"You still want to eat more?" Arielle offered with a little chuckle seeing Sasha, who shook his head limply.
"I ... am very full," he answered weakly because he felt comfortable due to his full stomach.
Sasha was so comfortable that he forgot that he was talking to a royal princess. When he realized his mistake, the boy straightened up, making the side of his stomach hurt. Arielle, who was surprised because Sasha grimaced suddenly, beca worried.
"Are you okay?" asked Arielle.
"My stomach... hurts," he answered with a groan.
Arielle got up and helped the boy to move to the bed. Lucas, who had been watching all this ti, imdiately approached to help the princess support the child.
"This child is just too full," said Lucas, who saw how distended the boy’s stomach was until his stomach button was almost undone.
"Sorry, Your Highness. I... ate too much," whispered Sasha shyly.
"It’s okay, just wait a while, then the pain will go away."
Tania put a blanket for Sasha. Arielle, Lucas, and Tania took a few steps back. Lucas brought the chair by the fire to the bed so Arielle could sit on it. After that, Tania and Lucas stood behind the chairs, waiting for Arielle to finish speaking.
"Sasha, while waiting for your stomach to feel better. Can we talk for a mont?" asked Arielle so softly that Sasha was stunned and couldn’t refuse. The boy nodded subconsciously.
But when Arielle just opened her mouth to ask, the door to the room opened wide again, revealing the king who had co to visit.
Sasha’s heart felt like it was about to explode when he saw the man in a black mask. The boy instantly rembered that he had insulted the man at the festival. The boy’s body began to tremble when he felt the king’s intimidating aura.
"Nice to et you again, kiddo," said Ronan making Sasha gulp.
Arielle stood up to welco Ronan’s presence. The man grabbed Arielle’s back, telling the girl to sit back in her chair. Ronan chose to stand on the side of the bed, leaning against the bedpost.
"So what happened?" asked Ronan matter-of-factly.
The man looked even more intimidating to Sasha. Well, why wouldn’t he? He had been rude to that man before! At the ti of the festival, Sasha really didn’t know that the man whose face was covered by the mask was King Ronan himself.
At that ti, Sasha was really impressed by Princess Arielle, who was so beautiful and so kind to give him a space to watch the show in the front row.
Ronan himself was quite satisfied to see the frightened face of the boy. He had always looked forward to this opportunity. The boy really dared to speak impolitely and asked Arielle to marry him in front of his face. Ronan didn’t realize that his jealousy was so childish.
So parts of the boy’s face turned blue as well as his arms and legs, like being hit by a blunt object very hard. The corners of his chapped lips looked torn.
"Do you want to talk? Maybe we can help you?" asked Arielle so softly.
Sasha’s face blushed because of Arielle’s gentle treatnt. He felt like an angel was talking to him, but there was soone with a dark aura watching him intently when he glanced to the side. It was as if he was between an angel of goodness and a grim reaper - the angel of death.
Nevertheless, it made Sasha return to his alert position.
Sasha wasn’t sure whether to tell her his problem or not. He hated where he ca from. He wanted to run away from his ho. No, that was not his ho though. That was just a shelter filled with orphans who didn’t know who their real family was.
True, Sasha was an orphan who grew up in an orphanage. He didn’t know who his parents were. Whoever they were, they must have hated him so much that they threw him away. He grew up with more than twenty other children, sharing a al with other unfortunate and unwanted kids.
Sasha was just the umpteenth child who didn’t get much attention. He was not cute or had a good attitude. The caretaker of the orphanage never recomnded him to be adopted. To survive this long was already an extraordinary fortune.
"I ... want to find a new family," Sasha answered quietly.
"Uh, why?"
Sasha squeezed the blanket nervously. Arielle, who noticed that, also felt pity. She didn’t know for sure what trouble Sasha was going through. But it seed that sothing went wrong in Sasha’s family until a small child, not even ten years old, ran away from ho.
Seeing so of the bruises, Arielle was worried that Sasha was being abused by his family.
"Are you all right, Sasha?" asked Arielle.
Sothing foreign made Sasha’s heart tremble. He always tried to be strong and tough all this ti. He held it alone. Even when he was beaten by several adults for stealing a loaf of bread, Sasha didn’t cry at all. But when soone asked how he was, it felt like Sasha wanted to cry once more.
So far, no one really cared about him. If he was lucky, then when he put on a pitiful face, a noble would give him money which was then confiscated by the caretakers of the orphanage. Sasha also learned to steal from a young age, and no one cared about it.
When he was down and cold, people just looked at him with pity, no one tried to reach out to help him . . . or just to ask if he was all right.
Arielle was the first to do that ... and it hits the hard side. Sasha was just a child forced by the world to bury his childish side to survive. And Arielle had brought it back. He felt that it was okay to be a child and show his weakness again.
Sasha started shedding tears. No matter how hard Sasha tried to stop himself from crying, he was still a child who needed warmth and protection after all, and when Arielle was around, Sasha felt like he was a child again, and that he was allowed to cry, not always have to act tough.
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