The Guarded Princess

XIII

Many hours had passed and it was already the afternoon. Sinbad and Lucy were in the office, continuing to do the paperwork and soon enough, about three-fifths of the room's papers were complete and set to one side. Needless to say, more than half of the completed work was done by Lucy and though Sinbad tried to complete the same amount as her, it was useless. Out of curiosity, Sinbad asked her a question an hour ago.

"Little princess, how fast do you read?" Sinbad asked while simultaneously going through his current papers.

Lucy put her finished paper onto a pile situated next to her before picking up another one, dipping her feather in the ink bottle. She read through the sentences on the document and wrote down her thoughts regarding the paper while answering him.

"Maybe around ten sentences in a minute," she said.

"Fast!" Sinbad put down his papers and spoke the very first word that came to his mind.

"Is it?"

Sinbad sighed. "Little princess, you're really something."

"I don't always do this but considering the amount of paperwork, there's no helping it. If I could, I would rather look through these papers leisurely and put more effort into writing out the responses."

Yet, your responses are better than mine, he remarked, crying silently inside.

The two returned back to their work, focusing their attention on the papers for another hour. By this time, they should have already started lunch but they didn't. They were so engrossed in documents before them that they hardly noticed the passing time. From time to time, Sinbad asked Lucy's opinion on some documents and Lucy often asked him to further explain a certain situation prescribed in the document. The two matched each other's pace well and the number of completed paperwork increased steadily by the stack.

Despite the steady work that they had done, they were clueless about what was currently going on outside the office and in the castle. Having locked themselves in the office for multiple hours without even coming out, many of the servants and soldiers began worrying if the two of them were safe and wondered if they had encountered anything. However, many of the maids had their own thoughts and began talking feverishly about what kind of relationship the two were having as of now.

"Has Sin still not come out of the office yet?" Ja'far asked one of the soldiers.

With his arrival, everyone made way for him and looked at him with worried glances. Ja'far dismissed all the needless rumors about the two. Knowing Sinbad, he was capable of defending himself in times of need but as for Lucy, he grew worried. They hadn't come out for lunch and no movements could be heard beyond the office door.

"What are you guys standing here for?" he turned to the servants and soldiers who had come to spectate. "Return back to your duties."

"Y-Yes!" they hurried away in fear.

Ja'far sighed before turning to look at the closed doors of Sinbad's office. He heard nothing behind the door and no foreign presences either, implying that the two were alone. He raised an eyebrow, wondering what exactly the two were up to. He was worried about the two - specifically Lucy. Knowing Sinbad, he wondered what he planned on doing with her even though he had said that he wouldn't do anything. He couldn't help but agonize over that thought every day when he met with Lucy.

Knocking on the door, he called out. "Sin, I'm coming in."

No answer was given and Ja'far decided to open the doors to the office on his own accord. He hurriedly stepped in and what he saw surprised him. Sitting at the desk was Lucy scanning various papers and documents while writing a response to each of them with incredible speed. Sinbad noticed Ja'far's presence and waved at him without looking up from his papers.