Chapter Text
… It has been a great pleasure to do business with your company once again. We thank you for the excellent wares you have sent us and look forward to your autumn catalogue.
Yours sincerely
Tougo Sakamaki
Laito finished the last words of the thank you letter to the jewelry company with elegant swirls. She laid down the pen afterwards, leaning back and stretching softly, the muscles in her upper back burning just a little; an indicator of how long she had spent in the study today, writing letters of correspondence. It was a rather repetitive task, always sucking up to whoever it was that read the letter in the end, but it kept her busy and taught her about how businesses worked – in some sense at least. She was quite proud of herself for actually having gotten to a point where it came naturally, and it helped her feel a bit better about her future.
It was quiet in the castle today, which was expected. Out of the 6 children of her father, all but her and her second eldest half-brother Reiji had moved out, though their reasons for this differed. Reiji was to, at one point, become the next heir of the family after his older brother had declined again and again, choosing to live a peaceful life in the countryside with his boyfriend over the amount of responsibility he would have had to face here. The reason Laito hadn’t moved out yet was because she was the only child that wasn’t married yet. At 28 years of age, the youngest of the triplet sisters was the only one unwed, though not for the lack of her father trying. She had had well over 150 suitors since she turned 17, but she had turned each and every single one of them down. The amount of perverted leers, grabs and comments she had had to endure with almost all of them was disgusting, and she had vowed to herself that she would never be disrespected like this by any man who wanted her hand in marriage. There had not been few that thought just because they were rich, they had a right to her, that they could command her to accept them. Luckily her father had them sent away as soon as they started to make any sort of fuss.
Laito sighed, turning her head to look out of the window, watching as the raindrops from the night before started to slowly disappear under the warmth of the early noon sunshine. She slowly lost herself in thought, remembering when she had met her two sisters the week before. They had sat in the garden of Ayato’s husband’s castle, drinking tea and chatting with each other, catching up on how they all had been. She liked the tradition, liked seeing her sisters and knowing they were doing well. But at the same time, those gatherings always left her feeling so lonely as she watched them with their husbands, clearly in love, and their children running around and squealing with laughter. Sometimes she asked herself if she wasn’t good enough, if she had somehow done something wrong for the universe to punish her by refusing her a husband. Because she had always been the one to crave love the most. She always imagined her future with a sweet, loving husband, coming home and playing with their kids while he kissed her hello. She always pulled herself back into the present when her thoughts drifted into either direction, not wanting to dwell on what she was missing and fearing to never have.
A knock on the door of her study pulled her back from where her thoughts had drifted to and she bade whoever it was to come in. She turned to look at the maid, Chelsea, entering the chamber, nodding as she bowed in front of her. “I hope I am not disturbing you, My Lady, but I have been sent to retrieve you.” Laito quirked an eyebrow at that. It wasn’t yet time for lunch, and even if it were, she wouldn’t usually be “retrieved”, only asked if and what she would like to eat.
“May I ask for the reason for you fetching me?” She inquired, hoping that her father hadn’t found any fault in the documents she had worked on for and delivered to him a few days back.
“Of course, My Lady. I have just been informed of the arrival of a young prince and a royal advisor. It seems that your father has set you up with another suitor he found for your introductory meeting.” She let Laito know, who in turn couldn’t stop the groan from escaping her throat. She rolled her eyes, slumping into her chair as she pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head slightly. Again? Really? She had only met another perverted geezer whose wealth gave him the audacity to touch her butt three weeks ago (or was it four?), and he had arranged for another suitor to meet with her today? Ugh, at times he was really inconsiderate of her comfort.
But Laito knew she couldn’t refuse a prince, especially after he had already arrived. She just genuinely wished her father had informed her about it. With a deep sigh, she straightened in her chair, standing up and smoothing out her dress. Luckily she had worn a fitting one for an introduction, she really didn’t feel like going about the hassle of changing into a different one right now.
She pulled out a small hand mirror from one of the drawers of her desk, checking if her hair was out of place. She slipped a few strands behind her ears before putting the mirror away again, turning towards the maid. Taking one more deep breath, she nodded to her. “Alright, let us not keep him waiting.” She said, holding her head high as she walked out of her study, the maid following dutifully behind her as they made their way towards the main hall of the castle. Although she looked composed on the outside, she was already writing this meeting off in her head. There had been so many suitors before, why would this one turn out any different? Laito let out a huff. She wasn’t going to take anything even remotely forthcoming from this prince today, no matter his status!
Her mind made up, she strode pristinely through the long, winded ways of the castle, wanting to get this all done and over with so she could take a dip in the tub, maybe even using the fresh bathing salts she had been gifted. Oh, a hot bath really sounded nice for tonight.
It took a little while, but they finally rounded into the short hallway that stood between them and the entrance hall. But before she exited the corridor, she stopped for a moment. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and another, before she opened her eyes again, determined to not let this man ruin her mood and just get it over with. With that, she stepped out onto the first floor of the hall, gracefully walking down the staircase as she gently smoothed her hand over the banister. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she finally looked up at the prince - and stopped.
He looked young, like, really young, standing just a little shorter than her, and he did not meet her eyes. They were firmly locked onto the floor as if it were utmost fascinating, like he really did not wish to take them off of it. That… was new. She had expected A) for this prince to be some man in his late 30s or older and B) for him to look at her with the disgustingly lustful looks that the other suitors had usually sent her way, but he was, contrary to her expectations, neither of those. He seemed so uncertain and uncomfortable, which she partially, but not wholly, attributed to him being so young and probably not very experienced in the matter of these courting affairs.
Laito let her eyes wander over him for a bit. The prince was lean, his shoulders not very wide and his arms showing just the faintest hint of a little muscle. His fingers were long and slender, his skin fair, almost as fair as her own, but she could spot a small scar near his collarbone, clean like a cut with a knife or a shard of glass. His hair was a slightly darker shade of brown and fluffy, reminding her almost of a squirrel she had seen on the tree just outside of her window the day before. She couldn’t make out his eyes, but his eyebrows had a nice, thin shape, and she could see what she believed to be the hint of freckles dusted from the bridge of his nose to his cheeks. His chin was free of a beard and cleft, and his lips were slightly thinner than hers, but they looked soft to the touch and slightly rosy. They would probably be nice to kiss- She blushed when she caught herself thinking that, chastising herself in her head.
She realized at that moment that she had just been staring at him for who knows how long, standing many feet away from the young man and his royal advisor and her surprise most likely obvious on her features. She collected herself, putting on a smile as she continued her approach until she stood just a meter or two away and bowed politely. The royal advisor bowed back, and the young prince did as well, even a bit deeper than the etiquette demanded of him. Still, when he righted himself again, he still not dared to look at her.
The royal advisor wasted no time upon Laito’s arrival, clearing his throat before declaring: “We greet you with great honor, princess Laito of the House of Sakamaki. It is a privilege for Prince Kentin of the House of Ikuba to be invited to a formal courtship meeting by your highness the King himself. We hope and wish with utmost sincerity for a bond to prosper between you, princess, and our prince. Now, please excuse me while I leave the two of you to enjoy your rendezvous.” He finishes, taking another bow before stepping back, turning on his heel and swiftly exiting the castle to await his prince once their cordial meeting was over.
‘Huh, an Ikuba?’ Laito thought to herself. She had heard the name before, though she did have to think about where from for a little bit. It came to her mind that it was the part of land ruled by the Ikuba that was incredibly rich in flower culture, and that they were the ones supplying almost all of the country with high-end flowers such as saffron, an expensive spice used for coloring many silken gowns in beautiful deep red. But she hadn’t known they had a son. She could not recall seeing him at any of the formal balls, although she could recall that the sister of the Duke of Ikuba had married and had two sons of her own. She also vaguely recalled her having a daughter as well, but she had passed away years back. It must have been tragic for the mother.
She shook her head a little at the memory, pulling herself back into the present and back to this very nervous prince, judging by how he was scratching at the sides of his fingernails. He still hadn’t looked up once, but she could see him worrying his bottom lip between his teeth. The poor boy was so nervous, Laito almost felt bad for him, seeing him almost cowering in front of her. Though she couldn’t really fathom why. Sure, these meetings were always quite an awkward ordeal when two individuals met for the first time, but even she herself, with many bad experiences behind her, was not this nervous.
She could see that the prince opposite of her would not make the move to start their conversation, so she put her soft smile back on and approached just a little closer. “Hello young prince. My name is Laito Sakamaki, and it is my pleasure to meet you.” She said gently, bending in a small bow. She didn’t want to frighten the prince by being too loud or too forward just yet. Her efforts seemed to be in vain though as the prince flinched, looking up at her for the very first time, brown eyes opened wide in distress. He broke the eye contact almost as soon as he established it, looking back to the floor as he bowed, once more deeper than she had. He remained bowed to her a little longer too, and Laito was quite thrown off by it. Men that were here to court her usually reveled in their patriarchal dominance by having to bow less deeply than her before them, but this shy, frightened boy seemed to not even consider himself as above her. Frankly, with this disregard of formal norms, Laito found herself much more comfortable around him than she had felt with all of her other suitors. She just really hoped that the words that would leave his mouth, if there would be any at all with him so frightened, would be sincere and kind. She had had too many men trying to tell her how beautiful her body was or how well of a trophy she would be for them.
“H-h-hell-lo, p-princ-cess Laito, m-my name is- is Kentin o-of Ik-kuba. I-it is a gre-great honor t-to meet y-you.” He stuttered, his voice close to cracking and Laito could see how badly his hands trembled. He almost resembled a fearful little animal, and she found herself quietly giggling at her thought. She could see his shoulders draw up and his back droop at the sound, his posture so to make himself smaller, and his nails were clawing themselves into his palm. The princess realized at once that he must think she was laughing at him and his stutter, and she could not stand to not correct this misconstruction immediately.
“Oh no, dear prince. Please believe me when I say I wasn’t laughing at you. I had just thought of your nervousness as… quite cute. Please forgive me.” She stated gently, her voice sweet as she tried to grant the boy some comfort.
The prince remained in his clammed-up position, though he hesitantly chanced a glance up at her. Laito was glad she was still smiling, and that it was genuine, because she could see him slowly relaxing a little, straightening back to his nervous pose. She was relieved that he took her by word. For some reason, she did not want to spoil this meeting with the prince before it even got started properly.
It was then that she remembered this was a courtship meeting, and that they were still awkwardly standing around in the great hall. She should probably guide him somewhere, but where? The dining hall? She didn’t even know if the chefs had been told about it and started preparing food for them. The gardens? Had the tables and benches been prepared for it?
Ugh, this was frustrating! It was exactly why she hated when her father didn’t tell her about these meetings beforehand, as she had no idea if the castle maids and butlers had been informed either.
Luckily, before she had to try and guess what or where she should ask the prince to follow her, a quiet harrumph came from behind her. She turned towards the sound, seeing Belvedere, one of the butlers in the palace, bowing before the two of them. “I hope I have not disrupted you, my Lady and our honorable guest,” he drawls, “but we have prepared the dining hall for the both of you to dine in.”