Long live the Villainess

#9- Vidarr of Nefeli

"The Royal Knights and the apprentices live in Sienna Palace. The garden and the forest surrounding it also belong to the Palace. It officially belongs to the Queen of Esmeray, but she gave Lord Eiran the entire management of it," explains Vidarr without waiting for me.

I pull the reins of Kamari to make her move, but the young man grunts, "Leave him there; the servants are going to take care of him."

Reluctantly, I drop the leather and quickly pat the neck of my horse before trotting after the young master of Nefeli. We walk for a few minutes on a wide, tidy road surrounded by green, healthy vegetation and white sand, before I can distinguish, between two trees, a beautiful castle made of white polished stones and long, wide columns, where the rounded, silver-shaped roof elevates itself towards the blue, almost white, cloudless sky.

"This place was initially used to welcome the consorts of the previous Kings," he explains, touching the metallic silver frame. "That explains the silver color, the opposite of the Solar Palace where the Royal Family resides."

"Isn't it a bit small to accommodate the Royal Knights and the apprentices?" I ask, judging the dimensions of the luxurious place.

"On the contrary, it is sometimes very empty; most of the Royal Knights stay in their territory. And the apprentices, they are very few."

I frown, "Why is that? I thought there would've been an entire crowd of potential knights?"

He turns back quickly, a stunned expression on his grumpy face, "Tell me that you actually know the process to become a knight apprentice!"

I stay speechless before twisting my hands, "W-Well, Lord Eiran simply asked me to become his apprentice. He-he never mentioned anything else about a test or anything related to it."

He stays silent, but his eyes were screaming exasperation. He pulls one of his long strands of hair, "Argh, you've got to be kidding me!"

I wait for him to give me an explanation, but he only turns to the left and starts to walk toward a beautiful garden of white flowers.

"We are first going to visit the Valencia quarters; they are reserved for the Royal Knights or other High-ranking soldiers," he says, pushing the iron gates without any hesitation. "You can never enter this part of the knights' quarters without explicit permission."

Seeing how he enters without any hesitation in this restricted area, I assume that my visit is considered explicit permission.

"Let's go first to the training grounds."

The training grounds, like he says, are just a plain field with straw mannequins, benches, and a few swords lying on the side.

"They rarely use it and often train alongside us in our training ground; you will see why."

He takes stairs placed in the corner and starts climbing them. Like our mentor, his long legs make him take wide steps, and I always have to accelerate my pace to catch up with him.

"On the contrary, their lunchroom is much better than ours; we could almost believe that they feed us their leftovers," continues Vidarr, leaning against the door frame.

He makes a subtle sign to invite me to peek inside. Almost deserted, the room seemed oddly similar to the banquet hall of Svenja, except perhaps the decorations, which had a southern accent, but the lingering smell of honey and spices brings me back to Noreen. But something makes me tick.

"Why isn't there any glass protecting the windows?" I point out.

I walk towards the rounded rectangle shapes. The walls had been pierced with multiple holes as tall as I but only thin, beautiful blue flowing curtains separate the exterior from the room. My hand wanders over the fabric; it makes me think of the eyes of the third Prince.