(Tom"s PoV)Upon entering the village, Jane was shown a different place from us while Sanjaya and I were directed to a place a bit further away from her. We complained to them, saying that we couldn"t stay too far away from her since we needed to a.s.sure her safety.
Guess what they said?
The place they were taking her was a place especially made for the Princess and Princess" Consort a.k.a. her husband. So, unless it was her husband-to-be or her husband, no man could live in the same vicinity as her.
What about lying to them, saying that I am her husband? There"s no way I would use Sanjaya"s name as her husband, of course.
No, it wouldn"t do either. What if they asked for a marriage certificate? We didn"t have one. I was afraid it would only bring trouble for us if we insisted on staying in the same building as her.
Even though I was worried, I couldn"t do anything for now. Sneaking into her place was out of question either since the man who happened to be our guide had just said that the guards here were not only humans, but also those from the other dimension.
The security was tight here! I sighed.
My eyes wandered as our guide still explained to us about things around. True to what he said, I saw many non-human ent.i.ties floating here and there. They were all in the shape of humans, whether they were true human before, I had no idea.
But, why did I find them familiar? Even the man in front of me looked strangely familiar to me.
"This is where the Young Sirs will stay. Please, do ask if you have any conditions." The man bowed down a bit in a polite manner.
I took a look at the building where I saw them leading Jane to. It was pretty far. If something were to happen to her, could we reach there right in time? Even though there was no guarantee that something would happen to her, I didn"t like the fact that I would have to be far away from her.
Sanjaya might share the same sentiment with me when I caught him looking at the same direction with a frown on his face.
"Can"t you give us a place nearer to where your Princess is staying?" I tried to talk to the man.
His expression didn"t change as he just looked at me solemnly. It was hard to discern any emotion from his expression. One thing for sure, he had been trained to be a dutiful servant without showing any unnecessary emotion on his face.
Such a tough training.
Our guide had not had chance to reply when a man rushed towards him and whispered something. I couldn"t hear what they were whispering about, but from the way our guide took a quick glance at us, I knew it was related to us.
"I get it." He nodded to the messenger then he turned to face to us. Bowing his body down a bit, he said, "Please, pardon my negligence, Young Sirs. The Princess had ordered us to take you to the Red Residence."
The way he spoke was neither fast nor slow. Even though his expression remained the same, but at least he had the att.i.tude of high cla.s.s hotel servants. With a thin smile on his face, as well as expression which show neither too humble nor too distant, he looked so professional.
But, Red Residence? Wasn"t it where they took Jane to? Jane really ordered us to stay there? But, wasn"t it only for the Princess and Princess" Consort?
Both Sanjaya and I didn"t say anything and just followed him back to Red Residence. The so-called Red Residence was a stilt house with sophisticated design and made of wood. The design and the material itself made it looked somehow majestic. My guess was the wood was already hundred years old when it was cut and made into a house.
Why did I say so? It was because I could feel that the whole parts of the house were emitting some kind of aura. The aura itself was calm and cool. Even before I stepped into the house, I could already imagine that I would like staying here.
Since the aura of the wood still lingered even though it had been made into a house, I was one hundred percent sure that there was something in this house. This "something" was not related to any of the astral ent.i.ties in the village, instead it stood alone but unshaken.
The guide brought us in and showed us to our room. Our room and Jane"s room were separated by a huge living room and some guards in two different sides of the house. Even so, I still felt contented since I could reach her as soon as possible if something were to happen.
"Young Sirs, there will be banquet for welcoming the Princess and Young Sirs tonight in the Satu Village"s Main Hall. I was appointed to take Young Sirs to go there tonight. Please, do tell me if you have any arrangements." The guide spoke again after he had shown us our rooms.
"Is there any dress code?" I doubt he understood what "dress code" meant, though.
"I will send someone to deliver the clothes needed for tonight, Young Sirs." He said. I was a bit surprised that he understood what dress code meant.
"Thank you." Sanjaya cut in. "Then we will wait for it."
The guide bowed down a bit and he left. After he left, Sanjaya shot me a look. "He is not a fool." He said.
I arched my eyebrows because I knew for sure why he said so. He might refer to what I just did. But, why did he say that the guide was not a fool? Did he know him?
"He is one of the best students in Tourism Department in P University. His expression and the way he talks is the reference of how a cla.s.sy hotel worker deals with guest. He was a bit famous back then for three to five years if you remember. But then, he said that he wanted to return to his hometown. I had never expected to meet him here." Sanjaya explained.
I was stunned. Now that he said about it, he indeed looked familiar. But, I didn"t bother to remember why I found him familiar since anything related to tourism and its workers was not my forte and couldn"t attract my curiosity. I was practically drowning myself in any knowledge about architecture and I might have seen him somewhere, that"s why I stopped trying to remember him.
The point was… I should be wary since I might meet someone who had been outside and returned to this village because this was where they originally came from.
"Well, you will be even more surprised if you find out the ident.i.ty of some other people in this village."
Jane appeared with a smile on her face. Her eyes were clear with an excited gaze burned from within. From the way she talked, she must have known something unusual.
"I came just to check on you two. Glad to see that both of you are fine." She smiled as her gaze swept on Sanjaya"s and my body.
"Glad to see you"re fine, too." Sanjaya replied. I didn"t need to see to know that he was smiling gently at my girlfriend.
Ah no, we were in truce right now. I couldn"t be jealous right now.
"Well, since you"re both fine, you should take your time to take a rest. We will go to the banquet tonight." She said firmly, like a good host. "Also, don"t speak casually to people under thirty years old. Most of them had gone to prestigious university and had some achievements but willing to return and serve their hometown." She warned us before she left.
"Ah, it"s better if you just keep quiet and stand by my side, actually." She turned around only to say these words to us then she left us speechless.
What she said was true, anyway. We were new in the area. After all, he came with the ident.i.ty as her bodyguards, so it was better to stay quiet lest we embarra.s.sed ourselves.
Without saying anything, I went inside my room and lied down on the soft bed after cleaning myself in the bathroom. Before long, someone knocked on my door. It was almost the time for the banquet, so they delivered my clothes.
It was pretty simple traditional clothes, actually. With a luxurious look kind of sarung around my hips, and the same pattern on my head band, I looked very much distinguished.
Minutes later, our previous guide came to pick us up. I said to him that we needed to wait for Jane, but he said that Jane would be the most important person in this banquet so how could she miss it.
Therefore, we went to the Main Hall without Jane. He showed us to our seats before he left again. Many people had come and I recognized most of them as the people who were there during my initiation. Even Sir Ahmad Ismail was there, sitting on the right side of the big chair in the middle.
On left side of the big chair were six chairs. It meant there were six other important people who would appear. Why didn"t I know any of them? Weren"t they there during my initiation?
Even so, I didn"t say anything. I was planning to call Siji out, but somehow I didn"t feel right to invite Siji to come.
Jane appeared in less than fifteen minutes later. She was a wearing beautiful traditional costume with a big piece of head accessories on her head. What stunned me was the amount of gold bracelets in both her wrists and gold necklaces around her neck.
Were they fake gold?
As if reading my mind, Jane mouthed to me "Real" before she went back to being their doll of a princess.
I nearly laughed seeing her fake expression, but even so, she really looked gorgeous. The dark green silk top matched with her rosy complexion. The gold threads used for st.i.tching the pattern on the top and the skirt showed how exquisite the costume was.
The maids brought her to sit on the big chair where she sat gracefully. Did she really accept her ident.i.ty as their princess just like that?
I don"t think so! I"ll just have to wait what she had prepared for these people.
After Jane entered the hall, I was surprised to see six elderly entered after her. Well, if they were humans, I wouldn"t be so surprised. But, they were all ghosts! What surprised me more was when the six of them sat on the six chairs beside Jane.
Who are they?
I noticed those elderly men took a glance at Jane, but didn"t say anything. Jane smiled at them, but knowing them, that smile was nowhere polite smile. Instead it was a smile that saying "long time no see".
Had she met them before?
After those old men appeared, Sir Ahmad started the banquet.
"Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. This evening, we are blessed with the presence of Jane Harris, the one and only daughter of our King, Farid Harris, who we all know as Lord Rama Satya. As the Adviser of Satu Village, and the right-hand man of Lord Rama Satya, I represent all people in Satu Village to welcome our Princess. May you be blessed by The Creator always." He said with a warm smile in his face.
Jane was only smiling in responding to this warm welcome and I couldn"t help but smirk.
"G.o.d knows how long we have been waiting for this moment to come ever since that day. Your first visit was when you were invited to the second trial, and I nearly couldn"t control myself to call you Princess." Sir Ahmad started to reminisce about old times, and I was waiting for him to fall in the hole he dug himself.
"Honestly speaking, we have accepted the information about your coming since this morning, but because we wanted to make it a perfect welcome, we accidentally spent too much time in preparation that we forgot to open the gate."
I laughed inwardly. See? He fell in! I watched as Jane"s expression started to darken. Now she found the culprit, I was curious what she would do.
Well, seeing the old man"s embarra.s.sed expression, I was sure Jane would be lenient towards him. But, how lenient she would be, I didn"t know.
"Anyway, our Princess is here now! Safe and sound! Let"s celebrate it!" Sir Ahmad really didn"t know what was coming to him as he still innocently continued his welcome speech.
"Thank you, for the warm banquet prepared especially for… me." Jane"s nearly cold and fake cheerful voice sounded so casual, yet it could make me s.h.i.+vered even though I was not the object of her sinister expression.
Jane, you don"t look like a Princess with that expression, you know? No, scratch that. She still looked like a Princess, but instead of a Princess in the human world, she looked more like a Princess from h.e.l.l.