The day after the memorable night Oriana and Valeria spent together, thanks to Fabia unintentionally posing for a ghost, was promising a wonderful weather.

  Perfect to get out of the Pace and spend some time outside.

  Coincidentally, Lin Xuen was wishing to see more of Lucetta, therefore Her Majesty pnned for everyone to visit the market.

  The road from the Golden Pace to the Square of Lucretia, where the fair took pce, wasn’t long or especially demanding and it could be walked on foot.

  Nevertheless, every outing of the members of the royalty caused a big commotion among the locals, so it was a matter of safety to take the carriage and a small unit of the Royal Guard with them.

  Shortly after breakfast, the Queen, accompanied by her daughter with Valeria and Lin Xuen with Kyra, left for the city.

  At first, their appearance at the market caused a slight chaos, as people gathered around trying to catch a glimpse of the royalty and their esteemed guests.

  Fortunately, after a while everyone got used to their presence and went back to minding to their own business.

  "Are there always this many people here?" Lin Xuen swept her gaze across the Square.

  The pce was filled to the brim with townsfolk huddling around countless merchant stands offering the widest selection of merchandise.

  From handcrafted pottery, intricate fabrics and exotic herbs from faraway nds to aromatic food stalls offering mouthwatering delicacies. Xuen was certain it was possible to find just about anything here.

  "Lucretia Market is the biggest one in the Province. Many people from the nearby towns come here to sell their goods, but it only gets this crowded around the big holidays. Especially the Dawning," Hester expined.

  She remembered her first celebration in the capital after becoming the Queen.

  Given her past and status, she had visited many pces before that, but none managed to make such an impression on her like the Market of Lucretia during the first Dawning she spent there.

  Ahead of the group, Oriana stopped by a stand dispying a wide selection of all sorts of trinkets, odds and ends.

  A few pieces of jewelry here and there, some figurines, handmade jewelry boxes, ribbons and threads. The stall seemed to contain everything and nothing at the same time. Nevertheless, the Princess appreciated the quaint charm of the collection.

  "Do you see anything you like, Your Highness?" She heard Valeria’s voice by her ear, sending an unexpectedly pleasant shiver down her spine. Oriana picked one of the hairpins from the stall, turned around and pced it in the Commander’s hair.

  "Perhaps," she answered briefly, trying her best to hold a smile. "What about you? Anything caught your eye, Commander?"

  "Perhaps," parroted Valeria, her shimmering eyes locked onto Oriana. A smirk tugging the corner of her lips.

  Despite her best efforts, her traitorous heart fluttered forcing the Princess to look away feeling bashful.

  Another win for the Swindler Commander.

  It was so new to Oriana, to see Valeria like this. Teasing was something they both would engage regurly. Alongside the quippy banters it was essentially their daily routine.

  Recently, though, something changed and it no longer felt like a simple act of pyfulness between friends. Maybe it was the fact that the Princess finally knew her secret, or perhaps something completely different.

  The Commander became more deliberate in the things she did. Her actions and words were measured, her gestures were seemingly straightforward with no underlying message and yet they would always have the same effect—making Oriana’s heart race.

  "You’ve gotten very flirtatious tely," the Princess remarked.

  "Hmm… Maybe it’s the result of reading through all your novels," Valeria mused.

  "You read my novels?!"

  "Of course I do," Valeria answered to her terror, "I have to make sure you don’t read anything indecent that would be a bad influence on you, Your Highness."

  The Princess gasped.

  "Indecent? Bad influence? My dear Commander, if anything poses any danger to my maidenly virtue that would be you!"

  Unbeknownst to Oriana and Valeria, who were clearly having the time of their lives in each other’s company, at the back of the group, Kyra was experiencing the cognitive dissonance of her life.

  The woman in the distance clearly looked like her sister, and sounded like her sister, but most certainly wasn’t her sister!

  "Why do you look like you’re about to catch a criminal red-handed?" Xuen ughed.

  She has been observing her companion for a while and seeing how her full attention was completely absorbed by someone else, the Dragon Princess felt utterly neglected. She didn’t want to come off as too needy, so she opted for a teasing jab.

  "Huh?" Kyra blinked. "What do you mean?"

  "You’ve been staring at Valeria relentlessly ever since we left the Pace. Did something happen?"

  Only then, she realized that this whole time she hadn’t been paying proper attention to Xuen, which made Kyra feel extremely guilty.

  She knew that the Imperial Princess was very excited to visit the city and instead of making sure that the trip meets her expectations, she was being preoccupied with her sister’s love life.

  A complete failure for a maid and, more gringly, a lover.

  "I’m so sorry. I’ve been neglecting you, haven’t I?" Kyra looked at her apologetically, making Xuen’s mood instantly a bit better.

  "It’s alright," she answered, happy to have the attention of her favorite person again. "But I am curious about what happened to make you so distracted."

  The girl sighed.

  "It’s just that my sister suddenly experienced some kind of love epiphany and I’m wondering just badly it’s going to go."

  "But I thought you were hoping that she and Princess Oriana will realize their feelings, no?" Xuen asked, surprised by Kyra’s words.

  "I was… But now that Prince Emil had been officially introduced to Her Highness and their public engagement is right around the corner, I just can’t see it end well," the maid expined, then added quieter, "I just don’t want to see Valeria hurt. Not after she finally started opening herself up again."

  Lin Xuen thought about what Kyra just told her.

  "Commander really did suddenly change," she admitted.

  The Dragon Princess didn’t know her for long, but from what she saw while living in the Pace until now was that Valeria definitely wasn’t someone who ughed often.

  In fact she didn’t see her smile even once. Or be sad and cry. Or get angry. She didn’t dispy any emotions really.

  "Maybe someone really is impersonating her," Lin Xuen mumbled as her mind started weaving more and more intricate conspiracy theories about the Commander’s sudden personality change.

  Kyra giggled.

  "Ever since the kidnapping she seems different. It’s probably because Her Highness finally knows that she’s Ei…" she quickly covered her mouth before the traitorous thing spills more secrets.

  Xuen looked at her curiously.

  "That she is?"

  The cogs in Kyra’s head started spinning in a desperate search of something pusible to substitute for the truth.

  "That she is… enjoying romance novels so much too!" She blurted, hoping that Lin Xuen will for once decide to be less clever and less inquisitive.

  The Dragon Princess, naturally, did not believe Kyra’s story one bit, but seeing her troubled expression and genuine fear in her eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to confront her about it more.

  She already was almost certain about Valeria’s true identity anyway. Getting a proper confirmation for her father could wait. There was no need to sacrifice her retionship with Kyra for it, she thought.

  "Is that so? I would have never guessed. She seems rather uninterested in matters of the heart," she simply answered.

  "She is, unless it’s about Princess Oriana," the girl snorted.

  The remark about Valeria being a fan of harlequins was actually very true.

  Her sister would never admit it out loud, but she wanted to understand the Princess better, so some time ago she decided to submerge herself in the world of romance novels.

  And as it turned out, Valeria despite her ice cold exterior, is in fact a softie…

  "Well, then, it looks like they are on a good way to finally confessing their feeling. Perhaps, sharing the same interests helped them bridge the gap between them," Xuen commented.

  "This is what I’m worried about…"

  The Dragon Princess studied Kyra quietly for a moment.

  "You don’t believe they will be together," it was a statement, an observation rather than a question. One that wasn’t referring only to Valeria and Oriana.

  "They are from two different worlds," Kyra answered. There was a hint of mencholy and dejection in her voice. "Eventually they will be forced to part ways and go their own separate ways."

  "And you think the same thing is going to happen to us," Xuen stopped and looked at Kyra. The girl smiled sheepishly then weighing carefully each word answered.

  "You are the Imperial Princess of Liung-Mun and I’m just a maid. The fact that there is ‘us’ to talk about is already a miracle. It’s more that I could dream or wish for. I wouldn’t dare to hope that it will st forever."

  Xuen cupped her face and forced her to look her in the eyes.

  "I can see why you believe that this is nothing more than a casual fling for me. Something I’ll forget the moment I step abort the ship to Liung-Mun. But that couldn’t be further from the truth," she said and leaned closer. "You are not ‘just a maid’ to me. You are Kyra, the woman that stole my heart the moment I id my eyes on her. And I intend to do everything in my power to make ‘us’ be forever."

  The sudden closeness of the Dragon Princess and the words she spoke made Kyra’s head spin. Not only that, she also became hyper aware of the people around them and their curious stares.

  "Everyone is looking at us," she whispered in a daze.

  A glimpse of something daring and confrontational crossed Xuen’s face.

  "Then let them look," she whispered right before her lips pressed against Kyra’s, sealing away any objections and dispelling all worries in the girl’s heart.

  The entire moment between Lin Xuen and Kyra went completely unnoticed by Valeria, who was busy browsing the stalls in search of anything worthy to serve as a gift for her sister’s birthday.

  Oriana, on the other hand, saw everything crystal clear. What else was crystal clear was that Valeria isn’t going to like it one bit.

  The Commander was known for her protectiveness of Kyra, though Oriana would argue that ‘over-protectiveness’ was more accurate. Then again, she couldn’t really bme her for it.

  While Kyra had a humble, not to say low, opinion about herself and her presence, those around her didn’t share the sentiment.

  There were many times when Oriana witnessed how some noble man or woman offered to ‘buy’ the girl from the Pace.

  Valeria, naturally, was furious and every time made sure to give an earful to those brazen enough to make such proposition in her presence.

  In most cases that was enough to discourage the unwanted suitor from pursuing the matter any further. Only once did the Commander snap and went beyond just a heated lecture on manners.

  A young baron was foolish enough to make several offhand, and very inappropriate, remarks about Kyra and the things he wouldn’t mind ‘hiring’ her to do.

  Oriana was certain that the echo of the sp Valeria gave him could be heard all the way in the Temple of the Ten.

  Of course, the man failed to understand the error of his ways and attempted to have the Commander punished by the King, only for her father to officially outw him from attending any formal gatherings and entering the Pace grounds.

  From that point, however, Valeria became extremely wary of all potential suitors entering Kyra’s orbit. Especially those belonging to the higher caste.

  That’s why when the excited voices of the crowd finally reached the Commander’s ears, there was only one thing that came to the Princess’ mind that would stop her from turning around.

  "I like you!" Oriana boldly decred right to Valeria’s face.