IS HE ON HIS PERIOD OR SOMETHING?

Ariana asked, but her face was clearly not welcoming this man at all.

The man, however, still with his smile, continues to answer the question.

"Yes and no, Princess Ariana. My name is Jeremy, but I'm better known as Jay. The oldest son of Viscount Glendale and best friend of the Duke since childhood. Of course, when both of us grow up, we work together naturally."

"Which part is a yes, and which part is a no?" Ariana is a little interested to know now, but really, her feelings for the man to leave immediately are much higher than that curiosity. Also, she knows she can't be rude to him by driving him away so quickly after knowing he is the duke's best friend!

"Well, yes, as you just know my face and name but no, as we never close, to begin with. This is probably the first time we are standing next to each other without you rushing away after meeting the duke. You only see him in your world anyway."

Hearing that makes Ariana snicker. She can't really understand the other Ariana. How can she become stupid when faced with the Duke when he clearly doesn't even bat an eye for her?

"So why are you here talking to me when we never met before?"

"For a change, of course. I know you will be a duchess soon, so we should try to get along. We might do business together. Who knows..."

Ariana now seems to be able to see from the man's eyes, something like 'distrust' even though he is still flashing his smile.

'Looks like he wanted to test me for his so-called best friend.'

Ariana sighed a little. She is already fed up with people who are full of hypocrisy. She has faced it many times in her past life that is on the faces of people who asked for her mercy before being killed due to their own fault, and she hates it. At least, Zayn is much better as he is upward with his feelings.

"Can you just go now? You are not even like me in the first place, so why bother talking? Just wipe that fake smile of yours and be on your way. " As her mood is getting low now, she decides to be evil.

Instantly, the smile that was on Jay's face at that time disappeared immediately. All that remains are eyes filled with coldness.

"I didn't know you could see through my smile, princess, when most people find it hard to read my thoughts. You are just a naive person who can't even read the room before. Can just one incident change someone entirely like this? Or something else happened that only you know about it?"

'Sharp.' That is one word that crossed Ariana's mind at that time. It looks like her feelings about this man are not wrong. He is more dangerous than he looks. If she is not careful, she might be in danger when being around him.

"I don't even know what you are trying to say, Sir Jeremy, and as we are not friendly towards each other, I don't think I can call you by your nickname. But why? We didn't really know each other that well, so why do you have that prejudice against me? It sounds like a very heavy accusation if you ask me."

Jay just kept quiet, but his cold stare didn't leave the princess.

"If you did this because you pity your best friend had to marry me, I must tell you this then. I already asked him to cancel this marriage, but he didn't agree to it. But if you did this because my father is the King, know that I don't have the power to resist whatever his actions are. Which I'm pretty much sure you and everyone knows I'm just a wasted princess. But your hatred or liking towards me is not a big problem for me. I just didn't really like psychological games, so tell me face-to-face like this honestly next time. Now, excuse me. I am not in the mood to continue this any further."

Ariana is the one who went first with her head held high. She is now smiling happily. Although she can't win against the Duke, winning this one argument is enough to satisfy her for now.

When she was already far enough, she could hear loud laughter from behind, but she didn't turn around. That person is not that important anyway.

"Where are you going, my lady?"

Lily finally asked when she saw Ariana moving towards her old residence on the east side of the palace. She thought Ariana wanted to go against the Duke's words. But that is not the case.

"I need to get something that was left in my old room."

"What do you mean? We already took all your dresses and accessories to be moved. If there's something else you can just tell me, and I can get it for you. There is no need for you to go by yourself like this."

"No. You can't even find it because I hid it. Also, it's not something that you must know."

"What? I thought we were close enough to each other to even share a secret, my lady. " Lily lost her spirit a little bit.

Ariana just ignored the complaint to punish Lily, as Lily also ignored her before. Until they finally all arrived in front of her old bedroom.

"I won't close the door, but you all just wait here and look the other way. No peeking!"

With that, Lily and the three knights had to follow the instructions even though they felt strange.

***

That night,

Ariana still hasn't slept even though it's already late. She is trying to see her knight pattern outside of the bedroom. The three knights started to shift when the night came, and only one stayed in front of the door of her room while the palace guard always watched outside, even under her window.

After reading the diary more, she can't help but think that she had to get out of the palace. She wanted to know who was hired by the previous Ariana to find out that 'some information'. It seems like that, Ariana used a lot of gold to find out about that so this doesn't sound like normal information at all.

But seeing this kind of security, she knows it won't be easy. First things first, she needs to know her way inside this entire Silver Palace to see if there is a 'rat hole' that she can use to sneak out without being noticed.

So now she needs to figure out the knight and guards' movement, even if she has to sacrifice her good sleep!

To keep her from feeling sleepy, she practices her hand speed with a small knife that she stole from the kitchen. This is also the knife she uses to practice her throwing.

She needs to do it every day so that she gets used to holding a weapon again. At least, if she is in danger, she can use this as an alternative weapon to escape. Even if she is still far from her past self, this is enough for a good start.

With each passing time, her mind could not get rid of the one question that hovered in her mind, which is,

"What kind of information is it?"

She can't get any ideas about what it is because the diary is not too detailed. That previous Ariana is probably trying to be safe as she might know keeping a diary is not that secure even if she tries hard to hide it.

But from what she's reading so far, she knows none of the previous Ariana movement is related to the King. She didn't even mention the royal family at all. It's safe to say that this person is not a spy targeting the Duke household or anything.

"Is her relationship with the family that bad? How can I meet father and brothers here if that is the case?"

Ariana could only sigh as too many questions began to arise now until her head hurt. She knows she is thinking too much, but she can't help it. Her goal is that she wanted to find her way back to her real world, but if she can't, she needs to have a peaceful life here and that depends on the movement of the previous Ariana. If that person does something good, then it's fine, but if not, she needs to fix it.

Suddenly, she started to remember the first day she arrived in that world. Just before she opened her eyes, she remembered she was talking to someone.

"That's right. A light talking to me makes me think that I'm already in the afterlife. It talks about the secret of different worlds, the chosen one and..."

...Remember Ariana. The most important thing that you can learn from all of this story is, finally, you will be happily ever after...

That sentence, which she always listened to when she was little echoed again. Her heart now began to pound so much.

"Mother?  I said that right?"

Ariana frowned at that. She just realized something.

"Why do I call that voice 'mother' when I always called 'mom'? Is this one of the signs or is it just me misspeaking at the time?

But as she remembers further whenever she talks with Lily about her mother, she always refers to her as 'mother' and not 'mom'. As if her tongue was used to that.

"Ugh, what is going on really? It feels like I'm just stuck in one place with no end and it sucks. " Ariana started to scrunch up her tired face before flinching at the sound of knocking on her room door.

Knock! Knock!

Didn't know why she's frozen where she was standing at that time while looking at the door. Usually, if it's Lily, she will come in right after the knock, and if it's the head butler or the knight they will inform her of their presence after, but this time nothing happened and the sound is keep been heard.

Ariana started to become alert. She remember the story in some fairy tales that she read that a princess is always in danger even in a state of full security. Plus, Lily just told her that she had been kidnapped years ago. There is no guarantee that something like that will not happen again!

So, she tightly gripped the knife that was still in her hand and started to stand ready.

"It's me. Open the door. I know you are not sleeping yet."

Ariana continued to panic as soon as she heard the voice. She started looking for a place to hide the weapon and the diary which was wide open on her desk before heading to the room door.

Slowly she opened the door and stared at the Duke, who now stared down at her. He is really a tall person! But Ariana didn't get jealous of the tall people in this world as she is quite tall herself here compared to when she was in her other world. At least, she doesn't look like a kid now.

Zayn now looked at her with a question mark on his face, but didn't bother to ask anything. Because the girl now is panting and sweating on her face.

Knowing that she is not really presentable at that time, Ariana continued to make a white lie even though he didn't say anything.

"I have a nightmare... Now I cannot fall back to sleep." She said while wiping her face with the back of her hand.

"Let me come in. There's something I want to talk about. " Zayn said without commenting any further about what she just said.

"S-Sure." Ariana then stepped aside to let him in and he quickly entered the room before sitting on the couch in one corner.

At the time, she managed to look outside and the knight who is guarding her room before is nowhere to be seen. Looks like the Duke already gave instructions about where he could be with her no one else should be present.

Ariana didn't know how to feel about that. Whether she should be relieved that Zayn keeps his words, or should she become afraid as no one can defend her if something happens when there are just two of them? It's 50-50. But it doesn't mean she can't protect herself! She still has one or two tricks that can be applied even in such a weak body.

"What are you doing? Let's finish this quickly." Zayn started sounding irritated.

Dang! I am thinking too much. He never likes being in the same space as me anyway. This is clearly business. Ariana scolded herself because of her previous thinking before dragging her legs where Zayn was and sitting opposite him.

When sitting like this Ariana can't help but look at Zayn's face with more intent. She never really looked at him before and now, when she finally did she just realized he really has a very handsome face.

'His has sharp eyes, black hair with a good cut, and even his lips... His fit body and his tall legs... Truly out of this world. No wonder the previous Ariana was so smitten with him.' Ariana's mind began to drift away.

Maybe realizing that he was being watched, Zayn cleared his throat a little so that Ariana would stop doing so and listen to what he was about to say, and its work. Ariana kept shaking her head so that what she just thinking banishes away.

"Are you feeling sleepy? If so let's just talk tomorrow."

She almost mistakes it as him caring about her, but from her experience, she knows he just finds this atmosphere troublesome.

"I'm not. So tell me what you are going to tell. You are already here anyway."

"Let's go to the royal palace tomorrow." He said.

Ariana was then surprised and her eyes went bigger.

'Tomorrow? And what do you mean by let's just talk tomorrow? Do you want to give me a heart attack or something?!' She started nagging in her mind now.

"What do you mean by that? Isn't it stated in the letter that I can see the King this weekend? Why the rush?"

"It is. But when I went to the palace today, the King asked me to bring you tomorrow as the weekend is still far. He also wanted to discuss the wedding as soon as possible because the higher table already pushing it. "

*the higher table is a group of important people who associate with the royal family to manage the empire.

"But, what about my lesson? I still didn't know how to really behave or anything. What if I make mistake?"

Ariana felt a little worried at that time, even though her heart really wanted to see her father's face, even if he is not the real one.

"As for reminder, like I told you before, after the incident, I never tell the royal anything as you always do stunts like this and I didn't have time to play along with you. But this time, as you are losing your memories, let's just tell them the truth. It will be hard to lie as we always need another lie to cover up the others anyway."

"So, are you going to tell them that I am trying to commit suicide?" Ariana didn't want that.

Zayn looked at her as if he trying to figure out something.

"You fall into the lake and lose all your memories. We stick with that."

Ariana looked at Zayn with a stunned face now.

"Why?" She blurted it out unconsciously.

"What do you mean by why?" Zayn asked her back.

"You didn't believe what I said before. About I am not trying to kill myself." I don't know why Ariana wants to know his reason.

"Why? Do you think your family will sympathize with you if we said you wanted to die? They won't care a little bit but you probably will be disciplined as this marriage for benefits is in danger because of your actions. Don't get me wrong. I didn't do this to protect you. I just didn't like to deal with something annoying. So you better watch what you say tomorrow in front of them if you want to be out of trouble."

With that, like the other days after they talked Zayn walked away without a word, leaving Ariana who is still sitting on the couch, with various thoughts in her mind.

"Is he on his period or something?"