Iftia: Lyx Palace, Knights' Holdings

• Alec •

"Alec, wake up." 

The knight still had his head hazed heavily with sleep when someone nudged on his shoulder, attempting to call him awake. Grumpily turning away from the noise, he was hoping that someone would allow him to sleep. He had stayed up for his night duties and it was only during the first crack of dawn that he could finally return to his own room to sleep. Alec grumbled, "Ugh, please just let me sleep."

"Alec, wake up!" the person shouted 

Alec jolted when he recognised the voice, he turned his head to the side but still groggy with sleep. He ruffled his hair in annoyance at the sight of Ilias and complained, "Ilias! What is it that you can't wait for me to sleep at least two hours before barging into my room?!"

"It's His Highness," Ilias stated as a matter-of-fact. 

"What?" Alec was still confused from his sleep.

"Ro sent a message, you dumb ass! Get the hell up already!" Ilias scolded. "Tristan and Kaylon have gotten ready. I'll give you five minutes, or we will leave without you." Ilias threw his blanket on the floor and left his room, not forgetting to slam his door shut.

"You have a temper worse than a scorned woman!" Alec shouted back, knowing that Ilias could hear him well from outside. Exhaling a heavy sigh, he grumbled, "And at least tell me what did Ro said?!" 

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Thethia: Mt. Plytois, House in the Mountain

• Rowan •

"That was fast," Rowan said, unamused.

"We set out right away when we received your letter," Ilias said.

Rowan scanned his three other knights that stood behind Ilias. Tristan looked confused by his surroundings, Kaylon was grinning playfully with his usual cheekiness and Alec looked like he was about to drop to the grass beneath him and sleep the world away. He sighed, ordering, "Just find somewhere to rest first." 

Tristan asked, "Aren't we returning to Iftia? What other matters do you have in Thethia? Also, what is this place? Why is there a house in the middle of this remote mountain?" 

Rowan didn't know where to begin explaining to his fourth knight. He couldn't possibly tell them that he was waiting for someone to wake up before introducing her to them, neither did he know how to explain the existence of this house. He shall slowly tell them about it some other time when Elianna's awake. For now, he replied, "Have a rest first, we have time to talk about everything another time." 

"Great! I'm so tired." Alec yawned.

※

• Elianna •

The commotion outside the house alarmed Elianna. She pushed herself off the couch, careful not to wake Thunder. Looking out of the window, it seemed like the sun had just risen. 

Elianna turned around and noticed that the bedroom door was left opened and assumed that Rowan had gone out. She stood in front of the mirror and combed those sprung up strands of bed hair down and grabbed her coat from the hanger to check on the commotion outside. 

When she pushed open the main door of the house, she spotted Rowan standing in front of several other men. However, Elianna couldn't really see well with all the sudden brightness as she was hardly awake at this hour. She raised her hands to rub the remains of sleep away from her eyes while stepping out of the house and walked in the direction where he stood. When her eyes slowly readjusted to the brightness, she saw four men staring at her with surprise and curiosity. 

"Sorry, did we wake you up? You were up the whole night and finally got to sleep." Rowan turned around to face her.

She blushed the moment those words left him and the four men looked at her with eyes wider than before. Elianna knew that all of them must've mistaken his words and the flush on her face was not helping with the situation at all. They focused their gaze towards Rowan before turning to stare at her intently. One of them asked, "Lady, who might you be?"

Elianna didn't know where to start introducing herself and was unsure who these men might be to Rowan. She had assumed that they would be his knights but all of them had different physiques and give off unique impressions. Elianna naively assumed that knights would always look tall, broad and strong like Jason. Before she could start to explain herself, Rowan stepped forward with a visible frown in his expression when he knocked on the men's head, hard. He scolded, "Stop everything that you are all thinking. Especially you, Alec." 

"What about me?" Alec groaned in pain as he raised his hand to rub on the spot that Rowan just hit on.

A sudden urge to laugh surfaced and she started giggling. All the men halted their antics and turned to look at her. She quickly stopped and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh but—" 

"It's okay, laugh all you want," Alec grinned. "At least the pain felt worth it now." 

"Before you start flirting with a lady, look at who she belongs to first," the man beside Alec warned. 

Elianna tried to explain but she wasn't quite sure what she was trying to say, "Ah, Rowan and I, we're not—"

"Look, she even calls His Highness by his name," another man piped in with a whistle and a happy grin. 

"Stop it, everyone," Rowan exhaled, turning towards her and apologised, "Please pardon their rudeness. My knights don't mean to be disrespectful." 

"I wasn't offended at all," Elianna laughed lightly. Rather, she found the liveliness pleasant and she never had a chance to be surrounded by everyone who seemed to be really interested to hold a conversation with her. It had been many years since she interacted with anyone else other than Thunder. However, she felt his knights looking towards her and staring at her so intensely that she subconsciously raised her hand to wipe the corner of her lips, unsure if it was because she had drool on her face.

The man beside Alec was the one who broke the silence when he asked, "Aren't you Princess Elizabeth?" 

Elianna flinched at the name and her smile was gone in an instant. That was when she realised that she had grown too comfortable around Rowan that she had forgotten to hide her identity. Now, she also wondered why Rowan never asked her about it because as an Iftian prince, he must've seen Elizabeth before and noticed how both of them looked remarkably alike. Checking to see if he also wondered the same question as his knights did, she was surprised when he stated sharply, "She's not." 

"A twin? Though, we haven't heard of the Thethian princess having a twin," Alec obviously didn't get the memo and continued to ask him. The man beside him elbowed him and sighed dejectedly at his denseness. 

"Stop asking," Rowan warned.

Elianna saw Rowan's expression darkened slightly and it was the first time she saw him wearing that kind of expression. Fidgeting uncomfortably, she turned to the knight named Alec and nodded her head, "Yes, I'm her twin." 

"Even when you look like her, it's easy to tell you apart from your eyes. Oh right, we haven't introduced ourselves to you. I'm Kaylon," the one who was always grinning introduced himself to her and pointed towards the other three men as he read their names accordingly, "That's Alec, Tristan and Ilias. As Rowan mentioned, we're his knights." 

"It's an honour to meet the royal knights of Iftia, I'm Elianna," she gave a courteous nod and continued, "I'm sure all of you arrived here to bring Rowan back." 

"He can actually easily return to Iftia by himself but we're here because he said that he's bringing someone back with him," Tristan smiled. "And I'm assuming that it should be Lady Elianna that he's referring to." 

"My companion would also be following," Elianna returned the smile. "Thunder is resting inside the house, I'll introduce him to you in a moment." 

The knights looked confused and Alec was the only one who wasn't on the same page as the rest of the knights when he asked, "She's following us back to Iftia?" 

"Yes, Alec," Tristan exhaled. "For once, pay attention when we talk." 

"As his consort?" Alec blurted out.

"No, Alec. I wrote that she'll be following us to Iftia and staying in Lyx," Rowan explained, slightly exasperated. 

"You can't blame me, Ilias refused to tell me about the letter," Alec pointed towards the man with silver-blonde hair and indifference still expressed on his face to show his lack of remorse. 

Elianna stared at Alec for a moment before breaking into another burst of laughter. She briefly explained her situation to the knights and they listened to her attentively. Then, Kaylon mentioned, "You're going to be lonely, Lady Elianna. Other than the maids, Lyx is filled with a bunch of men. Noble ladies never stepped foot into Lyx and Rowan turns down every female guest who requested to visit." 

"Why?" 

"His palace is ugly," Alec blurted straightforwardly. "When you're at Lyx, you'll see how that place is simply a man's den and there's nothing fitting to cater to a lady's preference. It's as plain as a monastery." 

"Simplicity is not ugly," Elianna chuckled. "I'm rather comfortable with a simple environment and it wouldn't be a problem if they're no ladies around. I can chat with the maids." 

"You're rather odd," Alec laughed. 

"I wouldn't describe myself otherwise," she laughed. "I overheard that all of you had to rest. If all of you don't mind, please come into the house." 

Elianna guided them into the house and surprised that she managed to get all of them into the small house. Having Rowan in the house already felt like a huge feat but having five tall men and one big cat in this small house was really something. At this moment, she finally understood why Jason mentioned that this house meant specially for her. It was only enough for her and Thunder. 

"You have a panther as a pet?" Alec exclaimed. His eyes lit up upon seeing Thunder. 

"Thunder is not a pet." Elianna rolled her eyes. 

Alec said the exact same thing as Rowan when they first met and it was no wonder that there was a saying that birds of the same kind would flock together. Elianna shot a look at Rowan while he replied to her with a nonchalant shrug.

※

• Rowan •

His knights found space within the house to rest. Since it was a small house, they had to make do with it. Turning to open the bedroom door slightly, he noticed that Elianna was also fast asleep since she only had a few hours of sleep before the commotion with his knights woke her up. 

Rowan settled on the side of the bed as he reached to lightly brush wisps of her soft brown hair away from her face. He played a little with her hair but careful not to wake her up. Lowering himself, he landed a soft kiss on her forehead and thanked her silently.

Thank you for agreeing to come to Iftia with me. 

With her around, he was sure that Iftia would be more bearable. 

※