One of the lessons Duchess Burtwell told over and over was “If you make a mistake, grovel.” Basically, if I did anything wrong I would hopefully be able to save myself and save face by belittling myself as much as humanly possible, and hope the other person would take pity on me.

“Oh My Prince, it was not my intention in any way to be rude to the sunshine of the empire. I am sad to tell you that my etiquette is severely lacking, even though I have been doing my best in lessons. Duchess Burtwell always tells me how I am her worst student, and that she feels bad for my parents about my lack of intellect. I will receive any punishment, but please do not let my household that is already suffering from this failure of a daughter be dragged down further.”

URGH I COULD BARF, how could I even make that go through my own mouth. I need to wash it later. Ew. Keeping up appearance is the single most important thing in this world, so I did my best to pronounce the words as best as I could while keeping my face down and not looking at the prince, that I REALLY hoped was the younger one.

“Oh there you are, Prince Horus. I have been looking for you”

A voice from the shadows interrupted the prince’s glare.

Horus… Horus… Oh damn, this rude piece of shit really is my gay baby. Sigh, not the first time I stan a rude character, but it’s something entirely different when he goes from talking like this to other characters and then talks like this to ME. I mean, I wouldn’t like half of my favorite characters in real life. But still, I’m a Lady on a mission, and even though he is rude now, I guess he really isn’t… Rude rude… I mean, I’m the one that did something wrong. In this world anyway.

“I was catching a mouse with no manners, Sir Windsor” Prince Horus replied to the man that had just spoken. He was in armor, clinging as he walked towards us. How had we not heard him before?

Oh, Windsor! Windsor Balliol! The head of the royal guard! According to the novel there was a lot of hints for prince Horus to crush on him, and from the sudden change in expression from wanting to kill me to wanting me to not be there, it seemed like it wasn’t taken out of thin air.

Hot damn, I ship it.

Sir Windsor was a tall man, and either very robust or with a very good armor, and brown hair. This contrasted very nicely to Prince Horus with his slightly lighter build and blonde hair.

A glare made me remember I wasn’t supposed to observe him. Oops.

“And who might this mouse be?” Sir Windsor asked, directing his attention to me.

“Lady Amy Wells” I said with a courtesy as best as I could.

“A pleasure to meet you, Sir Balliol” I added, Windsor Balliol, head of the royal guard, someone I was supposed to meet when I went to look for my necklace.

It seems like my efforts to keep the novel on track made me head straight into catastrophe.

He bowed at me, then turned his direction towards the prince.

“Prince Horus, I have asked you before to not walk around without either me or one of the other knights. Especially in the middle of a party. You can not walk around alone with everything going on in the palace. It is dangerous” Sir Windsor said, with a concerned look directed towards Prince Horus.

Prince Horus looked like a kid in love. No wonder he was outed as a gay so easily. If a child saw this they would instantly know, not only what love is, but also what a person in love looked like. Oh my dear, I have my work cut out for me.

“Thank you for the concern, Sir Windsor, but I too am but a person that needs fresh air once in a while” He said, sounding a bit dramatic. Oh gosh, Prince, you are making it too obvious.

“And in any case, you are here now, having found me well and in good health” He continued.

Sir Windsor sighed, then looked my way. I felt a bit like my entire existence was forgotten for a while.

“My Lady, let me escort you back to the party. It seems you are lost”

He stretched out his arm for me to take.

Reaching out to take it, I’m grabbed backwards by the prince.

“Lady Amy is not lost, she were going with me” he said. Oh-oh, here I was thinking I could escape my peril and walk with the guard and look important, but it seems I’m stuck with the prince that might want me dead even though I want him alive. A peril indeed.

Sir Windsor bowed with no questions asked, even though I felt like he should ask a lot.

None of this made any sense.

And by the way, how did the prince know who I was in the first place? Have this ‘Amy’ met him before? I didn’t get a chance to ask, but I will have to at some point. This isn’t good at all.

Also, why did Sir Windsor first tell the Prince not to walk around without any guards, but then let him walk off, without any guards, with the person he had just called a mouse?

My head huuuuuuuurts, but there was no answers to be found as I was dragged off by my gay baby that wanted to kill me. Most likely.

In any case, why did Prince Horus even drag me off?