The Veiled Crown

Chapter 6

What? He wants you to stay with them? But why? You look at Shiro with a confused and surprised look. Taro’s facial expression also seems to say that he didn’t expect Shiro’s offer either. While Shiro just smiles warmly towards you. “You can always change your mind later and leave when you get tired of us.” Shiro follows up with a slight chuckle. 

The smile on Shiro’s face makes you feel a little more at ease. But if you’re not going to stay here, your only option is to go back out into the forest, and you don’t feel like that would be a very good idea. You smile softly looking at Shiro; “I’ll take you up on that offer!” You turn towards the door with a worried look on your face; “My only other option would be to go out there and get lost again.”

You feel something on your shoulder, you turn around to take a look. Shiro has put his hand on your shoulder. Normally you would be appalled by a stranger touching you like that, but for some reason Shiro doesn’t feel like a stranger right now. His touch is making you feel less worried about what’s to come. Shiro goes to the opposite side and sits down in the Sofa across from you while Taro walks out into the kitchen area, you can hear him getting stuff from various cabinets. After a few minutes he comes back into the living room with 3 plates in one hand and a plate of cake in the other, balancing it all without fault. He carefully placed the plates on the table, one for each of you. He also put a cake fork down to the right of each plate, and the cake he placed in the middle of the living room table. 

The plates all seemed very antique, they were white plates with a silver line at the edge twisted together with a black thorny branch. The thorny branch had some blood red roses placed symmetrically alongside it like on a clock at the positions 1-12. 

The cake was on a similar cake plate, the only difference to the plates was that the cake plates edges were shaped like a lotus flower, and every place there was a rose, a petal of the lotus was present. The cake was a fruit cake with whipped cream on the sides and the top part decorated like a flower made of fruits. The very outer ring of this fruit flower was made up of peaches, the next one of very thin orange slices, next in were two rings of fine sliced kiwis. After the rings of kiwi there was a ring of strawberries and a whole big strawberry in the middle. 

After setting the table Taro walks back out into the kitchen and comes back with 3 Champagne like glasses and a bottle. The hilt of the glasses is made out of silver that resembles two vines twisted around each other. At the top of the hilt, where the glass part starts there’s a full bloomed red rose inside the glass itself. He puts the glasses on the table and pops open the bottle. While Taro pours up what looks like champagne, Shiro cuts the cake and gives everyone a piece. The inside of the cake looks like it’s a vanilla sponge cake with custard and a berry mix.

As Taro pours the champagne into the glasses, the rose gives the champagne a red glow, it’s quite beautiful. It’s deep red and the rose just barely shines through.

As everyone has a half full glass and a piece of cake Shiro stands up with a cheer; “We’ll look forward to sharing our home with such a beautiful young lady! Now let us enjoy the evening.” 

You look at him and blush as he smiles at you; “Cheers!” 

“Cheers!” You and Taro reply at the same time.

For the rest of the evening there is only a minimum of conversation, thus you eat your cake it’s delicious. The champagne is good too though you can’t quite pinpoint the taste of it, it’s just good.

As everyone has eaten their fair share of cake and it seems to have gotten quite late Shiro stands up; “Let me show you your room so you can rest up.” You get up and pick up the plate “No, it’s ok! Taro will clean up.” You put the plate back on the table and follow Shiro up the stairs. As you’ve gotten to the top of the stairs it seems like there’s a few more doors than you saw earlier. It seems the hallway is longer as well. Now there’s two doors in the left side and two in the right along with a door at the end of the hallway. The walls are all made of a light type of wood while the floor and doors are made of a darker type. About halfway down the hallway there’s a crystal chandelier, it’s not very big but it looks old. It’s made with a silver frame and crystals hanging down, the way the crystals reflect the light is giving the hallway a very special lighting. Shiro is walking in front of you, he’s going past all the doors to the sides. He then opens the door at the very back of the hallway. The door opens inward to the room and he steps inside. He’s holding the door in a manner of waiting for you to step inside the room. You slowly walk into the room, but only a few steps. You look all over the room; the walls are white with tall dark oak panels that go up to ⅓ of the wall. at the far back wall from across the door there’s a huge window that goes from floor to ceiling, it’s a half circle going outwards from the rest of the room. The window is made up of 27 rows of small sections of glass separated by a wooden frame. The top row has the same emblems engraved as Shiro has on his buttons, the middle one being the cross that was on the bottom button on Shiro's Jacket. It has see through light green curtains and a 3 person sofa is positioned in front of it facing the window. It’s dark outside, so you can’t see anything past the window, it’s all completely dark.

To the left of the doorway there’s a king sized bed with a wooden frame. The wood looks very raw and old. The bedding is made up of 3 Pillows and one big blanket, it all looks very soft and comfy. 3 of the pillows have a floral pattern while the other 3 are white, while the blanket also has a floral pattern. The pattern is made up of different shades of red roses and different shades of black vines with thorns on them. Across the bed on the wall to the right of the doorway there’s a huge painting portraying a forest with a pond. At the back there’s a small steep cliff with trees on top of it while the water is icy blue with reflections of the trees above, the trees have a very dark shade to it, looking like a very dense forest. 

“This is your room, I'll give you a moment to get settled,” Shiro says as you walk into the room. He closes the door behind you and you can hear him walking away and down the stairs.

You finally have a moment to be alone. You sit down on the bed, facing the window. You stare into the nothingness of outside, it’s weird; there is no reflection in the glass of the window. All you see is darkness. You let yourself fall backwards onto the bed. Your arms stretched out to each side; The blanket is nice and soft, you grab the side of the blanket with your right hand and roll over to the left. Engulfing you in the big soft blanket. You close your eyes and try to comprehend all that has happened.

You fall asleep.