Arielle had finished cleaning her body. Tania and Aie were preparing a large, golden white dress. Aie helped Arielle to put it on. Today, Arielle had a schedule to be painted so that her portrait could be displayed during the coronation procession later.
This was a special request from Ronan. The previous queens could only get their formal portraits after the coronation procession, but Ronan wanted all his guests to be able to recognize Arielle from the start and see how great Arielle was.
That day would be a historic day for Arielle and the North, so Ronan wanted everything to leave a great impression.
Aie stepped in to help put on the silk gloves for Arielle while Tania was styling Arielle’s hair in a formal bun.
"Aie? Are you sick?" Arielle asked while touching Aie’s forehead with her hand with no glove.
"Eh? No, Your Highness. Why do you think so?" asked Aie, who also held her forehead and felt that her body temperature was still normal.
"I thought you’re cold or have a fever because it’s very rare to see you wearing a scarf," Arielle replied while holding Aie’s scarf, which was so warm, soft, and thick.
Aie, who was in panic, held onto her scarf frantically. She was afraid that the princess would take off her scarf. However, her fear ant nothing because Arielle just wanted to touch the material of the scarf that was really warm
"Eh that... I just feel a little cold." Aie tried to lie, to cover up what really happened.
Actually, she didn’t feel cold at all. Instead, Aie was sweating a lot because the room was hot, yet she wore a scarf. Princess Arielle’s room was tightly closed so that no morning breeze could get inside. Besides, the fireplace was burning brightly and ward the room.
For the person who was only wearing plain clothes, this temperature was indeed comfortable. However, for Aie, who was wearing a scarf indoors, the current temperature tornted her.
Last night, Aie had scolded Lazarus not to leave the love bites on her body carelessly, but the man did it anyway. Aie, who wanted to remind Lazarus again, suddenly lost her words because of Lazarus’ touch. Thus, she forgot about her words earlier.
Only then did Aie regret her stupidity when morning ca. She saw that almost her entire body was covered in red marks. If there wasn’t Lazarus sleeping soundly beside her, maybe Aie thought her body had been bitten by many ants or mosquitoes.
"Oh, you can use my coat if it’s still cold," Arielle offered, making Aie stutter because she could die of heat if she accepted the offer.
Tania and Aie had finished Arielle’s preparations. They only had to wait for William to bring Arielle’s crown to complete her appearance.
Aie saw a row of jewelry sets owned by the princess.
"You don’t want to use the jewels the king gave you?" Aie asked, taking out a gold necklace with erald green gems.
Arielle thought for a mont, then shook her head. The dress she was wearing was already very heavy, and Tania said the crown she would wear must be heavy too, so Arielle thought her body wouldn’t be able to last long enough to wear jewelry either.
Tania, Aie, and three other maids helped lift the princess’s long coat and dress to a room that Lucas had prepared for her to be painted. Lucas introduced Arielle to a male painter whose family had painted the mbers of the royal family for generations.
Arielle also introduced herself. Aie and Tania looked at each other, feeling proud of the princess’s confidence. Arielle was allowed to sit on a small throne made of gold and had gold bearings on it.
Arielle’s maids helped adjust the position of the dress according to the painter’s directions to get the right lighting angle.
"Is this position good?" asked a maid who had corrected the position of Arielle’s blowing dress skirt.
Arielle felt familiar with the sll of paint, canvas, and easel wood. However, for so reason, being the object of a painting made her nervous. Was this how Ronan felt when she painted him? Arielle was confused about what to do because if she moved, the sketch would also be different from the final result.
There was a knock on the door, revealing Lazarus, who was carefully pushing a trolley where there was a large glass box on it. It was the queen’s crown that had been worn by many queens before. Everyone stood up to pay homage to the sacred object. Arielle wanted to stand up too, but Tania and Aie held her hand to keep her sat in her chair.
Aie frowned when he saw Lazarus, who was smiling widely while greeting everyone in the room, including herself, with a wink. Aie imdiately checked the room so that no one would see what Lazarus had just done.
She gritted his teeth as he watched Lazarus casually unbutton the top two buttons of his shirt, revealing the three love bites Aie had made last night.
Arielle looked nervous to wear the crown. She took a deep breath, then exhaled it slowly. She tried to convince herself that she was worthy of wearing the crown. Her heart beat very fast when Lazarus opened the glass case, and Aie took the crown to put it over Arielle’s head.
Tania took out her handkerchief to wipe her tears that fell on her cheeks, feeling touched that Arielle looked very majestic. Even though they were only in an empty room, Arielle’s presence seed to have filled the room with light.
Everyone was amazed for a mont as well as the painter, who began to feel insecure about his abilities. He began to wonder whether he could paint the woman in front of him perfectly or not?
Behind Lazarus was William, carrying a black velvet box. From the shape, Arielle knew that it was a jewelry box. Had Ronan provided her with another jewelry box for her to use today? Arielle asked in her heart. William, who had just entered, was amazed when Arielle smiled at him. His heart was beating very fast, and he was approaching the girl nervously.
"This is from the king," William said, handing the jewelry box to Tania.
Arielle frowned at the familiar jewelry set. She held her heart nervously. It was her long-lost jewelry. All this ti, Arielle thought her jewelry had been buried within the pile of ruins of the Nieverdell palace.
"William, where did you get it from?" Arielle asked. She was touched because the first piece of jewelry Ronan had given her had returned to her.
"The king told to keep it," William replied politely.
"Why?"
"For that, I’m just following the king’s orders, Your Highness."
Tania took out the earring from the jewelry box.
"Do you want to use it?" Tania asked.
Arielle held her pierced earlobe. She previously did not have ear lobe piercing, so she had never used earrings before. However, a few monts ago, Tania suggested that Arielle had her ears pierced by a doctor, and Ronan also had given his permission.
Arielle nodded. If it was her first jewelry, she would be happy to use it because it was very precious to Arielle. The jewelry with red gems that would always remind Arielle of Ronan. Ronan did buy her a lot of jewelry after that, but her impression of this jewelry was bigger.
Tania helped Arielle put on a necklace, two earrings, and a bracelet on her body. She nodded, feeling that the princess looked more perfect right now. Aie also thought the sa.
"Ahem, I’ll start to do a sketch first. If you may, could the others leave this room? I don’t mind if there are one or two people waiting inside, but if it is more than that, it will be difficult for to concentrate," the painter asked politely, making Tania ask Aie to accompany the princess.
Lazarus offered to take part in overseeing the process because a man was needed to act quickly if sothing unwanted happened. Arielle looked at Lazarus and Aie, who were standing side by side, watching everyone who left the room one by one.
Arielle just smiled when she saw Aie turned around with red cheeks. Aie, who was embarrassed for so reason, chose to sit on the couch while watching the painter start to make a rough sketch on the large canvas.
The canvas was enormous. It was almost the size of the hall door.
Arielle sitting quietly in her place. Being quieter like this was more fun because he was no longer nervous.
Lazarus watched the princess attentively. Too bad Ronan was very busy with his royal duties and couldn’t see an angel being painted, he thought. Then, he turned to Aie, who was sitting on the couch. He couldn’t help but smile at the yawning Aie.
The man pretended to walk casually towards the couch and sat right next to Aie.
"Can you keep your distance?" Aie asked in a whisper because she didn’t want to disturb the painter’s concentration.
"I want to see the painting too," Lazarus replied in a whisper right into Aie’s ear, making the girl sharpen her gaze. Lazarus raised his hand while backing away.
"And wear your clothes properly," Aie continued, pointing at the top two buttons of Lazarus’ shirt, which were not attached .
"This is my style. I’ve always dressed like this before."
Aie squinted her eyes.
"Ah this... last night, it looks like I was bitten quite a bit by giant ants-mmpphh!" Aie covered Lazarus’ mouth hard enough to make it difficult for the man to breathe.
"Shut up, idiot. Princess Arielle will hear you out," Aie said in a very low voice. Lazarus replied with a small chuckle.
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