Hawisa could not help but feel like a mother of a teenager. Adeline did so many things that were unacceptable to be done by the Princess. First, she went outside of the Palace in disguise. Hawisa had yet to know that Adeline had not even informed her father about it. Then she had some food in the market, who knows what kind of foods she ate there?

And Hawisa could not even scold Adeline for doing so many outrageous things because she was the Princess and Hawisa was her maid, she had no right to scold a Princess. But still, she was too worried about Adeline.

“Adeline, don’t go out on your own from now on. I don’t trust the other Princes and Princesses. They are already making you break so many rules. If you want to go out, at least take some guards with you.” This was the only way that Hawisa could think of, for keeping the Princess safe if she wanted to go outside the Palace.

Adeline furrowed her brows because she was being lectured again by Hawisa on the same thing that they had already discussed so many times before. “Hawisa, I …” 

Adeline was about to say something but Hawisa immediately interjected in the middle. “I’m not implying that you are incapable of taking care of yourself or defending yourself. But you have to learn to rely on others sometimes.”

Hawisa already knew what the Princess was going to say to her, so she gave her reasoning as to why it was necessary to take few guards with her if she desired to roam around in the village.

“You are not used to going out on your own, you don’t know how the world outside of these Palace walls works. You might not even perceive someone as dangerous until they’ve already done something evil to you.”

It felt as though Hawisa was not just blabbering some nonsense. It looked as though she was saying it from experience.

To be fair, Adeline did not need to be reminded of how cruel and gruesome people’s thoughts and acts could be. She didn’t need to go outside of the Palace to come face to face with those kinds of people.

Though Adeline had not encountered any bad people outside of the Palace, she couldn’t tell the difference from just one visit to the Golden Street.

So she thought that if she was to go outside of the Palace, it would be safe to take a few guards with her. They were trained to perceive any dangers before anyone else could, so taking guards wouldn’t hurt. She could ask the guards to wear plain clothes if she didn’t want any attention on her.

“Okay, I will take the guards with me whenever I go outside the Palace. Happy now?” Adeline smiled at Hawisa.

Hawisa also smiled at the Princess and nodded her head.

Osanna was waiting for Hawisa to stop lecturing Adeline so that she could ask Adeline how the village looked like. And when she got her chance, she excitedly sat down beside Adeline and asked, “Adeline, what did you see in the market? What kinds of foods did you eat? What did the people look like?”

Hawisa shook her head disapprovingly and rolled her eyes at this immature behavior of Osanna. “People look like people, how else they would look like? Dogs?” Hawisa yelled at Osanna for asking such stupid questions.

But one couldn’t blame Osanna. It had been more than 15 years that she had set her foot outside of the Palace. And she just wanted to know how much the village has changed since.

“Come, let’s prepare the bath for the Princess. You don’t want the Princess to get less sleep now, do you?” Hawisa raised her brows at Osanna and kept on glaring at her.

And in return, Osanna also gritted her teeth and glared back at Hawisa.

Adeline chuckled while looking at their stare-down match. Then she patted Osanna consolingly and said, “I will explain everything in detail tomorrow. Okay?”

Osanna grinned from ear to ear and nodded her head, “Yes!” She finally got up and began following Hawisa to prepare the bath. And she shouted while walking away from the room, “Don’t forget to call me when you are free. Remember that you promised me.”

“Alright, alright. I won’t forget.” Adeline giggled and then rolled over to look at Theodore.

Theodore was busy staring outside of the open window again.

Adeline scrunched her brows and thought to herself, “Why is he so interested in staring outside of the window today? Did he also sense something suspicious? Does that mean that was not just my illusion?”

Adeline got out of her bed and then quietly walked towards her window. She stood by the side of Theodore, looked at Theodore’s eyes, and looked in the direction where he was staring so intently at. Then she whispered, “What are you staring at? Did you also see something?”

Theodore shifted his attention towards Adeline and asked, “What do you mean? You… saw something? Where? What did you see?”

“I didn’t exactly see what it was but when I was walking back from the stable, I felt as though something passed by me. Not just once, but twice.” Adeline could feel goosebumps all over her body.

“Agnes had said something about Lillian opening door to the other worlds. And I didn’t want to encounter anything scary like that ghoul of yours. That was why I ran all way back here. And then you were standing here like some ghost, so I was terrified.” Adeline complainingly gave a cute puppy-eyed look to Theodore.

Theodore could not help but chuckle at the poor Princess. And at the same time, he felt sorry for her because he was the one who had scared her.

He pulled the Princess in front of him and then pressed his warm body against her back. Then he placed his hands on the window as though he had made a small prison for Adeline in between his arms and the window.

He rested his jaw on Adeline’s head and spoke in an apologetic voice, “I’m sorry my little human. That was me. I came to your room but you weren’t here, so I went to the stable to see how Rion was doing. And I saw you returning to your room so I ran back here after seeing him briefly. I wanted to stretch my legs but I think I ran a little too fast and scared you.”

“So that shadow was you huh.” Adeline let out a huge sigh of relief when she heard that the shadow that she saw lurking outside was none other than Theodore.

If it was any other beings from hell then she didn’t know what she was going to do, how she was going to stop such beings from harming something or someone inside the Palace.

Suddenly, Adeline creased her brows and looked at the open window. “Wait, did you come inside the room using this window? I don’t think I had left it open.”

Theodore smiled as though Adeline had caught his mischievous act and he replied, “Yes, I wanted to check if I could jump this high.” Adeline’s private chamber was on the first floor. “But it took me a while to jump exactly this high.”

“Aren’t you the Devil Prince? Shouldn’t you be able to scale a mountain in one jump?” Adeline sarcastically said to Theodore and chuckled.

But Theodore replied in a serious tone, “Yes, that was the problem. I was jumping way too high every time. So it took me a while to be able to jump this low. But it kept me occupied till you came.”

“Oh!” Adeline had no words to express her amazement.

Adeline took a mental note, “Someday, I would love to see his full power display. I keep forgetting that his powers are extraordinary.”

Theodore told Adeline that he went to the stable to see Rion. Yes, he did that too. But in reality, Theodore was investigating the Palace to search for anything that was out of place or something unusual.

Agnes had told Theodore that some of the villagers had seen a huge tornado-like cloud swirling above the Palace the other night; and that her whole coven had felt a great surge in dark power. She believed that Lillian had opened a gate large enough to let in a whole army of dark creatures.

After hearing that from Agnes, he regretted not keeping an eye on Lillian by himself. He used a spell to tone down his enormous aura, which was the main culprit behind Lillian sensing him even when he used the invisibility spell. By minimizing the demonic aura that he would normally give off, he didn’t need to worry about Lillian sensing him again.

And he was looking for any sign or leftovers of the magic circle. He, however, didn’t imagine that Lillian had drawn the magic circle so large that engulfed the whole Palace from the outside.

And the reason why Theodore was constantly looking outside of Adeline’s window was because he was staying alert for any signs of movement outside Adeline’s quarter. He had a reason to believe that Lillian was going to use some creatures from hell to harm Adeline.

So he was even ready to stay guard for his precious human. He tightly wrapped his arms around Adeline.. He wanted to keep her safe more than anything else.