Chapter 26

“Your training clothes should be prepared in your respective rooms. Once you have checked them, let us gather in the main dining hall.”

With the priest departing, the princesses scattered to their respective rooms. Nephitia also pushed open the door and stepped inside.

“Um…”

Standing blankly in the doorway, Nephitia couldn’t even bring herself to walk inside as her eyes rolled around in bewilderment. She needed to go in, but her feet simply refused to move. How should she describe this place…?

White walls, tiled floors, and a worn-out wooden bed spread with stiff cotton fabric. Everything was so unfamiliar it was almost frightening.

Still, mustering up her courage, Nephitia stepped inside. Extending a hand to lightly stroke the bed, Nephitia’s eyes widened. The fabric was stiff and the bed frame was as hard as a boulder. Her brow furrowed as she cautiously sat her hips down on the edge.

Good grief, for a bed meant for sleep to be this hard!

“Hey, someone.”

The words had slipped out by habit. Nephitia paused, about to call out to someone outside. Ah, right, there was no one outside…

Sighing, Nephitia sat there blankly before picking up the neat stack of white tunics laid out on the bed. A wave of regret washed over her at the thought of stripping off the silk tunic she had been wearing and changing into this crude attire, but since it was a rule, she had to follow it.

To think that here, she wasn’t a princess, merely ‘Nephitia’…

The soft-textured tunic slipped smoothly down her rounded shoulders. Slipping a tunic over a single undergarment underneath was the same method used in Kepet anyway, but Nephitia utterly disliked this stiff, sack-like garment.

Making the best of it, she pulled the baggy, sack-like tunic over her head and tightened the waist cord. It was so lacking even a single gemstone that it looked precisely like the kind of attire a slave would wear.

With a displeased expression, Nephitia pulled and tied her waist cord, then began one by one to untie the gold pieces from her wrists and ankles.

How on earth had the venerable King Mahati endured this process? Nephitia naturally thought of her mother.

To the Kepet royalty, accessories were not merely bodily adornments, but symbols of great authority. Unfastening these one by one and placing them down inside the wicker basket was far more difficult than she had expected.

Pondering for a moment, Nephitia finally plucked away even the jeweled crown decorating her black hair and set it down in the wicker basket.

Now, all that remained were truly just her body, the crude tunic, and the shabby leather sandals. Her wrists, ankles, and nape felt utterly vacant without gems and ornaments, giving her the distinct sensation of being stark naked.

To think she had to go outside like this. It felt so embarrassing, as though she were walking around completely bare…

Nephitia looked down at her own body. The coarse tunic not only looked unsightly, but seemed detrimental to her health as well. As the scratchy fabric grazed her bare chest, even the tips of her flesh were stung with a tingling sensation.

Nephitia naturally recalled Arkin’s gaze. To think she had to face Arkin looking like this. It was no different from a lion whose mane had been sheared off. Where on earth had the dignity and authority of a monarch gone…?

Downcast, Nephitia placed the wicker basket onto the bed and turned around. It was time to go out anyway.

Nephitia opened the door and cautiously poked her head outside. Hadn’t everyone come out yet?

“Ah.”

It was then that she made eye contact with a certain princess who was lingering alone in the empty hallway. She didn’t know her name yet since they hadn’t exchanged formal introductions, but upon spotting Nephitia, the other girl approached her warmly first.

“Um, you’re the Kepet princess… right?”

She was still unaccustomed to being addressed this way. Nephitia gave a slight nod and stared intently at the other person.

“That’s right, and who are you?”

“I’m Petra of Stoneguard.”

Stoneguard. Was that the Rock Kingdom? No, wait, was it stone? Nephitia gazed at her blankly for a moment before continuing.

“Ah, Petra. What is your business with me?”

“My business, you ask? Uh, well…”

Her pebble-smooth, pitch-black eyes rolled around. Princess Petra made an ambiguous sound that was half-laughter, half-groan, before finally letting out a somewhat crooked smile.

“Usually in times like this, the other person introduces themselves too… No, never mind, forget it.”

With a wry smile and a wave of her hand, Princess Petra brought up the main point.

“Say, I’ve got something I’m curious about. Are you on close terms with the prince of Solinar?”

“Solinar? Ah, you mean Prince Arkin?”

A welcome name. As a smile blossomed across Nephitia’s face, Petra’s gaze subtly narrowed in contrast.

“You’re on familiar enough terms to call him by name? I didn’t know the two kingdoms exchanged visits that often.”

Nephitia replied nonchalantly.

“Well, they did say everyone is on equal footing here, after all. Of course, Prince Arkin and I share a slightly more special relationship…”

At that exact moment, two people who had just stepped out into the hallway drew closer. One was a pink-haired princess with a floral ornament tucked into her hair, and the other was a pale, quiet princess adorned with pearl decorations in her black hair.

“My goodness, I look just like a slave!”

The pink-haired princess, looking down at her unsightly tunic with harsh criticism, abruptly snapped her head around. Seeming intensely interested in the name ‘Arkin,’ she quickly closed the distance and barged into their conversation.

“Arkin? You mean Prince Arkin Seilir?”

Raising her voice in excitement, she glanced sideways at Nephitia as if mindful of her presence.

“I-I was curious too! I saw the two of you sitting side by side earlier, didn’t I? Right before the opening ceremony started.”

“You’ll all become his friends here anyway, so what’s there to be surprised about?”

Nephitia failed to understand their overly enthusiastic reactions. Why make such a fuss over this?

“Well, seeing as how…”

The twin-tailed princess of the Rock Kingdom gave a rather unconvinced reaction.

“That prince didn’t seem interested in me or the other princesses at all, did he? At least from where I was standing, it felt like fluent conversation was only happening between you two and Prince Arkin.”

“Ah, that’s because…”

How should she explain it? That they had felt a powerful and special connection from their very first meeting in the forest, and though he might not believe it, they were soulmates.

“Arkin and I…”

Carefully weighing and stripping away words, Nephitia spoke cautiously.

“One could say we’ve forged a somewhat special friendship.”

To Nephitia, it was a carefully chosen word, but at those words, Amalfi’s eyes flashed brightly.

“A special friendship? What is that? How do you forge one?”

Acting as though suddenly excited, she flushed her cheeks and stepped right up to Nephitia. Her round cheeks were entirely stained pink.

“Oh, how wonderful it would be if I could share a special friendship with Arkin Seilir too. Did you see him during the oath-taking ceremony? That blonde hair, and how on earth did he get so tall and heart-flutteringly handsome?”

Amalfi’s cheeks flushed a rosy red as she expressed her bubbly, excited feelings.

“Listen here, love is the greatest value of all—”

“Sorry to ruin the romance of the Floral Kingdom of Floria, but Princess Amalfi, you’d better drop any thoughts of romancing a foreign prince here. Not only is it strictly prohibited by the regulations, but it’ll only bring you endless piles of tiresome trouble.”

Petra bluntly cut her off. As Amalfi’s fussiness cooled slightly under the frosty reality check, Petra seized control of the conversation.

“Say, Princess of Kepet. What I’m actually curious about is something else. Prince Arkin seemed rather difficult to approach, so how on earth did you get close to him so quickly?”

“Well. We just happened to… meet in the forest, that’s all.”

Nephitia explained the situation. She had disembarked from the ship, gone for a stroll, spotted Arkin, exchanged a few words there, and become friends. Of course, she cleverly omitted the details about touching his face or feeling a special sensation.

“How envious. I should have wandered into that forest too.”

Amalfi furrowed her brows in deep regret.

Nephitia gazed quietly at the genuinely disappointed Amalfi and pressed her lips shut. She realized she shouldn’t explain their meeting in the forest in too much detail. Nor the fact that Arkin was her ‘Hetasept.’

“It’s certainly enviable if it was purely by chance. Since Arkin is going to become the leader of the Alliance in the future, it would have been nice to greet him beforehand.”

Adding her own thoughts with a slightly different kind of regret than Amalfi’s, Petra continued.

“Did you know? They say in the Kingdom of Solinar, one can only ascend to the throne by gaining the unanimous consent of the eight clans. That alone is truly remarkable…”

“Stop it.”

An abruptly cold voice cut sharply into Petra’s words. Princess Serena of Lakelium stood there with a cool, expressionless face.