Page 33 of The White King's Favorite

Nana’s positivity was contagious, and Cessilia smiled while trying to sip her juice. It was good, sweet, and refreshing. Not only that but wandering in a new city, completely foreign to her own world, had something vibrant about it. The sky was colored with bright pink and orange streaks, the sky getting bluer and bluer every minute. It was a bit colder than what she was used to. The Capital of the Dragon Empire would have been much hotter already at this time of the day, while her father’s Onyx Castle would still be hot from all the chimney fires, as opposed to the frost outside. She slightly regretted having left their coats back in the castle, but it was bearable.

The large rock they were walking on was a new kind of climate she wasn’t quite used to; not too cold, yet humid from the sea winds stroking her hair. Her dress was sticking to her body a bit, and she could feel the drops on her neck, although she couldn’t tell if it was her own sweat or just dripping from all the humidity. It really was a strange place...

“Thank you for the drinks, Nana,” said Tessa, “but we’re probably going to need our own money. Do you use the same as ours here?”

“Oh, we have different kinds of coins, but they will take any kind of silver! It’s too precious, so even if it hasn’t been changed to our currency, you can definitely use it, with the weight.”

Cessilia doubted they would have any money issues here. When Nana bought their juices earlier, she did notice how cheap it was compared to a drink in the Dragon Empire... In fact, the little silver coins she had handed over wouldn’t have been enough to buy a single drink in the Capital. No wonder the few people they had seen were helplessly gawking at her golden jewelry... Although it was a nice change for these people not to be as shocked by her skin color, it was definitely intriguing. Back in the Dragon Empire, her mother’s milk-white skin had long been a sign of slavery, while now, there wasn’t one person in the Dragon Empire who ignored that the Imperial Princes and Princesses’ skin color was lighter than most. Of course, she and her brothers and sisters came in all shades, but they definitely stood out wherever they went. Yet here, no one seemed as shocked by her skin or eyes as they were by her jewelry.

“N-Nana? Are mixed p-people c-common here?” she asked as they were queuing for another shop.

“Well, it’s definitely rare, but... not unseen,” said Nana, frowning a bit. “The Hashat Family is known to have mixed people with lighter skin than most, at least, so even if most people haven’t seen it, we know they do exist... Are all the Dragon Empire people light-skinned too?”

“No,” replied Tessa. “Our moms are white-skinned, but aside from them, there are only a few people like that in all of the Empire. That’s why we were shocked to hear about that tribe.”

“Oh... Well, we will probably see some in the castle! The Hashat Family lives outside of the Capital, but I know their leader comes to the King’s meetings, so...”

“Are th-there many p-people outside the C-Capital? F-from what we saw f-from ab-... above, there weren’t m-many villages...”

“Not that many,” said Nana with a sigh. “A lot of the Kingdom has been destroyed by the wars, and many villages are completely abandoned... Wait, what do you mean from above?”

“We will show you later,” said Tessa with a smile, gently pushing her forward in the line.

However, Nana wasn’t satisfied with that explanation. She kept suspiciously staring at the two of them even as she ordered more food, this time letting Tessa pay for it.

“You are Princesses, my uncle said,” she insisted, “so, you’re related to the Empress? For real? Do you live in the Imperial Palace? ...Do you really have dragons in the Imperial Family?”

“You’ve never seen a dragon?” smirked Tessa.

“Of course not! I heard they are terrifying...”

“Oh, they are, and they love to eat chatty, little ladies...”

Nana pouted a bit, well aware Tessa was teasing her. The three girls were getting along as well as the Royal Counselors had predicted, and Cessilia too couldn’t help but chuckle at her cousin trying to scare the young lady. Thankfully, the food they had ordered this time was hot, little, caramelized fruit skewers that melted on her tongue and warmed her up from the inside.

“This is so good,” said Tessa, although she kept blowing out to get rid of the heat.

“Right? This is the best shop for grilled fruit skewers! She even has some that she flames with alcohol!”

“Why didn’t you give us that?!” protested Tessa.

“She can’t sell them in the morning, it’s way too early!” laughed Nana. “Alcohol selling and consumption is strictly regulated within the Capital, you can only have some during certain hours. Everything is much stricter here, but it’s to ensure people’s safety. A few years back, you could see so many drunkards here at any time of the day...”

“Is it the K-King’s orders?” asked Cessilia.

“Yes,” nodded Nana as they resumed their stroll in the streets. “He put a lot of new laws in place here to make the Capital safer. At first, some people protested that it was too strict, but to be honest, it was needed. Most of our cities had turned into lairs for thieves and criminals, but once the King used the army to repress them, the people felt a lot safer, and the crime rate dropped too... When I was young, my parents never would have let me go in the streets like this, without at least my older brother or my dad. That’s also why my brother decided to become a soldier.”

“Why would people be against it?” frowned Tessa. “If it chased away criminals? I mean, our aunt is pretty strict too, but there’s no one who’s against rules keeping thieves and criminals at bay...”

As she said that, Nana glanced sideways as if she was a bit scared of people around listening. In fact, Cessilia and Tessa were both attracting a lot of attention with what they wore. She sighed, and gently pushed them toward another, emptier street. Once she was sure no one could listen, she still spoke in a soft voice.

“A lot of people felt the King’s rules were a bit too... strict,” she whispered. “For a while, even the smallest crimes resulted in the death penalty, and dozens of people were executed every day.”

“Well, I don’t like thieves, but...” said Tessa, frowning.

On the other side, Cessilia was the one who understood.

“P-people were s-starving,” she whispered. “Those th-thieves p-probably didn’t choose to b-be... thieves.”

---