After his brief encounter with the young prince, the brunet swiftly skipped down the corridor while whistling to himself. Whenever he teased his childhood friend, it always brought a huge smile to his face. It was so easy to get a reaction out of him.

Once in front of the dining hall, Axel cleared his throat and raised his posture before gently knocking on the door.

Instead of receiving an acceptance to enter the room, the doors burst open and a smaller female looked up and smiled at him. “Axel, you know, even though you work for us, you needn’t be so formal.” First crown princess Aria giggled before reaching out to grab him by the hands and forcing him further into the room.

Sitting around the table there were three other females and one male.

Queen Iris, a pale blonde, gestured over for them to sit. “I hope my son wasn’t too much of a handful for you.”

“Mother, where have you been? Isn’t Fayt always a handful? At this point why bother asking?” The second princess sighed while reaching over the table to snag a piece of bread.

“Nala, manners. It is your brother’s birthday. At least wait for him before you decide to be a pig,” her father, a middle-aged man named Soren, scolded his daughter.

The second oldest huffed, crossed her arms and fell back into her chair, mumbling profanities aimed towards her younger brother. To Nala’s right, the youngest of the royal siblings, a smaller girl, patted her sister on the arm. “He’ll be here soon,” Rina spoke softly before retracting back and holding the stuffed doll in her lap close to her.

Staring at the family, Axel warmly smiled and took in the sight. All of the Arcada family sported their famous blond hair and blue eyes except for the father. Soren stood out from the bunch with raven black hair and piercing black eyes that sometimes gave the knight shivers down his spine. There was something about him that put Axel on edge but he couldn’t figure out what or why. Other than the drastic difference between the father and wife and children, they were a picture-perfect family.

All that was missing was…

A few seconds later the doors burst open again and in walked the man of the day, the third eldest and only Arcada’s son, Fayt. Ahhh, despite all of the family having hair, as gold as the sun, none of them seemed to shine quite as bright as his prince.