CHAPTER 277: UNWANTED GUEST

Alaric stopped sulking after Aristia gave him the premium prized baby treatment.

"Open up..." Aristia cooed. Her voice was no longer babyish, but it was still childish. She would be turning seven in two month, in the month of June.

Her exaggerated expression and voice made Alaric laugh.

"Scoff!" They heard a scoff concealed with a cough.

[Look it rhymed.]

Without even turning to look, they knew who it was.

Who else would it be anyway?

Alaric didn’t bother with turning away from Aristia just to glare at Owen. It just wasn’t worth it.

Aristia just rolled her eyes, while Kai only watched them with interest. He had spent about six months with them. He was already used to this.

The parents had left the dining room a few minutes ago, so it was only Aristia, Alaric, Owen and Kai in the dining room, along with a few servants standing at the side.

The dining room door opened and they all turned to see Adeline walk in.

"Princess, Young Master Wade has come to visit you."

That was when they saw Wade standing behind Adeline.

He walked out from behind her and smiled widely.

"Princess Tia!"

Alaric’s face fell.

He frowned. "We didn’t receive an invitation." Basically, Alaric was saying that Wade was an unwanted guest.

It was rude, unethical and just wrong to visit someone without an invitation, especially if you were of lower status.

But he was most probably allowed in because he was one of Aristia’s friends, just like her fans— Millicent and the rest were allowed in whenever they came to visit.

For those Aristia got along well with and was close to, she didn’t require formalities with them. This was also something those close to her knew.

Wade nodded. "I know. I wanted it to be a surprise."

That was one thing they had learned from Aristia. Surprise.

His sentence stopped whatever it was that Alaric wanted to say. He just settled for staring at Wade coldly.

Wade just ignored him, just like Alaric had ignored Owen.

[Ouch! Is that karma, Al?] Aristia thought.

Wade took a seat beside Alaric.

A maid approached him.

"Have you had lunch, young master?" She asked.

Wade shook his head. "No."

The maid nodded and served him food, while another maid poured him a glass of juice.

The maids then returned to their previous position.

Wade began eating.

Actually, Owen and Kai were done with their meal. The only reason they still remained in the dining room was because Aristia was feeding Alaric, so it made their eating process slow.

Wade looked at Aristia and Alaric with a puzzled expression.

"What?" Alaric scowled. Why was this not staring at his sister? Maybe he wanted Aristia to feed him too!

Wade couldn’t resist asking, "Why are you feeding prince Alaric, princess Tia?"

"Puah!" Alaric almost spat out the food in his mouth. How was it Wade’s concern that his own sister was feeding him? He was right. Wade really did want Aristia to feed him.

He humphed and shot Wade a smug, mocking look. Look, his sister would only feed him and no one else.

Wade ate his food, watching Aristia feed Alaric until the bowl was empty.

When they were done eating, they got up from their seats.

Alaric held Aristia’s hands protectively as they left the dining room.

Following behind them, Owen couldn’t stop rolling his eyes.

Wade finally noticed Kai.

"Who’s this?" He asked.

The boy looked to be around their age, but Wade could tell he was about a year older, meaning he was eight.

"This is Kai. He’s another one of my maternal relatives."

Wade only nodded. He knew that Owen was the third princess’s maternal relative, but now there was another maternal relative.

Even though he didn’t know why her maternal relatives were coming to live with them, he didn’t doubt her words because just like Owen, Kai also possessed unique features that nobles had.

Even if he didn’t, Wade had no reason to doubt Aristia.

Aristia failed to realize that it wasn’t only Alaric, but most of the children around her wouldn’t doubt her words and would just eat them all up without leaving crumbs.

"Where are we going?" Wade asked when he saw that they were leaving the mansion.

"The Estate’s forest," Aristia gave him an answer. She was allowed into the Estate’s forest, but she had to go with an adult.

Adeline followed them to the forest behind the Mansion.

Aristia thought of Dewfield— the village where she met the fairy-elf hybrid, Evaleen.

She hadn’t been there again since the first time. That was over a month ago.

It wasn’t like she could go there.

If she had to go to the forest, she had to do so with accompaniment, and there was no way she would go to that world with Adeline or anyone else with her.

She hadn’t told Adeline, Owen, Kai, even Alaric and their parents.

It wasn’t like she didn’t trust them, but she just felt like keeping it secret for now.

Besides, if she told Wilson, they could stop her from going there. Who knew if humans and mythical creatures had some sort of secret beef.

Thinking that, she knew it wouldn’t be possible going there today either.

They finally entered the forest.

The locusts had really did it on this forest.

Looking around, the previously full lush green-leaved trees now had only empty branches on them. Aristia couldn’t believe how much damage the locusts had caused.

"Our estate, Fief, and everywhere I passed on my way here looked like this." Wade said, pointing to the trees’ conditions. "Those locusts ate everything."

The swarms of locusts were destructive pests, consuming everything in their path. Everywhere they passed would be like this.

[Thank God this kind of thing isn’t going to happen again.] Aristia thought.

At least in the book, there was no mention of another locust caused famine.

With the forest like this, Aristia and the others lost interest in going further.

They returned to the mansion.

Since Wade was here, Aristia knew that he would talk about his parents.

And she was right.

Wade turned to her. His eyes were shining with happiness.

"Princess..." He said.

Aristia leaned forward almost simultaneously, her eyes also shining with thirst for gossip.

When everyone looked at her, she straightened up and cleared her throat. "Ahem, yes?"

Owen rolled his eyes and Kai chuckled under his breath. The princess may not look like it, but she could be very interested in gossip.

Aristia waited for Wade to speak. She knew that Charlotte and George were now sharing the same room, and that George literally grovelled everyday for her attention.

So she wondered what story Wade had now.

[Oh, I wonder how juicy this one is!] She thought, but she still maintained her lofty princess persona— or she thought she did.

"Mother let me call her mama. I used to call her mother before. I...I thought that it would be nice to call her mama, but I didn’t know if she would like that." He said, averting his eyes.

Aristia understood. Even though he knew that Charlotte had accepted him and loved him, he still had some doubts from his insecurity. She allowed him to call him mother, but he wasn’t sure if she would be happy with him calling her mama since it was more intimate.

He looked up at her and couldn’t help but smile again. "But when I called her that, she didn’t get angry."

He remembered how he had felt scared after he said it and how he watched her to see her reaction, but instead, she smiled with moist eyes and hugged him tightly to herself.

Wade felt warm whenever he thought about it.

He then told Aristia about other new developments between his parents.

Finally, he sighed.

"My mother is sad."

Aristia turned curious. "What? Why?"

Wade answered. "Next year, I’ll leave for the Academy."

[Ohh.] Aristia’s face morphed into one of understanding.

[Wade is turning eight next year. He’ll be among those leaving for the academy in January. Charlotte will definitely be sad to see him leave.]

What Wade didn’t say was that he was sad too, not only because he would be leaving his parents, but also because he wouldn’t be able to see Aristia until two more years when they would turn ten.

"Well, when you leave for the academy, we can still write letters. I do the same with Liam and Ivan." Aristia said with a small shrug.

Wade nodded rapidly, "Of course, I know."

But if only they could see each other, or even speak to each other, than that would be great.

After spending time with Aristia, Wade left for his fief towards evening.

The occupants of the Grand Duke’s Estate had dinner in the evening.

"Goodnight, everyone." Aristia said.

After dinner, Aristia returned to her room. She fell asleep without much scruples.

However, she found herself in a dark space.