During the next six days, Crimson had me trying on dresses daily. Thankfully, Crimson finally decided which one she liked the most a day before the ball. On the day of the ball, I walked out of the estate holding Crimson's hand. When we went to go to our family carriage, the royal carriage pulled up, and a knight exited the carriage and walked over to us, "Excuse me, Duchess, the king sent me in the royal carriage to personally escort you and the young lady to the ball personally!" Crimson looked surprised to see such a grand carriage sent to pick us up with a royal knight escort, "His majesty didn't need to go to such efforts. Our family carriage would have been more than enough!" "I'm afraid his majesty insisted that I escort you there. He said when his future daughter-in-law arrives, he wants everyone to see that she is a personal guest of the royal family, so no one will think of looking down on her during the ball." When the guard said future daughter-in-law, Crimson looked no
The next day I couldn't get the guy I saw at the ball out of my head. Later that day, while I was sitting at my table in the middle of my flower garden, Dan walked past the garden as he noticed me staring into space while nursing a cup of tea. For reasons I couldn't understand, that man filled all my thoughts, 'Who was that guy at the ball yesterday? And why did my heart start to go crazy when he looked at me?! Was he using some kind of weird magic?!' With my mind completely preoccupied, I didn't notice Dan walk up beside me, "What are you spacing out for?" Seeing Dan suddenly appear out of nowhere nearly scared me to death, "Ahhhh! Don't sneak up on me!" "I didn't. I walked up to you in plain sight. You were just too distracted to notice." "Still, you shouldn't have scared me like that!" "It's not my fault you scare easy. What had you so distracted anyway?" "I don't wanna talk about it..." Dan took the spare seat at the opposite end of the table and sat down, "If you tell me a
After half an hour of walking, I started questioning if Tasha really knew her way to the market square, "Are you sure we're going the right way?" "Yep! I'm 90% sure!" "What about the last 10%..." "I'm 100% sure!" "..." We wandered around, aimlessly getting deeper into the city. After a while, I was sure Tasha didn't know where she was going, "You don't know where we are, do you? This looks nothing like the area near the market square." "I'm sure we're close..." "Should we ask one of the patrol guards for directions?" "They might get suspicious and send us back!" "Wouldn't that be better than being lost?" "But we'll be punished!" "Fine, then ask someone when they walk by." "But what if they also get suspicious and report us to the guards?" "Not everyone is suspicious of us!" "You don't know that..." "Fine, I'll keep following you for now, but if we don't find it soon, I'm gonna ask someone where to go." Tasha looked relieved and happy that I wasn't going to ask for direc
After two weeks of being locked away in the estate with no sweets or Tasha as part of my punishment, I couldn't stop myself from being overwhelmed by boredom. After the first couple of days of my punishment, I started spending more time with my brothers. But, of course, I mostly spent my time with Dan since he didn't have to go to school anymore since Crimson was teaching him personally at home, and Tom was still going and didn't get back until late in the day. But the three of us still managed to spend the occasional day together, usually at the end of the week when Tom didn't have school. During those weeks, when I spent some time with each of them individually, they showed and taught me different things they had been learning. Since Tom was talented with magic, he started teaching me simple tricks to control my mana. Still, it turned out I wasn't naturally gifted with mana control and only had average talent, so his simple tricks were complicated to understand for me. Dan showed
After another two weeks, Crimson told me that Tasha could finally start coming down again. She also sent a letter to Clair telling her Tasha was allowed to start visiting again. The day after Crimson sent the letter, Tasha arrived at the estate and rushed to the door, almost tripping over her dress due to her excitement. After she was let in, she ran out to find me when she was told where I was. Tasha ran outside and over to my personal garden, where she saw me sitting around my table talking to Dan. When I saw Tasha rushing over to me, she had a very desperate look on her face while shouting, "Sash!" The moment she got within arm's length of me, she immediately started hugging me far too tightly, "I missed you so much!" Since she was crushing me, I could barely talk, "I... missed... you... too..." After a few moments, she let go of me, allowing me to breathe again. She then sat beside me on the empty chair, "What happened in the month I was gone?!" "Nothing." "But something mus
After that day, time seemed to pass me by without my notice, and before I knew it, it was already the day after my 7th birthday. When I got downstairs, I headed straight into the dining room to have one of the maids bring me breakfast. When I walked into the room, I saw Walter sitting around the table. It looked like he had been waiting for me to come down, and when he saw me, he got out of his seat and walked over to me, "Sash, since you're old enough now, I want to give you a test which will tell me your aptitude towards magic." I felt confused by what Walter was talking about, "But you've been teaching me magic, don't you already know?" "Yes, that is true. Your Mother and I have been giving you personal lessons teaching you control, but we've only been teaching you the basics that all dragons learn, which helps you control your mana and some basic spells. It could have gotten out of hand if we hadn't taught you how to manage your mana." "Oh, I haven't been learning proper magic
The following day, Walter came to find me in the middle of the day while I was outside in my personal garden, "Sash." "Yes?" "I've managed to sort everything out, and you'll be starting school a little sooner than I thought." "When will I start?" "Tomorrow." "That's a lot sooner than I thought it would be!" "I know, but don't worry, your brother will be there to help you if you need it." "But what if he's busy?" "You still have the teachers at the school you can go to for help." "Ok..." The next day, a maid woke me up early, "Miss, you have to get up. You have to attend your first day of school." I tried my best to ignore her and sleep in, but the maid stole my blanket as I tried, "I'm sorry, miss, but the Duke has given us permission to do whatever it takes to get you out of bed." I sat up in my bed feeling groggy with my hair in a frizzy mess, "Fine..." I got up and sat in front of my dresser while a maid brushed my hair. As she did, I saw another maid enter the room thr
After I finished my 4th class of the day, I started heading to the cafeteria. While on my way there, I saw Garry waiting outside the cafeteria doors with a couple of other kids. As I went to pass them, Garry stopped me, "Sasha, I've been waiting for you a while. I wanted to ask you something." I couldn't help but feel anxious about what he wanted to ask, "What is it?" "Do you want to join the student council? Were made up of nobles, and there's still an open position." "What would I have to do if I joined?" "Just help us keep the commoners under control. There's a lot of them in this place, so we need more help." "Don't the student council have to help the students?" "We are helping the other students. We're helping them follow the rules. Commoners can't go around acting on the same level as nobles, so we have to make sure they remember their place. And I think you would fit in well." "I'm sorry, but I don't have any spare time to join the student council. Please excuse me. I w