Alicea's beaming with adoration and wonder for the desert rainforest shaped bun. I'm glad that she has relaxed down and not weary of me. Alicea then eats the bun. Her face blushed with delight by the bun's flavour. Alicea then looks up at me. 

"This is delicious your majesty" Alicea said.

"I must thank the cook" she added.

"Yeah. I'm glad that you like them" I respond. 

Alicea looks at me a petit smile blooming on her face. I take my last sip of my tea that I have been drinking with the food. Alicea seems to notice that my teacup was now empty. She looks at it a bit,. Then she seems to realise something.

"Would your majesty have some more tea?" Alicea asked elegantly.

"Oh! Yes please" I answer her with smiling brightly.

She then begins to pour tea for me. Who knew she'd put on a great performance. She began by pouring the tea close to the teacup, then gradually lifted the teapot high up. When the teapot was high enough, Alicea started to rotate the teapot in a manner that made the tea's flow swirl its way down to my cup. The she lifted the teapot up and down. When my teacup was full, she then gracefully stopped the tea's flow. That was so cool! If I did it I would most likely made a huge mess instead.

"That was awesome Alicea!" I exclaimed beaming with wonder.

"Thank you. Your maidservant is pleased that she has pleased his majesty" she responded calmly.

"Though I didn't try to impress his majesty" Alicea added.

"Oh?" I'm confused.

"It's rather a force of habit and taught manners instead instead to show respect" she explained.

Wow!

"Can you tell me more about this or much better just teach me someday? " I asked her.

Alicea chuckles a little. 

"If his his majesty wishes so," she answered. 

***

I'm now doing this dreadingly boring paperwork. Alicea has gone to get me more ink and snacks to keep me awake. I dislike paperwork, it's just so boring and mundane. I'd rather be building walls than paperwork. But I do this so this vast kingdom can operate. This morning I have made some good progress in getting closer to Alicea. Hmm... What should I do next? As I'm working I hear doors opening. I look up from my papers to see who's come to me. It was my one of my best spies, Dolion. 

"Greetings my king" he greeted. 

"Hello Dolion" I greeted back. 

"Anything to report Dolion? " I asked. 

"There hasn't been much progress in interrogating those nobles, my king" he answered in a cool tone. 

I nod shifting my gaze back to the papers. The nobles were being interrogated because their king, Alicea's dad has escaped on the day when we conqoured Alicea's home.. Alicea's father...Yeah...My brows furrow upon realizing that the king that has gone missing is indeed 

Alicea's dad.

"My king?".

I look up. "Yes?"

"Is there perhaps something bothering my king?" Dolion inquires.

"What do you think about me and Alicea" I blurted out. 

Shoot! Didn't mean to say that out loud.

"I think that you have done great progress" Dolion answered a little taken aback by my question for some reason.

"Really?! How so?" I asked.

"Oddly enough, Alicea seems to get comfortable around you quite soon despite being still hesitant" Dolion informs as he fixes his glasses on his face.

Hmm.. Dolion's bein' a lil strange...Naaah! Maybe I'm overreacting. *Shrugs to himself

"What do you think I should do to make her more comfortable around me" I asked Dolion. 

Dolion ponders bit. A faint sweet smile appears on Dolion's but quickly vanishes upon answering me. 

"My advice would be that you should just be genuine to All-Alicea my king. She'll be a great allie when her trust is gained since she's extremely loyal to the people she cares about" Dolion advices. 

I nod to him. Weirdly I feel a little suspicious of Dolion. He rarely stutters and has a calm and cool demeanor. For some reason I feel weird seeing how much he knows about Alicea. Like this info should be normal since he's an extremely skilled spy. Something's odd, but I brush off my suspicion. Dolion check's his pocket watch and asked to excuse himself, I allow it and he goes away. Just after Dolion exits Alicea appears from the corridor to my right with more ink and some snacks. Yay! Snackies! 

Alicea's pov: 

I come back to the throne room with bread crisps, hummus and more ink. As I near the end of the corridor I hear a familiar voice besides his majesty's, I stop on my tracks. It can't be him right?... No no, I must be imagining this. I continue to enter the throne room. In the throne room his majesty's working more on the paperwork. When I near the thronimI see whisp of hair exiting just before the thoroneroom's door closes in my pheripheral vision. I stun for few seconds. It can't be him right? No it can't be. Alicea Rouhani, you shouldn't be emotional about a breakup on work hours get a grip.im

Time goes by as Alaric battles through a bunch of paperwork. Alicea contemplates that should she help the king she's now serving since she's efficient. After pondering about offering her help to Alaric. She then realizes to her own dissappointment that she doesn't know the political and law structure of this kingdom she's in. Meanwhile Alaric is on a verge of falling asleep from the mundane task of paperwork. "Ughh will this ever be done?" Alaric complains in his toughts. It's nearing from noon to afternoon. It's quiet in the throneroom since there's only Alicea and Alaric occupying it. It is so quiet that you can hear the bustling of townspeople outside the palace grounds. The sun is scorching outside but the wind balances it out. After some minutes Alaric decides to look up a bit. He then notices Alicea standing straight unbothered. "Oh shoot! How long has she been standing there?" Alaric thought to himself. Alaric actually forgot to get his maidservant something to sit on. Alaric didn't mean to make Alicea stand for hours.

"Alicea, I'm so sorry to make you just stand there" Alaric franticly apogizes.

"Hm? Oh, it is alright. I am actually used to this and this is not even so much standing your majesty. Please be assured" Alicea responds a little bashful.

Alaric gets baffled by Alicea's reasoning. Alicea notices Alaric's confusion and contemplates on that should she tell the king she's serving the explanation to her tolerance of standing straight long periods of time. Can she open up a little to him? But Alaric like a cute puppy blinks twice in now confusion turned to curiosity, as if almost begging to know. Now Alicea is baffled. She now wonders how come a king can act this uncomposed. Is the king trying to test her or something?"How can this man act so adorably?" Alicea thinks to herself. The reality is actually that Alaric genuinely wants to know how Alicea's able to stand so long. "M--Maybe it won't that much to tell him" Alicea thought. 

"When I was in military training I had to stand on guard several hours and sometimes from sunrise to sunset to build physical endurance" Alicea finally explained. 

Alaric was stunned by what he heard. Not that he didn't have to stand on guard in military training, just not to that extent. 

"Man! That must've been really tough" Alaric stated. 

"Yeah... But I'm used to it now, so no worries" Alicea replied. 

Alaric's statement to Alicea triggers a old memory in Alicea's consience. 

#flashback:

It is the new sunrise. I have stood guard the whole night. My legs are trembling from standing so long. The morning sun warms my whole body. Oh and I have forgotten to mention that it had rained the whole night, so I am drenched wet. Thankfully I'm wearing armour so I don't feel that cold. Achoo! Goodnes gracious. Birds start to wake up, singing all the symphonies of the morning. I am absolutely tired, so tired that the mud on the ground seems good to sleepppp onnn...

"Must've been really tough huh? "

I open my eyes. A blurry silhouete of an man standing in front of me. 

"Mhm.*sniff". Tears start running down my cheeks blurring my already blurry vision even more. 

"I-it rain-rained the-the w-whole *hic! night" I reply to the figure. Even though I can't see well, I recognize his voice. My best friend. 

He handed me a towel. 

"Come on now Ally. We need switch unless you're going to stand more which I doubt you'd want to" my best friend said. He smiled tenderly. 

I walk-*THUMPH! SHOOT! 

"(Mumbled: Arghh!!" I mumble face planted in mud. 

My dear bestie snickers beside me. I try to get up from the mud. Hands trembling from exhaustion land my face back to the mud. 

I then feel my bestie grab me from my torso and lifts me up so I can stand up.

"Thank__Hey!" I tried thank him but now I'm carried in bridal style.

My bestie grins in satisfaction.

"Come on! Let this handsome warrior to be escort her highness the muddy kitten since she can't walk anyway" he joked.

"Hey I'm not that small!" I argue.

"Whatever miss beansprout" he replies.

"Oh come on!" I exclaim......

A faint and solemn bittersweet smile appears on Alicea''s face after she replied to Alaric. The smile then immediately vanishes. Alicea wonders what's gotten into her. Alaric noticed the smile which made him even more curious but held himeself from asking not wanting to be nosy.

***

Alicea's pov:

His majesty and I are walking down the corridor. The sun is about to start setting. The day really just consisted of bunch of paperwork. I was finally able to help his majesty by organizing the papers by their urgency and paragraph length. I was so glad that I was able to help him in any way I could making the processing of the papers faster. After that we just went to eat lunch. This time I got some privacy on lunchtime. We seperated to our own dining spaces. As we are walking his majesty suddenly stops. He turns to me a tender smile on his face.

"Hey Alicea. Since today has been a long day you should go rest, you could use this time exploring the palace grounds if you want. Thanks for helping me with that awful amount of paperwork, oh and here's your pay for the day.". His majesty gives me a pouch containing money from his pocket.

 Wait has he been carrying that pouch all this time? No, thats unlikely. I receive the pouch and thank him for it. We then part our ways. I put the pouch into one of my two pockets int the dress. Oh my gooodness! I absolutely forgot to mention that this dress has two large pockets. I was just overwhelmed by other things that I forgot to mention them. I pull out the map Atefeh gave me from my pocket and inspect it. Hmm... Where should I go? Oohh, now I know! I'll go and explore the training grounds. So now I enthusiastically skip to the training grounds hummimg a happy little tune following the map's directions. When I got to the training gronds I was amazed by the great size of it. It made me so excited that I briefly danced on my tiptoes. It felt strange that it was so quiet as if no ones here. I look around. Yeah, it seems like I am the only one here...

In the training ground I inspect the sparring arsenal. Surprisingly I find a scythe in the arsenal. I did not expect to find one here since it more of a my kingdom's signature weapon made popular by my great great grandmother. The scythe I found wasn't a war scythe but a harvest scythe, but it's good enough. I look around the training ground before taking the scythe. When saw that the coast was clear I take the scythe and start doing some of my warmups. The scythe is a tad bit light since it is for harvesting and not for battle. I start dancing and spinnning the scythe around me. Then I start slahsing and striking my imaginary adversary with swift and precise movements. I have to be a little carefull since the blade's angle is more narrow than the war scythe's. I get immersed with the scythe that all my surroundings seem to blur.-*Klink! Blades clash. Ah!! Who's that?! My heart starts racing. Panicked and startled my insticts immediately take hold of me. I'm fighting with a sword user. As like in a trance I get defensive and try to disarm the person. There's resistance. Blades clash. I interlock our weapons and yank the sword out of the person's hand. The sword falls on the ground to a distance. Immediately I switch from defense to offense I pin the person who attacked me on the ground. Scythe pointing to the person's throat. I look to that that person panting and trying calm down. Who are you who dares to attack me?! I stare at the person on the ground. I calm down a bit. My vision clears. It's a man, he looks familiar. Then it clicks. Oh no! 

"Luwi! ". Franticly I trhow the scythe away and backed away. 

Luwi gets up. His breath a little shaken. 

"I am terribly SORRY. Please don't misunderstand" I pleaded. 

I am so doomed......