I tamed the female lead

Chapter 8

I got back to my room and immediately took a bath. I didn't take long baths usually but today I felt like it and filled the tub with warm water before starting what I called as decorating. Prissy loved putting rose petals and colorful soaps in my bath but I never understood why people liked doing that. In my past life I really liked looking at photographs of people underwater or in decorated bathtubs but I never wanted to be in their place. I felt a bit dumb decorating now but was quite satisfied with how my bath turned out. I took a good book and slipped into the water. After an hour I got bored and came out of the bath feeling completely relaxed. I quite liked the good scent that was emanating from my skin now that I decorated the bath and spent a few minutes inhaling it with a smile.

I was exhausted and had one of the best nights in my life. My bed at school was really comfortable and I didn't want to leave it in the morning. I missed Prissy who would come to wake me up gently. Now I had to wake up to an alarm which startled me every morning. This couldn't be good for my heart. In the following days I avoided the prince and he left me alone to give me space to cool down for which I was grateful. Being a princess, I was quite popular and everyone wanted to be my friend. Some days it was nice meeting new people but other days I avoided them as much as possible. I didn't mind people approaching me to become friends but I didn't like it when they approached me to ask me about things concerning Alastair such as his favorite color, what he liked to eat etc.

Because of my beauty and my fiance, there were two types of people around me: those who liked me and asked me all these stupid questions and those who were jealous of me. They looked at me with cold eyes and I could read their thoughts from afar. It wasn't my fault if Alastair wasn't available anymore I was way too young to say anything about it. He had been at this school before me and already had a good reputation. A lot of people liked him and I knew that there was even a fan club that was created for people who had a crush on him. He had good grades and was polite to everyone which explained his popularity.

Apart from my classmates, teachers paid close attention to me too. They always seemed stressed or proud to have me in their class and made sure I understood everything. However when it was the case I didn't really listen in class and only drew. I didn't like being treated differently because of my status. What kind of school was this? Even if the subjects were interesting, I lost all my interest when seeing the teachers. I just wanted to be 18 years old as soon as possible. I wanted to find a peaceful ranch and ride all day everyday while painting until I fell asleep. I wanted to walk barefoot on the grass and look at the stars and wanted to wear whatever I wanted without anyone telling me that it wasn't ladylike. I just had to keep up a little more.

The best moment of my day was when I fought. I started taking sparring classes at 10 years old. It took multiple years to achieve this because one : people were scared I would get hurt and two : people thought a girl shouldn't be good with a sword. Despite her being worried about me, Prissy helped me a lot but we didn't manage to convince the family. They underestimated my stubbornness and I finished learning. They agreed soon after Orange came to our house by the way. When I started fighting I couldn't stop until my opponent was on the ground. I saw red and hit them again and again without feeling anything. This was the only time that I felt truly powerful. Once again I didn't realize how tired I was before I saw a water bottle being handed to me. I saw a guy smile at me shily:

"Hello again. I swear I wasn't following you."

I smiled before taking the bottle. He appeared behind me like a ghost but he seemed nice.

"Thanks."

He started scratching his head not knowing what to say so I decided to help:

"Are you taking the same sparring classes as me?

-Kind of. I am in the sparring club so we practice every day around this time.

-Oh I see."

I didn't really know what to say and gave him his bottle back. He really wanted to talk to me. I could see it but I had no idea what to say and only knew how to run away. But as I was ready to leave he called me. I frowned:

"How do you know my name?"

He smiled scratching his head again:

"Who doesn't?"

I shrugged:

"Fair enough. And what is yours?

-My name is Jeronim."

It took me a few seconds but I remembered and raised my eyebrows:

"You are Alastair's friend!"

Jeronim scoffed. He used to follow Alastair around but was way too shy even as a child and I never talked to him.

"I thought you didn't remember me.

-Are you still planning to become the prince's knight?

-I would be honored.

-Then good luck."

And I left. Jeronim seemed nice but I didn't have time for Alastair's friends. If he became his knight he would always be by his side and I wasn't planning on being that close to the prince. Too bad. I thought he was nice. I quickly forgot about all this Jeronim problem and went back to my everyday life. There were two girls in my class who were really nice: Azore and Iris. Iris was the girl who I sat next to on the first day and Azore was the one in the first row. I spent more and more time with them and immediately introduced Orange to them too. Iris was really talkative during class which was really awkward because I hated talking during classes and was very uncomfortable but she was so nice that I didn't dare say anything and thought all of this was the excitement of the beginning.

It seemed I wasn't the only one being bothered because after class Astéria stood up and walked up to our table. Everyone went silent and stared at her shaking. Iris lost all her colors and her hands were quavering like crazy. I would have been in the same state if Astéria had been staring at me that way. It seemed like she would tear her head off any second.

"Stop talking during class."

Iris forgot how to speak English for a second and only nodded. Astéria walked away and didn't say anything more. She had a hard time walking for the rest of the day and only started talking during noon when all four of us were eating together. I quickly explained what happened to Orange because she wasn't in our class:

"And then she left."

Orange didn't care at all which made me smile. Iris was literally traumatized and Azore felt really bad for her.

"It looked like she was going to kill me."

Azore rubbed Iris' shoulder:

"She is not a criminal.

-I saw it in her eyes."

I didn't have anything to say to that but could see that Orange didn't like this topic so I decided to help:

"She wouldn't hurt you. She came up to you and told you about what was bothering her. That is very mature of her. Mature people don't attack others, don't worry."

Orange looked up at me with a weird smile.

"I don't know... Her eyes were... I never want to see that again. What if she turns up in my room? I would die from her just staring at me like that."

I couldn't help laughing and quickly covered my mouth:

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make fun of you but I just imagined it and it looked funny."

Iris fortunately started laughing too:

"You're right. I'm just imagining things. I will soon get over it.

-We could do something together so you would think about something else."

Azore's suggestion seemed to really please Iris.

"Why not! We could talk and eat sweets. What do you think about going to a tea shop?"

My eyes lit up. I loved tea shops. So we went there and talked for hours. I really had a great time with the girls and Iris forgot about Astéria for a few hours. She could sleep just well that night but still froze up whenever she crossed Astéria. Therefore when we would run into her, Iris would hide behind me. I couldn't help the awkward laugh when Astéria saw Iris hide behind me but got very surprised when I saw her smile at me. Was I dreaming? Did I ever see the female lead smile? I frowned but didn't have time to ask because Astéria continued walking.

Poor Iris wasn't at the end of her worries because during sparring she found herself paired up with Astéria. I was against Azore but the poor girl didn't put up a fight at all. Iris wasn't better off and soon the teacher noticed that adjustments needed to be made. Being the two strongest students, I found myself against Astéria. She was even taller from up close and I needed a second to wake up from my torpor. I knew that she was terrifying but she was just gorgeous.

I knew that Astéria was a fierce swordswoman and I was kind of stressed at the idea of going up against her. There was a reason why her name meant the one who sparkled. In the first book she got made fun of for it but it just suited her perfectly. She glowed no matter what she did. She was just perfect. I knew I was strong too and I knew I could put up a fight. I strengthened my hold around my sword and took on a striking pose. Astéria did the same but for some reason I didn't feel any danger emanating from her. It didn't seem like she would attack me at all. And in fact when the teacher told us to attack I was the only one moving. Astéria never attacked me and only defended herself against my strikes. I thought it was weird and didn't know what to think about it. She didn't have any problem attacking the others. Iris almost died when she struck a few seconds before.

I was so confused that I even stopped attacking and tilted my head. For some reason this made Astéria smile. She seemed way more nice than I thought:

"Why aren't you attacking?

-I am sorry."

I was even more confused. Did she just apologize? This reminded me of the dreams I had with her in them. In the first book even when she acted all nice and fragile, she never apologized. She only said she was dumb or not strong enough but she never apologized. I stopped thinking about it and we went back to training, this time Astéria attacking me too. As expected, sparring against her was the hardest thing I ever did but I did put up a very good fight and almost won once. I was rather proud of myself and smiled:

"Thank you for this training.

-Thank you too."

I extended her hand just like after every match but she just stared at it at first. I immediately drew it back:

"Sorry. I guess you don't like being touched."

But Astéria didn't give me time because she caught my hand and shook it with a serious look. I jumped because her reflexes were out of this world and couldn't help tilting my head. Astéria did the same as if hypnotized and this immediately woke me up. I thanked her again and walked away as quickly as possible.