A man touched Arielle’s shoulder who was now standing near the balcony to look around the palace. She turned around, seeing a guard lowered his head slowly.
"Prince Archie said that Sasha is in good condition. You don’t have to worry."
"Sasha? Where is he now?"
"Prince Archie said you don’t need to know. Right now, Sasha is being targeted to hurt you. So if you don’t want Sasha to get hurt, it’s a good idea not to see him until the night of the festival," he said.
"Oh...."
The man added in a whisper, "Prince Archie will relay this directly to King Ronan when he goes to the port tomorrow for imdiate assistance. Sasha is currently fast asleep. So Prince Archie advised you to rest first tonight."
The man glanced to the side to see the shadow of another person who was walking toward them. The man cleared his throat to change the tone of his voice to make it louder so that people who were approaching could hear what they were saying.
"Ahem, we haven’t been able to find him yet, Princess. The old Tower area has been inspected and is empty," he continued. The man looked down and walked away.
Now it was the turn of the other guards who gave the sa information that they did not find Sasha in the forest behind the palace.
Arielle was still standing where she was. She wanted to et Sasha, and she didn’t want to just hear about his condition from other people. But if Archie said Sasha was fine, then Arielle should be able to believe it, right?
She walked unsteadily. From where she was walking, she could still see Alexis standing in the middle of the palace courtyard, waiting for information from other guards, who were looking for Sasha’s whereabouts.
Andrea said earlier that Alexis did that because he didn’t actually want to protect Arielle. The man had other intentions of using Arielle and letting her marry Duke Pellington.
Arielle let out a long sigh. Why wasn’t she born a normal village girl?
Arielle called out to Alexis. She wanted the man to stop looking for Sasha.
"Alexis, it’s getting late... it’s ti for you to rest."
Alexis frowned, seeing Arielle acting strange.
"Have you found your little maid yet?"
"Not yet. But Sasha is a strong child. She will be back tomorrow morning. She’s always been like that. Go without saying a word and suddenly appear. Maybe I’ve been worrying too much. Even Tania didn’t co looking for her, right? "
"Are you sure? Father said that he was being chased."
Arielle nodded with a small smile. "Hm... Maybe Sasha had made a mistake that made her hesitate to co back. But maybe tomorrow, she will change her mind. Sasha will co to see ."
Alexis saw Arielle’s departure. It couldn’t be that trivial. But if that was what Arielle wanted, then Alexis imdiately dispersed the guards who were looking for Sasha. Arielle looked back and saw Alexis, who just left the yard.
"That man isn’t really helping," she muttered.
Arielle returned to her room to see Tania, who was crying.
"It’s my fault... making Sasha disappear," said Tania holding her aching knee.
Surely, cleaning her room made Tania’s knees hurt. In her old age, Tania should be resting a lot. The woman had just returned from outside the palace and then had to work hard.
She didn’t know how much damage was caused. But seeing Tania who was in pain, Arielle thought it must be really bad. The girl sat in front of Tania and helped Tania massage her knees.
"Sasha didn’t disappear, one of the spies said Sasha is in safe hands now."
"Who?" asked Tania quickly.
Arielle didn’t answer right away. Tania and Sasha still didn’t know if Archie was their ally. The girl smiled as she wiped Tania’s tears. "I’ll tell you another ti. Now, you can rest. The next two days will be very tiring."
When Tania asked what Arielle ant, the girl pushed Tania into her bed and put a blanket for the woman. Arielle ca out to sit in front of the balcony. Even Arielle forgot that Ronan’s gift had disappeared.
She only rembered about the necklace when she returned to her room and saw her empty jewelry box. Arielle had no special attachnt to jewelry. Even the necklace her father gave her as a birthday present, was sold to buy food. It was just that now the necklace and earrings from Ronan were gone, Arielle’s heart felt empty.
She hugged her knees tightly and then looked up to see the moon that was not visible due to being covered by clouds.
***
The next morning, Arielle tried to find the bodyguard, who conveyed Sasha’s condition last night. She wanted to know Sasha’s condition now. The man was standing guard near her brother’s library building, and Arielle brought a piece of bread and Frostberry jam.
"Is Sasha okay?" she asked. The man nodded. Arielle sighed. She handed out the bread and jam, "Can you give this to Sasha for breakfast?"
"Sasha already had breakfast from Prince Archie before the prince left for the port."
"Is Sasha alone now?"
"Don’t worry, Princess. This is for the best."
Arielle wanted to force the bodyguard to show Sasha’s whereabouts. But she realized that she could put him in a difficult situation. So, she brought the bread and frostberry jam back to her room. When she entered her room, she saw Tania was still asleep on her bed.
Maybe due to fatigue and crying for a long ti, Tania now actually got a fever. Everyone was busy with their respective activities. Arielle had heard the conversation of a servant earlier who said that the festival party this ti would be very lively.
Many people from all over the kingdom ca to the capital city. In fact, all the inns in the capital were full and many people pitched their tents on the city edge.
Nieverdell was famous for its festivals. With almost every royal mber’s birthday there would always be a festival. And the festival this ti was one of the biggest, the late sumr festival to welco the rainy season.
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