The Elusive Prince

Chapter 12: The Hunt for Emerald

Merideth

I was in deep sleep in a while now and was very much enjoying the comfort of my warm blanket and soft pillow when the sun and Hailey interrupted my moment as they woke me up to get ready for the day.

"Good morning Your Highness. It appears that you slept well today which is good. I was beginning to worry about your sleeping habits." Hailey said while trying to pull me out from the very soft and comforting bed as I whined and clutched on the sheets as she tugged me off. Since Hailey was stronger than me and had the advantage of a fully functioning brain at the moment, she managed to pull me out of the bed completely as she dragged me into the bathroom as she arranged my bed.

Grumbling about the rough treatment so early in the morning, I begin to enter the shower and begin my bath. However as soon as the hot water hit my freezing body my thoughts was suddenly attacked by the events that happened yesterday. I was groaning because of course my mind will remind me of that although I was thankful that I forgot last night because I had a good sleep so I guess I need not complain.

Actually now that I think about it, that chance encounter was great because now I know that he was in fact real and can possibly be in Irini. Arcane was right after all. We were going to meet, although I think this one was but a chance encounter but at least I had a lead now and he's not just the masked mystery that I met during that ball.

Speaking of that, the details of last night became clearer as my head got its much needed sleep. That guy was for sure not from our year because he was heading to the other side of where our dorms were where the seniors are located. So that means that he was probably older than me which thank goodness because I wouldn't really want a junior to be...to be what exactly? Anyways that wasn't important because I have a lead. The problem is, the seniors are in a completely different building than us and most of our schedules clash so I don't have a chance to bump into them accidentally.

I got out of the shower, now dressed in my uniform as Hailey and me bounded into the living room where only a few of us are already in, clearly waiting for the others because it was still relatively early so the others might come sooner or later. I sat down beside Amity because of course, she was always the first one up, and I greeted her and as she was scrolling into her own schedule. Seeing as Amity was going to be, I guess going after her Father, she didn't need an attendant because she can manage onn her own not that we couldn't. Well there's also the fact that only royalties get their own attendants and since there's only 7 of us in the class who were pure royals and the others were nobles or high officials, there's only 7 attendants rooming with us.

Noticing me and glancing up from her schedule, she gave me an enthusiastic good morning before going back to what she was doing.

As we were waiting, I was beginning to formulate what I should do to at least find that person again without looking too obvious or suspicious because the others might notice and question me and I'm really not ready for that conversation yet. But I also need a plan to effectively look for him while achieving normalcy. On the bright side, I don't need to search the whole school but also going to the seniors building will raise questions, so what do I do? Do I just put this off for a while or should I start looking right away?

As I was still deep in thought, there was a sudden shift in the side of the sofa I was sitting in, clearly indicating that someone sat down. When I looked as to who it was, I saw Cassian. I gave him a greeting as well as the others and he just flushed a little and greeted us all back. I was about to go back to strategizing on how I could snoop around when Hailey interrupted my train of thoughts suddenly.

"Your Highness, there's been an addition to your regular schedule for today." Hailey reported as she was now looking at the Ipad she was carrying clearly sorting through my schedule. I perked up that because what could it possibly be?

"What is it?" I asked. "It seems that the principal decided that you should tour the new student, His Highness Cassian throughout the school. It appears they forgot to remind you yesterday so it was moved for today." She replied and looked at me and Cassian who was beside me.

Oh a tour. I totally forgot about that. Wow Merideth talk about being irresponsible. 'It can't be helped you were preoccupied with the-' yeah I'm gonna stop you right there subconscious. We do not need to go there but I really was too preoccupied yesterday and not to mention sleep deprived so my brain was all over the place. Well there's also the fact that they forgot to tell me so it was their fault too, not mine.

"Which time slot is it? I'm sure we're not going to finish touring the whole school for an hour or so." I said while not minding the fidgeting prince beside me. Hailey just gave me a playful smile as she glanced at my schedule again.

"It appears it's to be done for the whole day as to accommodate the large coverage you're about to tour." She leered which earned a shout from Luna about me being lucky to skip class for the whole day and her complaining about it. I just laughed at her antics because that's her usual.

Even though I liked school that doesn't mean an extra day to skip it was a torture for me, rather it was a reward and a blessing in disguise. Not only do I get off school works for today but I also have a valid reason to tour the whole place. This whole responsibility thing was turning out to be very great for me and here I thought that this would be torture, now why did I even think about that?

I turned around to face Cassian as I gave him a wide smile because not only did I get a new friend, he also is the reason why I can do this search operation without looking suspicious. Cassian seems to be taken aback by my smile which didn't go by unnoticed by the class as they express their sentiments about me having a free pass. Cassian seems to get the smile as he also smiled back at me just the same.

I think today would be a good day and very tiring one too not that that matters because I get to explore the school and hopefully get to the bottom of this whole mysterious guy.

After we went to grab breakfast, we were still required to go to the classroom so we can still get an attendance in with Sir Hexford before starting with the tour. He gave us a pass and as soon as that was done, I was dragging Cassian through the halls, trying to introduce him to the different functions of each room that we passed. By the time the lunch bell rang, we already covered the whole 5 stories of the main hall. Next we were going to the building jointed with the main building where the seniors are in and I couldn't wait although we need to grab lunch first before we can make that happen.

Wanting to cover more ground, I decided that we have lunch outside seeing as he already got to eat in the mess hall yesterday he really didn't need to go there today. So I sent a text to Hailey to inform her that I wouldn't be joining them for lunch and seeing as she knows what I was thinking, she just wished me well. I smiled and pulled Cassian along who was currently fascinated with the vines crawling around the pillars as we approach the garden of the school.

"I didn't know that the school had such a beautiful garden." He said as he stroked the red roses branching out on one of the fences, looking absolutely ethereal as the rays of the sun hit his beautiful face and further highlighted his shining eyes as he looked at the roses like it's the most beautiful thing in the world not knowing that he probably was more pleasing to the eye than the flowers surrounding him. Wait, why am I being sappy? Is it because I had a good night's sleep and was giddy about the thought of possibly finding that guy? Yeah that must be it, and not because he looks like someone out of a story book right now, yeah no not because of that.

"Yeah it's beautiful isn't it? This garden isn't usually frequented by the students because well, there's nothing you can do in here besides look at the flowers, but for me that's the best part. Just being surrounded by the flowers by yourself and the peace of it all." I said as I began sitting down on one of the patches of grass under one of the big oak tress in here. This is not my special spot but it still is a very good spot to relax in. Cassian stroked the rose one last time before sitting down with me and began eating his lunch.

We sat in comfortable peace and quiet until we both finished lunch and I decided to now bring him to the senior building. This is the highlight of the tour for me so I was quite giddy with it and I think Cassian noticed because he gave me a small laugh before tugging me into our destination.

We were halfway through the 5th floor, with me of course trying to peek in every single room, scanning it for just a glimpse of those emerald green eyes. As we passed one of the classrooms that currently had our direct seniors, which means that they were royalties just like us, I peeked through it all the while trying to tell Cassian that the next year, this would be us, when I caught sight of the those emerald green eyes. I felt the breath I was supposed to take get stuck in my throat as I see those emerald green eyes. I felt like this was it, I have found him but when I stared at them more, I noticed that they were not the same at all. Sure they were the same hue but these eyes looked bright, too bright honestly, whereas those eyes looked like they held a lot of secrets. Besides, the more I looked at this guy the more I realized this cannot be him, not with his build, his height, and even the hair color do not match.

Feeling dejected, I slowly let out a sigh of disappointment for railing myself up like that. You know what they say about the higher the expectation the harder the fall, that's exactly what I felt at the moment. In my disappointment, I didn't notice that Cassian already stopped talking about how good the architectural design of the school was and was in fact staring at me right now.

"Are you tired Merideth? We can sit down for a while if you want." He offered hesitantly and that's when I remembered that I was in fact supposed to be touring Cassian not looking for that guy, which was just the extra thing. I mentally face palmed myself because once again I got carried away with thoughts and feelings on that stupid ghost of a guy.

Deciding that now that we've come this far already, and still there were no signs of that guy, I decided to finally do my job right and tour Cassian with more enthusiasm than before and not peek at every single room thinking I could find him. I let my face morph into a very beaming smile and I think Cassian noticed the sudden shift of emotions because he looked at me as if I was a different person.

"Oh I'm not tired at all! Come on, I'm taking you to the building right next to this where most of the special classes are held." I said and dragged him along. I was too cooped up with being enthusiastic as the thought of finding that guy vanished and was replaced instead with joy of being able to skip class for the day that I didn't notice Cassian smiling a little as he let himself be pulled into the rest of the tour.

Later on, when we finally covered almost all of the school, at least everything that mattered, we decided to go back to the garden to relax a bit because of the tiring tour that we just did. We covered more than we did before lunch because this time I wasn't trying to scan every single student that I passed to check if they have green eyes. After that little wrong impression on the 5th floor earlier, I gave up on my search and decided to just enjoy the chance of being out from class for today which was pretty good because me and Cassian got to goof around by the end of it.

Currently, Cassian was once again stroking the roses lovingly looking like a fairy while I just sat in silence under the shade as I look at the fairy-I mean Cassian enjoy himself after that exhausting tour. I close my eyes for a moment as I let the warm breeze sweep over me when I felt a sudden shift beside me indicating that someone sat down and there could only be one person at the moment.

"Hey, thanks for the tour. I enjoyed looking at the different architectures of the school. I've always admired Irini when I first knew such a school exists so I was quiet happy that I got to see almost everything about this school for today." He sighed as he leaned in to the bark of the tree beside me, letting himself relax.

"No problem. I got a free pass from class so that's fine." I gave him a teasing smile and he just laughed softly. Although his statement from earlier got me a little curious as to how his life was before he was found so I asked.

"Hey if you don't mind me asking, where were you found? I mean where did you grow up in?" I asked and I noticed that he tensed for a moment so I panicked because stupid Merideth that could be a sensitive topic and considered very rude.

"Umm you don't have to answer me or anything! I'm sorry for overstepping." I added going a little red because I was a little embarrassed that I even asked. Cassian still looked tense but he just sighed and soon his body was relaxing again and I couldn't help but feel relief. Well Merideth, ya done messed that one up.

While I was degrading myself in my mind for overstepping my boundaries, I didn't expect for Cassian to actually talk and answer my question.

"Umm that's okay. I was just quite taken a back by the question but you're not overstepping." He said and I just looked at him like he grew another head. What does he mean that I didn't overstep? That was clearly overstepping with almost going out of the planet overstepping.

Cassian must have noticed my scandalized expression because he laughed softly and patted me a little hesitantly in the head which made my expression shift from scandalized to confused. He withdrew his hands when he saw me calm down.

"Well I did tell you that you can talk to me about anything right? I really am genuine about that offer so yeah, not overstepping." He said. "And if you really want to know, I grew up in Rhodes."

When he said that information, I wasn't really that shocked by it because I had my speculations and he just confirmed it. What shocked me however is how soft him and Shiloh is. I'm not stereotyping or anything but most people in Rhodes were very harsh and bad because of the nature of their environment. I couldn't really blame them though, in Rhodes or Shriner in general, if you don't kill you're the one going to be killed so you need to fight which was what really surprised me because I finally confirmed that they did grow up in such a harsh environment.

"Well you're nothing like those people in Rhodes, I'm glad. Not that I think everyone on there is bad, just maybe forced to be one to survive which is to be expected. It is after all the dumping ground of bad people." I sighed. Rhodes was a very unpleasant place which is because it was the capital of the only kingdom in Kaia district to not sign on the peace treaty, Shriner. Their leader, the Herthz family was the only royal family to seek war and not peace because they thought signing the treaty means bowing down to the rules so instead, they took it upon themselves to be the enemy kingdom and wage war to the other kingdoms not only in Kaia but to other districts as well. Well their last declaration of war was long ago. Ever since the border controls were strengthened after Queen Candice's death, we never heard anything from them which is great I guess.

Cassian seemed to be taken aback by my statement but just smiled as he leaned back further on the bark of the oak tree.

"Well I'm glad you don't see me differently." He said and I just punched his arm playfully and told him of course not because after all he's still the same soft fairy Cassian that I met and he just gave me a soft smile.

We spent the rest of the remaining time we had left just talking about random stuff before finally heading to the mess hall for dinner. This day might have started with me hoping to find that guy and got disappointed in the end, but it did end up great because I got to know the lost prince a little more. And well the extra pass away from class was also a bonus.