Chapter 18 : The General and The Slave

"A Princess should never use a skin-tight shoe, and only slaves probably will."

Clarrie's heart beats faster, not because of the prince checking on her shoes. It was merely that his words were being directed to her real identity. She then realizes that she should have changed her shoes, but it was too late. "I like this type of shoe," She reasoned out, even if it was a lie. She does not like tight shoes, but as an enslaved person, this was their second identification. She hoped the prince would let her go this time and not push her again to reason out.

"A very unwise decision, Princess. You are not a slave. You are not supposed to like this type of shoes." Julius stared at the wooden leathered shoes. "I shall carry you now,"

She shakes her head and lets go of the knob as she waves her hands at the prince, "No, no. I feel fine, Prince."

"Shut up. You are still going to be my wife after two weeks now. Whether you disagree, you have nowhere else to go besides marrying me. The same goes for me too." He almost yelled out, but he managed to keep his tone lowered. "I believe that you should change your shoes tomorrow. Not another next two days or weeks. But tomorrow."

Clarrie seems to find it strangely nonchalant. But, wait! She was supposed to be angry, and this was the Princess's future husband; she should not think about him like that. Just a big no!

"I cannot just change the type of shoes I like to wear, even if you think it is like slave shoes. This is a personal collection I bought when I helped garner some of my people's harvests." She said, feeling a gush of fear instead of being proud.

"You are not born accustomed to using an enslaved person's shoes no matter what its memory had connected in you. But, look, I cannot ruin your life if you already ruined it for me in advance." Julius raised his head slightly, then he stood up. Without any indication through his movements, he took a step backward before carefully lifting Clarrie using both arms like a real bride.

"Prince, put me down!" Clarrie moves her legs up and down as her sweaty hands try to push Julius's broad chest. His expression was plain as if he felt sorry for his action. "Do not move! Until I placed you properly on a chair, understand?" Julius used his deep, commanding voice as he told the woman his holding.

Clarrie, stunned, did not speak another word, she let the; she carries her as he turned right to where the chair was.

In less than five minutes, Clarrie was settled on the chair with a small pillow ready for her head to rest. First, Julius made sure that he was careful about putting her down. Then, after he was confident that it was alright to leave her, he told her to open both of her palms so that he could massage them.

At the moment, Clarrie was at that feeling of being unable to recognize the whole pushing away scenario. Half of his actions were rude; maybe the prince took pity on her as the Princess. Or was it because he felt a little guilty for being rude? But nah, he would not think about it.

"Listen, half of my men are going to be on duty tonight, and you must not meet them; the others will go crazy if you tell them your status," Julius warned as he started massaging Clarrie's left palm, the sound of groans coming from her made him frown. Her voice was like being hit in contrast to a pin, and she felt her veins and blood spikes up speed as it flowed. But, for her, there was no other reason to keep quiet when hurting.

Julius thought the fake Princess should just quietly watch him; he was not pressing her palm hard. He tried to be tender, and he knew the pressure points.

Clarrie's voice started to become louder, and her breathing was becoming unstable as he pressed the side of her palm closer to her thumb.

Julius stopped, and she looked at him. She hangs on unwearyingly for the Prince to continue massaging her palm.

Clarrie's condition had changed from anger to accepting the different attitude of the prince that she hated at first. However, it would not ultimately change her mind that the prince was not a good match for the Princess. Now that she was more relaxed, she stared at the prince's face but did dare meet his gaze. Although it was not easy to make her attitude be the same as the Princess, she continued, saying that the Prince would take his suspicions away. She cannot even believe how many lies she made in just an hour's talk with the prince.

"Do you still feel uneasy? Your hands were sweating because you were trying hard to stay awake," Julius said with a sign of warning in his tone, "Health always comes first, Princess. You are also wearing a slave's shoes; this causes dizziness because your foot cannot stretch out properly and get some oxygen. So you must be careful next time. Even if I am not someone who you cannot love, at least do it for yourself."

Clarrie's head was shouting, 'Is this really the prince?' because he suddenly became concerned that it was out of his charm. Or probably she was just overthinking. Besides, other people would also say the same to her. Now, she thought about it. If the Prince and the Princess met, would their differences be the purpose of why the engagement goes on? Mysteriously enough, she became anxious about them. She was mainly concerned about the danger the princess would face. The advanced thoughts were scrambling while she wanted herself to have peace of mind. She closed her left palm as Julius the current acting Prince goes to her right palm now.