SAMIRAH
It was almost 9 p.m.
Almost all the Wisteria Royals were seated on the couches in the common room, waiting for everyone else to depart to their respective dormitories.
"Why aren't they going? They should just go to sleep early so that they can meet their lovers in their dreams!" Aprialla testily was shaking her feet.
"They will… Just calm down. We have the whole night ahead of us." Benjamin assured her.
"Why are you so desperate?" Pauline suddenly spoke up. Her eyes were fixed on Aprialla. They have been having this weird tension going on between them.
Silence lingered for a few seconds.
"Because I want us to be friends again. Because I want you to talk to me again, to trust me again." Aprialla flashed a melancholic smile. Pauline did not respond and just shifted her gaze.
I did not say anything.
Whatever friction they are having between them is none of my business. I snuggled against Kristian's arm as we were seated beside one another on the couch.
I was overjoyed that female monkey wasn't here and I could have Kristian all to myself.
"I think we can leave." I heard Benjamin muttered as Prince Adrian was the last one to slug out of the room to his dormitory.
"We are leaving." Aprialla said to the rest.
And we snuck out of the common room.
This was not anything enthralling for me. Truthfully, I was a little scared as anything could go wrong. We could get caught. But I had agreed to join this mission because of Kristian. I did not want to leave him alone.
He was my best friend after all!
We soon exited the True's building and after travelling through a brief patch of grass, we had reached the staff building. The enormous ground floor was just one huge room where all the teachers had their desks. On the upper floors were the dwellings of the teachers. Everyone had a room of their own.
The hallway of our building wasn't lit and it occurred to none of us to bring along any lamps. Hence, we just had to guess our steps.
I hadn't loosened my grasp on Kristian's hand across dark hallway, barely moonlit grounds to the entrance of the staff building.
Benjamin was the first to reach the entrance.
"Oh shoot." We heard him mutter under his breath when we reached the entrance. "What happened?" Shanon panted.
"The door is locked." Benjamin responded.
"I thought you were smart enough to already figure it out and were ready with a solution." Kristian panted out. "The doors aren't usually locked." He glanced at the lock that was of the size of a hand belonging to a tall and broad human.
"How did you know that the doors aren't usually locked?" I genuinely had the question.
"Someone must wander alone at night sometimes." Kristian winked down at me and I let out the cutest giggle I could.
"With all these attacks and bizarre events going on around us, it only makes sense that they have started to lock the buildings." Shanon shifted the topic.
"But what do we do now?" Aprialla said, fretfully.
"Since we have already began the mission, we will not leave it hanging." Benjamin assured her. "Expensive coming from someone who does not even have a proper plan." Shanon provoked him.
Benjamin retorted with a snarky response.
But my heed had shifted from them. I saw a familiar figure exiting the woods. It was approaching us. But the figure hadn't stopped when it saw that I had noticed it. Instead, it was about to walk past us.
"Irene…?" I called out.
My voice had made Irene stop her tracks and the others turned to her as well. Benjamin and Shanon had stopped their tussle.
Irene turned around.
She was wearing a hood over her head, attempting to cover her face but the hood was not spacious enough to vale her entire face.
She removed her hood. "Greetings…" She smiled awkwardly.
"What are you doing here?" Seeing the atypical sight of Irene smiling sent chills down my spine. I shifted closer to Kristian and squeezed his hand tighter.
"I thought you refused to get yourself tangled in the mission." Shanon interrogated suspiciously.
"And what happened to you? Why do you appear so awkward and peculiar?" Aprialla had the same suspicions as me.
"P-peculiar?" Irene continued to smile awkwardly.
"Yes… You are smiling." Angus pointed out.
Irene's smile dropped in an instant.
"Where are you coming back from? You did not volunteer for the mission and you just walked right past u-" Irene interrupted Aprialla. "It is because I am not here for the… mission. I had some other matter to attend to."
"What matter?" Kristian finally spoke.
"I… u-uh…" Irene was stammering. "What were you doing out here in the middle of the night if you are not here for the mission?" Kristian let go of my hand and took a step towards Irene.
My hand suddenly felt too empty and desolated.
"K-kristian…" Irene's voice quivered. "What were you doing here, Irene? Planning for another murder?" Kristian towered her. She stared up at him for a few seconds before she stepped away from him and turned to everyone else.
"Fine, fine. I will speak the truth." Irene exhaled resignedly. "I was in the Enchanted Garden. I was with Prince Felix."
"Prince Felix?" Angus questioned.
"Indeed. We were just spending some quality time." Irene calmly responded. "Why are you alone then?" Shanon suspiciously interrogated.
I am amused Irene has not exploded with anger yet.
"We do not desire to be spotted together." She prompted. "Everyone is aware that the two of you are together." Aprialla snapped. I anticipate a snap from Irene.
But it never came.
"Being in a public relationship is one matter and being spotted with him after dark is another. I am the princess of a major kingdom. The last thing I desire is a scandal."
Aprialla opened her mouth to say something but she was cut by Benjamin. 'Do you have any clue how to open this?" He asked Irene.
She stared at the lock for a few seconds before replying. "Under the rug." She said emotionlessly. "I witnessed Jourdan stashing it there when I initially sneaked out."
Benjamin hastily shifted the rug away and revealed a big silver key.
"People often tend to overlook entities that are right under their noses." Her blank eyes were fixed on the key.
"Will you be staying?" Angus asked her as Benjamin hastened the key into the hole of the lock. Irene calmly shook her head. Angus nodded.
Irene put her hood back on and slid away.
"She must have kissed him…" I commented. Kristian's head abruptly turned to me. "What? Did you not notice how peculiar she was acting and the flushed look on her face?"
Kristian turned away immediately before I could read his expression.
By now, Benjamin was done with unlocking the door and all of us stormed in. Kristian and Aprialla grabbed two lamps that were hanging by the walls beside the entrance and we hurried in.
The next morning, I had woken up with aches inside my head, my neck and back. I was also feeling dizzy, owing to the lack of sleep I received las night.
The task was not as easy as Benjamin had made it sound while he was explaining us the scheme.
We had divided ourselves into teams of two people (Ofcourse I was paired with Kristian) and had spent the entire night scrounging through the registers of all the years and classes.
The worst part was that there were too many classes and too many sections.
In addition to that, we had also snuck into the principal's office through the window to even get the teachers' register.
But we failed miserably to earn any clue.
The only thing we earned last night were aches all over our bodies.
I forced myself off the bed and hobbled around, doing my morning routine and limped to the breakfast table. I slipped into a seat beside Princess Scarlette who was mindlessly stirring her bowl of cereal.
"Good morning." I yawned while serving myself some toast. "Morning." Princess Scarlette responded in a drained voice.
Princess Pauline was engaged in a conversation with Princess Patricia. But then she spotted me and hurried into the seat across me.
"What happened yesterday?" She breathed heavily.
"Did Aprialla and Shanon not tell you?" I sighed out. "They are still sleeping in." Pauline responded.
"No lead. Except for the ones that stayed back in the dorm that day because they were sick whose records that suggests that they were really in their dormitory that day, there were no absentees. No teacher was absent either." I explained wearily.
"Ran from desk to desk. Broke into the principal's office to check the teachers' record and scrounged in the weirdest places for the list of the students that stayed back and yet no lead." I sighed out.
Pauline frowned.
While I was explaining, Princess Isabelle and Sabrina settled on the seats on either side of Pauline.
"So, Princess Sabrina here lied for nothing to the Head Boy," Isabelle poured herself some orange juice. "Lied?" I turned to Sabrina.
"I wish I could just obliterate last night from my memory." Sabrina sighed out.
"What happened?" I questioned.
"Last night, after all of you had departed and after all the students had gone to the dormitory, the Head Boy, Prince Uchtred who was accompanied by Princess Susannah, the Head Girl approached me, Pauline and Sabrina while we were resting on the couch in the common room." Isabelle started explaining.
"He questioned Pauline where Benjamin was, for some Senator errand. I don't really know. Pauline of course panicked and was about to give it away as Prince Uchtred commented he hadn't seen some particular students of our year, especially the princes enter the boys' dormitory."
"Afraid that Pauline would have messed it all up, Sabrina decided to take the matter into her own hands and you would be appalled to hear what excuse she made."
"What excuse did she make?" I curiously asked.
"She said 'they are playing hide and seek'." Isabelle said with a straight face. "You are jesting!" I exclaimed. Her nonchalant expression did not fade.
"It gets worse as he asks her where are they playing hide and seek." Isabelle built up suspense.
"And…?" How worse can it get from here…
"She was like," Isabelle pretended to look up at a non-existing Prince Uchtred as she put on a shaky voice. "I am not sure if you know how it is played."
"She did not!!" I am not sure if I should laugh. We would have to face consequences if we get caught.
Sabrina was hiding her face with her hands.
"What happened after that?" I interrogated.
"I saved it by saying that Sabrina has recently started to jest around and that everyone was in their dorms. Maybe Prince Uchtred just failed to spot them. Since invasion of privacy by breaking into others' dorm rooms is interdicted, he did not question any further." Isabelle prompted.
"I will never face him!!!" Sabrina whined.
"All of you went through so much trouble and it was for nothing…" Pauline's frowned deepened.
"Aprialla is doing all this just so she could clear her father's name." Her voiced trailed off. "And also, for you to start talking to her again." I reminded her.
"I should not do this to her..." Pauline spoke to herself before jumping to her feet and storming away. I am assuming she has flown to her dormitory to talk to Aprialla.
"So, the mission is unfruitful?" Isabelle spoke after Pauline's departure.
"Indeed." I chewed onto the toast. "At least, it is over. We will not have to do it again. We would just have had to postpone it if it was not for Irene-"
"Irene? I thought she stayed back." Isabelle blinked.
"Oh, she was not on the mission." I waved a hand in the air. "She just happened to be around." "What was she doing out there after curfew? I did not see her leave either. I assumed she was in her dormitory."
"Oh, she was-" No, I am a good friend, I must not divulge her secret that she was out there with Prince Felix. "She… I don't know. I did not question."
My eyes suddenly fell on Kristian who climbed down the stairs of the boys' dormitory and had entered the common room now.
I left my food there and bolted to him.
He must be tired. I should be there for him.
"Good morning, Kristian, are you okay now? Are you tired? Did you sleep well?" I ran my hands through his body just to check if he is alright.
"I am, I am." He drudgingly said. "You are up."
"Indeed. I was just conversing with Princess Isabelle. You know, talking about how we caught Princess Irene last night red handed. I personally believe that seeing someone in solitude after the sun has set is extremely unethical. I would never do it. She just met him and is now seeing him after dark. I have no clue what they were even doing. They were probably-"
"I am hungry…" His voice was dry all of a sudden.
"Oh, indeed. Yes, here," I linked our arms tightly, "I shall lead you to the table. I can even feed you."