It was the first time in a while that Alice had gotten up this early in the morning. Normally she didn’t get up until after the sun had long since risen, however today was different. For the first time today, she would be departing the capital and going out into the greater kingdom to fulfill her royal duties. As she had only just turned 13 she hadn’t needed to perform any royal duties other than the events that were being attended by the whole of the royal family. But since she was now 13 and had gotten her Blood Skill she was now deemed ready to perform her royal duties.
Alice was both excited and nervous since it would be her first time leaving the royal capital in all her 13 years so far. The duty she was being sent on was simply a boring errand, however, what she was really looking forward to was being able to see more of the world. As she was thinking over what was going to be happening a knock sounded on her door. ‘Knock’ ‘Knock’ ‘Knock’ “Your Highness are you awake?” the voice asked. “I am, you may enter” she confirmed before the door was opened and four maids entered her bedroom. These four were her personal maids and would be accompanying her on the journey beyond the city walls. She had to ensure she was ready for when they arrived as they wouldn’t want to be blamed for their departure being delayed and the last thing she wanted were grumpy maids following her around for the next 3 weeks.
Once she was dressed and ready to leave Alice was escorted out of her room and entered the inner courtyard of the Royal Palace. When she arrived, she was greeted by her mother Queen Annabella. “Alice sweety, are you ready to go?” she asked. “Yes, mother. I’m ready” Alice replied. “Alright, just remember that if the inquisitors hand down a charge all you have to do it confirm the sentencing, okay?” her mother reminded. “Yes, I understand mother” Alice replied back a slight hint of sarcasm in her tone. “Don’t give me that. I just want to be sure your okay” her mother said. “I know, but we’ve been over this more than 20 times now. I know what I need to do when the times comes” she argued. “Alright alright. Just be sure to pay attention to the guards and your surroundings when travelling outside the capital. You never know what could happen and you haven’t levelled up at all since your birthday so make sure you stick close to your escorts” the queen said the worry obvious in her tone. “I will” Alice said as she gave her mother a hug and headed towards the carriage.
As Alice took her seat in the carriage her mind went to where they would be travelling to first. The first stop on the trip was the city of Korban which was north of the capital along the coast. Having only ever seen the sea in magical images she was looking forward to the journey there.
As he had hoped Alice enjoyed the journey north, this may have been due to the smooth carriage she was travelling in as well as the fact that it was only a couple of days to the city. There were fast ways to travel other than by carriage when travelling alone or in a small party, but Alice knew that since she had an escort she had to go the long way around.
Once they had reached Korban they travelled the next leg of the journey by a magically propelled ship to the regional capital of Pexicon. It took just over a week to travel the full distanced, but Alice didn’t mind as she enjoyed staring out into the sea and trying to spot the different creatures that rose up to breach the surface. Alice didn’t know much about the city she was heading to as the border territories were mostly left to govern themselves with little interference from the crown but had read up on the city before leaving. Whie learning about the city she had become intrigued by the river system it relied on for transporting goods from other parts of the territory through to Pexicon.
Once they had arrived in the city they immediately left for their destination. As the royal inquisitors had offices in all major cities they took one of their special river boats up to the town of Rimour which was where they would be spending the next week or two investigating the corruption allegations against some Baronet. Since all she really needed to do was wait for the inquisitors to lay their chargers and sentences before issuing the order to carry it out she decided she wasn’t going to stay cooped up in the mayor’s mansion for the whole two weeks and that she would sneak out and have a look around the town. No one would recognize her all this way out from the capital so it should be fairly safe she thought as she concocted her plan to sneak out.
A few days after they had arrived in the town was when the day came for Alice to sneak out of the mansion. Not everything she had planned worked out the way she thought it would, and she soon ran into some unforeseen trouble. After just 10 minutes of leaving the mansion’s grounds she had noticed some unsavory people had begun to follow her. She wasn’t quite sure when they had started tailing her, but she was almost certain they knew who she was. It was likely that they were thugs hired by the Baronet as a last-ditch chance to survive. Alice knew the royal inquisitors had all the evidence they needed and were after one last bit of information before they would arrest the Baronet and charge him with treason. While she knew this, her pursuers didn’t and she also knew she was unlikely to be able to get away from them. With that being the case she, however, was still going to try.
Alice spent the next 10 minutes waiting for the right chance to make a run for it. She had attempted to stay in busier areas but as she was unfamiliar with the town she soon lost her way. She had wondered into a bit of a back-alley area which had some narrow-looking alleyways and thought that it was the ideal opportunity for her pursuers to strike which was why she had decided now was the time.
As she rounded the next corner and was out of sight of those following her she finally made a run for it. She had, however, misjudged the abilities of the thugs. Based on their appearance they looked like they would be fairly slow that however was not the case as when they rounded the corner and began to run after her they quickly closed the gap.
It was just when she was about to start panicking that a hand shot out from a small side alley on her left and pulled her into it. For only a spit second did she get a look at who had grabbed her as she struggled to keep her balance however when she did she realized it was a boy around her age who had grabbed her. Before she could properly register the situation the boy began pulling her along behind him as he zig zagged through the narrow alleyways. It wasn’t until an extra narrow alley that they slowed to go through did she finally get her bearings and begin to run along with him rather than being dragged.
They kept going through the narrow alleyways before they came to a stop at an even thinner gap between the buildings. The boy let go of her hand and began squeezing himself through the incredibly narrow gap. Alice caught on to what he was doing and quickly turned side on and pushed herself through the gap. As she was passing through she could only be thankful that she was only 13 and wasn’t growing at the same rate as her older sister had.
Once they had passed through to the other side of the narrow gap they ended up on a busy street. The boy looked around left and right for a moment to get his bearings before he ran forward towards what appeared to be a clothing store. Alice quickly followed and entered the store after him. As Alice entered the store the boy quickly closed the door behind her. He turned back around and pulled a top off of one of the clothing racks before he pushed it into her hands and quickly forced her into a changing room closing the curtain behind her.
Alice sat in the changing room in silence and a few minutes went by before Alice heard a woman talking to someone on the other side of the curtain. She held her breath hoping it wasn’t one of the thugs. Another minute or two went by before she finally heard the boy speak again. “The coast is clear” the boy said to her from behind the curtain. Alice waited a couple of seconds before she peaked her head out from behind the curtain. Once she was satisfied the coast was indeed clear she pulled the curtain back and left the changing room.
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The boy took the shirt he had passed to her back before placing it back on the clothing rack. He then slowing crept back over to look out of the window again. Alice took a tentative step towards the window before finally joining the boy to peer out the window. After a few more moments Alice finally decided to thank the boy for his help. “Thank you for the help” said Alice trying her best to sound genuine with her thanks. She wasn’t lying after all. If the boy hadn’t helped her when he did then she likely would have been caught by the thugs.
“It was nothing, don’t worry about it” the boy replied as he slowly opened the door and walked back out onto the street. Alice followed behind him exiting out of the clothing store and back onto the street. Alice looked around the street again to be sure the thugs had definitely gone before she ran after the boy who had begun walking down the street while she had been looking around.
Alice followed behind the boy before trying to start up a conversation. “My name is Alice” she said as she finally caught up with him. “Samuel Holdridge” the boy replied as they stopped in front of some sort of food shop. The Sam walked up to a counter in the side of the wall and spoke to the vendor. “Can I get two vanilla creamy cones please?” Sam asked the shopkeeper. “Coming right up” the man replied to him. Alice wasn’t quite sure what a creamy cone was. She had never heard of them before. Alice waited just behind Sam until the vendor returned with the two creamy cones.
“That will be 4 copper coins” the man said as he placed the cones into a holding tray on the countertop. Alice put out the palm of her hand, and a small silver coin appeared. She placed the coin on the counter before Sam had the chance to pay. She wanted to pay for these creamy cones as she had just been saved, and money wasn’t something she was short of. “Keep the change” she said after she picked up one of the creamy cones. “My treat as a thank you for helping me” Alice said to Sam as she turned and walked off towards a bench on the other side of the road.
They both sat down on the bench across from the store and ate the creamy cones which was some sort of cold frozen milk-based food that sat inside some kind of wafer shaped like a cone. It was very good and Alice made a mental note to ask the chefs in the palace about adding them to the dessert menu when she got back to the capital.
Once they had finished their snacks Sam finally asked her about why the thugs were after her. “So, why were those men chasing you?” Sam asked. Alice looked at him for a moment concluding it was probably safe to tell him. He had saved her after all she thought before answering him. “I snuck out of the house and those thugs decided to take the chance to try and kidnap me. I’m guessing if they got ahold of me, they would have ransomed me back to my family”. “I see, I’m glad I decided to help you out then” Sam replied with a sweet smile. “Tell me where to go and I will walk you back home” Sam said as he stood up and offered Alice a hand up. Alice took his hand and rose back up to her feet. “I’m not really sure where it is. I’m only visiting, it’s my first time in this town” Alice replied to him dejectedly. “Well, I can take you to where all the mansions are located. They’re on a hill to the north of the town where the mayor’s mansion is along with most of the richer residents of the town” Sam explained. “Okay, lead the way” Alice replied as she motioned for him to go ahead.
Alice followed Sam as he took her down the town’s busy roads. Alice kept looking around making sure they weren’t being followed by anyone as they went. It took about an hour before Alice finally recognized the street leading up towards the mansion she was staying in. “I can make my way from here” Alice said as they stopped at the end of the road. “I wouldn’t want to trouble you with the guards asking question about why you were with me” she said to Sam. “Okay but make sure you keep an eye out for those thugs. They could be waiting to ambush you” Sam cautioned her. “I’ll be okay. They wouldn’t dare to even walk up this street. I will be fine. And thank you again for helping me.” Alice replied “It was my pleasure my lady” Sam replied to her as he gave her a deep bow. Alice giggled before she turned around and walked up the street.
When she finally made it back to the mansion she received quite a scolding from the captain of her guards as well as her head maid. She retold her story to the guard captain but made sure she didn’t focus too much on Sam helping her as she didn’t want the guards to go searching him out.
The rest of the visit to Rimour went smoothly and the Royal Inquisitors handed down their sentence for the Baronet which was the death penalty. Alice gave the order and signed the death sentence certificate before the execution was carried out by the local executioner.
After all that had happened in town it was a fairly uneventful trip back to the capital having already travelled the same path to get Rimour she had already seen everything she wanted, and the escorts made less stops along the way than they did previously. Once she arrived home she need to speak with her father about a reward for Sam she thought. She didn’t quite think that a creamy cone was a suitable reward for saving a princess knowingly or not.
Once Alice had arrived back home she submitted a request for an audience with her father. Luckily he was free that afternoon and she was able to see him before dinner. She quickly changed into something more formal looking and made her way to the throne room. Alice entered the throne room just as the previous meeting had finished up and those speaking with the King were leaving the room.
Alice moved in front of her father who was sitting upon the throne and bowed her head as was custom for direct members of the royal family. While nonroyals had to kneel and bow their head the direct family members only have to bow their head during an audience. “Alice, you have returned from your first official duties. How did it go?” the King asked as she raised her head to meet his gaze. “It went well father. The inquisitors were able to get the evidence they needed, and the Baronet was charged and executed for his crimes” she confirmed. “I see, and there wasn’t anything else that happened while you were in Rimour?” he asked.
“Yes, father there was, which is why I requested this audience” she said pausing momentarily to gauge her father’s reaction. “Go on” he said not allow a further delay in the retelling of the story. “Well, I snuck out of the mansion to have a look through the town by myself and got chased by some thugs that had been hired by the Baronet. Just when I was about to be caught a boy around my age helped me escape and escorted me back to the mansion I was staying in. I came here today to request approval for a reward for him” she said.
Her father was silent for a moment before he spoke again. “And what do you think this reward should be?” he asked. “I was thinking that he could be rewarded with a scholarship to the Royal Academy. It’s a valuable reward and shows that we reward those who assist the Royal family” she said. Her father was silent again for a moment before he made his decision. “Very well I can approve that, what was the name of this boy?” he asked. “His name is Samuel Holdridge father”. “Holdridge… his father wouldn’t happen to be Arnold would it?”. “I’m sorry father I’m not sure”. Alice replied, “Who is that?”. “No one really. During the war a couple of Lord Nouman’s men saved his life after an assassin snuck into the camp and attempted to kill him while he was sleeping. Lord Nouman is a great warrior and was key to our victory in the war. He was causing a lot of problems for their defenders and so they attempted to kill him while he slept as they were unable to do so on the battlefield. One of the two soldiers that saved him was called Arnold Holdridge. I only remember the name as he came to me regarding a request allowing him to make him and the other soldier that had saved him a knight” he finally finished. “I see, I suppose it could be” she said thinking back on the conversation she had with him as they walked back towards the mansion.
“Either way I approve the reward. Be sure to get the academy to send it out immediately. Pay to have it fast tracked by the mail guild as the start of the year is coming up and travel from Rimour to the capital is even longer for those having to travel via conventional methods” her father confirmed. “Yes, father thank you” she said before giving a final bow and leaving the throne room.
Over the next couple of days Alice made all the necessary preparations for the scholarship for Sam and made sure it would be delivered quickly. It cost quite a bit to ensure it would arrive with enough time for him to journey to the capital, but it was worth it.
As it closed in on the start of the school year Alice began to look forward to seeing him again. It was weird how she had felt so comfortable with him despite them barely knowing each other. She shrugged the feeling off as gratitude for him saving her and returned her focus to her preparations for her time in the academy. There was still a lot for her to do after all.
