Aleksei stood outside the bedchambers of his fiancée, waiting for her to emerge. Since it was his first day guarding her, he had ended up arriving at her door a bit earlier than Queen Ivithia had suggested. At least that was what he was telling himself; in truth it was because he hadn’t been able to sleep much the night before due to his nerves.
Aleksei had seen Íris entering the bedchambers right as he had turned the corner on the opposite end of the hallway. Considering how long he was estimating the princess to take, since Íris had just entered, Aleksei decided against knocking and chose to just wait outside the door for the two young women to emerge. He was surprised that he didn’t actually have to wait long for the door in front of him to open.
“Sir Magni!” Aleksei’s fiancée had a genuine look of surprise as she took a small half step back, just as she was about to step through the doorway. She seemed to reclaim her composure quickly though. “I’m sorry for making you wait, I didn’t realize you had been waiting for me already.”
Aleksei bowed slightly towards the poised young woman. “I should be the one who is apologizing to you, Your Royal Highness. I arrived earlier than I had planned to and seemed to have startled you. You don’t have to worry if I was standing here for long though; I arrived only moments before Your Royal Highness opened the door.” Aleksei was now a bit glad he had decided to just get out of bed and start his day early; if not he would have missed her.
A look of relief flashed across the princess’ face when Aleksei mentioned not being there for long. It gave Aleksei the feeling that his bride was the type of person that did her best not to be a bother to others. He wondered why she was like that, since he had expected her to be a pampered princess, who would have no trouble voicing her wants and not think twice about servants waiting on her.
Aleksei thought the princess looked a bit nervous again, though, as she seemed to continue with idle chatter. “Since you are here, Sir Magni, does that mean you will be joining us for breakfast?” As the Ástlander princess asked him the simple question, something clicked in Aleksei’s head.
Aleksei had thought he had simply misheard the princess the first time she had addressed him; yet when she repeated the name “Magni”, Aleksei realized that his fiancée had memorized the wrong pronunciation of his pseudonym when he was being announced the day before. He wondered if he should try to correct her.
As Aleksei quickly pondered if he should say something, his eyes met Íris’ behind the princess. It seemed like Íris had the same realization as him at the same time. Her facial expression seemed to be telling him, though, that she would leave it up to him to potentially correct the misunderstanding.
Aleksei thought back to the day before when the Ástlander servant was announcing the envoy. It was very evident that the Ástlander was embarrassed by the mistake that his dialect had caused him to make. The two kingdoms may have spoken the universal language, but they each had very distinct dialects. Such a mistake was inevitable, yet Aleksei’s fiancée would have to learn the dialect in his kingdom eventually so that she wouldn’t accidentally offend anyone. At the same time though it wasn’t like it was actually Aleksei’s real name, so it wasn’t like he was actually offended by the mix-up.
Considering the princess already seemed stressed enough, without Aleksei pointing out something that might take her a while to nail down, Aleksei decided to put the issue on the backburner for a while instead of making it an ordeal. He instead switched his focus back on answering the princess’ question.
Aleksei bowed slightly again, as he recalled the princess’ inquiry about if he would be joining her during her meal. “I already ate before I came, so I will only be accompanying you as your guard, but yes I shall be joining you as you walk to the dining hall.”
“Oh.” As the princess spoke the single word, she seemed to exude discomfort. She seemed to want to hide her discomfort though, as she awkwardly continued after a moment. “I guess we should start heading over then…”
Aleksei let his fiancée and Íris pass him so that he could watch from a respectable distance behind them as they migrated to the dining hall. Aleksei let himself get lost in his thoughts as they walked down the various hallways; seeing how no one else was trying to make conversation again at this point. Aleksei began to sum up and internally organize what he had learned so far about his bride to be in the past twelve or so hours since his traveling party had arrived.
To start with, although Aleksei had been intrigued and a bit surprised by a few things, Aleksei hadn’t found any red flags off the bat in relation to either the princess or her family. He hadn’t actually expected to unearth anything so soon, but he still wanted to make the note to himself that nothing had arisen that would be a deal breaker when it came to his engagement with her. If anything, the undercover prince had actually come across a few positives about the graceful princess walking in front of him.
As the princess’ silver blue hair swayed while she walked, Aleksei’s thoughts started to lean more towards how his fiancée would probably be considered a conventional beauty in her kingdom. He also knew that he, personally, couldn’t deny the alluring charm she possessed either.
Aleksei quickly tried to shift his focus back towards other things he had learned about his bride, since her beauty was irrelevant towards if she would be a good queen for his kingdom.
Aleksei had learned the night before that, although the princess was soft spoken, she also seemed to enjoy reading a wide variety of books: including a few books Aleksei enjoyed about different strategies to best govern different levels of property.
Aleksei had also gleaned from the princess’ soft spoken nature, and her mother’s occasional comment, that the young woman seemed to have a bit of social anxiety. It might also be a sign that the princess had been more sheltered growing up than he had initially thought during the trip to the Ástland Kingdom. He had also observed her respectful nature towards both the Ástlander servants, and the Taicirusian envoy members; yet he also started to notice that she didn’t seem used to having servants directly under her to serve her. Aleksei wondered if she would grow accustomed to Íris and himself before they started the trip back, let alone how comfortable she would be by the time they reached the capital of Taicirus.
While Aleksei was still slightly lost in his thoughts, the small group had arrived at the small wooden doors that had been pointed out the day before as the doors that led to the dining hall. He snapped back to the present as he noticed the princess reaching for the door handles.
Aleksei quickly rushed forward. “Allow me, Your Royal Highness.” Aleksei put his own hands on the door handles and carefully opened the doors so that the princess could enter.
“Oh…. Thank you Sir Magni.” Yet again, the princess seemed a bit hesitant about having Aleksei doing the basic duties that a personal knight would do.
Aleksei only bowed slightly as his fiancée passed through the doorway. He had now started to resolve himself to make sure she got used to at least the simplest acts her future servants would be enacting. She was supposed to be his queen after all, and if they got married she would have a lot more servants other than Íris directly serving underneath her. If he could get her used to the sudden attention, it would save them all a lot of hassle in the long run.
As Íris passed Aleksei, right behind her new charge, their eyes met again. Since they had grown up together, they both had gotten a gist of what each other's facial expressions usually meant. Looking at Íris, Aleksei got the impression that she had come to the same resolution even before he had. It seemed like she had also seen something in the princess that made the handmaiden want to work even harder towards helping the young lady that had been put in charge of her.
The little bit Aleksei had learned about his anxious fiancée made him wonder how she would take it if she were to learn that her handmaid and personal guard were currently using their eyes to make a silent alliance to make sure she got used to being waited on. She probably wouldn’t take it well if she ever found out, but it was too late for her now; the alliance had been made and the silent plans were being formed.
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