Chapter 21: Chapter 21

I manage to get into my royal studies just in time before our professor arrives. In this lesson, we will be paired with other people whom we are unfamiliar with, so we will practice our social skills.

Between you and me, I hate this class.

There are about 16 of us in this class, coming from different kingdoms, specifically those of us who have trouble communicating with other people—which makes it obvious that Chace won’t be here because he is great with people.

I can’t help but say that I am happy that he is not here. I don’t think that I can face him yet after what I have just learned. I have a hard time keeping my face straight when it comes to lying.

Anyway, back to the current agenda. Each student will be given two roses, which they will give to someone who they think that they connected with the most during the entire class. The person who has the most roses will have to…well, have bragging rights, I guess, and a passing grade.

I know that it would be easier to keep the two roses that you would be given, but they have a magic that would let the professor know if we handed out the roses or not. At the end of the day, we have to hand out all of our roses or it will affect our grades.

It had already been five minutes since the exercise started and most of them were already talking to others.

I know that this is a graded activity, but I just can’t bring myself to talk with them. If no one has figured it out yet, I am as much of an outcast here as I am in the human realm. It’s hard to find something in common when you can’t stay in one place for too long.

We’re in the palace garden in Gija, which should be my domain of advantage. I could easily give someone a tour here, but because of what Arcie and I talked about earlier, my mind was too occupied. So, Kellar has done something stupid by separating two of his personalities. That’s exactly what his father, Ferius, did in the past. He separated his good persona from his evil one - and that good persona is none other than my Uncle Luke.

I’m thinking about Kellar and what Uncle Luke meant by him disappearing. Does that mean that he is going to die if I don’t find his other half soon?

“So stupid. Why would he do that?” I mutter to myself while I sit on one of the shaded benches in the garden.

“Why do you keep mumbling to yourself when you should be busy talking to others?” My body stiffens when I hear Chace's voice from behind the tree. He was leaning against it. He had two roses in his hands, which he was offering both to me.

“What are you doing?” I did not get up nor receive his roses. I was just looking at me with a raised brow.

“What does it look like I am doing? I am giving you my roses. You’re the only one who I see is worthy of receiving something from me.” He grins. I know that I should be taking it as a joke, but from the look in his eyes, I have a feeling that he was being serious with his words.

“I don’t mean that, Chace. What are you doing here when you are not required to even be in this class?”

Chace sits beside me on the bench and yawns. “Sometimes, you ask the most obvious questions, even though you are smart. I am here to keep an eye on you, of course!”

“Excuse me?” Somehow, I got offended because he was making it sound like he was my bodyguard or something. “Why are you keeping a close eye on me, exactly?”

“Because of the recent attack.”

“You make it sound like I am a damsel who needs saving. Remind me again who is more skilled and powerful between us? In terms of fairy magic, that is.”

“I am not saying that you’re weak. I just think you need some help sometimes. Stella, to me, you are perfect - I mean to most of your family members.” He turns his head the other way, as if he has just said something embarrassing. “What I meant to say is that you can’t do anything alone. You can ask for help, especially from me.”

“But I did not ask for your help.”

“Which is why I am volunteering.” He grins. He gets up and offers me his hand. “Come on. Let me teach you a thing or two about how easy this activity is. We can’t let someone like you have a failing mark on your social skills, right?”

I weighed his words and thought that he had a good point. My sister would be suspicious when she found out that I got a bad grade on a class. I took his hand and allowed him to lead me to where our other peers are. They were all gathered to a massive garden pavillion that resembles the one back in Thalia. She said that it reminded her of the days when she, Ace, Nate, Fred, Ren, and Dan used to hang out—only this pavilion was bigger.

The other aristocrats saw us approaching and immediately stopped talking to one another.

“Good evening!” Chace starts to use his charisma to attract everyone’s attention. The girls seemed to be very pleased, but the boys were obviously irritated at his arrival. I can’t blame them, honestly. When Chace starts to make use of his pretty face and his status as the crowned prince, there are hardly ever any girl who could resist his charm.

If there’s anyone who could resist him, then that person might probably be an alien, which kind of make sense for me to be honest.

“Prince Chace!”

“How are you!”

“We thought that you would never come!” The girls gives out excited screams.

Well, that’s my cue! I thought as I let go of his arm and immediately took a step back when the girls start to crowd him.

“How could I not attend? The lesson would be too boring without me.” He answers them, seemingly pleased when the girls starts to swoon at his every move.

Unbelievable. Didn’t this guy just say that he would help me with this activity?

While I was waiting for him to finish flirting with the other girls, I could just overhear a few gentlemen in the background talking about him.

“It’s him again. He always thinks that he is so special.” I don’t recognize the guy, but I remember seeing him in one of my classes. I believe that he’s a marquis of the troll kingdom.

“Dude, princess Stella could hear you!” A count boy from the kingdom of Sanver hushed his friend.

Since I heard them calling my name, I turned back to face them. Immediately, they stiffened.

I give them a small quirk of my lips. “I completely agree with you on that, so you don’t have to worry about me telling him what I heard from you two.” I could tell that they were baffled to hear that I, a winter fairy and Chace’s sort of friend, could agree with their negative comments about him. “But you know what? I think that you should consider this as a blessing because it would help you know which of the girls is worthy of your attention.”

They smiled, and for the first time since I entered this class, I felt like people began to notice me. I am fully aware that this isn’t the nicest way to get people to know me, which is why I didn’t say anything more than my word of agreement with them.

Thankfully, the two don’t seem to want to converse with me regarding Chace. Instead, they bowed to me.

“Princess, we’re very sorry for our comment. We were just displeased with having our conversation broken.” The troll guy seems a little ashamed.

“I’m sorry about that. If you two don’t mind, may I know our names? You know mine, and yet I do not know yours.”

“My name is Cameron, your highness.” The troll guys introduces himself before pointing at his friend. “His name is Alex.”

“What were you guys talking about earlier?”

“We were going to ask one of them as our date for the upcoming ball.” Alex responded

“There’s an upcoming ball?” As embarrassing as this sounds, I don’t even know about it despite being a princess. The two gentlemen before me were really nice and did not give me weird looks for not knowing anything about when and what the ball was all about. Instead, they patiently told me about it.

“The ball is for Prince Chace.” Cameron explains carefully to me. “It’s for his upcoming birthday and crowning ceremony.”

I feel so horrible as a friend because I was so busy finding out about Kellar that I forgot all about Chace. Hell, I almost forgot about his birthday!

“Your highness?”

“Huh?” I snapped out of my thoughts and brought my attention back to them once again. I was thankful that they did not question me for not knowing about Chace’s birthday or his crowning ball. I forced myself to smile at them. “Sorry, what is it?”

The two of them exchanged a look before handing me one of their roses.

“We know that it isn’t Prince Chace’s rose, but we just want to offer ours for giving us a bit of your time.”

I was perplexed, but I accepted their roses because I didn't want to be rude and decline them when they offered them so generously.

“Thank you, but aren’t you going to use these to invite girls to the ball?”

“We still have one more rose.” Alex smiled.

“And it is just as you said, we will look for the right girl who is worthy of our invitation. One who isn’t blinded by the idea of the crown, that is.” Cameron added.

I felt a little guilty and also grateful that I offered them my roses in return. “Thank you. Take mine as well.”

Now it was their turn to look surprise. “Princess, it’s alright. This is too much.”

“What do you mean? It’s just a rose from class.”

“Yeah, but-” The Cameron tried to decline, but his friend gave him a nudge on the ribs.

“Dude, come on. It is rude to decline a gift from the princess.” Alex accepted the roses and handed one to Cameron. “Thank you, Princess.”

“Y-Yes, thank you.”

I was a little proud of myself that I was able to get a couple of roses all on my own. I thought that I would get a low grade for this activity, but it turns out that it was alright. I bet Chace would be surprised if he saw me getting roses without his help.

“What’s this? You got roses?” Speak of the devil. Chace looms down and inspects the roses in my hands. He has an odd look on his face when he sees it.

“Yeah, I got it from Alex and Cameron.” I said smugly and showed him my roses.

Chace began to raise his head and llookat the two of them. “I see.” He placed his hands in his pockets and started to head over to them. Alex and Cameron seem nervous, which made me wonder what kind of expression Chace was making at them. “It seems like you have given them your roses too.”

“Of course, I have. They gave me theirs.”

“And yet, when I gave you mine earlier, you declined, but when these two gave you theirs, you accepted it?” He turned back and gave me a questioning glance.

I could already feel an argument brewing, and I didn’t want to do it in front of Alex and Cameron. I turned to give them a warm smile. “Can you two leave us for a second?” The two guys nodded their heads a little too fast before they hurriedly left. I turned to Chace with a frown that would probably give me wrinkles when I got older. “What’s your problem? Do you really have to be rude in front of them?”

“I am a Prince, Stella. I can do as I please.”

“Oh my God!” I rolled my eyes. “I know you idolize Ace, but you don’t have to act like him. Geez! You may think that it is attractive, but it isn’t! You’re only embarrassing yourself and me. If you are going to be persistent in being rude to people that you don’t like, I'd rather have you get out of my way!”

I tried to move past him, but Chace suddenly grabbed my hand. “Stella, wait. I am sorry. I was just…jealous, I guess.” When I looked back, Chace seem like he is genuinely remorseful. “You did not accept my rose so…” He trailed off, looking at the ground.

One of the things about me is that I hate seeing the people that I care about looking sad, which literally makes it hard for me to stay angry for too long. I sighed. “Don’t do that again, because at this rate, I will really become isolated from the class since you practically scare everyone who tries to make friends with me.”

Chace looks up with a smile on his face. “That’s a deal. And uhh…” His cheeks suddenly turned rosey, as if he wanted to tell me something. “I was kind of eavesdropping on your conversation with them earlier. I could not help but hear that you did not hear about the ball? I mean, I sent an invitation to Gija before it was officially announced.”

“Rose…” I muttered under my breath. If what Chace said is true, then there is only one person that I know of that would have kept my invitation from me. My sister. “Sorry, Chace. I’ll be sure to ask my sister about it.”

Chace’s face brightens. “Great. And here, please just take them.” He said and hands me the two roses that he had tried to give me earlier. “I would really love to stay and chat with you, but my mother might have a fit if she found out that I sneaked out again. Oh, and I am looking forward to your response on my invitation. Be sure to let me know so we can make our preparation.” He winks at me before leaving me with a baffled expression and before I could yell out my concern.

“Preparation? Preparation for what?!”