The festival

This chapter's song is: living la Vida Loca by Ricky Martin!

Sylvia's POV:

It's two months before the summer break, and life could not go any slower... Right now, me, Rin, Violet, Niki, Len, Ace, Mason, Lucas and Aiden are in the library.

"Can you believe it's only two months before summer break? I'm so excited," Violet says.

"Yeah... Me too..." I say bluntly.

"What's wrong dearest fiancée? You don't seem too happy," Ace says.

"Well... Summer break is nice and all, but we've never done much apart from attending parties and drinking tea since we were born, I want to explore the village. Not as a noble, but as a commoner," I voice my interests.

"That would be fascinating," Niki agrees.

"But it's impossible. You guys are one of the most important people in this kingdom. You'll never be left alone without at least two imperial guards. Going to the village in secret is out of the question," Mason clarifies.

"Is that so... I would've loved to go," Rin sighs.

"You want to go?" Lucas asks.

"Well yeah, I've heard that there's a festival today in the village from one of my maids! I really want to explore it!" Rin says.

"Well then okay," and with that, Lucas snapped his fingers. One second I was in the library, the next I was outside in the village near my workshop.

"Wait, what the hell happened?!" Aiden asks, looking around, "where are we?!"

"The village of course," Lucas answers.

"Wait, really?!" Rin gasps in excitement.

"What did you do Lucas?" Len questions.

"My fiancée wanted to see the commoner festival. I just fulfilled her wishes," Lucas says.

"Well, this certainly is impressive. I say we make the most of this situation and actually explore," Ace says.

"But your highness, you have-" Mason starts.

"That can wait," Ace immediately answers before Mason finishes his sentence.

"But we stick out like a sore thumb," Aiden adds.

"Well then fine," Lucas snaps his fingers again, and I look down to see my mint green dress change into a regular commoner outfit.

"Wow, real commoner clothes!" Niki looks into a mirror outside a mirror shop, checking out her clothes.

"This is amazing!" Rin beams, "look! The festival is starting!"

I look to where Rin was pointing, and the town square was decorated with colourful streamers with stalls out.

"Let's split up and go exploring," Violet says as she drags away Allen before he could team up with Rillaine.

"Wait, who am I partnering up with then?" Aiden asks, looking at Mason for help. Mason just shakes his head.

"Sorry, I still have to protect his highness and lady Sylvia so I can't."

"Well then I guess it's you and me, princess," Aiden sighs as he walks next to Monique.

"You should be honoured to be teaming up with me, humph," Niki crosses her arms and looks the other way, before catching the eye of a food stall and dragging Aiden along with her.

"Let's go, Lucas! I want to see everything!" Rin says as she takes Lucas's hand. If you look closely, at the edge of Lucas's mouth, he's forming a slight grin. Touché Lucas. He's a better strategist than I thought.

My stare was broken when I noticed a hand in front of me.

"Well then Sylvia, shall we explore?" Ace asks.

"Normally I would disagree...but this is a festival and festivals should be happy," I say as I take his hand and run in front, with Mason calling for us to slow down.

The festival was amazing. It was a real western festival, and I saw different types of food. Some food reminded me of Korean or Japanese cuisine. They had yakitori sticks and Cotton candy. Luckily, we still had money on us, and I wanted to visit every stall, all 54 of them.

"Slow down your- I mean Jack!" Mason calls out. Wait, who's Jack?

"That's my commoner name," Ace clarifies, clearly knowing I was confused about who Jack was.

"Oh, well then should I have a commoner name?" I ask.

"Why not? How about Dahlia?" Ace suggests.

"Yeah, Dahlia! Just like the flower!" I agree.

"Well then Jack, let's go to the next stall!" I drag Ace to the next stall and order the most interesting dish.

"Slow down Dahlia, you're going to make poor Mark tired from running after us," Ace chuckles. By Mark, he must mean Mason. I look over at Mason who was catching his breath.

"Nah I think he's fine," I say and return to my food.

For Mason's sake, we stopped at a nearby bench. Ace went off somewhere, leaving Mason and me to rest.

"Wow, Dahlia, you can seriously run and eat, I don't know how you do it," Mason says as he fans himself in a desperate attempt to cool himself down.

"It's a gift," I say as I flick my finger at him, covering him in light snow to cool him down.

"Thank you," he says as he relaxes in the snow.

"Say, how long have you been with A-I mean Jack?" I ask.

"Well, since I was five and started my training as a knight. It was from then on that I swore to be a knight for his- I mean Jack," Mason answers.

"So, was he a bratty prince or what?" I ask.

"Actually, it was the opposite: when I first met Jack, I had gotten into a huge fight with my brother Elijah about being a knight. When I saw the Pr- I mean Jack, I thought he was a spoiled brat who knew nothing about work. So I challenged him to a duel. I was so certain that I would win, but jack kicked my butt in the first two minutes. With one hand!" Mason describes. My mouth went wide open when I heard he defeated the future Crimson knight with only one hand in just two minutes.

"So your defeat made you want to become his knight?"

"It wasn't the duel that made me want to become his knight, but what he said afterwards. He told me:

'Even if you lost today, I am impressed enough that you had the guts to challenge a prince. With more practice, I fear you may even beat me.' I believed what he was saying was just something to make me feel better, so I shrugged it off. But when I went the next day to rechallenge him, I saw him in the library, writing whatever on a paper and putting it in the monstrous pile on his left, with an even more giant pile on his right.

I watched him work through it all. He was only five years old; he was working as hard as the King. Immediately after, he had another pile of papers to do, and he barely had any time for sleeping or eating, let alone sword practice. I came to the palace every day after that for a week to watch him work. He only had a couple of sandwiches for the whole day and barely had more than three hours of sleep. When I finally challenged him to a duel on the seventh day... I beat him...

But I wasn't satisfied. I only won because he was worked to the bone. Of course, I would beat him since I've done nothing but practice sword fighting.

It was from then on that I decided to become his knight. I wait for the day when I can fight him on equal terms. Until then, I'll protect him," Mason finishes.

"Wow," I say, taking in the story. He had as much work as the King at just five... It made me want to hug little Ace. I couldn't imagine doing that much at only five. I clearly underestimated Ace. I should give him more credit for the duties and responsibilities he fulfils daily. All these responsibilities were given to him the moment he was born just because his blood was royalty...

"Even now, he has a ton of paperwork to do. Now that he's older, his paperwork doubles each time. I have to make sure to lock the files up so he could just get a few hours of sleep," Mason sighs.

"Speak of the devil," I say as I see Ace walking towards us with three sticks of cotton candy.

"What are you both talking about?" Ace asks as he sits by me and hands me and Mason a cotton candy stick.

"Oh just the past," Mason says with a smile.

"Oh, what about the past?"

"It's a secret between friends, Jack," I reply, causing me and Mason to burst into laughter.

Ace sighs as he smiles at us. I stop laughing when I see the festival reaching its climax. The streamers were now falling like rain, causing everyone to cheer and dance.

"Now, will you look at that? It's Lucas!" Mason points out.

(Rin enjoying the festival with Lucas)

"Rillaine seems to be having fun..." Ace says. Rin starts to join the dancing and drags Lucas with her.

"Lucas just seems to like seeing her happy, I wish I had someone like that," I sigh.

"Well then, would you like to dance?" Ace asks.

"That would leave poor Mark alone," I look at Mason.

"It's okay, I need to catch my breath," Mason says.

"See, he says it's okay, now come on," Ace pulls me up and drags me to the dancing.

It was pretty fun. There was no waltz or anything, just pure fun. I was twirling around next to Rin. We even danced together before Lucas was giving me the stare to return her to him.

This was the most fun I've ever had. I didn't need to worry about social standing or whatever. I could just dance freely.

No one's POV:

Sylvia was dancing with the commoners, laughing every step of the way. Ace was just smiling and looking at her enjoying herself. Lucas and Rin were dancing around merrily. Even Allen and Violet too part. Allen was keeping an eye on Rin though, shooting daggers at Lucas whenever he touched her. Violet just smacks her forehead in annoyance and continued dancing.

Aiden and Monique were watching with Mason, eating some street food from a vendor nearby.

"They're having so much fun aren't they," Monique sighs.

"Why? So you want to dance too?" Aiden asks.

"I'm not cut out for this type of freedom. Once a noble lady, always a noble lady," Monique replies.

"Even the scary noble lady should have some fun," Mason says. Monique hit him in annoyance and then laughed with Aiden and Mason.

The festival ended, unfortunately. The group were resting from all the dancing.

"That was amazing Lucas! Thank you for taking us here!" Rin thanked Lucas.

"It's no problem. In Drogoria, there are many festivals you know," Lucas says. Now that was a lie. Drogoria is filled with demons and demons aren't exactly the happiest bunch ever. But Lucas will create a festival anyway just for Rin. After all, Lucas is like the devil of all demons.

"That's nice, but she will be staying in Hefelia," Allen cuts in.

"No she won't, she'll come to Drogoria as their rightful queen," Lucas shoots back.

"I think not-" Len is interrupted by Sylvia.

"Let's just enjoy the last few minutes of the festival before we have to leave," Sylvia cuts in.

After ten minutes of rest, Lucas snapped them back to the academy in their noble clothes. They all left to their rooms, and each of them fell asleep, except Ace and Sylvia...

Sylvia's POV:

Even after all that fun, I couldn't sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night, put on my robe, and decided to make some chamomile tea. It was my favourite in my previous life. As I brewed the tea leaves, I couldn't help but remember what Mason said about Ace.

He only gets three hours of sleep... I wonder if he's asleep right now, or maybe still working, also did say he has a bunch of paperwork to do... Without realising it, I made two cups of chamomile tea.

Well... I guess giving him some tea will help him sleep.

I walk over to Ace's room. Ace was the crown prince of the kingdom so he had a special dorm for all of his work. In the crack of the door, I could see the light was still on. I open the door in anger to see Ace was doing his paperwork in the night.

"Why in god's name are you still up Ace?!" I half yell, half asked. Ace looks up at me, his eyebags very clear. Still, he kept his usual composure and spoke to me in his normal voice.

"What are you doing here my dearest fiancée?" Ace asks.

"I'm here to stop you from overworking!" I say as I place down the tea set and take away Ace's pen and papers.

"After all the things we did today, how are you still awake?! And you're doing work this late into the night?!" I scolded.

"Oh, are you worried about me my fiancée?" Ace asks, intrigued by my care.

"Well, of course, I'm worried. I don't want my fiancée to be looking half dead two days before the debutante," I say as I pour him a cup of tea and place it in front of him.

"Two sugars like always?" I ask. Ace nodded in surprise. I wonder why he's so surprised.

(A/N: he's surprised because he didn't think Sylvia wouldn't remember that)

"Drink up then," I say. Ace takes the cup and drinks it.

"This is delicious, my fiancée, who made it?" Ace asks.

"Well I did, of course, it's not like I could wake up a maid in the middle of the night," I say. I look back at the pile of work Ace still has to do. He's going to have to complete them in due time... I sigh as I take a seat in front of Ace and pick up a pen and one of the undone papers.

"What are you doing Sylvia?" Ace asks.

"Mason told me you had paperwork to do, but you still chose to come out with me and have fun. Helping you finish this is the least I can do to repay you," I say. The first paper was about proofreading the new laws on exporting luxury goods. I read through the paper and then just asked Ace to sign. The second paper was about the healthcare of servants.

No one's POV:

Sylvia made sure Ace didn't do anything but sign the papers after she checked them, she also made him another batch of chamomile tea. Soon, the sun was coming up and both Ace and Sylvia fell asleep on the desk after completing all the paperwork. Mason came in at 8 o'clock and covered his mouth in surprise to when he saw an awake Ace looking at a still-sleeping Sylvia. Ace looked at Mason and put a finger on his mouth to signal Mason to keep quiet.

Mason quickly bowed and left the room, closing the door quietly. It was another half an hour before Sylvia woke up. She had a smudge of ink on her cheek. Ace held back his laughter when he saw Sylvia increasing the smudge when she was rubbing her face.

"Huh, is it morning already?" Sylvia mumbled sleepily.

"Yes, it is," Ace replies. Sylvia immediately woke up after she heard Ace. She forgot that Ace was still in the room. When she remembered that she and Ace fell asleep, she was red with embarrassment at the fact that she showed her sleeping face to Ace. Also, the fact that she was still in her nightgown and robe.

"Okay, then! I gotta go!" Sylvia immediately got up and but was held back by Ace holding her arm. Ace went around the office and to Sylvia.

"Wait my dearest fiancée," Ace says as he got close and used his sleeve to clean up the smudge on Sylvia's face.

"You had a blot of ink on you," Ace said as he shows Sylvia the smudge that had imprinted on his sleeve. This made Sylvia blush even more as she rushes to her dorm, where Lillian was waiting for her, wondering where she left.

Ace simply laughs as he looks at the tea set that was still on the desk.

"Thank you my dearest fiancée," he whispers into the air as he changes for the new day...

Man, I am so bad at creating romance, but I hope this is good enough!