Chapter 3: Prince Hazan

Princess Seri has never sat so straight in her life. She felt little tiny bugs crawling under her skin and it was taking everything from her just to stop herself from freaking out. Since she entered the dining hall, she never got to breathe normally again. Being surrounded by very intimidating strangers would do that to her, of course. Sadly, her father was not there to make her feel better. So, she had to endure while keeping a really friendly smile on her face. She was forced to have a meal with the other princesses, together with Prince Hazan himself.

She was fine. Even though there were three strangers eating with her, she could still manage. However, once she realized how the prince never stopped watching her every move, she started noticing how her feet shook under the table. When she noticed how everyone on the table was staring at her because of the prince's attention to her, she started having trouble breathing even more. She tried looking around, but the maids and the butlers weren't helping her at all. They all watched her eat with judgement in their eyes. All she had was mushroom soup, and she was almost certain that she wouldn't be able to digest it.

"When my father informed me that you had invited me to live in your palace, I wasn't expecting it to be true. But I guess now that we're eating a meal together, I can finally let myself believe such wonderful news."

Princess Seri watched the princess from Elanif, Celine Miranyo, confidently talk to Prince Hazan. She also witnessed how the prince's eye twitched before sipping his drink.

He called her "Princess Celine." I am pleased to hear that this is something that makes you happy, really. However, I must say that I was not the one who invited you. And also, you were not the only one invited. Lastly, I wouldn't call this wonderful. Please be a little bit more mindful of what happened for us all to end up meeting like this."

The entire room fell silent. Seri started to feel nervous, thinking that the trembling of his feet would make some noise at a moment like this, and she began to tremble even more. Sure, she had heard news about the prince of Riovas before. He's known to be cold and very difficult to be around. Well, now that she could finally see him face to-face, she could confirm that all those things were true. She could see how easy it was for him to make a princess shove a huge spoonful of food in her mouth just to force herself to be silent. That was impressive.

At the table, only Princess Celine was courageous enough to even start a conversation with him. Princess Seri sat there, with her head down, evading all the glances and unwanted attention. However, she heard a cute voice call her name.

"Princess Seri," the woman in front of her called out. "Why aren't you eating your steak? Is there something wrong?" It was Princess Janine Renyel, the princess of Eusap.

"Oh, no," Seri replied. "I just really love this soup." Of course, she lied. She would not admit that she was worried about having indigestion because of how tense she was.

The cute smile of the friendly princess somehow helped her a little. Princess Janine might have been the very first one who called her a princess with nothing but kindness seeping through her eyes. Seri liked it. Immediately, she knew that she had a chance of getting along with princess Janine, but with princess Celine, that was not the case. Although both of them looked really pretty and angelic, there was something about Celine's aura that Seri could never explain. There's just this heavy feeling she gets whenever she catches Celine eyeing her. Somehow, within an hour of the meeting, she began to fear the woman.

The entire meal was extremely uncomfortable. Luckily, it ended with Seri not being pushed to say something. She got to pretend that she enjoyed her time being there. But she had nothing to do for the rest of the day.

"Princess Seri!" She heard Janine happily calling her. "Are you busy? Would you want to join me and Princess Celine? "

"Ask me first if I'd like her to join," Celine whispered. It was loud enough for Seri to hear.

I am sorry. I need to do something. I will be joining you later," she lied, of course. Just as she thought, Celine hated her.

"Great," the mean princess said. "Don't get me wrong, I am not mad at you or anything. I really can't accept that the little country you have was ever called a kingdom. And someone like you?" She eyed Seri from head to toe. "I could never bring myself to call you a princess."

Princess Seri had to watch the woman walk past her with her big black dress shining with so many shining diamonds all around it. What else did she expect from the princess of the second-biggest kingdom? This was what she feared. And she was not even surprised that it finally happened.

"Princess Seri, I am so sorry. Maybe she's just having a bad day."

"It's fine, princess Janine. I really don't mind it." She gave her the biggest smile before she bowed down and turned around to get away from there as soon as possible.

Wherever she turned, all she could see were unfamiliar faces looking at her weirdly. She can't make a single step without feeling the judgement screaming from their eyes. It was making her hands feel a little bit clammy. Finally, she saw the huge doors to the library. A few seconds later, she found herself sitting in a corner, hugging her knees closer to her. Instead of burying her face in her dress, she chose to look up. Seri knew that if she tried to save her tears, she would just end up being the fake princess with messed up make-up, and that's not something that she needed as of the moment.

The huge doors opened and a bunch of important leaders of the world slowly emptied the room. The prince strategically waited for every single one of them to leave before revealing himself in front of an old lady. She smiled at the prince and happily reached out her arms to hug him tightly.

"Did you eat well, my dear?" The lady asked. "I hope that making you entertain the princesses was much better than talking with all those leaders. If it was not, I'd be more than guilty that I chose to switch places with you."

"It's fine, grandma," Prince Hazan replied. He offered his arm to her as they walked.

When his father passed away, Prince Hazan was left with the queen mother. The old lady helped him handle the situation well. The kingdom was left without a king and the only thing that they could do was for Prince Hazan to step up and be the king. However, since in Riovas, a king should be a married man, Prince Hazan was pushed to this decision. It's a good thing his grandmother, Flordeliza, was really great at this. She seemed like a professional. Perhaps her skills were well trained because she had to find the right woman to marry her own son once before.

"So, how are they?"

"Grandma, why are you sounding too excited about this?"

The old woman chuckled, "I know, the timing was terrible, my dear. However, I couldn't stop myself from being excited about my only grandchild's wedding."

Prince Hazan sighed. He really loved the old lady, and he couldn't hurt her feelings by saying that he hated this idea.

"It went..." Horribly was the word that popped into his head, but he chose to gulp that down. "It went great. I think that the three ladies were really bright."

"Who do you like the most?"

Hazan was surprised by the question, but he was more shocked when the sudden image of Princess Seri sadly looking at the steak popped into his head. He watched as she ate. He never missed a single look at her cute face, with her eyes wide open whenever she turned in his direction.

"Oh! You like someone? "

"It's too early for that, grandma," the prince stated.

Right before he faced to the left down the long path that leads from the end of his palace to the main royal palace, where his grandmother was headed to, he saw a familiar figure. Princess Seri rushed to his library.

"Grandma, I forgot something. I am very sorry. I'll be visiting you later."

He rushed to the library without waiting for the old woman's response. When he was at the door, his body failed him. He wanted to open the door and enter, but he couldn't. His brain began questioning his own moves. Why would he rush to her? Why does he need to know what she was doing inside? Why did he need to see if she was doing alright? Why did she look like she was about to cry?

"I need to find a book," he convinced himself.

While opening the door, he made sure to not make a single sound. He wanted to let her continue what she was doing. Mainly because he was still not able to process what he wanted to talk to her about.

"I don't know, Anita. I really didn't want to be part of this. I don't even wish to be the next queen, but I can't leave." Seri's voice trembled, trying to stop herself from bawling her eyes out. "Everyone looks at me like I did something wrong, but I was here without a choice to say no. Why are they so mean? be nice? I am, but they're really bad and mean!"

The prince almost chuckled upon hearing her vent. She sounded like a little baby girl whining at the phone while talking to her older sister. He could even see her pouting as he watched her secretly.

"Alright," she said. I'd better find my room now. You are right, I will be calling you again once I have settled down, okay? Please take care, Anita. Check on Chicky's eggs in the morning, okay? Send me some pictures! "

As she hung up, she sat still, composing herself. With her fingertips, she carefully checked the sides of her eyes and dried them up real quick.

"Good heavens!" she yelled when the handsome face of Prince Hazan popped up out of nowhere. Seri immediately looked down and covered her face in humiliation.

"What are you doing here again? Were you waiting for me?"

"Shut u-oh God. Please forgive me, your majesty. I really just want to check out the library before heading over to my room. It was really wonderful and I love it in here."

"Oh yeah? You do?"

Seri calmly looked around before looking up again. "I do," she answered. "There is nobody else in here. So, it's very peaceful."

Prince Hazan smiled, a wee bit amazed that the two of them actually had the same idea of why they liked the place.

"Head upstairs, second floor. Look for the black door with a gold lining."

"Was that where my room was?"

"No, that's where my room is." Hazan smirked before he lowered himself, almost touching noses with Seri, who was about to break her neck. He then continued, "The door right in front of that one was the door to your room."