Found Sleeping Beauty (3)

"I'll serve as lookout during your turns," Henry proposed.

"In addition to distracting the others," he quickly added when both of us stayed silent.

"Sure," I reached out my hands to make a deal after Sienna nodded her head.

Sienna took out the blankets and transferred me the comfortable clothes. I slapped the blanket on the ground as softly as possible, evening out the lumps while Sienna looked for the perfect place to put the pillow. Keeping his promise, Henry stuck to his role as he kept an eye out on anyone coming towards our direction.

"We have to go to the next location," I decided to keep Henry here to make sure nobody discovered the makeshift bed.

"The second floor will be a bit harder," Sienna frowned.

"Let's just keep walking and hope we don't run into anyone," I clung onto her arm.

We needed to walk across the ballroom, meaning escape the middle section. Someone would be bound to notice us if we kept on walking near the walls to get to the other side, making us seem suspicious. We speed walked while making sure to maintain our elegant air.

"Would you like to join us?" someone interrupted us.

"Maybe another time," I immediately declined.

Without waiting for her response, we dashed towards our target, the other end of the hall. However, another person got in our way. The time, we were surrounded by a bigger group of girls in the most luxurious dresses. I threw a glance at Sienna, telling her we should separate to duck under them. But Sienna shook her head, disagreeing while narrowing her eyes.

"Is there anything you want from us?" Sienna clung my arm even tighter.

"We just wanted to talk with the sub hosts of this event," she questioned where we were going in a hurry.

"What did you want to talk to us about?" Sienna continued.

"Your dresses appear splendid today," one of them attempted to switch the topic.

"Thank you," Sienna began to turn with me, wondering if they were done.

"We were wondering if your family was interested in a section of land in the fifth district lately," another one of them blocked our exit.

"We're not," Sienna turned them down.

Sienna seemed increasingly closed off as her face became expressionless. She pulled herself closer to me, to show she wasn't going anywhere without me. They awkwardly shifted in their spots, running out of excuses.

"How about the person beside you?" It seemed like they didn't know my identity yet.

"My name is Rika," I decided to put my last name out.

"Can you tell us which family you come from?" their attitudes changed.

"Her family must have barely passed the qualifications to join the neutral fraction," one of them rudely whispered.

"It can't be, the Clarence family doesn't get close to just anybody," another one of them pointed out.

"She's from the Roselia family, the crest," someone finally noticed the annoying crest on my dress.

"We apologize, Rika de Roselia. Please excuse us for our behaviour," they slightly bowed.

"That's not my name," I frowned.

I was becoming increasingly tired with Sienna as more people were starting to gather around us, listening to the conversation. We were getting the opposite of what we wanted, standing out in the exact crowd we wanted to avoid. I wondered why some people couldn't get the hint and ignore us when we clearly weren't in the mood to join their conversations.

"Is there a problem?" Luke walked towards us, sensing the discord in the middle of the ballroom.

"We were wondering if 'Rika' came from the Roselia family," one of them asked Luke.

"We noticed the Roselia family crest on her clothes, but she told us it wasn't her family name," another one of them added.

They brightened from Luke's appearance, radiating from his formal attire. Some of their faces blushed pink, shuffling around in excitement. I could hear whispers and mutters from them gossiping in each other's ears of how they were facing the heir of the Roselia family. I sighed as everyone somehow knew the key features from each prominent family.

"I apologize for my partner. It is true that many people misunderstand due to the recent changes. I am Luke de Impalia Roselia and this is my fiancée, Rika de Impalia Roselia," Luke introduced the both of us.

"You're also part of the Impalia fraction?" One of them gasped.

"We will be making the official announcement in the evening," Luke brightly smiled.

'Isn't this the chance to escape?' I tossed Sienna a glance.

Sienna immediately understood me as we quickly ducked down to get out of the crowd. The keys to the second floor jangled in her hands once she took them out when we were in front of the temporary gate. The door blocking the entrance to the second floor opened as we creeped up the stairs.

There was no worry in getting our dresses dirty as we crawled on the floor to avoid getting noticed. The polished floors were so clean that it reflected our appearance.

"Do you think they'll notice if we place the blanket near the back?" Sienna pulled out the material.

I shook my head as I pulled out the pillow to place it on top of the blanket. It was likely that this location wasn't going to be used often, seeing how we had trouble getting to this place. The only thing I was glad about was how the stairs to the second floor was close to the garden outside the mansion.