Revealed truth

ALYSSA

I take an early morning shower and take my time getting ready. My peripheral view notices something moving in the distance, and I look back toward the balcony. I move towards him, and I can make out some horses on the plain that they have and yes, they are huge, I do not see the face of the rider, but I deduce who he is when I distinguish the color of his hair and his figure.

Is it okay if I recognize your body even from afar or is that already extreme?

I go back to where I was when he moves his head towards the palace, and I go down when a maid asks me to. I arrive at the dining room; the kings and Ivar are already at the table. I greet them all and take a seat next to the queen to the right of her husband. Aren arrives after a few minutes, freshly bathed, with different clothes and a perfume that could drug you to the bone.

—Good morning. —He greets and takes a seat in front of his mother; Ivar is next to him, and his father is in the lead.

—Brother, you went out very early to ride.

—I wanted to relax a little.

—Stressed so much in the morning? You won't get far like that. —His mother teases and I smile slightly because of the confidence they have.

Monarchs do not arrive. Breakfast goes normally and I talk to Ivar and his mother the most. My excitement increases as time progresses.

—Well, time to go. —Ivar is the first to stand up and no one else does, preventing me from copying the youngest of the family. Ivar sees his brother who is seeing his empty glass—. What's going on? We're done. If we don't leave now, we won't finish the things we had planned.

—I hope you have fun. —The Queen's words shock me, and I see her again.

—Wo-won't you go with us?

—I'm afraid not, cute. The king and I must attend to an issue that arose unexpectedly. But don't worry, Ivar and Aren know their lands, they will guide you and show you everything when we return. —She smiles at me, and I return the gesture although inside I am building a time machine to go to the moment when my father accepted this invitation. I don't want to walk alone with the princes, I don't feel comfortable with Aren, and you can tell he doesn't like me.

They leave the dining room and Aren and I continue to sit while Ivar keeps waiting for his brother who does not stop looking at the empty glass.

—Do you crave more juice? —I ask and at last he deigns to see me, but in a bad way—. I've noticed that you don't stop looking at it.

—I'm fine like this, thank you. —He sees his brother and stands up—. Let's go.

—Very well. —Ivar smiles broadly, and I stand up too—. You will like the castle, take it for granted, Aly.

The activities begin by showing me some parts of the main palace. There are parts where Aren tells me that it is forbidden to cross, at least for me; It's very direct sometimes. I sense that he has a time bomb in his head and at any moment he will reach zero.

After touring the nearest palaces, we go out to the nearest town and leave with some guards that Aren asks to take care of me and not allow me to be seen by so many people. Ivar does the opposite and takes me out of the circle of guards and takes me to the stalls that lie on the sides of the street. He shows me many things, we taste food, he introduces me to one or another person and they greet me kindly and I return the gesture. I talk to others and people are very open with me and with them. I like his way of being and enjoy most of the day in that, knowing places and people, tasting food, beverages, or other objects. I have fun and it is with Ivar that I live the most because Aren seems to have only come to make an appearance as if it were not for him that I am here.

It's five o'clock in the afternoon and I've heard enough of Lundy. Something I've noticed is that I don't see the press following us, it's strange, but it's also a relief.

We are finishing an ice cream on some sidewalk banks of a park not very crowded, and the guards are distributed at strategic points.

—I'll go to the bathroom, I'll be back as soon as possible —Ivar informs, stands up, and leaves, leaving me alone with his older brother who has his arms crossed looking at nothingness because the ice floe did not want to taste ice cream.

—Well, we're alone at last, so I'll be honest with you —he talks out of nowhere and that makes me a little tense.

—If that's what have you like this, I deduce that you keep it from yesterday. —We see each other, and he gives me a cold look that could easily intimidate me, but I won't let myself—. Say it before you get torticollis.

—I don't want you to be here.

—... what? I don't think I_

—I don't want my people to see you and know who you are.

—May I know the_

—I don't want them to remember you, I don't want them to think there's a chance you'll be my fiancée in the future when you're not.

His confession surprises me and bothers me a little.

—I appreciate your sincerity, but what you ask of me is pathetic. —He raises an eyebrow and I continue—. First, Ivar already introduced me to many, I have walked almost all day outside and your bodyguards have not been an impediment for me to interact with people, so it does not take long to spread the news that the princess of Corfu is visiting their lands and walks with the princes of Lundy; Second, the reason I'm here is because of the same idea that they can do, and is that if things go_

—I have no intention of marrying you.

I take a deep breath and hide what his response made me feel. —If you have no intention of even trying to live with me, why on earth did you ask me to come? Were you forced?

—Mhmm, yes, I could say that.

—Could you? So, you agreed.

—Like you, I'm being forced to meet someone in order to get married. Do not think that you are my only option, you are the last and I chose you because they insisted on me, it is mere commitment. At least, with you I can be honest and tell you that I dislike you and I have not the slightest intention of marrying you.

I stay silent and then laugh lightly to evaporate the anger and not throw the ice cream in his face. —Having said it before, I would have done you the favor of refusing the invitation so that they would not think that I did not come because you did not want to.

—It's a pity we couldn't talk about this during the dance. We could have planned it there.

So that's why he danced with me, that's why he watched me at the dance, to see how good an option it could be. But I don't understand why he disliked me so much, I don't think he holds a grudge against me for what happened years ago, it would be ridiculous if he was upset about it.

His words leave me with a distaste and only remind me of the words my grandmother used to remind me whenever she could.

I deserve more than this.

—Well, if you're so concerned about that, we can fix it. —I stand up to throw away the trash and wipe my hands with a damp napkin while I watch it.

—I knew you would be wise to choose to stay in the palace for the remaining days and refuse the activities they scheduled for your visit.

—I accept the wise, but I do not plan to stay locked in the palace, I am not Rapunzel, nor sleeping beauty nor Cinderella nor any other princess of stories, I am Princess Alyssa of Corfu. I'll go out and if you don't want to be near me, just don't accompany me and stay.

—You should already know that it is an obligation to accompany you and the best solution not to be seen is to stay in the palace. You don't seem to be as wise as you say.

—Well, you least think that I'm going to get bitter these days just because of your whims. I came with intentions to be able to form at least one friendship with you, but since it will not work, so I resign myself to take this as a vacation and enjoy my stay. There is already an itinerary for me, pretend to be sick or makeup whatever excuse you want not to go out with me. I don't need to sacrifice myself, after all, it's you who hate me. —I shrug my shoulders and smile at him when I see his brother approaching—. Thank you for today's tour, I can't wait to see what awaits me tomorrow, hopefully, you don't get sick and can join your little brother and me.

—I'm back, shall we leave?

—Sure. —I throw the rest of the garbage into the garbage dump nearby and start walking next to Ivar, but we stop when we notice that his brother is still on the sidewalk.

—Big brother, is everything okay? —I smile at him when he sees me with a bad face and catches up with us—. Brother, I was telling Alyssa that tomorrow is scheduled to go to the main art museum and_

—How do you know the itinerary? Only kings and I are supposed to have it.

—Ah... A little mouse told me.

—Oh, I didn't know that a little mouse could open the door to my room and see the page I have in the drawer of my study table. Or did your friend see our parents' leaf?

—I can by now surely see the one in your room. —He looks at it seriously and I hold back my laughter.

Bitter fool. Now, you froze all sympathy I was trying to show you. You hurt my pride and I don't forgive you that easily. You already made your feelings clear to me and that is enough to keep my distance from you because I am not interested in you either.

We arrive at the van to return to the palace, and I keep chatting with Ivar. It is with him that I live with more in the following days since Aren accompanies us in some activities, but he remains silent or distant and it is something that only reaffirms the nickname I gave him a long time ago.

I don't bother talking to him because I know he doesn't want to and begging or humiliating me doesn't either. The only thing he talks to me for is to remind me how much he hates me and that all this is out of obligation. It looks like a scratched CD since only that repeats me.

There are activities where the queen and the monarch manage to be. Activities where we go to schools, hospitals, and the main military base. There, I realize that Aren was in Lundy's militia for a couple of years, before starting his studies at university, and was a brigadier general and captain.

Greta skipped a lot of information.

I soak up the information they give me, I live with many people, and I make myself known for two reasons: one is to strengthen the ties between both nations, trust, and free trade, create more treaties and agreements, and the other is to embitter the life of Prince Aren who does not enjoy anything than his mother, his young brother, grandmother or any member of the family introduced me to important authorities of the nation.

Between these days, I meet Lady Seren, daughter of the High Duke of Lundy. She is a girl a couple of years older than me, very friendly, and seems to be close to the family since she joins us at some meals, I see her often in the palace or very close to Aren and Ivar, especially Aren. So much so that I'm surprised that she tells me that she loves them as brothers when it seems that Aren sees and treats him as something else unless she likes to be selectively honeyed with her friend. Her actions would have made me more uncomfortable than usual if I didn't know that Prince Aren invited me out of mere engagement and not as a probability of being his fiancée.

But all this makes me wonder: why doesn't he like me? Will he be so spiteful that he still doesn't get over what happened to us fifteen years ago? We were kids, I wasn't rude anyway and we didn't even talk for five minutes.

—Aly —Ivar speaks to me, and I see him—, What are you doing out here? The night is cold, you can catch a cold.

—Don't worry, I'll be fine. —He comes over and takes a seat next to me under the parasol.

—Tomorrow there will be an event in honor of your family.

—Yes, they let me know. I am honored that you do an archery competition for my mother and me. —I smile at him.

—Your mother must have been someone incredible.

—Do you think?

—She had you, that's enough for me to know that she was. —He smiles at me, and I thank him for the comment—. You should go to rest soon.

—I'll go up in a while, rest you.

—Yes, goodbye. —He goes back to the palace, and I stay in the garden for another time. I see a swing in a tree in the background and I intend to go to it until the ice cube with legs appears and decides to sit next to me.