ones?"
"...Yes," Estoria took a bite of the pastry that was abandoned by Asher.
"He's known to be the most handsome ladies' man anyone has seen yet in this kingdom."
Estoria choked, coughing violently.
"Here, drink some tea," Asher poured the tea for Estoria.
After calming down, Estoria asked, "Is that one true? But didn't you say he rarely makes a public appearance?"
"I'm not positive, but it seems to be the most believable one on this list since a lot of noble ladies have confirmed it. And about the public appearances, he's only stopped attending recently, but whenever he used to attend before that, he would be surrounded by all the ladies."
Estoria took a bitter sip of the tea and swallowed silently.
"The next one," she spoke in a grounded state.
Asher saw her withering face and decided to go easy this time. "He has never lost in a sword fight. Not even the crown prince could beat him, much less Prince Tyrion."
Estoria gained some of her face color back after hearing this because she was expecting it to be another strong one.
"What about other than a sword fight?" she asked calmly.
"He seems to be a sword mana dueler, so he hasn't fought much with his mana. But Prince Tyrion seems to be the one with the most mana between all the princes."
"Alright, next one."
Asher placed a careful glance at her. "Aluxio was overthrown by Darius because he was considered a tyrant."
Estoria narrowed her eyes in question. "Aluxio didn't give Darius the crown prince title but was ripped of it because he was considered to be a tyrant?? How absurd! How did they even come up with that one? Have they seen the man?" She rolled her eyes.
"These are just the rumors going around. Don't take them seriously."
"The next one, please," she continued eating.
"He's having a secret rendezvous with the fiancée of the crown prince to get his revenge on him." Even Asher thought that this was preposterous.
Estoria didn't have much of a reaction this time. "This is just straight-up ludicrous. I'm not listening anymore; burn that paper or whatever."
"I told you these are just rumors; you don't have to believe them," Asher hid the scroll from where it came.
"Hmm."
Estoria knew that rumors were always either exaggerated or completely false information, but she still felt downhearted for the whole day, and the next day arrived with two letters.
The letters arrived early in the morning; one was for Eston from Tyrion, and the other one was for Estoria from Aluxio.
She took the letter and read it straight away; it only contained three words.
"I miss you."
Estoria folded the page gently and patiently, then put it in her bedside table.
She wasn't mad nor was she happy about it until she saw the other letter in the wooden tray which one was from Tyrion for Eston.
She picked it up and felt it; it was heavier than hers...
Estoria wanted to see how many pages Tyrion had written for Eston, but she didn't open it since it wasn't for her, and it would be disrespectful. Instead, she immediately went to see Eston.
Eston saw the letter was from Tyrion and paused, giving Estoria, who was staring at him attentively, a side eye.
He opened the pink letter, and there were many pages full of writing inside. Estoria tried to count the pages but couldn't since Eston held the pages secretly.
Eston finally couldn't take it anymore and asked, "What are you trying to see?"
Estoria straightened her posture instantly. "I was just wondering how many pages he sent you."
Eston counted them and said, "Five pages..."
"Five pages?! They seem to be filled too. Is he telling you about something important?" Estoria exclaimed.
"No, he's just talking about the spells we practiced together; nothing important," Eston replied hesitantly.
Estoria saw Eston becoming uncomfortable, so she resigned back to her room crestfallen.
She didn't know why, but ever since Aluxio left everything related to him was giving her an ache in the head and the heart.