Page 38 of The White King's Favorite

It looked like her cousin didn’t even hear her at all. In fact, Tessa left her mouth open and her eyes wide open right until Nana and her brother were just two steps away, and Cessilia gave her a little nudge with her elbow, keeping her from totally embarrassing herself.

“This is my older brother, Sabael!” proudly announced Nana, totally unaware of Tessa’s reaction. “He is a guard of the Capital; as I mentioned, he will accompany us outside!”

“You’re lucky I’m not on duty,” retorted her brother, with an unexpectedly low voice. “Are you the Princesses she talked about?”

His eyes kept going back and forth between Cessilia and Tessa, visibly a bit unsure about the situation there. Just like everyone else, he seemed surprised by their appearance but still tried to remain somehow polite instead of too obvious.

“Yes,” nodded Cessilia, realizing her cousin was still mute. “Th-Thank you for acomp-p-... t-taking us out th-there.”

“Yeah, I’m not too sure about that. Is this seriously related to that... to a real dragon? We’ve been getting reports from the south since earlier. We weren’t too sure, but no one could make that up... I’ll be glad if it’s nothing too serious, and you girls can really do something about it...”

“I told you, it’s their dragon!” said Nana, enthusiastically. “Uncle Yobah agreed to it too, so we’re just going out to feed their dragon, ask it to be uh... nice, and then we will be back here, I promise.”

Her brother sighed, glancing toward Cessilia and Tessa with a doubtful look. Unlike his sister, Sabael looked a lot more distrustful.

“...Fine,” he grumbled. “Since our uncle agreed to this, I won’t argue. At least you asked me to come along, I wouldn’t trust it if it was just you... Is it just the three of you?”

Cessilia glanced back, and Nupia stepped forward, bowing quickly.

“We are accompanying the Princess as well, by order of the King.”

“By order of the King?” repeated Sabael, visibly stunned once again. “Alright... Fine.”

He let out a little sigh, grumpily glancing at his little sister again before turning to Cessilia and Tessa. However, he seemed resolute now, and the presence of three Royal Servants appeared to convince him.

“I’m Sabael, guard of the southeast Inner Gate. I hope I wasn’t disrespectful to the... Princess,” he mentioned, glancing toward Tessa.

“Oh, she’s the Princess!” immediately said Tessa, who seemed to have found her voice again, and a bright, charming smile with it. “This is Cessilia and I’m Tessandra, her cousin. But everyone calls me Tessa. You can call me whatever you want, handsome.”

She held out her hand proudly, and Cessilia pinched her lips, as she was having a hard time not laughing. She knew her cousin enough to know when she was overdoing it and trying to be as attractive as possible... Tessa had always been very pretty, but she could be a real temptress when she had set her eyes on someone. Cessilia couldn’t really blame her, though. Sabael was definitely a very attractive young man. Next to them, a little group of young women who had just walked past the gates kept stealing glances toward the very handsome guard. Only Naptunie seemed totally oblivious to the reactions her brother caused among females, or perhaps she was used to it.

“We should be able to go soon,” she said. “Uncle should have that cart here anytime now... Oh, there he is!”

Indeed, a younger boy was running in their direction, pulling a large cart with, as promised, three enormous fish lined up. He was surprisingly fast considering the load behind him, but Cessilia noticed his cart only had two large wheels instead of four large ones, and he was simply pushing a large sort of handle in front of him, the weight being balanced effortlessly behind him.

“Delivery for Nana!” he announced proudly, smiling at their little group with a missing tooth.

Nana quickly thanked him with a little coin, and turned to her brother, visibly expecting something. Sabael frowned.

“You’re expecting me to push this?” he exclaimed. “I’m a Royal Guard, not your errand boy!”

“I won’t push it,” said Nana, crossing her arms with a pout. “This is too big for me. And the Princesses won’t push it either!”

“We can do it,” immediately offered Nupia, stepping forward with her siblings already running to grab the cart.

Those three were clearly desperate to make themselves useful, perhaps to win Cessilia’s trust. Seeing that neither Cessilia nor her cousin reacted to this, Nana nodded.

“Fine, then! I got the papers too. Shall we go now?”

Her brother sighed, now that the cart situation was solved, with two of the triplets taking charge of it, it was indeed time to go.

Just like that, their little group began moving. Sabael and the passes they had gotten from Nana’s uncle easily got them through the Inner Gate, as promised. Once they stepped outside, Cessilia realized how things were indeed already a bit different there. As Nana had said, there were already fewer shops and more habitations, so even the main alleys weren’t as busy. Moreover, the streets were a bit more narrow, as if people had tried to use all the space for their houses, while others tried to walk in between. This was so different from the Dragon Empire, where each house was far from its neighbors, or at least separated by its courtyard or a garden, and a fence...

The main difference, however, was the atmosphere around them. As soon as they had passed the gates, everything looked a bit gloomier than before. First, the numerous eyes on them, as they walked past the long line of people waiting to go in, felt a bit uncomfortable. Not only that, but people were clearly gawking at her jewelry, her skin tone, and the large cart behind them. Naptunie was also walking closer to her brother, and Sabael was glancing all around as if he was ready for something. However, nothing really looked more dangerous than a few curious glances. Everything was just a bit less busy than before, and people weren’t as cheerful, either.

“Watch out for thieves,” whispered Nana as they kept walking. “No one will dare commit a crime in the open here, but thefts are very common in this area. That’s why there are a lot fewer shops too.”

Cessilia had noticed. That, and the fact that the doors had a few more locks on them, with some even having their windows protected by metal bars, was a very curious sight. She had never seen windows with bars unless it was a prison... Still, their little group quickly made their way to the next gates without any issues. What Naptunie had warned them against ought to be a rare occurrence, unless the presence of a Royal Guard with them discouraged the few thieves around. Tessa had kept a hand on her knives all along too, but it seemed to be unnecessary, as they made it to the next gate just a few minutes later. This time, the wall was much higher and even better guarded. There was only one door open, and people seemed to come much slower than before. Unlike the previous one, where Sabael had just quickly shown the papers to his colleagues, the guards verified all the papers in detail, asked questions, and also checked the cart. While all this happened, Cessilia noticed how Nana kept sending nervous glances toward the gates.

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