Solitary Princess - Nalu ✔️

Chapter 23

Things only got weirder for Lucy the next day. After her new maid Virgo drew her a bath and picked her outfit, she noticed a few new workers around the castle.

While they were doing a good job of blending in for the most part, the castle was short staffed and Lucy had grown up around all of them. She knew every maid, cook, and worker almost by name. So when she saw a few new faces, she wondered why her father hired new people. It was a little out of character for the paranoid king. The princess shrugged it off throughout the day, pretending to not notice.

On a lunch break from her lessons, Lucy wandered to the kitchen to see how the cooks were doing. She immediately noticed a bulky man with bleach blonde hair bustling around the kitchen occaisionally yelling out something about masculinity. He was knocking over pans and ended up getting scolded by the lead cook. He was released after a few minutes and immediately started messing things up again.

Lucy watched until the new cook pulled a severely burnt chicken out of the oven, yelling out and somehow lighting it on fire. She decided the smoke wasn't very pleasant and decided to go to the library for some peace and quiet.

She didn't expect the new staff to extend to the library, so when someone tapped her shoulder as she was scanning the rows, Lucy let out a squeal and dropped the three books she was holding. An apology was immediately given by a squeaky voice.

Lucy turned and saw nothing for a moment- until she looked down to see a bright orange headband almost covered by messy bright blue hair. Lucy had never seen blue hair before, so as she stood there speechless, the small girl rambled about not knowing she would be scared as she picked up Lucy's books for her.

When the girl stood to her full height with Lucy's books in hand, the princess saw the top of the strange girl's head was about eye level to her.

The princess cleared her throat, finally processing things and spoke, "No, it's my fault. Nobody really comes to the library and we haven't had a librarian in years." Lucy tried not to think about how she was the reason the last one got fired, "Are you one of the new hires?"

The girl looked suprised for a split second then quickly replied, "Y-yes. I am new here. I'm not sure about anyone else though..." She cleared her throat, "I'm Levy by the way."

Lucy watched as the bluenette bowed. For some reason, she didn't want this girl to know who she was. Without thinking it through, Lucy bowed in return, "I'm... Layla. Nice to meet you."

The girl looked up at the princess, "Layla like the late queen?"

Lucy cursed herself in her head for not thinking of any other names in the moment, "Ah yes, different spelling though..."

"How is yours spelled?"

"Ah... L-a...e-l-a"

"You have the same color hair as her too, what a coincidence." The girl smirked slightly.

Lucy had a feeling her spontaneous plan wasn't going too well for her. This Levy may look young, but something in her eyes told Lucy that her brain was bigger than most people twice her age. Lucy stayed silent for a few moments, "Yeah, I get that a lot," she then thought it was best to change the subject, "So um, how did you get hired?"

Now the bluenette looked a bit hesitant as she thought for a moment, "Uh, you know, the king requested a few new workers. I guess he has his own reasons."

Lucy nodded slowly, clearly the girl was hiding something, but it would be hypocritical to question her after she herself had lied.

Levy started out of her daze after a moment and looked down at the books in her hand, "Oh, these are yo- Oh my goodness! Do you like this one?" the small woman with wide eyes held up the top book with a pale yellow cover, "This is one of my favorites. Have you read it?"

Lucy giggled at her sudden excitement and replied, "Only about 20 times. It never seems to get old does it?"

Levy then continued to rant back and forth with Lucy about the worn book until the princess heard a nearby clock chime, telling Lucy it was time to get back to some lessons with Capricorn. She sighed, cutting off the conversation with a sad, "Sorry Levy, I've got to- um- finish up my chores. I'll come back sometime though, don't worry." The two grinned at each other and bid farewells before Lucy walked back to her lessons.

As she walked in grinning ear to ear, Capricorn looked up at her questioningly, "What's got you so happy, princess?"

Lucy paused. Why was she so happy? Yes, she just met someone who had the same interests as her and who was actually around the same age, but it felt too soon to say she made a friend. She was scared to admit she wanted to be friends with Levy. Lucy also didn't want to get her fired.

Lucy cleared her throat, "I just met someone really nice in the library."

Capricorn studied her for a moment, "It's not a boy is it? I was rooting for the newbie."

The princess blushed bright red, "N-no! She's a new worker here in the library. Her names Levy. And what do you mean 'rooting for the newbie'?"

Ignoring the second half of her reply, Capricorn asked, "New worker? I need to get out of this office more. I've heard nothing of the sort." He stayed silent for a while before adding, "Don't mention this to your father Lucy. Not anything about the new workers."

Lucy studied the carpeted floor, "You know I never talk to him. He doesn't have to know I even noticed the new people. His daughter was raised to only care about politics anyways, don't worry, it didn't even cross my mind."

The tall man nodded slightly and sighed, "It's for the best princess, I'm sorry."

Lucy nodded, watching sun rays swirl through the curtains and ignite dust particles around the room. She shook her head slightly and conjured up a slight smile, "Back to work?" 

Her tutor returned the smile sadly but continued the lesson to at least distract the princess from her troubles.