Page 29 of The White King's Favorite

“...Who sent you?” asked Tessa, who was playing with another knife already. “Don’t you lie, I’ll really cut your tongue if you do. I only need one of you to talk.”

“The King, my lady! It’s the truth!” quickly said Nupia.

As she was repeatedly bowing and hiding her face, Yassim had no idea how to tell if the triplets were telling the truth, but Tessa and Cessilia were visibly satisfied with that. Tessa glanced toward her cousin and put the knife down.

“K-King Ashen t-told you to p-protect me...?” repeated Cessilia.

This time, she wasn’t doubting the triplets, but there was surprise in her voice. Tessa frowned subtly too. What was going on there... The triplets nodded quietly again, visibly still afraid of the cousin’s dangerous knife-throwing ability.

“...I see.”

That was all Cessilia said, and no one dared to ask anything else. Instead, as she slowly stood up, they all did, and she put back on a gentle smile as if all of that hadn’t happened.

“Is it alright if we g-go now?” she asked Yamino.

“Of course, my lady! Nothing better than a little digestive walk, right?”

“You three are coming with us,” immediately said Tessa, glaring at the triplets.

All three immediately complied and cleared the table in record time while the girls took out their coats.

“Maybe we should wear something d-different?” suggested Cessilia.

She had probably noticed the difference in clothing from the rest of the nobles.

“There will be plenty of clothes in the market if you ladies want to buy something,” nodded Yassim. “They may not be as luxurious as the Dragon Empire’s fabric, but we have some of the best clothing shops of the Kingdom in the Capital.”

“Oh, for sure! Naptunie will happily take you, Princess Cessilia,” nodded Yamino. “My niece loves going downtown.”

Their little group soon got ready to leave the room, and Cessilia did notice how Nupia carefully closed the room behind them and walked back to her, handing her the key.

“From now on, Princess Cessilia, you are the only guest allowed in the Cerulean Room and the only one to decide who will be allowed in or not. The sentence for trespassing is death, my lady.”

Tessa scoffed.

“I hope you’ll remember to let me in, Cessi.”

The two cousins chuckled but did not mention anything about allowing the older Counselors in again. Instead, their little group walked out and back into the corridors. This time, Yamino was leading them, while the triplets followed behind. Cessilia was a bit excited to get out of this castle. She found this place a bit sad and stuffy; most of the corridors were bare and the atmosphere heavy anywhere they went. The few people they walked into quietly bowed to their group and disappeared, out of the way. Either the news of an Imperial Princess coming had quickly spread throughout the place, or those people knew they should stay away from the guests; no one talked to them.

“My niece should be in the library,” said Yamino as they arrived at a lower floor. “She is a clever girl and loves reading, she is a bit of an indoor flower, you see.”

“I know someone like that,” said Tessa, smiling at her cousin.

Cessilia smiled back. Perhaps Naptunie could become a good friend indeed... Plus, now that he had mentioned it, she was a bit curious to discover that library. Cessilia had read almost every book she could find in all three of the palaces she lived in, and her grandmother even gifted her several books for each of her birthdays, just so she could have something new to read. In fact, in the Dragon Empire, it was rumored that the Princess’ love for books had multiplied the circulation of books within the Empire and inspired more of the youth to read, as she and her mother regularly donated books to the schools, orphanages, and charities.

However, Cessilia found herself a bit disappointed when they entered the library.

The room wasn’t as big as she had hoped, nor filled with books. In fact, some of the shelves were half-empty and seemed too large for their contents. The old oak wood seemed about to crumble, and the colored leather of some books was standing out too much among the decrepit ones. Seeing the disappointment in the Princess’ eyes, Yassim stepped forward, a bit apologetic.

“Because of the recent war, a lot of the books are now in the people’s private properties rather than in the castle’s library... They became extremely rare and valuable due to many of them getting burned too, so it has become harder to replenish these shelves. They were once filled with dozens of amazing books, my lady. All of the Counselors have been trying to bring more books back, but...”

“There are too many thieves,” sighed Yamino. “Because the books are so valuable, some are getting stolen every week, despite His Majesty putting some guards here.”

“Th-that’s sad...” muttered Cessilia.

Slowly, she stepped into the library first, her green eyes going to the shelves without touching any of those books. This place felt... forsaken. It was as if a few people had tried to take care of it, then abandoned it. There was dust on the shelves, and only the books with the prettiest covers seemed to be properly taken care of. The oldest, ugliest ones had their back covers falling apart and were piling up dust. Cessilia’s eyes were reading one title after another, most of them completely unknown to her. She was still very curious to read each of these books, but her heart was pained when she witnessed their poor state. She grabbed one of the very old books.

“Anyone c-can take a b-book here?”

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