Undercover Fears

"Princess."

"Princess."

"Ah," I snapped out of my imagination.

"You were saying," he seemed excited to hear.

"Have you been to that kind of place?" he asked, which made me hesitate. This was what I feared. What if people began to realize that I wasn't the Ellanious they knew? What if they discovered I was no saint but a pretender who had taken over her body?

"No, I can't."

"No, I can't."

"Princess," he called me again.

"Yeah, no, I have never been to that kind of place," I replied, feeling uneasy and sweating.

"But I want to know if such a place exists the way I described it. Or if there are people who have been there. If there are, I'd like to meet them," I kept faking a smile as if I were already frightened.

"Oh, okay, but, Princess, are you okay? You've been sweating for a while. Are you sick? Should I call the doctor again to thoroughly examine you?" he asked, attempting to touch my forehead, but I flinched.

I abruptly stood up from the chair. It was not the most appropriate action, but I had a strange feeling. It was fear. The fear of being discovered, but there was something else too, something that made me feel like my neck was being constricted. Yes, the feeling was very real.

I felt suffocated.

"Misa, let's go," I called for her.

"Yes, Princess," she quickly came, and the carriage was already waiting outside.

I stepped into the carriage hastily, shrouding myself in my cloak.

"Giddy up," I instructed.

I could feel the Archmage's eyes on me. I knew that I would eventually have to contact him, but I still didn't want him to know anything. I would take this secret to my grave.

"Princess, what happened to you all of a sudden? Why did you come in such a hurry? Are you feeling unwell?" she began to ask the same questions, but I couldn't tell her either.

"It's nothing," I denied and started gazing out of the carriage window. The gentle breeze against my face made me forget everything momentarily, and I felt the breeze's touch.

***

"Ellanious," Duke stopped me on my way to my room.

"Yes, Father," I answered.

"Where were you?" he inquired.

"I went to the market," I lied.

"Market? Then why haven't my people been able to find a single trace of you?" What was he saying?

"Trace? What do you mean, Father?" I questioned.

"I know you didn't go to the market. I've already had the knights follow you wherever you go, but this time they failed to find you. Tell me where you were." He was stalking me. I couldn't believe how disturbing it sounded.

"Father, were you having people spy on me?" I didn't answer any of his questions.

"Yes, for your safety. You will become the crown princess, so I have to do what's best for you," he said, holding my shoulder.

Best? Not if this is what he considered best. It would be better if he just held a sharp dagger to his daughter's throat.

"Father, why don't you understand? I don't want to marry a prince. Why are you doing this? Why have you changed so much? Is this really you?" I asked, running out of patience.

"Yes, I'm your father, and I'm doing what I believe is best for you."

"Don't you remember, Baby, when you used to tell me I would marry Prince Griffin when I grew up? What happened to my sweet daughter?"

No, this person wasn't my father. He couldn't be the person I saw when I first arrived. He was completely different. This person was so different that it was hard to imagine. It was as if he had been reshaped to behave like this.

"So, be a good girl and do as your Daddy says, okay?" he patted my head with an eerie excitement on his face. It gave me the creeps.

"Ellanious, you've returned?" The duchess, that crazy one, had blocked my path.

"Yes, Mother," I said.

"So, what did you get for your mother?" she inquired.

Nothing, I thought.

"I didn't find anything suitable for you, Mother. Everything I saw was so irrelevant."

"Oh, my baby girl," it was so cringe.

"Okay, Father and Mother, I'm returning to my room," I said, but then again, I felt chills.

"Wait!" The duchess had spoken.

"You went outside, so you must have eaten something, haven't you?" I could sense the same emotions as in the morning.

"Come here, the teacher will check your weight," she said and compelled me to go with her. I was behaving like a dog at this point, and my leash was in her hands. I did whatever she told me to do. I walked when she told me to walk, and I barked when she told me to bark. Life was such a nuisance.

"Marchioness, I've brought her. Teach her well, and please check her weight because the royal banquet is approaching," she said, standing in a corner as though she were uninvolved.

"Princess, could you step on the weight machine so I can check your weight?" she asked politely.

I immediately complied. I had already exhaled as much as I could so that my weight wouldn't register much on the scale. However, when I looked down, I realized there wasn't much weight on the scale; I only weighed forty-five kilograms.

I looked up with a smile, but their facial expressions were different, as though they had seen ghosts.

"Princess, you are severely overweight," she said in a cold, frightening voice.

"You need to lose ten kilograms in just a month."

"From now on, you can only consume water."

So now I have to look like a corpse.

This system is incredibly irritating. Who on earth had decided that thirty-five kilograms was the perfect weight!!!!! Who even told these noble people that the thirty five killogram is the perfect age for a noble lady when it is mostly a skeleton with no flesh in body?