Phantasia: The Princess Knight 153 Traveling to the Frozen Forest Part Two

After settling their differences the girls finally got on track. It was decided that Starla would teach Annelia how to navigate properly. Starla had volunteered for this job because she wanted to make amends for her earlier words. Not more than an hour later the two girls hit it off really well as they both came from knight families.

"Starla, you are really lucky! Your father is an Elite Knight! My father always sang praises about your father as someone that the Longstone family should strive to follow!" Annelia had stars in her eyes while talking to Starla. Like she was talking to her favorite idol for the first time.

"It's not like that. My brothers and I, still have to work hard every day. If it was not for the fact that I was protecting the person I vowed to serve, I would be going through some rough training right now at home. Then again… The training I had to endure not too long ago was..." Starla shivered remembering the ruthless training King Augustus put her through. This was followed by a wave of fear knowing that the training was not over yet. 

"Wait!" Annelia paused her steps and looked dumbfounded at Starla. "You already vowed to protect someone? Bu-But you are not even knighted yet!" 

"To vow to protect and follow someone does not mean one needs to be a knight. It's the recognition of the person who she wanted to vow to protect and follow. Even though Starla is young and not a knight, she has all the right qualities that make her the perfect person for the job." Rose explained.

"I see… Then who are your protecting and following?" Annelia tilted her head confused. If they were to protect and follow someone they would need to be around them all the time. Three months of training would go against this vow making such a person unworthy of being a knight. 

"There is only one person here that Rose and I would lay down our lives for. Though… We might be a bit inferior to said person in strength but she has never faulted us for this and such a person accepted our vow. She is now our master and friend." Starla answered Annelia's question as she walked over to Alicia and intertwined her arm with Alicia's.

Annelia stared at Starla and Alicia with a shocked expression, causing Rose to chuckle as she said: "Let me introduce you to our master, Alicia Von Alastine, the Third Princess of the Alastine Kingdom."

Alicia was getting a kick out of Annelia's reactions so she smiled and waved her hand as she said: "Hello!"

*Plop!*

Annelia dropped to her knees and pushed her forehead into the ground. "Your Highness please forgive this lowly girl's earlier transgression!"

This reaction startled Annelia as she quickly went forward to help Annelia up. "Annelia please raise your head! I do not care about such things. You see how everyone calls me by my name instead of my title. It's because titles and such mean nothing to me. Especially someone like me who's only goal in life is to become a knight." 

Annelia slowly lifted her head and looked at Alicia's smiling face. The smile alone was enough to bring a smile to Annelia's face as she finally stood up and wiped her tears. "T-thank you, your Highness."

"Annelia, Alicia already said she did not care for titles, just call her Alicia. " Starla said as she patted Annelia's shoulder.

"I can't… My father would beat me if he ever found out that I called a princess by their given name without their title first. It is a strict rule in our family." Annelia explained.

"It's fine, Starla, let her do what she feels most comfortable with." Alicia did not want to push anyone into doing anything that they were not comfortable doing. Some were fine with calling Alicia by her given name while others were not. Rose and Claire both called her young miss. While Starla called her Alicia. Each person had their own preferences.

"Alright it's getting dark so let's get camp set up. Who is on cooking duty first?" Rose stepped in to break up the awkward situation.

"I am!" Alicia raised her hand and announced.

"Ok, so I am on cooking duty tonight." Rose firmly declared.

"Wait! Rose! I said I was." Alicia looked at Rose confused. They had already decided on this earlier.

"Young Miss… How do I say this… If you cook, none of us will be able to wake up the next day." Rose stated, causing Alicia to stare at her blankly before it finally clicked in her mind what was going on.

"Hey, my cooking is not that bad!" Alicia crossed her arms across her chest and pouted.

"Young Miss… Claire walked you through step by step on how to make a simple sandwich and His Majesty needed to use healing magic on his mouth due to how spicey the said, simple sandwich was." Rose was trying to handle the situation as delicately as possible since she knew Alicia did try her best at cooking. It was just that she was somewhat of a clutz when adding spices and things. Normally if it was just an open fire cooking she could get away with some passable meals but it would not taste that good with how charred it would end up but it would at least not cause a serious situation.

Hearing Rose's reasoning Alicia blushed as she said: "That was… That was because the bottles were not labeled correctly."

"Sigh… Okay, I will walk you through how to cook our catch tonight then. I will assist you so that you can at least cook a proper meal without spices." 

***

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Chapter end