Day One:
In the span of the time it took someone to take a breath and blink, Lucy had travelled across Etolia to the eastern part of the kingdom. Rolling green hills tumbled over one another, steadily flattening into a wide expanse of tall grass that splashed against the edge of a forest. On the highest hill, the old stones of Dragneel Castle protruded from the landscape, overseeing its lands as it had done since the formation of the kingdom.
The lords and ladies from Houses Dragneel, Marvell, and Cheney all shared the title of being the first among the nobility. With their help, House Heartfilia was able to wrestle the future lands of Etolia from chaos' grip, establishing the peaceful and prosperous kingdom that was known today. Shortly after the establishment of Etolia, Houses Dreyar, Lockser and Strauss were raised in order to thank the respective families for their endeavors in establishing the foundations of Etolia. Even though House Dragneel was one of the oldest families in Etolia, with all the prestige and pedigree well-aligned with the qualifications for the next heir, Lucy Heartfilia could not begin to imagine picking either of the two lords that now ruled the estate as her replacement.
The younger brother of House Dragneel, Lord Natsu Dragneel was at the very bottom of Princess Lucy's list of possible heir candidates. From her memories, Natsu was loud, obnoxious, rude and capricious. She was certain that her post-examination of his character would yield those same qualities to still be accurate. He was the same age as Lucy, but extremely wild and childish. The older brother, High Lord Zeref Dragneel was of an opposite disposition than his younger brother. At five years her senior, Zeref was quiet, well-mannered, and extremely intelligent. However, there was an air of mystery about him that left Lucy unsettled. Whenever he visited the palace, he walked about the grounds as if there was a crown placed on his head. Call it her intuition, but Lucy was hesitant to name Zeref as the new heir. However, she hoped her time at Dragneel Castle would produce more solid reasons why he was unsuited for the crown besides her intuition.
Slipping the glass marble into a blue velvet bag filled with similar ones, Lucy drew the strings of the pouch together. She secured it among her other possessions she carried in a bag hanging from her shoulder and took a deep breath. Lucy allowed herself a moment to imagine what it would be like on the other side of the year, when she was no longer a princess and had her freedom. The world was so wide there was no end to the places she would go or the people she would meet. The Heart of Deception still hung from her throat, the heart shaped stone resting above her breasts. The princess was still amazed that her father had entrusted it to her. She touched the stone, and closed her eyes. This is the key to my freedom, the princess thought as she dropped her hand away from the amulet and breathed out.
"Out of the way!"
Lucy had barely enough time to throw herself from the road, scraping her hands on small rocks as she landed. Six black mares galloped past her, pulling a beautiful ebony carriage adorned with gold embellishments in its wake. The carriage had shown no signs of slowing, and without the warning, Lucy was sure she would have been struck dead. Picking herself off the ground and beating the dirt off of her clothes, the princess tried to calm her beating heart.
It was only a moment, but Lucy recalled the insignia she had seen on the side of the carriage: two dragons facing one another, their talons locked, tails intertwined and heads tipped back to breathe twin streams of fire that crossed one another. The coat of arms of House Dragneel. Which meant, the carriage was carrying one or both of the two lords as it sped down the winding driveway that wrapped around the hill the castle was perched on.
Where are they going in such a hurry? Lucy wondered as she watched the speeding carriage disappear. And so early too.
Noting the lack of her hood covering her head, Lucy quickly flipped it back up. The princess had yet to use the power of the Heart of Deception to transform herself, so she prayed that none of the lords had noted her.
Focus, Lucy, the princess chided herself. There was no time to get caught up in pointless fantasies. She would have time to revel in her imagination after she had appointed a new heir. To do that, she needed to be alert at all times. Outside of the palace walls, she had only herself to rely on. Her freedom was not going to come easily.
Wasting no time, Lucy felt for the power contained in the amulet. She needed to disguise herself before she encountered anymore people. Her father had indicated the Heart of Deception would grant whatever form the bearer desired. So, Lucy imagined that her long blonde locks now stopped just below her ears and were a pale orange color. She changed the hue of her eyes from brown to gray and reshaped them to be smaller and less rounded. Her voice became softer and carried a hint of an accent commonly found in the southern region. Finally, she altered her skin tone, lighting it a few shades and throwing a splash of freckles across her nose and down her arms. Unfamiliar with the power within the amulet, Lucy kept her alternations to a minimum. She knew the effects would disappear once she took off the amulet, but Lucy didn't want to go too wild with her guise on her first try.
Within moments of the visualization, she felt an unpleasant feeling, like her hair suddenly had a mind of its own and was shifting softly. Grabbing a lock of hair, Lucy held it up and noted the change in color and length. Satisfied that the Heart of Deception had worked, the princess tucked the amulet into her dress and shifted her bag on her shoulder before walking up the long driveway toward the castle.
It was still early morning by the time Lucy reached up and pounded the iron knocker against the massive wooden door of the castle. The sky was a pale blue and a gentle breeze blew, cooling Lucy down after her hike up the driveway. She had visited Dragneel Castle numerous times, but always arriving in a horse-drawn carriage. Walking up the hill on her own two feet and riding in a carriage with plush cushions were two vastly different things, she realized.
The cold stones offered another source of relief from the heat as Lucy leaned against them, waiting for the door to open. Flipping down her hood, she debated whether or not to knock again, when she heard one of the massive doors creak open. In the doorway stood an impeccably dressed butler, in a neatly pressed gray uniform. The shiny gold pin on the corner of his left lapel indicated that he was the estate's head butler. The man was tall, his gray hair combed and tied with a gray ribbon at the nape of his neck. He had exquisite blue eyes, but at the moment, they were glaring down at Lucy. The head butler sniffed in greeting. The action made his displeasure at her arrival even more apparent than his glare.
"You stupid girl," the man snapped. "Deliveries are to be dropped off at the staff's entrance around the back. Now, go round before the young master sees you."
The shock of being spoken to with such harshness quickly vanished as Lucy realized her mistake. She had always been received at the front door. It hadn't even occurred her to use the staff's entrance. Her mind scrambled to offer an excuse in order to rectify the situation.
"Uh...a-apologies, sir," Lucy stammered out. "I was instructed by...by Natsu to use the front entrance. I was told there was a maid's position available at this residence." Lucy gave the head butler one of her most charming smiles, believing she had smoothed over her first mistake. However, her smile faltered when the head butler began turning shades of red.
"What insolence!" the man bellowed. "How dare you address the young master so informally. Leave this estate at once or I'll have you escorted out in chains."
The princess blanched. Disguised as a commoner, Lucy was not allowed to address Natsu without his title, and especially not by his first name. She didn't know if she would be able to smooth this mistake over.
"I—I didn't mean any disrespect," Lucy tried, but the butler was not willing to hear any excuse she was about to give.
"You still persist with this insolent behavior!"
Lucy flinched as the head butler raised his gloved hand to strike.
"Mortimer!"
The princess blinked when the younger Dragneel brother appeared behind his head butler. Natsu gripped Mortimer's wrist, stopping him from delivering the blow.
"Explain yourself." Natsu let go of the butler's wrist, crossing his arms against his chest. "You weren't about to strike her, now were you?"
"Young master," Mortimer bowed. "Forgive me that you had to witness that. However, I was merely disciplining the girl for her rudeness towards you my lord."
"Rudeness?" Natsu arched his brow as he shifted his gaze towards Lucy who hastily glanced away. She had done it now. Mortimer would tell Natsu her lie and she would be kicked off the premises. It was her first day and she had already royally screwed things up.
"I see," Natsu nodded, after hearing Mortimer's explanation, still looking at Lucy.
"Do not trouble yourself further on this matter, young master. I will personally see this girl off the estate and make sure she never shows up here again," Mortimer said, reaching for Lucy.
"Why would you do that?"
Mortimer paused. "Pardon, my lord?"
"She's obviously telling the truth. I offered her a position here when I went to town the other day." Natsu stepped from behind the butler and crossed the threshold. He approached Lucy and all she could do was stare. Natsu reached out and took her bag from her and handed it to Mortimer. "Please, see to it that she settles in nicely and assign her her duties. I'm going for my morning ride, but I'll check in on her soon."
The young lord winked as he past Lucy and headed, she assumed, to the stables. Mortimer stared after Natsu, as much in shock with his actions as Lucy was.
He...he covered for me. The wild boy she knew as a child was actually...kind? Lucy shook her head. That couldn't be right. Furrowing her brow as she stared after him, the princess decided that his kindness had just been a fluke. Most likely some little joke he was having at her expense.
Mortimer recovered first, clicking the heels of his polished shoes together as he straightened his posture. He cleared his throat and held Lucy's bag away from him as if her possessions disgusted him. "This way," the head butler gruffed out, turning on his heel to enter the castle. Lucy hurried after him, trying to suppress the smile on her lips. Her infiltration of Dragneel Castle had begun.
The interior of the castle had not changed since Lucy's last visit to the estate, years ago. It was smartly furnished with fine woven rugs, thick velvet drapes lining the walls, plush furniture, and other ornamentations that displayed the Dragneel's wealth and status. Mortimer led Lucy past all these things, ushering her down a hidden hallway. The hallway was stark and barren compared to the areas of the castle she was accustomed to visiting. She realized this was probably one of the staff passages.
The head butler stopped in front of a small wooden door at the end of the hall. He fished out a ring of keys from his pocket. Selecting one, he removed it from the ring and fitted it into the door.
"This will be your quarters during your employment on the estate. Inside, you will find your uniform. Quickly change and meet me in the East Tower. You have five minutes." Mortimer dropped the key in Lucy's hand and handed her her bag before striding down the hallway once more.
Stepping inside of the room, Lucy looked around the cramped space. She was surprised this could pass as a bedroom. It felt like the inside of a cupboard. There was a small wooden bed with a thin blanket covering the mattress crammed into one corner. A desk was shoved under the room's only window next to the bed. Immediately to her right was a trunk to store her few possession that took up another corner. Finally, along the wall opposite of the bed was a door that led to an even smaller room. Inside was a toilet, a washbasin for bathing, and a small shard of a mirror mounted to the wall.
The room wouldn't have even be called a closet back in the Heartfilia palace. Lucy opened the trunk and set her bag inside. Hovering her hand over the lock, she cast a security spell over it. It was going to take some time getting use to her new predicament, but the princess was determined to survive the year in order to obtain her freedom. She just thanked the stars that she wasn't claustrophobic.
Spying her uniform on the bed, she stripped herself of her travel clothes, draping them over the chair of her desk. She wanted to take a bath and wipe the sweat from her early morning hike off her body, but Mortimer had only given her five minutes to change and meet him in the East Tower. Definitely not enough time for a bath.
With a grimace, the princess dressed herself in the gray cotton dress. The sleeves were long, thankfully allowing her to hide her bracelets. She managed to shimmy her legs into the black tights and slide into the black shiny shoes. A white apron was the last piece of the uniform which she tied around her waist
Sparing a moment to peek at the mirror in her washroom, Lucy was amazed at what she saw. The exact image she had imagined herself to transform into stared back at her. The girl looked like a simple commoner and nothing like a princess. Lucy grinned at the thought as she tucked the Heart of Deception into the high neck of her dress. The perfect deception, indeed.
Lucy knew where the East Tower was located, but she didn't know where in the tower Mortimer had wanted her to meet him. The tower consisted of five levels and after searching the bottom four levels, there was only one other place he could be. By the time Lucy found Mortimer again, she was clearly late. As she ran up the final set of stairs to the highest level of the tower, Mortimer's disapproving frown was there to greet her.
"You're late," he barked at her as Lucy tried to catch her breath.
"I'm sorry. But you didn't tell me where—"
"There are no excuses for tardiness."
Lucy bit back her response. It seemed no matter what she said, Mortimer was determined to rebuke her. She tucked back a lock of hair behind her ear, a habit she had developed whenever she was frustrated. The head butler gave her a disapproving sniff, before swiveling on his heel, striding down the loan corridor without so much as a word. Lucy blinked and realized she was meant to follow. She scurried after him, not wanting to give him an excuse to reprimand her again.
With his back toward her, Mortimer began to speak. "Even though the young master validated your preposterous story, you still dare to arrive without an official resume. By your lack of manners and your insensitivity to time management, I will assume you have no formal training nor experience working on a noble's estate."
"Er...well...I—"
"That was not a question." The head butler stopped in front of the only set of doors on the fifth level. Lucy had never been this high up in the East Tower before. She had no idea what was up here, but she could tell by Mortimer's smug look, she wasn't going to like it.
"With your lack of suitable qualifications and any redeeming characteristics." Lucy forced herself not to glare at the butler, but his insults were grating on her nerves. She folded her hands behind her back and squeezed them together instead. "You will have to undergo an evaluation."
"An evaluation?" Lucy furrowed her brow, not liking the sound of that at all.
"Yes, an evaluation," Mortimer's eyes sparked with a wicked gleam as he said the word, "So that I might access any skills that I doubt you possess. As head butler, it is one of my duties to insure that all staff members are performing at standards that are representative of their status as employees of the Dragneel estate. Let me assure you, miss, that these standards are exceptionally high. If you cannot maintain these standards, then I have it within my power to terminate your employment immediately."
Mortimer unlocked the door behind him and ushered Lucy inside. He flipped the switch, illuminating a giant storage room packed with...well, Lucy couldn't quite tell. It seemed like a giant assortment of random things all crammed into one space. There was sporting equipment, clothes, music instruments, books, scrolls, magical items, pots and pans, weights, food and so many other things. It was hard to make sense of it all.
"This," Mortimer held out his hand at the chaos behind him. "Is Lord Natsu's quarters."
Lucy's eyes bulged out of her head. What?! There was no way the room in front of her could be someone's bedroom. She couldn't even see the bed! Someone really lived like this?
"Your task will be to clean the young master's room by sundown. None of the other staff members are allowed to assist you. If you do not complete the task in the allotted time, your position at Dragneel Castle will be terminated. I have left you supplies there," Mortimer pointed to a pile of cleaning products by the door, "you should not require anything else. I will return at sundown to assess your progress. That is," the head butler paused giving Lucy another smug grin, "if you're still here. This evaluation has been known to weed out those with weak wills and lacking in ability."
Looking at the mountain of disarray in front of her, the princess couldn't even begin to believe she would be able to clean the entire space by sundown. How was one person supposed to tackle this mess? It was then that Lucy realized that that was the point. She wasn't meant to succeed. Mortimer had set her up. By giving her an impossible task, he was making sure she would fail so that he could turn her away. No doubt this was in retribution for Natsu siding with her earlier.
"If I finish by sundown, I pass the evaluation, correct?"
"If, indeed, miss you somehow manage to complete the task, then yes. I will formalize your position as a staff member on the estate," Mortimer confirmed. "However, I suggest that you don't get your hopes up."
Even though she knew it was impossible, Lucy threw back her shoulders and gave Mortimer her most endearing smile. She wasn't going to let one stuffy butler get in her way of her freedom. "Looks like I'll see you at sundown then, sir."
Mortimer gave her his disapproving sniff before closing the door behind him, shutting Lucy inside among the chaos that awaited her. When she was sure she had heard the head butler's steps descend down the staircase, Lucy slid down the door and moaned.
"It's so not fair!" She whined, staring at the pile of junk in front of her. "How am I supposed to clean all of this before sundown?" Her silver bracelet began to shine, a silver door materialized in the room. A flash of light appeared when the door opened and out came Plue, one of Lucy's celestial spirits. Plue was known as the canine spirit, but, in Lucy's opinion, he didn't look much like a dog. He was a short, white, bipedal creature with a gold horn for a nose. Even if he didn't look like a dog, Lucy did think he was absolutely adorable.
Plue scurried to Lucy's side and started tugging on her arm. "Sorry, Plue. I don't feel like playing right now. I'm properly wallowing in my despair." The spirit shook his head, tugging at her sleeve again. "What are you trying to say?" Lucy looked down and saw that Plue was tugging the sleeve of her dress up, pointing at the gold bracelet on her wrist.
"Plue, you're a genius!" She gathered the tiny spirit into her arms, hugging him tightly. Lucy set Plue down and the spirit waved goodbye as he disappeared with a flash of light. The princess looked down at the gold bracelet her mother gave her to help her on her mission. The bracelet was the key to unlocking the twelve zodiac gates belonging to the most powerful celestial spirits. With their help, this impossible task would definitely be achievable.
Standing with renewed energy, Lucy tugged up her sleeve and stretched out her arm. She felt for her magic, focusing on summoning the specific spirits she would need for the task. "I bear the key to the starry heavens. 88 stars of the firmament, I unlock the Golden Gate. By my command, step through the void and shine: Capricorn! Virgo! Taurus! Scorpio!"
Four gold doors materialized in the room and as they opened, a blinding gold light lit up the space. When the light disappeared, four of the twelve zodiac spirits stood in the room. Lucy beamed up at the spirits. She had known them ever since she was little. They were a few of her dearest friends.
"Everyone, I need your help!" Lucy said, tugging down her sleeve.
"Why should we help you?" Scorpio flicked his tail and looked away. "You're not our master."
"What?" Lucy wasn't expecting that greeting.
"She is pretty though!" Taurus drooled, as his eyes looked her up and down.
"She did summon us," Virgo pointed out. "Is she here to punish us?"
"Who are you?" Capricorn adjusted his sunglasses.
"It's me!" Lucy exclaimed, confused why her friends were acting this way. "I'm Lucy. Why don't you remember me?"
"Princess Lucy?" Capricorn asked, peering at her harder. "I have known the princess since she was a baby. You look nothing like her."
Oh! Lucy realized she was still wearing the Heart of Deception and her disguise made it impossible for others to recognize herーcelestial spirits included. But how come Plue was able to recognize me? Lucy shook her head as she reached for the amulet. I'll work out the details later. When Lucy lifted the amulet over her head, the deception rippled away.
"Princess Lucy!" Capricorn bowed. "Forgive me. I could not detect that it was you."
"It's okay." Lucy brushed Capricorn's apology aside as she pocketed the amulet. It wasn't necessary, considering she forgot about the amulet she had been wearing. The Heart of Deception might work a little too well. "Capricorn. Virgo. Taurus. Scorpio," Lucy addressed each of the four spirits she had summoned. "Please, I need your help. You all know just how badly I want my freedom. In order to find a new heir, I need to observe all of the nobility and select one as my replacement. In order to stay at Dragneel Castle, I need to pass an evaluation of sorts."
"How can we help you, princess?" Virgo asked.
"Well…you see." Lucy explained what Mortimer wanted her to do to her spirits. All four spirits turned around and viewed the mess behind them. Unlike her mother, Lucy couldn't summon all twelve of the zodiac spirits at once. Her magical capabilities were not that impressive. The max amount of spirits she could summon was six and that was pushing it. She chose Capricorn, Virgo, Scorpio, and Taurus because she believed their unique powers would be the most beneficial in this situation.
"Layla was never this cruel," Scorpio muttered, trying his best to comfort a weeping Taurus.
"Princess!" Virgo bowed to Lucy. "This is the worse punishment I've received in centuries. Thank you for this torture."
"Wait...what? This isn't—" Lucy was interrupted when Capricorn handed her a sealed manila envelope. "What is this Capricorn?"
"That is my will, Princess Lucy."
"Will? Celestial spirits can't die!" Lucy moved a lock of hair behind her ear. "Look, we only have until sundown to complete this evaluation. It just looks awful. Let's toughen up and get started. It won't be so bad if we all work together. You'll see!"
The princess tried to reassure her spirits, but the mayhem surrounding them was making it hard to make her words believable. Reluctantly, the spirits started to shift through the clutter. Lucy rolled up her sleeves and began working alongside them. Even though Mortimer gave her this task to deter her, he had unknowingly provided her with the perfect opportunity to start working toward her mission. Alone in Natsu's room, she could snoop through his belongings and discover his secrets. This was going to be a cinch.
The sun was just beginning to dip in the horizon as Lucy finally paused to wipe the sweat off her forehead. By some miracle, Lucy and her four spirits were able to complete the evaluation Mortimer had given her without a moment to spare. Capricorn, Virgo, Scorpio, and Taurus shimmered away, each with tears in their eyes. Lucy felt like crying too. Keeping four zodiac spirits summoned for an extended period of time had drained most of her magical power. All she wanted to do was soak in a hot bath, devour a warm meal, and rest in a soft bed.
The door to Natsu's bedroom began to open and Lucy hastily placed the Heart of Deception back on. She felt the image of the girl she thought of earlier that morning settle back over her. Thankfully, the amulet retained the last deception cast until she commanded it to create a new one. Lord Natsu appeared in the doorway. He took one look around and began to close the door.
"Sorry, wrong room."
"Wait!" Lucy called after him. "This is your room, Na—aaaa...er...Lord Natsu." It was difficult remembering that she had to pretend he was of a higher status than she was. She couldn't appear too familiar with him.
Natsu stepped back into the room, looking around in shock. "Wow! They're getting good at this." He crossed the room, inspecting his now spotless quarters. "Usually Mortimer orchestrates a whole team of maids to clean my room. It takes a good week to get it all done. I can't believe they did it one day!" The lord plopped onto the bed which had been buried under heavy weights Taurus had moved out of the way.
The anger building inside of Lucy was making her exhaustion burn away. A team of maids? A whole week ? Lucy wanted to pummel the head butler for making her and her spirits go through that torture. Reining in her anger, Lucy managed a restrained smile as she curtsied.
"I cleaned your quarters myself, Lord Natsu."
"Seriously?" He dropped the book he was looking at in shock. Natsu had moved from the bed to stand in front of one of the many bookcases lining a wall of his room; although, they were more filled with trinkets than with books. "That's impressive!" He smiled at her, a big toothy grin that lit up his face. Lucy couldn't recall ever seeing him make that expression before. Ignoring the book he had dropped, Natsu continued examining the other areas of his room.
"What, are you stupid or something?" Lucy yelled, running to return the book to its proper place. Besides messing up all of her hard work, she couldn't stand when someone mistreated a book. The book slid back into place and Lucy turned back and caught Natsu staring at her.
"What did you just say?" He asked, setting down the blue rock he had been holding.
Then it dawned on her. She had just insulted one of the Dragneel lords. After all that work, her mouth was going to be the cause of her being kicked out and ruining her chance of obtaining her freedom. "I...I...uhh…" She tucked her hair back behind her ear, upset with herself for being so careless.
Natsu burst into laughter, shaking his head as he held his sides. Lucy blinked. Why was he laughing? That wasn't the response she was expecting.
"Sorry," Natsu said, as he tried to regain his composure. "The princess said the exact same thing to me before when I dropped one of her books." Lucy bit the inside of her cheek, cursing herself for another blunder. Why would he remember that? An emotion flickered in Natsu's eyes that she couldn't quite ascertain when he spoke about her. Before Lucy had a chance to analyze it, Natsu gave her a brilliant smile that made her catch her breath.
"I'm sorry I messed up your hard work. I'm sort of a collector, though Mortimer calls me a pack rat. Anyway, I'll try to keep it in order."
"Th—Thank you, Lord Natsu. For this and for earlier." Lucy curtsied again.
The boy sighed and rolled his eyes. "Drop the 'Lord.' It's just Natsu. And don't mention it. It was no big deal." He waved her thanks away. "What's your name by the way?"
"L—Ashley." Darn. Why did I just say my middle name?
"Lashley?" Natsu cocked his head. "That's an interesting name."
"Uh, no. It's just Ashley, Lord Natsu."
"Impossible!" Lucy and Natsu turned and spotted Mortimer in the doorway. He looked around the room, wide-eyed and in shock. The princess couldn't help the smug grin tugging at her lips at the sight of the head butler.
You're not about to get rid of me just yet, Mortimer. She thought before schooling her features into a more serene expression.
"Sir," Lucy addressed the butler. "I thoroughly cleaned Lord Natsu's room before sundown. I believe I have completed your evaluation." At the sound of her voice, Mortimer snapped out of his shock, regaining his composure. "I get to stay, right?"
"Evaluation?" Natsu looked from Lucy to Mortimer. "Since when is cleaning my room turned into an evaluation?"
"Well, you see, young master," Mortimer fidgeted. "The girl—"
"Ashley," Natsu corrected.
"Pardon, young master?"
"Her name is not 'girl'; it's Ashley."
Mortimer looked taken back by his lord's statement, but he quickly controlled his features. "My apologies," he muttered. "Miss Ashley provided no prior references, so I had to test her skills in order to see if she would be able to keep up with the estates standards."
"Ah, Mortimer," Natsu draped his arm around his head butler. "Relax. You're going to give Ashley the impression we're still living in the feudal era with all this talk of evaluations and standards. Besides," he swept his hand around the room. "She was able to clean all this by herself and in one day no less. I say she passed and with flying colors. Don't you agree?"
The look Mortimer shot Lucy just made Lucy smirk. The irritation etched in his features was satisfaction enough. She might regret it later, but after all the unnecessary treatment the head butler put her through, this small victory was worth it.
"Yes, young master." Mortimer politely removed himself from Natsu's embrace. "You are quite right. I will go prepare the necessary paperwork for Miss Ashley to sign in the morning."
The head butler bowed and swiftly exited the room, no doubt planning how best to repay Lucy for her unexpected triumph. Sighing in relief, the princess let her shoulders droop as her previous exhaustion settled back onto her sore bones.
"It looks like cleaning my room has made you tired. Take the rest of the night off. You deserve it with dealing with my mess." The young lord walked Lucy to the door. "I'll try not to mess things up in here." He laughed and Lucy surprised herself by chuckling softly with him. Since when did she laugh with Natsu? In the past, she was either screaming at him for something stupid he did or glowering in aggravation.
"Congrats on your new job and have a good night, Ashley."
"Good evening, L—" He gave her a look and she sighed. "Good night, Natsu."
When Lucy returned to her room, she firmly locked the door behind her before taking off the Heart of Deception. The image of Ashley faded away and Lucy's natural appearance returned. She placed the amulet on the desk and stripped out of her uniform. The bed practically sang to her, but the princess didn't want to go another minute without a bath. She filled the washbasin nearly to the brim from the spout sticking out in the wall that brought water to her room. The water was freezing, but she didn't have any magic to spare to heat it up. Quickly scrubbing her sore body with a bar of lavender soap, a luxury she had taken with her from the palace, Lucy cleansed her skin of the layers of dirt and sweat all her hard work had accumulated.
It was her first day and she had barely anything to show for it. Spending the entire day alone in Natsu's room with her spirits, Lucy believed she would have been able to discover something about the boy. However, she had been so focused on cleaning, it had completely slipped her mind to do any real investigating. Finding the new heir was going to be more difficult than she had originally believed.
Dressed in a cotton nightgown, Lucy plopped onto her bed, not even bothering to dry her hair. Snuggling with the pillow, she felt like she could sleep for a century. Her consciousness was already unraveling into dreams, when a knock at her door snapped her back to reality. Back at the palace, she would have ignored the visitor, letting one of the maids answer the door. However, now that she was a maid, there was no one to answer the door but herself.
Groggily, she slipped off the bed and shuffled to the door. After fumbling with the lock, Lucy swung the door open. "What do you want?" Leaning against the door frame, Lucy blinked sleepily up at her visitor. Her brain slowly realized it wasn't just any visitor, it was Natsu. Crap!
"Lord Natsu! Um... My apologies. Is there anything I might assist you with?" She rushed out. Can I survive one day without trying to get myself fired? I just snapped at him...again!
"L—Lucy?"
"Oh. I wouldn't expect you to remember, but my name's Ash—" Lucy froze. She whipped around and saw the Heart of Deception was still lying on the desk, exactly where she had left it. Dread descended upon her as the king's words echoed in her head:
"If your identity is discovered by anyone, Lucy, or if you cannot procure a suitable replacement, then you will remain the heir and assume the full duties of the Crown Princess of Etolia on your 18th birthday as tradition and law decrees."
Lucy didn't think. She just moved. Whipping back around, Lucy glared at Natsu, before yanking him into her room, slamming the door shut.
A/N:
First, let me thank two amazing people who helped make this chapter so wonderful: PerchanceADream and Pondfrost! These two lovely betareaders do such amazing work. Thank you times a billion for the magic you both worked into this chapter. ;)
Second, writing stories that involve magic are so much fun! I enjoyed reading everyone's guesses about who the next heir will be. Feel free to keep guessing as we dive further into the story!
Finally, if you follow my story, A Promise You Just Can't Keep (APYJCK), the new chapter will be out shortly. Sorry for the wait. I'll explain when I upload it what took so long. Anyway, cheers and lots of love!