章 7: Asland Thinks Rosie Is Weird
Dinner was over. Howland offered to escort Rosie to her room, but the girl refused.
"What's wrong?" Howland asked, feeling odd that his sister didn't want to walk with him.
"It's nothing. I need some fresh air and want to look around the castle for a bit before going back to my room," said Rosie.
"I can escort you. Brother visits this castle quite often," replied Howland, who still wanted to be with his sister.
"But you have to leave tomorrow morning. I don't want to tire you out."
(Come on, Howland… you're my favorite character… don't piss me off. Leave me alone!) Rosie screamed in her heart.
"I will accompany her, Howl. You can rest now," Aslan said, making Rosie smile widely.
(That's my boy!) Rosie cheered happily.
Howland glanced at Aslan and thought for a moment. The man turned back to Rosie and cupped his sister's face. "Don't bother Aslan. He has to go with me tomorrow, too."
Rosie couldn't help but laugh. "Brother, I'm a gentle and sweet-tempered girl. I won't be able to injure Duke Aslan, who is much bigger and stronger than me."
Howland chuckled at Rosie's comment while Aslan kept his mouth shut. Hearing the princess' joke just now made Aslan slightly regret offering himself to escort the princess around the castle.
He didn't know what made him offer himself like that. He was only worried about leaving his castle while the princess stayed here. If Rosie wasn't the king's daughter or Howland's sister, perhaps Aslan wouldn't even care what happened to the girl.
Even if Rosie fell a second time in the same river, Aslan wouldn't look back. However, that girl was his best friend's little sister, and inevitably Aslan seemed to have an added responsibility to protect the girl. Seeing Rosie's personality, he had to have the patience of a saint.
"Aslan, if Rosie troubles you, you can call me," Howland said. Aslan replied with a nod of his head.
After Howland left, Aslan turned to show the princess around the castle. The man was a bit taken aback to see the princess smiling at him.
"Could I look at the library first?" Rosie asked Aslan.
"If that's what Your Highness wants."
Aslan stretched out his hand to make way for Rosie. The two walked side by side through the stillness of the hallway under the bright moonlight.
The castle was quite modest. Rosie could still see some parts of the walls that were starting to crumble, or perhaps it was the trace of what happened twenty years ago during the massacre of the Montgomery family by an unknown group.
Rosie didn't want to bring up Aslan's past. A year ago, the past incident had been closed by the Villiers Family because they wanted to renovate Montgomery castle so that it could be used by Aslan again later.
Suddenly, shivers ran through her spine at the thought of Aslan's life alone in this cold castle. No wonder the man was really desperate when he asked Savy to live with him. After receiving warmth from someone, Aslan became obsessed with it and did not want to return to his bitter and cold life.
Aslan didn't know what was going on in the princess's mind, but these days he felt he was being watched too intensely. Just like now, Rosie, who was walking beside him, couldn't stop staring at him.
"Your Highness, we have arrived at the Montgomery Castle library," Aslan said, snapping Rosie out of her thoughts.
"Oh, cool!"
Aslan opened the library door, and Rosie was taken aback. The library wasn't very spacious. It was about the size of any vintage bookstore Rosie had been to. The dim atmosphere with shelves made of mahogany trees gives a real vintage impression.
The huge glass windows at the back of the shelves gave a magnificent look while the moonlight fluttered through them. What's more, the antique smell of the pages of old books gave Rosie a sense of comfort.
She finally felt familiar with this strange fantasy world. Last but not least, there was a large table in the middle of the room.
"It's like heaven," Rosie commented as she checked the rows of books there.
Aslan frowned in confusion. Howland said his sister didn't like books at all, but the impression Aslan got was that the princess looked head over heels with the book in front of her.
What made Rosie even more enthusiastic was that she could read the writings of this fantasy world so easily! Like… she had been programmed to recognize the written characters in the book.
"This is great!" exclaimed Rosie happily.
Aslan peeked at the princess who looked thrilled. He didn't understand what made her so excited. The books in the palace were far more complete than in his library, and this place wasn't that big either. What's so great?
"Wow… these are romance novels… made in this world?"
"Any sci-fi novels?!?"
"Huh?" Rosie reached for a book with a green leather cover. After opening it, there was not a single word there.
"What book is this?" Rosie asked Aslan, who was also looking at the rows of books on another shelf. "Why isn't anything written there?"
Aslan approached and reached for the book. He looked at the cover and then brought Rosie closer to the candle. Aslan opened a page and placed it on the candle at a fairly close distance.
The paper wasn't burned, instead, some words were revealed on the paper from words to sentences, then into paragraphs.
"Whoa… this is great. A secret note!"
Aslan left Rosie fascinated by the book. That was the ignition technique. It was used by all high-ranking royals to carry out secret communications, but this technique had now become so widespread that it was used by many people to write as they pleased.
There was nothing special, and maybe there were more ignition books in the palace library. Rosie should have known what Aslan thought.
They spent quite a bit of time in the library as Rosie picked a lot of books to read in her spare time.
"Are you going to read all that?" asked Aslan, unsure of the five stacks of books Rosie had brought.
Judging from the title on the book spine, these were romance stories.
"I want to read them all!" Rosie replied quickly. She didn't know if she could finish the books before returning back to the palace or not. Most importantly, she would pile up books on her to-be-read list.
"Where are we going again?" asked Aslan, bringing up Rosie's selected books from the table. He couldn't let her carry it all alone.
"Hm… I've looked at the garden, library, dining hall, rooms, and now… can I see the training ground?"
"Training ground? At night like this?"
Rosie nodded once again. Aslan studied the girl, trying to figure out what she was going to do on the training grounds. Montgomery Castle did not have many guards and knights, but they were among the chosen knights who always took the leading position in the war.
Aslan took Rosie to a deserted training ground. The girl looked around that place and nodded as if she was satisfied with what she saw.
"What is it, Your Highness?" asked Aslan suspiciously.
"This is a suitable place for me to learn to ride a horse."
"Sorry?"
Rosie turned to Aslan with a wide smile that made him uncomfortable. He could not understand what was on the princess's head. He was quite surprised to hear Rosie's desire to learn to ride a horse.
To his knowledge, Howland once told him that the princess's body was very weak and frail, so the king always forbade the princess to do hard activities.
"I'm kidding… I'm too weak to ride," Rosie lied.
She knew that Roseanne Villiers was a weak girl, so she was always spoiled by her parents. Roseanne Villiers was the embodiment of a royal princess because she had not experienced a dress soiled by dirt, unlike Roseanne Meyer, who had lived a hard life since she was little.
Rosie didn't want to worry Aslan, so she told him that what she had just said was a joke.
Aslan could not clear the suspicion. He would add more knights tomorrow morning before leaving the castle.
"Hm… that's about all. I can take a walk around again tomorrow," said Rosie, who then turned in the direction they had come.
(Please don't) Aslan replied in his heart.
"Let me escort you to your room."
"Thank you."
The two of them walked back together under the moonlight. Rosie stole a glance at Aslan and smiled wryly.
"Duke Aslan," Rosie called.
"Yes, Your Highness?"
"How old are you?"
"It is the same with your Brother, thirty years. old."
"Ah… two years younger than me," Rosie mumbled, making Aslan frown.
Younger? Isn't Princess Roseanne only twenty years old? Aslan shook his head to clear his confusion. He had been confused by this girl all day. Aslan couldn't understand Rosie's way of thinking at all.
"I rarely read books with a younger male lead, but if it was you, I would love it," Rosie mumbled again.
"I am sorry, Your Majesty. Aren't you only twenty years old? Four years ago, Howland invited me to your debutante party, but I couldn't attend it."
Oh, snaps! Rosie had almost forgotten that she was only twenty years old Roseanne Villiers. Mentally, she might be thirty-two, but physically she was Roseanne Villiers. That made Rosie smile brightly and hold her cheeks.
"This is my chance to enjoy my youth for the second time!" Rosie shouted as she ran with her arms outstretched to the air.
"Huh?" Aslan was left speechless.
He didn't know that his best friend's sister was this weird.
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