Chapter 11: Meeting The Royal Family

A beautiful palace, that is how Rose describes Kingdom of Serene's palace. How does the family live in this kind of place? A palace is such an enormous place to live in, every girl wished to live in a palace and be a princess. The tall towers, a beautiful garden, man-made ponds, ballrooms, music rooms and other spot that every palace have.

Soldiers in their stations to guard the palace and the Royal Family. They saluted as they passed by, giving high respects of the General Izamae.

Finally they have arrived, Rose was enthusiastic about this but now that she is finally standing in front of the palace she can feel her anxiety creep up.

She stilled her heart by breathing in and out slowly, balling her hands to fists to ease her tense muscles and cleared her throat. Constantly reassuring herself that all will be fine and well, reminding herself that she is just going to meet them and take examinations of Crown Prince Mark's condition, it's just that. But it seems that all of this is harder than she thought before, this is a different family she is facing today, she is still not familiar with them, she keeps reminding herself to not act like how she is with the Royal Family of Eclair.

Her brown eyes kept admiring the palace that is painted with white and blue. The flower bushes gave the palace a vibrant feeling that makes a visitor experience calm and magical feelings.

She can sense the light magic against her skin as it flows with the wind, Light Magic is what the most Serene's people magic holds, it gives you a warm comforting embrace that stills ones hearts. A magnificent magic.

It impresses her to see a person wielding their powers, the way they chant words to summon and use the Light Magic to protect.

She grabbed her bag and straightened her dress and coat, waiting for her brother to lead her inside the palace.

"Are you ready?" David asked, he noticed her shoulders tensing. Meeting another Royal is not new to Rose, but without Queen Rhea and Mari, she is afraid that she might mess up and for Kingdom of Eclair to lose face.

"Quite," Rose answered, her eyes staring at the huge open doors, "let's do this."

The siblings went inside the palace, Rose's heart remained beating but not as fast as before, gripping her bag tightly in her hands to keep her calm.

As they reached the huge doors, a butler came to greet them.

"A pleasant day, General." He said and bowed, he noticed a girl beside the general, wearing an knee length apron dress and a white coat. Raising a brow, he gave the girl an uncertain smile. Wavy black hair and brown eyes, her smile so sweet and genuine. Perhaps this girl is a relative of the General?

"Lin, this is my sister, Doctor Rose Izamae. She will be Crown Prince Mark's doctor."

Rose shook hands with the butler, Lin. The man's grey eyes lighted up as he felt warmness radiating off the doctor, it's like she have a Light Magic within her. He mentally shool his head to the sides, it is impossible that a girl from Kingdom Of Eclair have the magic that only Kingdom Of Serene's people have.

Taking Lin's hand back to him, he guided the siblings to King Noli's office.

The three of them didn't utter a word and only their steps can only be heard as they walked through the hallways.

Finally, they have reached a dark wooden doors with soldiers guarding it. Lin nodded towards them and opened the door for Rose and David, both of them went inside as Lin closed the doors behind them.

"Your Majesties." David greeted and bowed towards the King and also the Queen who sat in the couch. "This is Queen Rhea's apprentice and my sister, Doctor Rose Izamae."

Rose bowed as she was introduced, her heart thumping loudly against her chest.

"Your Majesties," Rose stood up straight and gave them a tight smile, her hands grew cold and shaky as she can feel their stares at her. Never in her life had she been this nervous before, their stares making her feel small.

Rose didn't notice Queen Sina's warm smile as she was too busy overthinking.

"Doctor Izamae, it's a pleasure to meet you." The Queen stood up from the couch and waltz her way to the doctor, placing a hands on her shoulders and smiled warmly, feeling Rose a bit welcomed.

King Noli also gave the doctor a warm smile, a lady doctor will be perfect for his son, he can already see that his son will be in good hands and will be cured. Since Mark got the poison, the poor prince have treated most doctors badly, knowing that they cannot cure him. He isolated himself and barely meets them for dinner or any occasions. But now the doctor is a lady, he can vision a good outcome from this.

"I did not expect for the doctor to be a lady. Doctor Izamae, I trust you in curing my son."

Rose's eyes widen in surprise, taken aback by the King's statement. She nodded with determination in her eyes.

Her tense self calmed down after and discussed things with the King and Queen while David went to fetch the poisoned prince.

"I heard that it had been a year since Crown Prince Mark's poison acted."

The couple nodded as Rose writes down everything in her book. "Have you investigated on who the culprit is?"

"We have but it leads to a dead end." King Noli answered, he sighed. He tried and tried to find the culprit but all of the clues they have gathered leads to nothing. The culprit really made sure to clean up the mess.

"Can I bring my brother's son to accompany Crown Prince Mark?" Rose asked, she have a hunch that the Prince might have been fed with poison everyday in his meal, and maybe Demi can help by just smelling it from meters away.

Looking at her strangely, the couple only nodded in agreement. They don't know what General Izamae's son can do but perhaps there is something Rose have in mind that can help their son, possibly some emotional support?

"Is it only his eyes that is affected?"

"No, he kept complaining about his other senses also, and he is unable to use his power."

"I assume that it was blocked by the poison." Rose writes down what she needed to, while a servant poured her a freshly brewed tea. She paused and checked the tea, she can see something is wrong with it, so she took a sniff of it before putting it back the table.

The Queen found her behavior odd, "is there something wrong with your tea, Doctor?"

Rose smiled grimly as she stood up from her seat, taking the cup. She marched to the maid who served her the tea and gave her a sickly sweet smile.

The maid on the other hand, stared at Rose's threatening brown eyes, daring her that if she will not speak the truth, her head will be cut off her body.

"Who brewed this?"

The warmness of the room flew out the window as the coldness of Rose's voice turned the room into a chilly state. The Majesties and Lin only stood back and watched the scene unfold, they didn't bother to speak up and lets Rose handle the situation.

The maid looked down, afraid to answer Rose's question, which made the latter got irritated. She asked the same question again with a threat that caused the maid to tremble in fear.

"Another maid from the kitchen–"

"Thank you." Rose said and placed the tea on a nearby table. She looked back at the impressed rulers that witnessed the other side of her.

"There is poison in my drink." She said as she sat back to her seat earlier. Again, it is only her first day and there are already people that wants her dead by putting poison in her drinks.

They stared at her with wide eyes, clearly in shock to know why her behavior is odd but it made her more odd to see her so calm about this, she almost got killed for Serene's sake!

Soon, King Noli's surprise turned to anger, how dare this servants do this kind of thing in his palace! Before he could say anything that will put the maid's head to the basket, Queen Sina calmed him down.

"Do not worry Your Majesty," Rose said, "I do not want the maid's life, perhaps catching the servant who prepared the tea might give you leads as to who their master is."

King Noli called the guards for the maid to be placed in the dungeons. As they took the poor maid, David came in with a guy.

He had a lean and mascular body, a tall man with with dark hair, perfect eyebrows, straight nose, sharp cheekbones, his lips and skin pale, his eyes, instead of black pupils, his is white that it slowly taking over his grey iris on his right eye while his left is completely white.

Rose stared at his eyes with amazement, with his white pupils, he already looks attractive.

She mentally shook her head, completely disagreeing. Why is she thinking like that? This is no time to fool around! She is here to cure this man and go back home, nothing else.

"What happened?" David asked as he saw the guards taking the maid away. He had been gone for who knows how many minutes and then coming back with the Prince, seeing guards holding a servant captive.

"What do you mean, General?"

Queen Sina sighed and told them to take a seat first. Rose stood up from her seat to let the men sit on the couch.

"Take a seat, sister." David muttered, offering his seat to Rose, she refused and told him to let the Prince sit on the couch alone.

Awkward silence have fallen making the two guests shift in discomfort.

Sina and Noli looked at their son with worried gaze while Rose and David waited for one of the family member to break the silence.

"Why is the room silent?" The Prince said, his voice so low yet smooth that it brought chills down to Rose's spine.

"Son, your doctor–"

"Is General Izamae's sister, I know." He cuts his father off, "my eye have completely lost its sight because of her tardiness."

An apologetic look was given to Rose by the Prince's parents.

"I apologize for my tardiness, Your Highness. But I also have my own responsibilities back in my kingdom that I cannot simply throw away, I suggest you ask my Queen as to why she had to keep me longer."

Prince Mark grunted at her reply, this girl is not afraid to talk back against people, even Royals. Her witty tongue caused him to be interested, no woman have ever dared to talked back to him, except his mother.

She is certainly a woman with different style.

Her voice have this soothing feeling that makes somewhat him relax, yet there is this authoritative mixed in. A perfect balance as what he wants to describe.

He heard steps from behind, and stopping in from of him. He shifted in his seat, he can feel this person's gaze and it surely made him uncomfortable a little bit.

Seconds later a warm and smooth hand touched his cold ones. Taken aback by the sudden interaction, Rose pulled her hands away.

What was she thinking? Holding his hand too sudden without his permission, what a stupid move.

Clearing her throat, she regained her composure.

"I am going to check your pulse. May I?" She asked politely except her voice wavered a bit. Mentally cursing herself, she didn't notice Prince Mark's smirk.

"You may." He replied, he felt her warm hands against his once again, her fingers touched his wrists as she checked his pulse.

Waiting for a couple of seconds, Mark heard Rose sigh as if she expected something that he doesn't know.

"You pulse rate is low." Rose said as she took her book and pen to write down his symptoms. Standing up, she nodded to David who understands what she means. It is like they have talked through their minds, like telepathy.

David excused himself to the Royal Family and proceeded to walk out of the office.

"Can we continue this somewhere else? Infirmary or His Highness' chamber?"