Page 98 of The White King's Favorite

“I really don’t know,” she muttered. “I’ve never seen Sab react like that or look so upset...”

“...Is it really because I’m not a virgin?” Tessandra frowned. “It can’t be, right? He must have had a few girlfriends, no? At least one or two...?”

She turned to Naptunie, who was slowly shaking her head, looking almost sorry.

“I don’t think so,” she mumbled. “Not that I know of...”

“Are you kidding?” exclaimed Tessa. “With those looks of his?”

“I d-definitely thought he was p-popular as well,” muttered Cessilia.

“Oh, he is! But I’ve never seen him interested in other girls before. I know of at least four or five of my sisters’ and cousins’ friends that he rejected completely... Lady Tessandra is the first one I have ever seen him close with!”

“I did have to force my way in a bit...” scoffed Tessandra.

“Sab focused a lot on becoming a soldier and Royal Guard,” said Nana. “He really spent all his time training for the past few years, even now...”

“You tend to be a bit... very single-hobby-focused in your family, don’t you?” sighed Tessa. “...Do you think that’s what this is about, then? Because I’m not inexperienced? Or because I’ve been with girls? ...Or both?”

“I really don’t know... I mean, we do have a... uh... traditional view of relationships in our family, but it’s not that shocking either if people have relationships before marriage...”

Tessandra sighed, clearly upset by this.

“Well, I can’t change what has been done,” she pouted, “and if he’s not fine with it, that’s it. I hate guys who think women have to be virgins for them, and that they are sluts if not! I grew up with strong, independent women who did not wait for marriage, and it didn’t make them any worse or better than others. They are even stronger! If he wants a cute, shy girlfriend, well, it won’t be me! He’s just an idiot for pushing his standards on me!”

“T-Tessa, it might not b-be what you th-think it is...”

“What is it, then?! You saw his reaction!”

Naptunie and Cessilia exchanged another look, but they had no response to that. It was hard to understand Sabael’s thought process when he hadn’t said a thing... He didn’t look disgusted or anything, just shocked, and he had walked away without saying anything on the matter.

“Should we just go?” suggested Naptunie. “All those... words we used got us some attention...”

Indeed, Tessandra hadn’t been very discreet during her heated speech, and several people around were glancing at the three girls with suspicious looks.

“Fine,” said Tessa, jumping to her feet. “I’m done eating, anyway, and I need to do something or I’ll keep thinking about it and it will annoy me even more.”

She quickly walked away and threw the leftovers of their breakfast to Krai. Cessilia felt a bit sorry for her cousin as she watched her scold the dragon and send it away. Things really weren’t simple when it came to love... Next to her, Nana leaned in to whisper something.

“So... we should probably avoid going near the Royal Guards’ quarters today? Sab tends to go there and train when he’s upset...”

“I th-think so t-too,” nodded Cessilia.

When Tessa came back, Krai flying off in the distance, they quickly did their best to change the subject. In fact, Nana began by telling Cessilia all about how they had quickly gone back to the castle the previous night and had eaten with the Counselors while getting warmed up in the room prepared for Tessandra. From Naptunie’s recount, Cessilia understood her brother hadn’t accompanied them to the castle, but had immediately gone back to the quarters instead. Nana was smart to carefully avoid mentioning her brother, though, and made her explanation quick and fluid. Then, it was Cessilia’s turn. She summarized in her own words her evening and night with the King, although she left out all the details she felt shy about. Following this, and once they were out of reach of any opportunistic ears, she quickly explained to Naptunie and Tessandra about their past relationship, including her scar, and how her dragon had been lost. Tessandra knew about most of it except for Ashen’s relationship with Cessi, but by the end of it, Naptunie was weeping.

“I can’t believe this...” she kept crying. “This is so beautiful and sad at the same time... That you two were separated because you were from different countries... And what happened to your dragon... And your scar... Oh, god, it’s better than any romance book I’ve read but it’s too many emotions for me.”

Cessilia touched her scar. She still felt a bit embarrassed about it, but she had decided it was time she stopped hiding it. She had retrieved her choker before leaving Ashen’s room, and worn it all morning, but now that she had taken it off to show Nana, she didn’t want to put it back on. That piece of gold felt heavy in her hands, and she felt like it had been keeping her from breathing right for too long now. Strangely, she felt a lot more free now that she wasn’t hiding her scar anymore. It was quite ugly and still got her stares from passersby, but her skin color would get her stares anyway, and she didn’t care about what others thought of it either.

“I’m sorry I d-didn’t t-tell you everything sooner,” she muttered, looking at Tessa. “I th-think t-talking with Ashen helped me a b-bit to p-put things b-back where they b-belonged...”

“I get it,” sighed Tessandra. “I’m just glad if it makes you feel better now... I remember the state you were in after everything happened, and I know the only thing that mattered was to get you better, not just physically. You didn’t talk for so long... I was just glad when I got to hear my best friend’s voice and see you laugh again. Your mom and mine had told me a hundred times not to pry too much, and I already had a rough idea of what had happened anyway. When we got here, I kind of figured the King might have been... somehow linked.”

“So... His Majesty didn’t actually die, but lived in the Dragon Empire?” whispered Nana.

Cessilia nodded. They were wandering in one of the streets right next to the sea, not too crowded at this hour. Naptunie was taking them to the Apothecary in the northeastern part of the Capital, as she had promised Cessilia before, taking a nice long way around.

“He was f-found near the m-mountains,” Cessilia explained. “He was in th-the snow n-near the b-border, half-d-dead... Mother said his hair had p-probably s-started to t-turn white d-due to a c-combined effect from p-poisons and stress.”

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