Chapter 35

Should she tell Freya the truth and trust her to keep it a secret or pretend not to know anything?

That was the question nagging Arya right now.

She took a bite of a cheese and jam pastry to excuse herself from talking for a bit.

Lysandra was giggling, chatting and laughing with her girl group and whenever she laughed, everyone laughed. If she told a joke, everyone laughed at it. If she said something, you would all nod in agreement.

The topic shifted away from succession to Royalstrial.

With Maraisa dead, only Freya's hand in marriage could be fought for by the boys of Royalstrial.

Freya turned pale and uncomfortable when Arya mentioned this to her. Maybe she shouldn't have brought it up.

Of course, any girl of marrying age and from a noble household would be competing for Ezekial's hand in marriage in…less than 4 days now along with boys from noble households for Freya's hand in marriage.

"Of course, I told my mother I have no interest in marrying some stranger and we argued and fought for so long over it. I told her I want the right man for me-I want real romance and love, not some battle tournament where some boy wins me like I'm a trophy or spoil of war!! Is that too much to ask for? A marriage for love and pure affection and trust?!!"

Lysandra looked depressed and sad when she said this and Arya didn't know she was a romantic. Judging by her appearance, she looked cold, serious and unemotional like the ice she had control over.

The other girls giggled and sighed at the thought of their princess being such a romantic.

Arya wished she had the ability to read minds right now because it was hard to tell what people were thinking just based on their faces alone.

Lysandra's face turned dark and stormy and the tablecloth started to get covered in ice and frost from where Lysandra was gripping it tightly. The air seemed to get colder and Arya could actually see her breath and her teeth started to chatter. 

"Fuck tradition and rules. Screw the throne. This is really no time to be thinking about petty power struggles when there was a large-scale attack on the kingdom just days ago.We need to prepare for the worst."

…

Arya wished she could have stayed behind and learned more about what Lysandra knew but Lysandra had quickly dismissed all the girls and hurried off to who-knows-where.

Freya didn't push her to answer her questions but Arya knew that Freya knew she knew something about the truth around her father's "illness".

After changing her clothes into training clothes, Arya slipped off to do some training/exercise.

Myna was off doing something. A personal servant had other duties to tend to other than taking care of their prince or princess or king or queen.

The old man tending to the royal gardens bowed to Arya and Arya bowed back.

"Good morning, Mr.Greenthumb!!"

Arya got to know some of the names of the servants who worked at the royal palace and they all grew to like her.

"Good Morning, my princess!! Beautiful day, isn't it?"

Arya walked over to him and stopped to admire his handiwork with the rose bushes. The rose bush was neatly trimmed and groomed to a perfect round shape and the roses were bright, lush and a deep red color.

"Yes, it's a perfect morning for training, Mr.Greenthumb!! And good morning to you, too!! You did a great job with the roses!! They're so pretty!!"

Mr.Greenthumb only blushed at the compliment.

"Just doing my job, princess. You like roses?"

Arya nodded.

"Yes, I do. They're pretty flowers but they have sharp thorns."

"A little like you, my dear rose princess. Beautiful but sharp and deadly as well."

Everyone called Arya the "The Rose Princess" in part because Arya's love for roses was obvious to anyone, but mostly because Arya was as beautiful as a rose but she had thorns and sharp edges as well like a real rose. Beautiful and powerful. A perfect combination.

"You should take a break, Mr.Greenthumb. It's hot out here and you've probably been working for hours now. Drink some water and eat something."

The heat was oppressive even though it was approaching the fall season now. Arya had only been outside for a few minutes and she could already feel herself starting to sweat a little. 

Arya's concern for him was touching and he noticed how her dark green eyes were sparkling and glittering with life and kindness. The eyes are the window to the soul, people always say, and it looked like Arya's soul was a kind and sweet one.

The old man laughed. If only he and his wife, the head maid for the palace, had kids of their own. He was old enough to be a grandfather already but he and his wife were unable to have children. How he wished he had grandchildren because if he did have grandchildren, Arya would be his favorite granddaughter.

If only this young princess was his actual granddaughter.

"Don't worry, my princess. I have a flask of water and some food with me and I'm no rookie at my job; I know I should be taking breaks to avoid sun stroke. But your concern for my well being touches me to my heart. "

Arya's hand played with a rose blossom that was in perfect condition. Carefully avoiding the sharp thorns, she plucked the rose and the red velvet-like petals were soft to the touch.

"It smells sweet and wonderful. Here, Mister, give this to your wife. I'm sure she'll love it. It's the result of all your love and care for this rose."

Arya handed the plucked rose to Mr.Greenthumb and he accepted it like it was a great honor for me.

"With pleasure, my princess. My wife loves flowers-especially roses."

Arya turned around to leave for training.

"Goodbye, Mr.Greenthumb, have a nice day!!!"

"You too, my princess!!"

He waves goodbye to Arya as she left.

…

A training dummy sparred with her as Arya wished to be alone while training.

Last time she trained at the Royal Academy, she felt so many pairs of eyes on her that she felt like an animal on display. So sneaking into the old concubine mansion that served as her home for many months was what she did.

The bushes, trees and grass had started to grow wild and unruly with no one to trim them and groom them and Arya felt the grass brush up against her knees as she made her way to the stone court where she had her first lessons in combat.

The training dummies and rack of swords-both wooden and not wooden-were protected and shielded from the elements by a protective sheet.

Ater grabbing two swords and a training dummy, it was time to train.

The dummy's sword sliced through the air and towards Arya's neck but Arya managed to deflect it and launch a counterattack by swinging her swords and slashing at the dummy's belly.

The dummy leaped out of the way and Arya didn't let it escape from her reach.

Swords clashed and sparked as blows were traded and the two fought.

Arya's eyes kept moving and watching as she parried, deflected and blocked the blows from the dummy.

She also rained down blows on the dummy, slashes, cuts, stabs and more at the dummy who was blocking them with ease.

Arya looked for an opening-any opening-so she could launch a damaging attack.

The dummy and her crossed swords and Arya put all her strength behind the sword, pushing back the dummy and it stumbled a bit.

Now.

Arya's leg shot out in a back kick and she kicked the dummy with all the strength she had.

The dummy went flying and crashing against a tree.

It unactivated and the fight was over.

Arya was slightly disappointed that the fight was over so quickly. Maybe she was getting stronger or the dummy was too weak.

Her pretty pocket knife was still there and Arya mindlessly took it out and unsheathed it.

The knife's shiny blade reflected her eyes back at her and Arya saw her glittering and sparkling emeralds for eyes wink back at her.

Footsteps.

Someone was coming and approaching her from behind.

Arya whipped around, ready to fight, knife in her hands.

She flung the knife as hard as she could at the direction of the footsteps.

A shriek of panic could be heard and Arya saw that it was just a girl.

No, Arya thought, it's that girl from before. The girl I saved from that piggy pervert. She's doing fine now--at least from what I can tell.

Arya saw her knife missed the girl and instead got itself stuck in a tree instead. Small mercy it didn't hit her, Arya thought.

The girl nervously bowed and paid respect to Arya. She was still shaking and Arya felt like some bad guy for scaring the crap out of this poor girl.

"Get up. I'm so sorry about throwing a knife at you but I wasn't expecting anyone here and you kinda stuck up on me like that without warning."

The girl nodded. She was quite pretty with her red hair in two braids and periwinkle blue eyes with a splash of freckles across her nose and cheeks. She wore a black maid outfit similar to the ones the female servants of the royal palace wore except she had a small gold badge in the shape of a crown pinned to the front of her uniform.

'The badge is to show that I work for the Royal Academy as a way to separate me from the other servants who work for the royal family."

She must have read Arya's mind because it looked like the badge was not just there for aesthetic purposes.

A gold crown….that must be the symbol of the Royal Academy the same way the lion was a symbol of the royal family, Arya thought.

The girl continued.

"It's just that I wanted to thank you for helping me back then. The headmaster really was such an evil pervert towards me and he used his powers over the workers-especially the girls- for his own benefit. I wasn't the only female worker he harassed and…forced himself on. Thank you, your highness."

Arya wished she just killed that bastard instead of just breaking his nose and sending him to the medical ward.

"What's your name?"

"Lily."

"Lily as in the flower? That's a pretty name."

"Thank you, your highness, but allow this humble servant to ask you for a favor."

Arya walked over to the tree where her knife was and pulled it out.

"Yes, go ahead. Tell me what you want, Lily."

Lily's voice raised to a pitch fever and she got all worked up.

"I want to be your personal servant!!!"

Okay, that got her off guard.

"But don't you work-"

Lily shook her head.

"I already quit my job at the Royal Academy and I got a new job working as a palace maid. The pay wasn't all that good and I got harassed at the Royal Academy."

Okay, Ara thought, she already had Myna but she decided that Lily could make a nice friend for her to talk to since they looked around the same age.

"Alright, I'll talk about it to Myna. She's been with me ever since I first arrived at the royal palace."

Lily nodded. It was common for princes and princesses to have more than one personal servant.

….

Ezekiel wanted to slam his head into the wall or punch something. Too much was going on all at once.

He knew all too well that with the zombie wave that had just attacked the kingdom and with all the reports he got from Catalina that the zombie attack wasn't just limited to the capital but happened all across the kingdom.

There was also the soaring food costs along with the rise in costs for other such needed goods and reports of serial killers stalking the streets were everywhere.

Ezekiel wished that his father was still around to take care of all this but he was dead.

Ezekiel was acting as a "regent for his biid-ridden father" but Ezekiel knew that was all bullshit.

It was just a cover up for his father's death so that a succession war doesn't break out.

Because that was the last thing this country needed on top of the tension from the serial killings happening in the countryside and cities in the past months, the spike in the cost of everything these days and the recent zombie attacks.

Marisa might be gone now but there was still Theon and Lysandra to worry about.

Theon was probably holed up in his private training room right now and Lysandra might be sparring with one of her allies right now.

His advisors were also swamped with reports and work to do.

Men and women rushed here and there, arms full of documents and reports, some were writing away fiercely while others were talking and debating plans, ideas and possible solutions.

Ezekiel himself had been reading reports for at last 3 hours now. His head hurts.

He looked out the window of his father's(now his)office.

Maybe some fresh air would be good for him…

…

"Myna, this is Lily. Lily, this is Myna."

Arya introduced Lily to Myna once she came back inside.

Myna had already prepared a bath for her.

Arya sighed as she soaked into the warm water and the sweet-smelling bubbles scented with roses and sugar.

She really needed a bath as she was starting to stink.

She had just gotten into the bathtub when a pain suddenly flashed into her head.

What was this? A migraine of some sort?

Arya didn't have much time to think about it as she blacked out and woke up to find herself in a dark cave.