CH. 10 Eerie Silence

Her Highness was weird these days. The Twins would find her taking walks in the gardens often and every time they stumbled upon each other, she would invite them to have tea with her. She would have the servants bring out new desserts every time and the twins would eat them silently.

Noah realised that she would like to have small conversations with them every time and would patiently wait even when they hesitated with their answers. Noah looked at the test paper and thought, if he did better in the test would Her Highness look at it and compliment him again? As he thought about it, he found himself wanting to do better and the hours-long classes didn't feel that difficult to sit through. He was able to pay more attention to his studies.

They had only been spending time with Her Highness for a month and a few days but Noah liked to sit in the garden with Cleo and Her Highness.

Cleo felt the same, He didn't have any mana reserves like Noah but he was confident about his swordsmanship. If he practised more every day, he was sure he would be able to create sword aura. He felt scared whenever he thought about his lack of mana reserves and how talented Noah was when it came to magic. Miss Kaylee would always punish him for it and remind him that he would never be able to catch up to Noah who was superior to him since birth. She would say that he should hate his mother, Her Highness, for giving him a useless body. Cleo also felt angry at his mother but when she spoke to them on their first evening in the garden, he really liked how she complimented them and asked them if they disliked anything or if they found their studies hard. She also apologised to them for being a bad person towards them before. He only felt warm and comfortable around her unlike how he felt around Miss Kaylee. Cleo hated Miss Kaylee, their tutor. He looked up from where he was kneeling to find Noah sitting in the tutor's lap. She always made him do that and Noah doesn't like it.

Noah sat there stiffly as Miss Kaylee patted him slowly. He felt like bugs crawling over his body every time she did that to him. Noah wanted to bolt out of this room and scrub his body under hot scalding water until he could peel his skin off. He felt dirty and nauseous.

"Noah." Miss Kaylee cooed and he flinched at the voice near his ear.

"I heard lately Her Highness has been having tea with you often." She said and Noah felt a sense of ominous foreboding.

"You can't do that, My Lord." She said as her arm snaked around his torso bringing him closer, flushing his back into her chest.

"The Grand Princess is a bad influence on you. You must not speak with the likes of her. She is far beneath your notice and she isn't qualified to even lick your shoes. You must not agree with her from now on. We don't want that dirty thing to affect your pure and blinding person." When he hesitated in his reply, she added. "Look at your brother, He is still far from it but I have been working really hard in teaching him to get better. I will continue to do just that so you must listen to me. It is for your own good."

Noah immediately nodded but despite his efforts, Cleo got beaten again.

A week later...

"Ivy, Bring me someone and maintain discretion." Her Highness was wearing a grave expression when she ordered the maid. A few minutes later, the maids from the Young Lords' palace were standing in front of Her Highness along with two knights who followed the Young Lords.

"How are the twins doing?" Her Highness asked. Today she seemed like she was in deep thought and didn't even glance at the aromatic tea and delicious snacks.

"Normal, I see." Her Highness spoke looking at the confused maids.

"What do you think about the tutor?" Her Highness asked after a small pause.

"Lady Kaylee is very attentive when it comes to the young lords, Your Highness." One of the maids answered.

"How attentive?"

And so the maids recounted an incident from almost a year ago. Not long after the young lords' education had begun, Lord Noah had fallen into a fit when he caught sight of a maid cleaning his room. So the tutor instructed the staff to exercise discretion and finish their duties while the lords were in class. However, the maid who was responsible for angering Lord Noah was dismissed later.

Hearing this Her Highness fell into a deep silence and the maids sweated profusely, scared that they made some mistake and would be dismissed.

"From now on, I want you to do something for me. Observe the twins' rooms and report to me what you see. The things they possess, the things they use and the things that they treasure most. How they keep their surroundings. Every single detail. I must know what their rooms look like even without me visiting them. I want a detailed report. And keep this a secret from everyone who isn't listening to this conversation. Do you understand?" Her Highness instructed. The four maids looked confused but they nodded regardless.

"You two." Her Highness turned to the knights. "I have a different job for you." The two knights, like everyone else in the Grand Palace, knew how Her Highness changed after the accident and heeded her orders with utmost sincerity.

"I only hope I was wrong." Her Highness sighed heavily and Ivy looked at her in worry.

A few days later, Ivy along with Reese and Jude, two new maids for Her Highness, were preparing for Her Highness' departure for House Felipe's tea party.

The three maids exchanged a look of worry as Her Highness had been oddly silent and spaced out after instructing the maids and knights a few days ago. They weren't sure what was happening but they could tell that Her Highness wasn't in a good mood. But what was more scary was Her Highness' silence.

"Are you worried about something, Your Highness?" Reese, the twenty-three-year-old and the eldest among the three maids, asked softly.

"Mn." Came the reply and the three exchanged looks of worry. They wanted to ask further but they didn't dare to speak another word. So they silently helped the Grand Princess get ready for the tea party.