Caught in the Act (1)

The following day, Elucina began to strategize a concrete plan to reclaim her crown. But first, she needed to retrieve an item from her previous residence.

While she had tried to search it through her belongings at the mansion, Elucina could not find it. It seemed that the maids had not packed it, probably because she had hidden it quite too well. 

So, she had no option but to return to her castle and fetch the item herself.

"Ughh," Elucina groaned in frustration.

Meanwhile, she was bent down to search under her old bed, while Daleah stood guard to hold the door, keeping an eye out for anyone approaching the master room.

"Er, h, have you found it yet, Your Highness?" Daleah whispered anxiously from the guest area of the room.

"Just…! Ugh! I'm trying to get… it!" Elucina grunted and strained, as she struggled to grab her diary beneath the center of her old bed. She desperately ran her fingers, tapping at the floor to pinpoint the exact location she had it placed.

She cursed silently, wishing she could just squeeze her head under the bed, and then her search would have been easier. But the gap was too narrow, just enough for her arm to get in.

"Do, Do you want me to reach it for you instead, Your Highness?" Daleah whispered, hearing her struggle from the entrance of the room.

"No…! I've got this! Thank you for your concern, though!" Elucina insisted stubbornly as she persistently waved her hand beneath the bed. After sweeping and feeling around, she finally felt something hard, like a piece of a book down there. 

"Oh, I think I found it!"

She snatched the object she touched from the floor. As she retrieved her arm, she saw what she got – her diary finally in her hands.

"Yes!" Elucina exclaimed before dashing from the bedroom to the guest area, waving the diary in the air. "I got it, Daleah! Now, let's leave before anyone sees us!"

Her handmaiden nodded and followed her as Elucina briskly strolled down the corridor. 

Elucina navigated through the corners, turning and choosing the path where there would be fewer servants. And of course, she knew how to get through them, and the best places to sneak out when they heard an approaching footsteps.

Having spent eight years living in the castle when she still had crowned, she had memorized every nook and canny, every detail of this place.

"Wait!" Elucina sharply whispered, turning her head slightly to the side without diverting her ears from the approaching servant on the path she intended for them to go.

Having left the corridor behind, Elucina surveyed their current location. They were now under the roofed pathway beside the opened courtyard.

With the footsteps growing louder by the second, Elucina grabbed Daleah's arm, pulling her towards the courtyard. "Let's go this way. Hurry!" she urged.

They dashed through the open courtyard, with Elucina glancing up at the windows of the floors for any sign of servants, to see if there were eyes that would see them.

"There, hug the walls!" Elucina directed, pointing to the side, and Daleah ran alongside her.

They pressed against the castle walls, ducking their backs low as they passed by the windows of the first floor. Stopping whenever they would hear somebody passing by, they sneaked along the side until they reached the castle's maze garden.

"Great," Elucina breathed a sigh in relief, knowing there would be no servants present now on the path they took to sneak in. "Now, help me find that opening in these hedges so we can leave."

"Y, Yes, Your Highness," Daleah answered as she began to scan through the tall hedges in front of them, the barriers separating them from the grass field of the palace.

As Daleah urgently checked through the hedges, Elucina tried to search the area for any signs of her horse, which she had left near the gap when they snuck in.

"Piiit," Elucina let out a soft whistle, cautious not to make it too loud as someone might hear them.

In response, her horse neighed softly, seemingly recognizing Elucina's signal. "Daleah, over here!" Elucina called out for her handmaiden, gesturing that she had found their way out.

However, just when things were going smoothly, Elucina's ears perked as she heard a footstep that snapped a branch in the distance.

"...Huh? Is that you, Your Highness?" the confused voice of a lady asked.

'Oh, no.' Elucina's heart dropped to her stomach. 

With her heart racing, she slowly turned towards the voice to find who the speaker was. To her surprise, she found familiar faces, standing in the castle's backyard hedge maze, catching them as they were sneaking out.

"Countess Lenne?" Elucina muttered, recognizing the first person before seeing who was beside her, "...and Princess Vanetta."

Instinctively, she shifted the hand holding the diary behind her back, then took the initiative to ask the question, "Wha, What are you doing here?"

"Um, Countess Lenne was showing me around the castle," Princess Vanetta answered. "And you, Princess Elucina? Are you exploring as well?"

"Ahh, err." Elucina tilted her head to the side as she scrambled to make up a believable lie to cover up her situation. At that moment, she also felt Countess Lenné's eyes piercing stare towards her.

Realizing she could not give a good cover-up, she confessed the truth. "I just retrieved something from my old room," she admitted, showing the diary in her hand for a brief time before hiding it again behind her back. "And… I was about to leave."

"Hm? But the gates are… over there," Princess Vanetta pointed toward the direction.

"Oh, yeah," Elucina reluctantly agreed, nodding her head.

Following this, an awkward silence fell among the group, the only sound playing was the distant chirping of birds in the background.

"So, should we go together, Your Highness?" Princess Vanetta asked cautiously, breaking the stillness in the air, looking at Elucina with her puppy eyes.

Elucina straightened hearing her question. While she was silent for a still minute, she heard another snort coming from her horse behind the hedges.

Her gaze fell upon Countess Lenné, then back to Princess Vanetta, before she soon muttered, "...Of course."