Ever since the duel between Princess Hildegard and myself, the princess has been secretly meeting with me. Today, which was a few months later, the princess asked me to join her for tea. I was about to go in my training outfit, when something caught my eye. It was a box that had been delivered when I wasn't there and it said my name, but it was missing the 'm', so it said 'Lia Hawthorne'. I opened it and saw that it was another lavender dress like I had worn at that ball four years ago. I really didn't want to wear it, but the princess had told me that I would be getting into a carriage before meeting her. I decided to just wear a cloak over the dress and take the cloak off when I meet with her.
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When I got to the carriage, the coachman eyed me with suspicion before anything else.96Please respect copyright.PENANAdb3SlYeFHe
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"Miss Hawthorne, her highness wishes me to escort you to the palace," the coachman said. I didn't expect this, but it seemed to be in line with the question she asked me all those months ago. He then opened the carriage door and helped me in.
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"Shall we go then?" I asked. The coachman nodded and we left.
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When we arrived at the palace, I felt a little overwhelmed, but it was then changed to excitement as I had never been invited anywhere before. My ragtag group of friends from my childhood would only meet me at my parents' mansion for swordsmanship training. Not that we all stayed friends after all of that was over.
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"The princess will meet you in the star garden, Miss Hawthorne," a palace maid said, waking me up from my thoughts, "Follow me." The maid was a different one from the one the princess took with her to go see me. The star garden was beautiful, despite me not knowing anything about flowers. Once I saw the princess, I felt like a weight had been lifted over my shoulders. I then noticed that my cloak was off as well.
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"Hello there, Lia," Princess Hildegard said, "I hope you're not too angry that I invited you while you were writing your speech for being valedictorian."
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"I finished that ages ago, Princess Hilde," I said.
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"Do you like the dress my brother sent you?" Princess Hildegard asked. I frowned and looked down at the dress. I didn't really have time to notice the details, but it perfectly hid the fact that I had no chest. Almost like the designer knew that I was a man and desperately hid it. Now thinking about it, all of my female relatives had flat and small chests as well, so they might like this dressmaker.
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"It's nice," I said, "I don't know much about dresses, but the design is quite nice. I think I'd like to take my sisters to this dressmaker, because they struggle with similar issues to me with clothes barely fitting in the right places." The princess looked away with an embarrassed look on her face. I looked behind me to see what she saw before she turned around. Standing there was a man with light brown hair tied in a lavender ribbon. He was too far away for me to see his eye color, but he looked rather embarrassed.
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"I have to go, Lia," Princess Hildegard said as she stood up, "Have a nice chat with Brother Matthias." She left and the man came and sat down in the princess's seat. It was awkward for an entire minute before either of us said a word. I felt like I had met him before, but I couldn't place when or where.
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"You don't hate the dress, do you, Hawthorne?" Prince Matthias asked.
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"I have no reason to," I said, "I'm just not accustomed to wearing them." Prince Matthias breathed a sigh of relief.
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"I was extremely worried about that," the prince said, "I tried to improve the dress you wore on the day we first met, so it would compliment you better." Did he mean he met me at the princess's fifteenth birthday party?
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"Wait, you were the one running from a 'terrible woman'?" I asked.
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"Yeah, it was right after I had broken off my engagement with my former fiancée," the prince said, "She was the one I was running from." The only reason that the engagement was broken off was due to her infidelity, something Prince Matthias accidentally walked into several times and it upset him so much that he demanded his father break their engagement. People keep gossiping that Prince Matthias is still a virgin even after being with her.
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"I'm sorry that situation happened to you," I said, "But, I don't believe that's the reason why you wanted to talk with me." Prince Matthias sighed.
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"I want you to work for me as my knight after you graduate, Hawthorne," Prince Matthias said, "You won't have to go through any exam to get in, because you've already proven your strength as you've been dueling my sister Hilde, who is hiding the fact that she became a sword saint at age 13. She's only a few months older than you, if I remember correctly."
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"Why do you want me?" I asked. The prince smirked at me.
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"Because I thought you would decline my other offer," Prince Matthias said. Wait, what other offer? He could tell what I was thinking. "That is, for you to be my fiancée."
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"That doesn't make sense," I said, "How about a third option? I become your knight and your fiancée at the same time, but I decide which one I want to stick with after a year, because it would be hard to do both."96Please respect copyright.PENANAiHBVOC971F
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"I think that's a good idea," Prince Matthias said, "But I want to add to that. You must sleep with me at least seven times during your trial period."
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"Why is it seven times?" I asked, "Why not every few days?" Prince Matthias blushed.
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"I didn't expect you to argue about that with me," Prince Matthias said, "Do you want to try sleeping with me tonight? My sister already asked the academy if she could have you out all night tonight and they said that you could." That explained the strange letter I got the other day. On one hand, it would be nice to finally let go of the two things that everyone thought I already did, but didn't. I never was kissed or slept with anyone. I had touched myself there last night, but I didn't think I'd be doing it with someone so soon.
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"If that's what you want," I said.
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"I'll have a maid retrieve some clothes for you and another one show you to my room," Prince Matthias said, "I'll walk you to the room that you'll be changing in."
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