15 Looking good on the outside, useless on the inside

"Stop staring..." Eric whispered, and I almost jumped up in fright. Reminding myself of who I was and whom I just met, I hurriedly greeted Her Majesty, Queen Qūin, with a deep courtsey.

"Dahlia Rubin greets Her Majesty the Queen. It is my honour to be able to meet you in person. May peace follow wherever you are."

With a serene smile, she helped me up herself and said in a silvery voice: "There is no need to do this. In my home, I am just myself, and you and your mother are my dear guests. Call me Hanah, since titles are needless here."

She was so dazzling. I found it hard to believe that this serene woman was anything like the rumours. Even though I was the author, I had never made any deep thoughts about Coronia, since it wasn't of importance to the love story of Leon and Ellie. So even though I could be considered the creator of this world, I had to admit that it had outgrown me. Because of my youthful ignorance, this world had to grow up by itself and mended its loopholes and untie its messy history by itself. It did quite well without my influence. This place, that I had only imagined as a dreamlike version of 1001 Nights, with flowing colourful garments and glittering gold; dazzling people and vivid nights actually gave itself such a deep and dark history. But it's true that the darker it is, the brighter light shines. And even the most vivid flowers had to grow from dirt and mud.

"I... How could I do such a thing?" Calling the royal family just by name? I thought only Ramsis was this strange, but how could I call the Queen by her pet name?

"Then you are not allowing me to call you by your name?" The beauty put on a sad face, and my head instantly exploded. This person was not easy at all! She knew exactly the right buttons to push a person! I stammered, nodded and shook my head all at the same time until Ramsis put his hands reliably on my shoulders to calm me down. He smiled and said: "Mother, don't you think 'Daria' suits her fine?"

Queen Qūin tilted her head over her son's suggestion. Then, with a smile like a blooming maiden, she clasped her hands in delight and said: "Daria it is! I like the name very much!"

From then on, everyone, from the servants to the royal family, only ever knew me as Daria. Apart from his mother, Ramsis also has two sisters who were living in this villa. He called the older one Leila and the younger one Nadia. They joined us at dinner time.

While Nadia looked like a spoiled teenage version of her mothers, Leila's appearance had one-third similarity with Ramsis, but her gestures and aura were just like that of the queen, mature and calm. She seldom talked loudly or out of place, unlike her siblings, who never stopped talking at all, but one could see that she was utterly attentive to the needs of others. I guessed that it was her fate of being the oldest sibling, that she had to restrain herself in front of others, just like Eric, who tried to keep Ramsis in check whenever he started to have crazy ideas. But unlike Leila, who could only smile a weak smile and indulge in her sibling's mischiefs, Eric would explode and nag as if he still had not given up on educating Ramsis and Nadia. But to his dismay, he was like a blown-up balloon that would lose its air as soon as the playful siblings nudged him a few times with big eyes.

Mother and Queen Qūin had already taken a leave as to 'not bore the young generation'. By the snippets of their conversation, I was almost sure that the two of them were researching the secret formula to eternal youth.

I soon lost my restraints and at some time, caught myself forgetting who I was actually dining with. I think Eric wasn't any different, because I couldn't recall from the shared memories with Dahlia to have ever seen him so resourceful with his expressions when being with others. Only with Dahlia would he behave a little bit more his age, but here he wasn't as stiff and orderly as he was anywhere else. As Ramsis had mentioned before, they probably regarded each other as famil already. When sitting together, we didn't follow any protocol, and we talked out of order, no one felt restrained over the other's rank or age. Curiosity led our conversation, not the advantage of making a profit. It became easy to drop the titles and call each other by name by the end of our meal.

"What? You've never ridden a horse before?" Nadia asked incredulously.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, I shook my head. We were talking about going sightseeing during the time of my stay, and Ramsis suggested that riding a horse was the fastest way to get by.

As a man, Eric naturally knew how to ride horses, but I had never mounted a horse - neither in modern times nor in these times. Although coming from a military family, no one ever asked Dahlia to ride horses. Wherever she went, she would take the carriage as any lady of affluence in Florencia would do.

Once, she was small and curious about these things, she asked to take riding lessons together with Eric, but they told her she was too young and it was too dangerous for children to ride horses. Later they said to her that it was unseemly for girls to ride horses, more so as the Crown Prince's fiancée. Instead of riding horses, she learned how to get into and out of horse carriages elegantly. Later it made sense in her head since she couldn't imagine herself riding a horse with all those frills and full gowns draped all over her body. And if the wind ruins her hairdo, then hours of hard work of her maids would have been in vain.

I guess it's my fault Dahlia never learnt to ride a horse. When I was a teenager, I also believed that a princess was to wait for the prince on a white horse. It was even more romantic for Leon to scoop up Ellie in his embrace and ride away with her... so Ellie also never learnt how to ride horses in my story. My readers squealed in delight whenever Ellie was taken into Leon's lap for a ride while Dahlia seemed to go white and green in envy. She would look like she wanted to swat down those two from the horse with a slap.

Now that I was being stared at with incredulous eyes by Nadia who practically grew up on horseback, I felt somewhat ashamed - as if I brought disgrace onto our nation that didn't teach their elite daughters how to ride a goddamn horse. As if we had an antiquated mindset and were superficial - looking good on the outside but useless on the inside.

"I... I... will learn how to ride!" I was determined to change this flaw of mine.

"Dahlia!" Eric was obviously against the idea of me mounting a horse. If anything would happen to his beloved sister, it would be the end of him. Not to talk about the diplomatic relations between Coronia and Florencia if anything would happen to the Crown Prince's fiancée during her stay.

"What's with you, even Leila can ride a horse just fine!" Nadia retorted with a huff while Leila blushed sheepishly. Actually, Leila was a good rider. It's just that Nadia was a natural on horseback. With her outgoing mannerism and freedom since being born, the young princess was wild and unrestrained so the time she spent frolicking outside was more than the time she had spent sitting down to learn, unlike her older siblings who grew up during the old King's rule and still had some sense of responsibility and pressure attached to them.

Ramsis, who watched us in amusement put a hand on Eric's shoulder and said appeasingly: "Enkir, there's nothing to worry, our family's horses are well tamed and trained. I will give Daria our most benign horse, and we will teach her personally tomorrow. Before she isn't steady, we will stay on the pasture behind the stables."

"The carriage is too stuffy under the heat and would take too much time to get around." Leila put in another word for me. She seemed to feel that I, from the bottom of my heart, wanted to try riding by myself. "Also, Daria travelled all the way from Florence in a carriage. She must have been sick of it already." As expected, unlike Nadia, Ramsis and Leila were well versed with words and knew how to bring across a point through talking.

I nodded fiercely to reassure the still frowning Eric, but the straw that broke the camel was coming from Ramsis, who snickered evilly: "I never knew you were such a mother hen before."

And thus, the next morning, I got to learn how to ride a horse.