Natalie and Ayato sat close to each other on the brown, circular table of the mansion's library. They were reading aloud the rules that pages had to obey; her starting off, and him completing her sentences.

"You must always rush to..."

"...Your master and serve him quickly and pleasantly!"

Her smile was his greatest reward.

Their voices rang out in loud cheer, echoing from the tall library walls as the child and his caretaker chatted on about the rules of aspiring young knights. Young knights that he would never be.

Hours had passed before Natalie took a peek at the pages of the book to see that there were hundreds that they still needed to go over... Ridiculous. Who could expect a child to know so much about something that took as little as respect and obedience? What made it worse was that Natalie knew that once they were done, they would only move on to ththe next big rule book about squires. Pointless lessons for the son of a king. Ayato would never be a page, never be a squire, and never be a knight yet he still had to learn about all three steps of knighthood.

Well... Natalie supposed that sword fighting may hold some purpose as he grew older, but the rest didn't seem to make much sense.

"Nat, I don't want to do this anymore..." Ayato spoke with tiredness as they neared the end of the current lesson.

Natalie looked toward the old clock that stood tall against the center of the library's wall. It was already well into the evening; she had hardly noticed how much time went by. The poor child must've felt so worn out from hours of reading and memorization-he was so young, after all. It made her heart ache for him since there was still so much he had to get done... She didn't quite understand how Cordelia could expect so much out of him, but she was sure that it was for a good reason.

Still... Natalie's pity was stronger than her mistress' words.

"Here," she spoke as she carefully closed the heavy book, "Why don't you to have your free time for the rest of the day, and then we can finish off the lesson before you go to bed?"

Ayato beamed at her offer. That gentle voice and those kind words that came from her mouth were enough to fill him with warmth. "Okay! Thank you, Nat!"

The young maid smiled down at him as she stood up from her chair. She reached her hand out to the boy, and he took it at once. Carefully, the two of them made their way back to Ayato's room where they would return the useless rule book.

Ayato watched his maid and caretaker position the heavy book on one of the upper shelves of his room, exactly as it had been before. He sat stiffly on his bedroom floor, upset that it was too late for him to play outside with his brothers.

Natalie was quick to notice Ayato's displeasure as soon as she turned around to face him. "What's wrong, Ayato?" she asked gently, "You're wearing such a sad expression, did you know that? It isn't good for young men to be sad. It makes the flowers wilt and the trees lose their leaves. See-even the wind howled and floor creaks when you're sad. The world is only happy when you're happy. So, can you tell me what's wrong?"

Ayato giggled at the thought of flowers wilting if he frowned at them. "I don't want to make the trees lose their leaves! I hope they never see me when I'm sad!" he leaned forward in excitement, "I'm just upset that I never got to play with Laito and Kanato today. You met them, didn't you? Don't you like them? I never got to play with them-you could've played with us, too! But now they're not outside anymore and maybe doing other things. We never got to play with them today, but I really wanted to."

Natalie looked sadly at Ayato as he huffed out the last of his dismay. "I would've wanted you to play with them too... It isn't really fair, is it? Well, think of it this way: instead of playing, you were Abel to study and get so much done! We both were! We were able to learn new things that will make playing even more fun. You can teach Laito and Kanato about the duty of being a knight! Isn't that something to be happy and proud about?"

Ayato sighed, the sadness still lingering in his expression. "Yeah... I guess."

Natalie walks toward his bed and grabbed hold of the soft stuffed bunny that sat at the center. "Oh, Ayato...!" she cooed softly, "I think there's someone here with me that really hates to see you upset..." She spoke gently as she made her way toward the boy and knelt down beside him.

"Huh...? Who!?" he inquired as a fearful look passed his face.

"Prince Carrot!" Natalie exclaimed with a wide grin on her face, revealing the bunny from behind her back to the boy that loved it so.

Ayato squeeled out of excitement and reached out to take his beloved rabbit from Natalie's hands. He hugged it tightly at his chest and looked up at his caregiver with bright, beaming eyes.

"You know, Prince Carrot was telling me earlier today that he's so proud of all the studying you're doing! He thinks you're so smart! But do you know what else he told me? He told me that he hates seeing you sad. When you're sad, he's sad. Did you know that?"

Ayato laughs and hugged Prince tighter than before. "Did h really say all that?"

"Yes, he really did!" Natalie smiled brightly, happy that she could make him laugh. "Ayato, you know, the day is not over yet. Why don't we go look for your brothers and see if they're willing to play?"