Even though Alice was speaking loudly and clearly through the whole room, it still felt a bit quiet. Mostly because Ceil had not spoken more than a few words since he got here. I did not blame him, heck, I stayed in my little corner and just skimmed through the books in the office. This is the best thing you can get when you put strangers into a room together. 

Alice and I were obviously not strangers but Ceil felt like a very worriesome stranger, since he was a child of the King. Even if Alice is pretty young, I bet she understands how important Ceil really is. In the game, Alice, Ceil and Allen didn't bond all that well. One of the reasons why is that Allen was often left out by Alice in activities and he often spent time with himself so he didn't get to talk to Allen. Second, was that other than formal visits, Ceil and Alice didn't hang out together that often. And after the engagment announcment, it was Alice who clung to Ceil and Ceil was the one who grew distant. 

I have no way of knowing that this same kind of thing would happen now, but it's a possibility. I don't really want to be dragged into the plot by getting close to Ceil. I know what's going to happen when we all enter the academy and a lot of the events in the game are not pretty, at least for the side characters. As for the main characters, it's just another heartfelt moment where the damsel in distress is saved by the knight in shining armor. 

I glance at my sister and Ceil to see what they are doing. Unexpectedly, when I turned around, blue met hazel. We stared at each other, not really moving. Ceil looked bored, an elbow propped up on one knee and tilting his head to the side. He didn't break eye contact until my sister spoke up and we turned to her.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm bored sitting in this room? Wanna ditch and go outside?" She asked with a mischievous look. I raised an eyebrow at her. Alice often skipped her lessons or studies and important things to go and mess around, but I didn't really expect her to do it in front of Ceil.

"We can do that?" Ceil looked a little intrested, but still skeptical. "Aren't we going to get in trouble?" He asked.

"Only if we get caught, obviously!" She laughed the question off. Ceil and I shared another look, both of us asking for conformation from the other. I gave a neutral shrug and turned back to my sister. She was already sitting up from the couch her and Ceil were sitting on and walking toward the door.

"Well? What are you to waiting for?" She asked, already almost halfway out the door. The two of us really didn't have any choice at this point and so got up from our sitting places and followed Alice down the hall. 

"Where are we even going?" I asked. We had been walking for quite some time, walking down nonsensical hallways and seemingly going to nowhere. My legs were already getting sore from walking around so much and my patience is running thing. I glanced back at Ceil walking behind me. His legs seemed to be doing better than mine but his patience was also at it's almost limit.

"Calm down, I'm just making sure we don't get caught. This way is longer, but safer." She said, keeping her eyes ahead and not turning back. I sighed in tiredness but also annoyance.

After what felt like a good 20 minutes, we had reached a wall at the back of the manor. It was a little less cared for than the rest of the walls surrounding the house, having vines grown on the top of the wall and flowing down all the way to the bottom of the wall. It was also chipped in a lot of parts and the colour a bit more faded.

Alice didn't stop to stare at it like me and Ceil and instead immedietly grabbed ahold of one of the vines and used it as support to climb the wall, placing her feet in strategic places which had holes big enough to offer support. 

It didn't take long for her to be up on the wall. She looked down on us with a look that just said 'Well, why are you just standing there?'. I was a bit stunned to be honest. I knew Alice went on her own a lot, I just didn't expect her to go that far and actually leave the manor. 

I had left the manor a few times. When father had to go to town and me and Alice followed along. But it was always with someone guarding us so I didn't feel that scared. But 3 children going off on their own? In a big market? If somebody reconised us as noble children, we would be dead! And not to mention, we had the Kings son with us! 

Seemingly unaware of the danger he could be in, Ceil followed after Alice and climbed the wall next (a bit faster than Alice herself). Now they both stared at me with an expectant look. I only groaned and gave in. What else could I do? At least they would have someone with a higher maturity level than them there. 

For me, climbing the wall was a bit more difficult. My legs were already a bit sore from walking and I didn't have a lot of upper body strenght nor did I recieve physical training like Ceil. 

Once I made it up the wall, I was surprised on how much you could actually see from there. The whole garden seemed a lot smaller when viewed from the top, unlike the low perspective of a small child. The Manor looked more pretty, since you could see the heavily deatailed walls, collums and windows. I had always like looking at baroque architecture in my previous life, who didn't? I guess living here for so long made me blind on how much I could see here. The pictures I saw on the internet seem a lot more real now...

"I know, I know, it looks pretty, you should see the house at sunset but if you want to do that, we will have to hurry and start moving so we can get back in time!" Alice broke me out of my trance by speaking loudly over my thoughts. She turned around and sat on the other end of the wall and slowly and carefully dropped down the wall.

Ceil followed suit not long after. I stared down at the ground below me. This couldn't be anhy more similiar to the trees I used to climb when I was young and could never get down them afterward. The grounf felt too high, esspecially for a small body like the one I was in right now. I slowly sat down on the wall like my sister and took a deep breath to calm myself.

Come on! You're 16! Didn't you dive off bigger cliffs than this?? But no matter how hard I scolded myself, when I openened my eyes to the grass below me, that overwhelming fear washed over me again. God, was I really born into a body with a fear of heights?!

"Jump." Said a voice down the wall. It was not my sisters. I opened my eyes once again and Ceil was once again staring into my eyes. His hands were held out steady, seemingly ready to catch me before I hit the gorund. My gaze unmoving from Ceil my heart calmed a bit. 

I took one deep breath and closed my eyes and jumped down carefully. Instead of feeling the pain of my legs hitting the ground from a talll height, I was dropped into Ceil's arms. He let me down carefully and I let out a sigh of relief. 

"Thank you." I moved the ends of my lips to form a small smile, my numb face seemingly weakening for a short while. Ceil only nodded and continued forward. Alice was already a bit ahead of us, not wanting to wait for me as I whipered in fear ontop of tall places.

Past the garden wall was a large but not too dense forest. You could see a bit further behind all the trees, a light which I presumed was out goal. There was already a path walked leading to the end of the forest. Was it from Alice or were other people using it too? We caught up on Alice soon enough and I couldn't help but ask her a question that's been lingering in my mind for a while. "How long have you been doing this?" I asked. "How have you never been caught? We could et into some serious trouble for this." 

Alice only leasurly glanced at me and chuckled. "You'd be surprised. The maids usually do work inside the manor, so they don't notice when I leave the garden." She says. "As for why I haven't been caught, it's because I don't leave witnesses." She says coldy.

I had no idea what she meant by that but Alice's cold tone still made some of my hair raise. It was then I remembered she was the villainess of a otome game. I doubt Alice's cold and awful attitude appeared out of nowhere in the game. Great. My sister is rutheless. I guess we are in trusted hands, I said to myself sarcastically. 

After another while of walking, my legs were already dying and once I could finally see the end of the forest. THe forest was right next to the local village. I think father once called it Pierce. It was not comparable to big cities like the ones near the Imperial castle, but was definetly not small enough to be concidered insignificant. 

Once we were out the forest, Alice immedietly dripped something over mine and Ceil's shoulders. It was a black cloack with a button at the neck. Well, that's one way of hiding our obviously not poor clothing but I felt it only made us look more suspicious, 3 kids wearing black cloaks, walking around aimlessly. 

Once the cloaks were on, Alice began walking once again, probably to another far away place that she wanted us to visit. So before she could take another step I grabbed her arm and with an exhausted face said, "Can we rest? I'm too weak for all this walking." 

Alice had a surprised look on her face which was soon replaced with one of guilt. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise. I guess you are not as fit as both of us." She chuckled. I sighed in relief that they both understood. The three of us sat down by a near by fountain and rested on the edge of it.

"Ceil," I called, feeling the atmosphere was a bit too quiet for my liking. "How often have you been out to town on your own?" I aksed.

Ceil turned to me a bit surprised that I struck up a conversation, given the silent treatment I had given hi back at the manor. He though for a while and then responded. "Not a lot. I'm not allowed to go out on my own but I do sneak out when I can." 

"You too??" These kids are real troublemakers, really! "How have you never been caught?" 

"Ah, I have been caught some times, actually." Ceil said, chuckling lightly. "My maids and guards are not like yours, they follow me almost everywhere."

"Seriously? Isn't that akward or straining?" Alice spoke up.

"Well, obviosuly. It's just that I have gotten used to it for now. Also it's not like it's gonna stay that way for long. Once I grow a bit older and have a good grasp on my swordfighting skills I won't really need that many people guarding me." He explained. I was suddenly brought back to a scene in the game where due to the lack of guards, the heroine got kidnapped right under Ceil's nose. Ah, how ironic this is.

"Even if you can protect yourself, make sure to always bring more protection to protect those around you!" I spoke up. The chance of Ceil remembering this after many years is low but I felt like now was a good time to say it. 

"Yeah! And plus, you still need more training before you can be sure that you can protect yourself!" Alice added on. 

My legs feeling a bit more rested and my body suddenly feeling more fired up, I got up from the fountains edge and turned around to Alice and Ceil. "So, where do we go now?"