Ainako: A wild new chapter appears! Author used Bad Grammar, it's Super Effective!

I live in a community that doesn't drink any type of alcohol so I have no bloody idea how hangovers should feel like.

Serena woke up to her dimly lit room where all her curtains were pulled, leaving only small amount of the sun shine through the few spaces in between the heavy fabrics. She wanted to immediately rise from her bed but a splitting pain pierced her head. Massaging her fingers to her temples, she tried to gather her senses to the last thing she remembered doing. How long had she slept? She felt as groggy as one would feel after sleeping for more than a day.

"It's already noon, if that's what the first thing crossed your mind that you want to ask."

Lita's voice was not that loud but it made Serena winced. The other woman gently removed her hands from her head and placed a wet towel on it instead. Closing her eyes to appreciate the soothing coolness, she worked her mouth to speak.

"What happened?"

Instead of Lita, someone else answered for her. Raye doesn't sound very amused.

"You fell on your royal bottom in front of the royal guests, that's what happened. If I didn't appreciate my tongue, I would have laughed. I'm pretty sure half of the guests would too if they dared to in front of the Queen."

"Please don't exaggerate, Raye, you're confusing her. Serena, with my authority as your personal physician, I found you're only had too much to drink and would highly advise you to drink a lot of plain water for the rest of the day."

Lita helped her to rise and sat there at the edge of the bed, filling in the blanks in her memory. Her head still feels like it made of lead.

"I… didn't drink all that much… did I? Just a few sips here and there…"

"Even sips could fill you, Serena, and you're not one who has a tolerance to alcohol. Thank the gods above it wasn't an attempt of poisoning. The Queen was ready to rip off that young lord's chest and eat his beating heart if it was. I've never seen Her Majesty being so furious."

At the very mention of a certain young lord made her own heart halted a beat. Alex!

"He's off the accusation, of course, when I declared you're only drunk. Don't you worry."

Amy patted the princess's arm assuring. A large dread shadowing her mind lifted almost immediately. She couldn't imagine how she would live on with guilt that someone was punished because of her again, especially if the person was one she barely even knew.

"Is he still here?"

"Lord Alex? Yes, I think he's still in the castle. Why?"

She didn't answer. Every move she tried to make in a hurry, made her head hurt but she didn't stop from getting up from her bed and asking her friends to open the curtains and help her to freshen up. Mina came later with a tray of warm food and would not hear the end of it until she saw everything disappeared into the princess's mouth. Even the bread crumbs. When Mina was finally satisfied with the nearly cleaned plates, Serena tried again to get out her room. They were against it, as expected, but she needed to meet Lord Alex.

"Why, Serena?"

"I owe him an explanation. And some apologies too because knowing my Lady mother, she must have placed him through brutal interrogation."

She doesn't need to see it through their eyes to prove her guess was right. Their tight lips and folded hands told her she was right. Oh gods, she prayed, let not Alex keep a grudge for this.

Practically running, Serena made her way through the long corridors towards the area where the guests are usually housed. She was not allowed to speak to livery maids without the mark of the Royal Service and with none nearby – understandably, since no one expected the Royal members to be in this quarter - so she tried her luck opening every single room there, surprising the occupants very much. Who would have expecting the Princess to be barging in their rooms in the middle of the day, asking if anyone had seen Lord Alex? One guest dropped to his knees and begged for mercy. It was one of the smelly Dukes with the lecherous gaze she was introduced last night. He must have thought the Queen herself had graced his present – Serena had seen men and women alike dropped to the floor when the Queen was with them. Never in her wildest dreams would imagine she'd have the same effect on people.

"Your Majesty, please! You are bothering the Queen's guest."

Mina and the others came running as fast as their bulky skirts can grant them from the other side of the corridor just as Serena was going to the next door. In other time, the very mention of the Queen would send her immediately in submissive mode, but not this time. Ignoring them, she stormed her way in another room and instead of causing havoc shrieks and gasps from the occupants, this time Serena's heart stopped beating for a moment.

A pair of eyes held hers. It should have been only for a few moments but in her mind it felt like an eon had come and gone. The eyes of Prince Dimande were casted in an unreadable shade. He was sitting on his chair with a delicate porcelain cup on top of a table. The view of him sitting so casually against a glass mirror with the sun shining so brightly and the wind teasing his white hair would have been picturesque, but all Serena felt was fear. Was it only an imagination that he seemed to have expected her to appear in this manner?

Fumbling with her words embarrassingly, she tried to form some sensible reason as to why she behaved like a madwoman. Raye, gasping for air as she spoke, extended her apologies for her sake and added that the Princess was still not feeling well and couldn't think straight. Serena would have stepped on the woman's foot for such accusation but she let this one go. All she wanted to do now was going back to her chamber and doused her head in ice cold water. If anything could bring sense back to her brain, that one should do it.

"It's as if the gods heard my tiny prayers. I was hoping I would meet Your Majesty again. Please, would you spend some of Your Majesty's time and drink tea with me. I'll consider it as an apology for barging in."

From the look Raye and others was giving, Serena knew what they meant. They can't give any excuse for her sake since he was not some lesser nobles. Prince Dimande was a Royal family of his house and very much at the same level as Serena and her Lady mother. No one should deny what they want, and none shall be refused. Slowly, her friends retreated and Serena could only watch the gilded door closed upon them. Gathering her wit, she tried to remember everything her Lady mother had taught her in dealing someone as intimidating as this Prince. She sat right in front of the Prince with back straight and schooled her habitual nervous twitches. It was as if she was sitting in the presence of the Lord of the Dead himself. She prayed to the gods she'd survive this ordeal.