Chapter 22 - A Mosquito

Theodore immediately let Adeline out of his grasp when she called out for her personal maids. He had not expected her to do that at all. But he could not get angry at her either. He was rather intrigued by how defiant she was of him right now.

Hawisa and Osanna immediately entered the room when they heard the Princess calling for them. They could not see Theodore because of his invisibility spell that would block him out from human's view. Theodore had used the superior invisibility spell all these years while visiting Adeline, which would not just block him from humans but also from other mystical beings.

Theodore theorized that as a part of his demonic energy was flowing inside of Adeline, the normal invisibility spell had not worked on her the last time he visited her when she was five years old. Thus, she was able to see him that time.

Hawisa knitted her eyebrow because she was confused to see the Princess in her night gown. "Adeline, why are you wearing your night gown again? You are not thinking of going to sleep again, are you?"

Adeline chuckled out of nervousness and said, "Well, I am not going to my training today, so wearing the training uniform was not an option. And I didn't know what else to wear so I slipped into these."

Hawisa gently slapped her forehead with her hand and apologized, "I am sorry Your Highness, I forgot to prepare another comfortable dress for you to wear when we worked on you." Then she stormed towards the wardrobe where Theodore was leaning on his back with folded arms.

Seeing Hawisa walking towards Theodore, she almost shouted at her to stop. Her hands were already trying to grab Hawisa but she stopped midways. "Not being found out is his problem, not mine." Adeline thought to herself and remained quiet.

Theodore's light feet quickly carried him away from the way of Hawisa. He then chose to stay in one of the corner of the room. He was determined to persuade Adeline even if he needed to stand quietly for the whole day.

Osanna noticed that Adeline was still wearing her wet bath gown inside of her night gown so she complained to the Princess, "Adeline! Why are you still wearing your wet bath gown? You don't want to catch cold on your birthday, do you?"

Osanna then offered her hand to the Princess to take off her clothes. "Come on, I will help you take it off."

But Adeline pushed away her hand and said, "No! I have told you so many times that I don't feel comfortable when you two still treat me like a baby. I can do it myself."

"Tch… don't act like we have not seen any of those." Osanna teased Adeline for being so shy even in front of them, those who have been looking after her since she was a child.

Hawisa presented comfortable and simple gown to Adeline. "Change yourself into this gown. And then we will start by giving you a massage on your face."

Adeline took the gown from Hawisa and reluctantly spoke, "Do we really have to prepare for the banquet immediately? Can't I just rest or something?"

Hawisa immediately denied the request from the Princess. "I am afraid we will have to start immediately. We don't want you to look anything less than the other Princesses."

Adeline puckered her lips and spoke unenthusiastically, "Alright… give me some space, will you?" To be honest, she did not have any interest in all these charades of trying to look beautiful to please others' eyes. But she had no choice other than participating in it.

Hawisa and Osanna turned around so that Adeline could change into her warm and comfortable gown.

But Theodore was leaning on the wall and still staring at Adeline. Adeline stared back at him hoping he would turn around but he just kept staring at her. Then Adeline gestured Theodore to turn around by using her hand.

And finally Theodore smirked and obliged. "This is a progress. She is at least talking in sign language." Theodore thought to himself and was proud of the improvement in the situation.

After Adeline changed her cloth, Osanna went out of the room while Hawisa asked Adeline to lie down on her bed. Adeline did as she was asked and waited for her maids to start preparing her for her day.

But Adeline felt a bit uncomfortable to lie down with Theodore still inside the room, eyeing her very passionately. She was hoping that he would teleport away when the maids entered the room, but he was still lingering around. But a part of her was happy because she did not want him to ghost her again.

When all this was happening inside Adeline's room, the whole Palace was already very lively. All the maids and servants were extremely busy, running here and there to tend to their masters. The Kitchen staffs were the busiest ones because they had to prepare a feast for almost 250 people.

All the other members of the royal family - King, Queens, Concubines, Princes, and Princesses were also awake by now. Though it was not their special day, they still wanted to make sure that they looked their best for tonight's banquet.

The Princes and Princesses were obsessed with looking perfect for tonight's banquet because they wanted the Kings, Queens, Nobleman, and Noblewomen to look at them as their future King/Queen. So they had already begun their preparations.

Some were busy taking a bath, some were already starting their face massages, some were soaking their body in rose water, while some were already trying on the outfits and jewelry to see how they would look in them.

Prince Edwin just came out of his bath and he was standing in front of a huge mirror. He was wearing a black trouser with golden rim and he was not wearing any cloth on his upper body. Water droplets were still all over his toned muscles.

Edwin had dark eyes like that of his mother Lillian. His curly black hair was shorter in the front and longer in the back, which came up to his shoulder. He was staring intensely at himself and was lost in his own thoughts. Edwin was clutching his fists and narrowing his gaze as he was muttering under his breath.

"Finally, after years and years of waiting and preparing myself, the time for me to sit on the throne has come. After taking that test, I will finally be declared the future King of Wyverndale. And after the current King dies, no one can take the throne away from me."

Out of every Princes and Princesses, Prince Edwin was the one who had to wait the longest for this day to arrive. He was already 29 years old and he could wait no longer to give that test in order to sit on the throne in the near future.

Edwin had always despised his father and his way of thinking. "My stupid father and his stupid traditions!" he used to think.

"He is nothing more than a coward, too scared to go for a war. All he did in his life was get married to countless women in the name of diplomacy and produced children like a swine. Because of that, I had to wait so long just to get a chance to give that stupid test of worthiness."

He banged his fist on the wall just beside the mirror and shouted in anger, "I have already lived one quarter of my life but all I did other than training myself was run his errands and nothing more. And he still does not appreciate my efforts. Damn that King!"

Osanna returned back to Adeline's private chamber with two baskets of items that were to be used to beautify the Princess. The items included gold dust, fullers' earth, coconut oil, molten sugar and honey, rose water, Aloe Vera gel, flower extract, cotton, and several other items.

Then Hawisa went on to sit on Adeline's bed. She placed a pillow on her lap and asked Adeline to place her head on her lap. After Adeline did that she said, "Okay, close your eyes Princess. You will glow after this even more."

Osanna also sat beside Adeline and assisted Hawisa. Hawisa spread her palm in front of Osanna and said, "Pass me the cotton and rose water." Osanna did as she asked.

Hawisa started by cleaning Adeline's face with rose water. As she was doing that, she asked Osanna to mix fullers' earth, gold dust and water in a bowl.

Theodore did not understand why the maids were insisting on doing all that to Adeline's face when she already looked like an angel. But still, he was keen to look for the outcome and quietly hovered over them.

After cleansing Adeline's face, Hawisa took the mix that Osanna had prepared and spread it thinly and evenly on Adeline's face. Then she left that to dry on her face.

Theodore was bored out of his mind when the maids were doing nothing and were just waiting for that greyish-golden thing that they put on her face to dry. He sat on the floor and was staring at the tiny feet of Adeline. And unintentionally, he lifted his hand and started to touch Adeline's feet.

Suddenly Adeline could feel a tickle on her foot. She wanted to chuckle but she was unable to move any muscle on her face due to the beauty mask. She knew that it was Theodore who was playing with her feet but she did not want to do anything suspicious and give away his presence in the room.

So she parted her lips and tried to speak when she could not even move her lips properly, "I think a osquuito… mossquiito just iit… biiit me on my left leg, will you ake… make it go away?"