Updated on grammar and spelling checks. Many thanks to Kartara for proofreading this. :)
Title: Open House
Inspired by: Chapter 27 of the Manga Akagami no Shirayukihime
Character(s): Izana Wistalia, Shirayuki
Wordcount: 1113
Rating: General
"Welcome to Wistal Castle. Please mind your steps." I gesture towards the huge path leading to the formal gardens of the Castle, where hundreds of locals and visitors made their way inside to admire the trees, flowering plants and fountains installed inside.
Spying an old lady holding a cane, I moved forward to assist her up the few steps.
"Thank you, kind knight,"She murmured in her deep, gravelly voice before joining the rest of her family admiring the huge walls where the gates were opened to let the citizens in.
It's been years since I've disguised myself. Having been so busy lending assistance to the Queen, I stopped my regular role playing visits back when Zen was still in his pre-teens. I used to actively go about the palace wearing different disguises, learning about the servants' welfare, or picking up news and gossip about other people. Occasionally, I picked up news on epidemics from other countries, family betrayals in the nobility, whispers of treason and other gossips that don't normally reach my ears. My intention is not to spy; rather, information I gather might be crucial one day. And it helps that I can filter all these tidbits of information, after years of practice, so that every item that I hear is always taken with a grain of salt.
However, I lost the freedom to move about freely as I grew older and the amount of duties I needed to oversee increased. I do know for a certain that my brother, Prince Zen, has taken over the mantle of exploring the castle during his leisure- even venturing out in the forests and the city outside the castle walls. I suspect that he was doing one of his regular sneak outs when he met Shirayuki, but no one has confirmed my suspicions yet.
I helped out a few more families with children, guiding them in the right direction where refreshments has been set up and a dozen of open-air tents accommodate games for children. Some of the merchants were allowed to set up camp within the outer walls where they can sell their wares to guests and visitors curious to see parts of the castle.
The open house event is traditionally held annually for three days, often around the first week of autumn, just after the harvesting season has finished. Often, citizens from other villages come to the capital to start selling their harvest before the winter months come, while at the same time, buy whatever goods they need to stock up, visit relatives and friends living in the capital, exchange news and other gossip and learn about the castle history.
And even though I am semi-retired in my role-playing of disguises, I often try to venture out anonymously during this event, as there would be more information I can gather, and I can inspect the citizens and judges personally for the performance as a whole.
I felt a tug at my trousers. Peering down, I saw a small child, about five or six, looking up at me with big eyes.
"How tall are you?" he asked, straining his neck.
I shrugged. "I'm not sure. Where is your mother? Are you lost?" I turned left and right, checking to see whether any parent is missing a kid.
All the people passing in front of me seemed preoccupied with their own family as they made their way in and out of the castle walls.
Oh dear.
I frowned a little before peering down at my audience. "You are lost," I concluded.
The young child doesn't seem the slightest bit perturbed by this.
I suppose I should be glad that he is not bawling his lungs out once he realized he's been separated from his parents. I contemplated on waiting here with him until someone traces back their path and finds the kid standing beside me; but then again, it's almost time for me to change locations and explore the other areas of the castle, so maybe I could bring the kid along?
But before I made the decision, I heard someone call out.
"Sigfried? Sigfried? Has anyone seen a young kid, about five years old?"
I turned to my left, from whence the direction of the voice came from.
I spied whisps of red hair from a distance and I inched away from the kid after I prodded him with a whisper:
"Your family is looking for you."
The boy looked up and his face broke into a smile, "Mama!"
"Oh Sigfried! I told you not to loose your hold to my skirt!" the middle-aged woman in a clean apron with light hair tied in a bun caught her young son and swung him around in her arms. She turned to thank Shirayuki, who was wearing a loose hood to hide her hair. "Thank you, miss!"
"It was no trouble at all."
She watched as the mother melted away in the crowd still holding her son. I shook my head a little, wondering why that bodyguard of hers was nowhere in sight. But then again, the castle's guards are strained to their limit with the crowd visiting on the first night. There was a scheduled fireworks display, and of course, no one would want to miss that. Zen probably assigned Obi to assist the night duty guards patrolling the walls.
That left me to keep watch over her.
Still, I am a bit irritated that Zen did not explain things clearly to this girl. She went through a kidnapping ordeal, and yet she has no sense of awareness, looking for a young boy—a stranger—andeven venturing out of the castle walls where no one will keep an eye on her. And there she stood, looking fairly amuse and oblivious as she continues to observe the crowds going in and out of the gates.
Out from the opposite side, a large group of teenagers—mostly male and looking rambunctious—in the mood for merry making disrupted the crowd as they made their own way in. A few people avoided their path, one of them knocking Shirayuki in the ribs.
"Hey-!"
I grabbed ahold of her shoulders before she could say anything more.
"This way, Mistress Shirayuki. The crowds are getting bigger, so let the guards handle this."
In all the noise and excitement, she did not even realize it was me in disguise and assumed it was one of the guards keeping an eye on her!
Honestly, she could be lured to a dark corner if she continued acting like this!
Grabbing ahold of her hand now, I tugged her with me, and she followed, albeit reluctantly, before we were trampled with the surge of humanity.
"Wait, where are we going?"
Notes:
Both the anime and manga depict Zen disguising himself as a castle guard, or a local Clarines citizen as his idea of exploring the country and improving his knowledge as he interact with people, I would like to think that Izana is similar to his brother in those ways. While Izana tends to act more dignified and cool, he has gone through the same teenage phase of wanting to explore more and learning to value his privacy. Thus, I wanted to create scenes for Izana where he can still exercise this privilege albeit during rare events, such as the Open House chapter where everybody would be busy minding their stations and he is free to do whatever he pleases to do, even if just for a few hours. The life of the Crown Prince is stifling, and Izana would need breaks now and then.