"She's 22 years old, a prodigy mage who's become a Priestess of light magic at 15 years old, after her entire family was murdered by undead out of the Empire, while researching about necromancy activities. She's been insisting that graveyards were a danger for three years now, the Crown Prince gathered his allies with the top mages of the tower to discuss, but we all disagreed with her."
I've never heard about her. "Priestess-Mage? What is that title?" Also never heard about.
"Priestess and Priest is a title given to grandmasters of holy magic such as light, wind, water, and healing magic, who are also mages for having more than one type of magic. They dedicate their life to the Mage's Tower and to taking care of matters than normal mages there cannot handle. It's extremely hard to become one, and you gain an Imperial amulet for it," Kirill sighed. "Aurora-Camilla, however, is... eccentric, so most don't take her seriously."
How did I never heard of that? Ugh, that useless novel and those bastards who kept me hidden away as Eleanor. "Because she's young?"
"So, Liya," Andrey passed a hand over his hair, "because she really is eccentric, she is a madwoman, she is a mess. She is a prodigy with some insane holy magic, smart as well, but she is... not social."
I don't see the problem with that! "Can I meet her?"
"What?" They gasped.
"I want to meet her, can it be arranged?"
"Ugh," Kirill cried, "you can't go there, Liya."
"Bring her here then," I crossed my arms.
"I doubt she'll come," Andrey groaned.
"If my words are of any help in inspecting the graveyards, and she hears about me, made she will, no?" I tried, really intrigued by the girl.
My parents shared a look, "You don't like girls, right? Romantically speaking?" Mom sucked on her cheeks.
"No. I am attracted to males," I chuckled. "Why?"
"Because she is blonde, and you said you liked blonde and liked girls," Kirill scoffed. "Why did you even say that? Everyone will begin spreading rumors about you liking women in the capital and all over the Empire."
"Let them, it'll push away proposals from males from the time being, given how I need to prioritize my training," sigh.
"You are insane," Kirill gasped, "now we'll have to compete with you because many Ladies will come around you, thinking you're into them."
"If they come to me, it's because they are not interested in you, Kill, meaning, we will not be competing for them," I poked him and his jaw dropped with my audacity. "Besides, this serves us well, doesn't it? No men will want to approach a Lady who's seemingly mad, memoryless, and who is into girls instead. It also kills any rumors that I was into Maximilianos and pushes Nikolai even further away."
"Hah," Arwel sighed, "I can't believe the Duchess was having an affair with the Archduke and one of his nephews."
"I vaguely remember seeing Nikolai trying to force him on her, while she fought him, some time ago, so, I doubt that's true. It was probably Sofiya trying to slander her, together with Maximilianos' sister."
"Doesn't surprise me, Nikolai has always been a nasty men," father scowled. "I've always despised him. He's a horrible uncle to the Crown Prince."
"He's a horrible everything to Ashborn," Andrey scoffed. "Not just him but all his siblings, and everyone else. It's a miracle he's even engaged to Sofiya at all, she must have pulled something for that to happen."
"She pulled the skirt of her dress," Kirill mocked. "I've accidentally caught the horrendous sight of him driving into her in one of the secluded balconies of where the ball took place, two weeks ago. I doubt it was the first time. They seemed very comfortable with their surroundings. It gave me an ick," that must have been after I left them, little before I ran into that stranger and before Max found me. "I ran into Ashborn as I ran out of there nauseated and avoided him from cursing his eyes with that view," he shivered in disgust.
What? The Crown Prince was in that ball?
"The Crown Prince is in the capital?" I asked, doing my best to sound cool about it.
Kirill and Andrey narrowed their eyes at me for such a long moment that I felt my skin burning, "Why do you sound so interested?" Andrey asked.
"What? I'm not," I gasped.
"Good because that would be troublesome," dad chuckled anxiously.
I blinked, feeling lost, "Troublesome? Why?"
"She must have forgotten that too, my Lord," Arwel reminded them and I felt weird about it.
"We engaged you to him when you were 14 to 15," father said, "because for once, he seemed interested in you, it surprised both our family and his parents, so we agreed on it. However, when you went to meet him in his castle, to start the courting process, you snapped at him, saying your heart belonged to someone else and you would never marry him, that he wasn't your type. Then he began trying to court you here, and you would always be extremely... rude, saying you didn't like him, people older than you, and well... it as a mess, but a contained one, only our families knew about it."
"The engagement lasted three months, until he decided to grant you your wish and broke it," mother groaned as if in pain with the memory. "He said that even though he wanted to have you as his bride, he didn't want to force it, so he broke it peacefully. Little after that he left to deal with war out of the capital, and he spent years out, only coming back less than a month ago."
"I did WHAT?"
I was 15, almost 16 as Eleanor, when the Crown Prince began writing to me, and it was after he went to constant war, out of the capital. Did he write for me because he had been turned down by Diana before? Or... or was it a mistake?