Chapter Text
king tenma had three children: tsukasa, saki, and toya. all three of them were trained strictly since they were born. but this was not really true for the princess. whenever saki felt things were too hard, she got dizzy and fainted. at first, people thought she was pretending because she was lazy, but it wasn’t true. even though they found many doctors, no one could help her. so, the princess did not have to join most lessons. because of this, some people thought she wasn’t a good princess. but even though she was a little spoiled, she was still kinder than most nobles.
the princess spent most of her days resting in her room. she would have chosen to work instead of staying in bed all her life, but she had no choice. the rooms of the princess and princes were very protected, so even if saki wanted to leave, she couldn’t.
because she stayed in her room all her life, saki was almost always alone. she didn’t have many things to do and felt sad because she had no friends. the only person she could talk to was her old caretaker. saki asked her family to give her a younger caretaker, someone she could be friends with, but the old lady was close to the royal family, so they said no. but it was not like this for her brothers. two young knights were hired to help them. they weren’t the best—one time, knight mizuki let a magician into prince tsukasa’s room by mistake, but the magician wasn’t dangerous—still, the boys had someone they could talk to better than an old woman. and since the knights were from noble families, nobody cared much when they made mistakes.
one day, the old woman who took care of saki passed away. saki felt empty for a few days. she didn’t know if she should be sad or not, because she always wanted to be free from that woman, but she still loved her. a few days after the woman’s death, a new knight was chosen to help saki. saki didn’t know much, but when her brother said the knight was the younger daughter of the hinomori family, she felt very happy. finally, someone her own age, someone who could really be her friend. saki knew the older daughter of the hinomori family because of her brother, but never saw the younger one before. the hinomori family, like many who worked for the royal family, was a noble family with close ties.
but when the new knight met saki for the first time, it wasn’t how saki imagined. the knight just said who she was and kept the conversation short. this made saki sad. she wanted a close friendship, like her brothers had with their knights. but knight shiho was not very friendly or open.
before, saki never called her knight. now, she was calling shiho almost every hour, just to talk to her. she often went outside for fresh air, and shiho had to come too. but shiho always sat far away and waited for her, not talking much.
saki was getting sadder. she really thought shiho could be her friend, but nothing worked. she started to think maybe shiho didn’t like her. maybe she should treat her like she treated her old caretaker. a small part of her still said, “don’t give up,” but saki was tired. she couldn’t think of any new reason to call her to the room. maybe she could talk to the other knights and ask them to tell shiho, but she thought shiho acted like this with everyone. all day, saki thought about how to get closer to her, and just before sleep, she got an idea that she thought was very smart.
it was late, and her brothers were probably sleeping. maybe shiho was asleep too, but there was light coming from her room. saki walked to the door, knocked, and opened it. shiho was sitting on the floor, working with some papers. saki saw her not wearing her uniform for the first time.
"your nightgown is so cute!"
"ah— no! what are you doing here, princess? shouldn’t you be sleeping?"
shiho got nervous and blushed. being seen in nightwear by the princess was the last thing she wanted.
"yes, i should sleep… but i couldn’t sleep for hours! i feel like i’m scared of something, and if i don’t sleep, i’ll get sicker!"
"i’ll bring you some medicine."
"i don’t want medicine!"
"but—"
"come to my room."
"what..?"
"being alone is scary now. can’t you come with me?"
"i don’t think this is really my job..."
"i order you!"
shiho had no choice and followed saki to her room. she still wore her nightgown and felt very strange, but saki had called her cute, so she didn’t want to change. when she got to the room, she didn’t know where to stand or what to do, but saki looked very calm. saki sat on her bed.
"you sit too."
everything saki said felt like an order to shiho, so she sat down.
then saki started talking fast,
"okay... i know you didn’t start this job long ago, but it feels like you say no to me every time i try to be close to you! i never called other knights to my room, but i was so tired of being alone, i kept calling you. still, you kept ignoring me! i just wanted to be your friend, because then i wouldn’t be alone anymore and i wouldn’t be so bored!"
as saki spoke, shiho turned red and didn’t know what to say.
"u-uh... i’m really sorry, i’m just not used to things like this and a bit, um..."
"i don’t need a reason! i just want to be friends with you."
"if that’s what you want..."
saki frowned.
"still too formal... oh well, we’ll fix that later. i’m really sleepy now."
shiho stood up so saki could lie down, and then sat on the chair beside the bed.
"hm? why did you stand up?"
"aren’t you going to sleep?"
"aren’t you going to come next to me?"
"ah— no... please, i can’t do that."
saki sighed,
"okay..."
the princess fell asleep quickly, and the knight also fell asleep beside her.
in the middle of the night, the knight woke up with back pain and realized she had fallen asleep in the princess’s room. it was too dark to see anything, but she really wanted to see what the princess looked like while sleeping. she got off the chair and left the room to go back to her own. in the long hallway, she saw someone coming out of prince toya’s room. it was someone she knew. both of them got nervous.
"knight akito..? what are you doing here at this time..?"
"what about you???"