Chapter 36

"Your Highness?" 

"Ah I see, no wonder you look quite familiar. You must be Duke Alston's children. It's nice to meet you." the boy spoke.

"..Yes it's very nice to meet you too, Your Highness.." Claud bowed, speaking politely which Aeliana had never seen before.

'So Daphne wasn't lying when she said she was a princess.'

"See Aeliana? I told you I was a princess!" Daphne proudly said.

She smiled and nodded, she was rather glad she dodged a bullet instead.

"So your name is Aeliana? Pleased to meet you, I'm Andreas Edmund Scipiones." 

"Pleased to meet you too, Your Highness."

It finally dawned on Aeliana that she was in the presence of royalty. Not wanting to stay any longer, she tugged on Claud's shirt and muttered,

"Brother we still need to find brothers Marius and Darius right?"

"Yes, I haven't found them yet."

"Then let's go find them!"

"I want to follow!" Daphne suddenly spoke up, walking around to Aeliana.

"Huh? But it's my brothers—"

"So? I want to play too!!"

Aeliana glanced at Claud and tried to signal him with her eyes. He stared at her and nodded.

"Of course you can play with us, Princess Daphne."

"What?" Aeliana stared at him with disbelief in her eyes. 

"Yay! Brother, you should play with us too!"

"Eh?" Andreas glanced at Aeliana then back at Daphne, "Are you sure? It's their game Daphne."

"But he said we can, right?"

"Uh..yeah.."

Andreas looked at Aeliana once more. She could kinda tell Daphne was stubborn so she nodded at him. 

"...Alright, thank you for letting us join in." Andreas thanked and smiled.

"Let's restart the game then," Aeliana spoke up.

"It's more fun if we play from the beginning," she added.

Claud nodded, "We can let the twins stay put in their hiding spots. I'll be the seeker again so you all can go hide."

Aeliana nodded, "Thank you brother! This time I won't let you find me."

He laughed at his sister's competitiveness and grinned, "We will see about that."

She turned to Daphne and Andreas, and waved her hand over at them.

"Let's hurry and hide now!"

Soon, the game began once more with Claud needing to find five people this time. After he had counted to a certain number, it was time to seek them out. He first began to look around the inside parts of the temple and that included where the short ceremony was held.

Cassian was still with the Bishop so he knew they had enough time before the game had to end. He continued looking at every place he could think of before deciding to head outside, around the premises of the temple.

As he carefully walked around to make sure his footsteps wouldn't be heard easily, he barely heard two voices whispering to one another. He listened to where the voices came from and slowly made his way.

When he was close enough, he could hear what they were saying.

"Darius, do you think we won?"

"I'm not sure, it's been a while though."

"Then I'm sure we won!"

Claud smirked to himself before screaming out loud, scaring the twins out of their hiding spot. 

"That's not fair, brother!!" Marius angrily spoke, unhappy to have been caught.

Darius noticed something and turned to Claud, "Brother…are we the first ones to be caught?"

"Yup."

"What!? How! This hiding spot was the best!"

Claud shrugged, "Well I guess that's too bad. Now let's go find Aeliana and the royal highnesses."

The twins looked at each other confused. When did they have other people playing with them? 

Claud explained to them as they continued searching for the other three that hadn't been found yet.

Marius frowned, kicking any pebbles he saw, "That's unfair! You found Aeliana first, not us!"

"Too bad, now let's go find everyone else. You two are on my side."

"Okay brother.." the twins muttered, nodding at their older brother's words before beginning to search the surrounding area.

"Hey Marius, they could be hiding around here," Darius said, pointing over at a smaller-sized temple just beside the main one.

"Good thinking Darius!" Claud praised before they headed towards that direction.

As they headed to the smaller temple, people in white robes that varied in ages glanced before bowing at them as they walked past. On the other hand, Aeliana and the two royal children were still hiding.

"They won't find us here..!" Daphne said in a whisper.

Aeliana nodded at her words, "That's right, this place is further from where we all first were. I'm sure they won't think about this area we are in."

Andreas kept quiet, allowing the two girls to converse. He was just glad his sister found someone to play with other than him.

"Hey you," Daphne called out to Aeliana.

"Daphne, don't be rude." Andreas warned but she ignored him.

"After this game, do you want to come back with me?"

Aeliana raised an eyebrow at Daphne's words, "Come back with you?"

"Yes, you will be my friend from now on so you will stay in the same house as me." Daphne declared.

Aeliana gawked at her while Andreas sighed at his sister's antics.

"You can't do that Daphne."

"Why not brother!?"

"Because Lady Aeliana has her own family to go back to. You can't just take her away."

"But…"

"Daphne, how would you feel if someone told you they are going to take you away from your family so you can stay with them?"

"I would hate that!"

"Then you shouldn't do it to others."

Daphne pouted, staring at the ground, "Okay.."

Andreas smiled and patted her head. Aeliana watched the whole scene in front of her before looking down at the ground. Andreas was kind to his sister, no matter what circumstances. 

She wondered if she would receive that same treatment from her brothers. She knew she shouldn't compare especially when all her brothers except Leon were now opening up to her and starting to care about her too.

But..she was scared. Scared of losing all of that. What if in the future, they stopped caring about her? She didn't want to think about it but the possibility was there and it won't shake off.

Maybe they will—

"Found you!!" Marius yelled out excitedly, popping out of nowhere, and scaring all three of them.

Daphne screamed in shock before recovering from it and glared at Marius.

"How dare you scare me!!"

"Eh? How is that my fault?" Marius shrugged before turning to Aeliana.

"Even if you try, you can never escape us!" he laughed proudly, a smug grin plastered on his face, clearly proud to have found them.

Aeliana's eyes widened before returning back to her usual. Her brothers wouldn't do that to her. She knew that in her heart, it was the fear and anxiety getting the best of her.

Andreas chuckled as he stood up, "That was a fun game." he said sincerely.

"I'm glad you had fun, your highness." Claud replied back, bowing lightly.

Daphne turned to Aeliana and spoke in a haughty tone, "You must come visit me often! No objections okay?"

"Daphne…" Andreas lightly sighed, shaking his head.

Aeliana looked at Daphne. Although she acts arrogant and bossy, Aeliana felt like she could somewhat get along with this girl. She smiled and nodded.

"Okay, I will come visit you."

Daphne's eyes lit up after hearing Aeliana's words. "I will prepare lots of things for us to do then! You are not allowed to back out."

Aeliana laughed, "I won't."

When it was time for them to leave, they said their farewells before heading back home. Cassian noticed Aeliana's happy complexion and smiled.

"Was today fun Eli?" he asked to which she responded,

"Yes! It was very fun with brothers. I even made a new friend today."

"Oh, a new friend? Who is it?"

Aeliana smiled brightly and said, "Princess Daphne."

Cassian nearly choked on air when he heard her. 

"Sorry? Could..could you repeat that, Eli?"

"Princess Daphne. I think her full name was Daphne Beryl uh…Scorpion?"

Cassian could feel cold sweat running down his back, "Princess Daphne Beryl Scipiones?"

Aeliana nodded, "Yeah!"

Cassian closed his eyes. He could feel his soul flying out of his body just thinking about the royal family. The entire ride back home, Cassian could only think about the future and sigh.