A SIMPLE TALK

"What is this?!" Ashleah surprisingly said before putting her cup of tea down, Prescott with his tilted head flew to her and bursts out laughing. "What are you laughing at?" She looked at him with a flaring glare.

"My, your highness that look you gave me is kind of scary. Does it not, Your Majesty?" An amused look was inside Prescott's eyes as his head turned around and looked at the Emperor. It was another normal day to be honest.

They were having a simple meal, not until Nanny Riley gave them the papers, Ashleah almost choked herself when she the headlines, 'rumors do spread quite fast huh? And how can they draw the exact thing that happened!' she thought.

"It does look like that our so called people who loves spreading rumors are now taking action, don't they?" Emperor Adler calmly said, but Ashleah knew for a fact that those look in his eyes was certainly poking fun at her.

"Why is Princess acting like that, Emperor?" The clueless and confused Aziel suddenly butted in with an cream on the side of his lips making the Emperor chuckle. "I do not really get it." He pouted his lips.

"Hahahaha, my. Riley please do help Aziel wipe off the cream on the side of his lips-" The Emperor looked at Riley and nodded his head. "-and Aziel, this is a conversation of the adults so you should not interfere, is that clear?"

Aziel who was now getting the cream on the side of his lips getting wiped away nodded his head, finally the Emperor cleared his throat before talking again.

"The Duke would probably go here to the Imperial Palace for his duties and also because of the rumors that are spreading. I actually feel like we are seeing things eye to eye-"

"Father!" Ashleah with a flushed red tinted face, stopped her father from talking too much. She did not know why, but every single time this was their discussion she cannot help herself from blushing.

To be honest, Ashleah knew that ever since their first lives that she was likes or may be perhaps in love with Nash, even though she wanted to take it into another level, and just confess to him too.

Still, Ashleah wants to secure that both of their curses are gone. She was aware that Nash was just doing his best not to talk about it, when someone gets killed or they kill themselves. He was trying to cope everything all by himself.

"Father, can I go to the temple?" As soon as those words left her mouth, the door opened and revealed Nash who looked like he just came.

"His Imperial Majesty, Emperor of Genry. Greetings!" He bowed to the Emperor, he then turned to Ashleah and smiled. "Her Imperial Highness, Princess of Genry. Greetings!" And with that the Emperor clasped both of his hands.

"Great! Duke Deoncan, can you kindly ask your Butler if you have any schedules for another couple of hours?" Nash blinked his eyes a couple of times and looked back, nodded his head Theo, his butler.

"Your Majesty, Duke Deoncan has a clear schedule for 2 hours before having a meeting with the other nobles." He said, the Emperor smiled. Ashleah felt alarmed when she saw that smile on her Father's face.

"Well then, Princess Izel wished to go to the temple, can you please go with her Duke Deoncan?" He turned his head at Ashleah and winked, she blinked her eyes and her hands found its way to the glass of water in front of her as she took a long sip from it.

"If that's his Majesty's wish. I will just wait for her highness to do her preparations." He bowed again, before turning his whole body he secretly made eye contact with Ashleah and walked out.

"What's your plan?" Nash asked Ashleah, they are inside the carriage on their way to the temple, Ashleah sighed and shook her head.

"I wanted to talk to him, and maybe he will give us clues about our mission." She looked to her side and saw how beautiful and peaceful the plaza was. "Nash, I think that–"

"Think what?"

"Think that Prescott knows something about the magicians." After saying that, Ashleah saw how this expression crossed Nash's face for a few seconds before fading away quickly.

"That idea never crossed my mind–" He stopped for a few seconds "–but now that you told me that, what if he really knows something about the magicians? And why?"

Both looked at each others eyes and blinked. "Is he hiding something from us? And my Father? Does he also think that Prescott knows something about the magicians?"

"If his Majesty thinks that Prescott knows something about the magicians he would probably add him in the plan right? We've been talking about the plan for ages."

"No–" Ashleah stopped for a few seconds to think. "–What if they are hiding us something much much more bigger than this plan?"

With that being said, the rest of their trip on the way to the temple was quite silent, both minds were in chaos and juggling some information that they think they can connect to each other.

"Her Imperial Highness, Princess of Genry. Greetings!" The servants inside the temple bowed their heads at Ashleah as soon as she stepped down from the carriage.

"Greetings Duke Deoncan!" They also did the same as soon as Nash stepped down from the carriage.

"We do wish privacy when we go inside and pray to our Lord." Nash said without even showing any expression receiving a raised eyebrow from Ashleah.

They nodded their heads and Ashleah with Nash quickly walked their way inside the temple. As soon as they were now facing this golden box.

"We're here today to talk to you!" Ashleah's voice echoed around the room. She continued calling out for his name but there was no response, she was about to pull Nash and give up but suddenly–

"My dearly beloved children, I do think that you are having a conflict if that magical bird knows something about them, don't you?"

Ashleah was about to shriek because she was so shocked, good thing Nash quickly covered her lips and calmed her down.

As soon as Ashleah calmed down, she removed Nash's hand and grumpily sighed. "Aish, do refrain yourself from shocking us that much."

"Oh, forgive me."

"The mission is quite hard, aren't you going to give us more clues so that there will be no more deaths?" Nash sighed to himself and shook his own head.

"I do not think that I can give you more clue–"

"Okay, thank you for keeping us safe. Nash let's go–"

"Wait! Wait!" Ashleah smirked as soon as she heard how he stopped them. "Fine, I do not also wish for the next high priest and favored child to die again."

"Okay, we're listening." Ashleah crossed her arms against her chest and tapped her fingers against it, totally waiting for what he has to say.

"Prescott has been living for a long time."

They both waited for him to continue what he was saying, but minutes passed he never continued. Nash's eyebrows furrowed.

"Wait, is that the clue that you are giving us?" He blurts out because of frustration. "Can that seriously help–" Nash suddenly stops in the mid way and blinked his eyes a couple of times.

"I think... I get it." Both said in sync, Ashleah and Nash looked at each other and smiled. "He knows, he definitely knows about it." Ashleah said nodding her head.

"Should we just get him straight to the point?" Nash asked Ashleah, they both faced each other and started talking about their plans.

"Uhhh.. hello?"

"hey!"

"I really thought you came here because you missed me!"

"uhhh–"

"Yeah, we should do that– Sorry, what was that again?" Ashleah tilted her head in confusion.

"Ah, nothing. You two should go now."

"Thank you." Nash and Ashleah said before walking out, Axis suddenly saw them and greeted the two.

"My, what brings you here?"

"We had a simple talk with God–" Ashleah's eyes widened as those words left her mouth, so did Nash's and Axis' eyes.

"A simple what?"

"what?" Nash said.

"what?" Ashleah replied.