It had been a few hours and I was bored. I had split my free time between watching the knights practice and listening to the occasional maids, gossiping beneath my window. One of the more… concerning conversations I heard included some maids speaking about a girl that the prince had brought back to the palace. Upon hearing this I frowned, they were probably talking about me I assumed. As I continued listening, I overheard a maid reply that it was just a young girl, probably a family member of his. At this I sighed a breath of relief, I didn’t need random rumours to start about me, especially if they were concerning these sorts of unsavory… assumptions.


    I mean, I was still only eight, I looked even younger, maybe seven. How could people start thinking that when I was with a boy almost double my age?


    Is that really how this world operates? Thinking back, some maids at the duke’s estate were also talking about this sort of thing. Or are maids just starved for entertainment?


    I decided to go with the latter assumption, mostly due to my own hopes and biased opinion.


    Soon enough, once midday arrived, a maid finally came into my room. She quickly apologised before asking me to come with her.


    “Apologies for the delay, their majesty is ready to see you now. Please follow me.”


    I simply nodded and stood up before trailing behind her. Some corridors I kind of recognised, others were completely new to me. Soon, after quite a few turns I gave up on my attempts to stay coordinated and simply followed the maid mindlessly.


    Soon, we were standing in front of a huge doorway, two guards standing on either side. Seeing me, they instantly opened the doors, I didn’t know why. I had simply gotten used to the strange reactions when people saw me.


    As the doors creaked open, I could see two thrones sitting side by side, a red carpet leading up to them. After being given a few discrete ‘what are you waiting for just do it’ looks, I stepped forward onto the carpet, feeling like a celebrity. Soon this feeling was replaced by nervousness, I realized that none of the light novels or manga in my past life had covered just close to the thrones I should stop. None of the books that I had read since arriving had said anything either. I decided to play it safe, walking up to a spot just further than the halfway mark, the carpet seemed slightly more faded up until there, as though it had been walked upon frequently. After that point, the carpet was a vibrant red.


    Reaching this spot, I dipped into this world’s strange curtsy, feeling nowhere near as weird as when I first did it. After lowering my head the appropriate amount, about as far as it would tilt so that I was staring directly at the ground, I proceeded with the traditional, better known, part of the curtsy, except one of my hands was behind my back. I then straightened my legs, looking up. Unlike some information from my past life had suggested, here we did not have to wait for the king or queen to allow us to raise our heads.


    “My name is Aretta. It is a pleasure to meet Your Majesties, I hope that the gods are looking favourably upon our meeting. Goddess Fatoruma has brought us together for this fateful meeting, while the God Ermes aided us in meeting at such a convenient time. The God Hiesenfall has allowed this all to happen, while the God Bellius has kept chaos to a minimum. The Goddess Sapientia has granted us her wisdom, with the Goddess Bisole by her side. The Gods Miraculum and Consensus have given this meeting their blessing, I thank you for your summons.”


    Did I say that right? I know that my memory is great, but did I mispronounce anything? I guess it doesn’t matter since they probably just tuned it out anyway.


    I opened my eyes after catching my breath, seeing the royal pair exchange a look, saying something to each other. Then they replied to my greeting with an equally long and arduous response. The only part which I listened to was quite interesting though, leaving me a bit flustered.


    “...We apologise for our son’s misconduct, his behaviour is regrettable.” The king said, lacking any motion.


    I simply stood there, unsure how to react, my books had never told me how to reply to an apology from the king! It simply hadn''t been accounted for. The queen, noticing my anxiety, quickly added onto the king’s apology.


    “We needn’t have formalities, to be honest they are quite a waste of time, but necessary in certain situations.” She laughed as she spoke, obviously trying to ease my worries.


    I responded, trying to drop the formalities without sounding rude. “Thank you Your Majesty, please do not worry about the prince’s conduct, however, I do wish to ask, why was I brought here?”Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    I risked asking the question, regardless of how it may be interpreted, I simply wanted to know. After these words the queen glared at somebody standing a few metres to the right of the king’s seat. I quickly repositioned my gaze, aiming it towards him, it turned out that the prince had been here while we spoke, I hadn’t even noticed him. After a few moments of silence, the queen turned back to me, the scary look still in her eyes. Once she laid her eyes on me however, this look transformed into one of kindness and pity.


    “It seems that my foolish son hasn’t told you even this much, allow me to get to the point. You are a royal. More suited for the throne than even the crown prince.”


    I just looked at her, dumbstruck, what was she even talking about.


    Am I actually stupid, am I overlooking something simple that keeps making people think that I’m a royal? I know that I keep asking this, but seriously.


    She continued. “Here in the Kingdom of Galandra, we of the royal family are easily identified by our eyes. A royal has dark blue eyes, the darker, the more suited for succession. At first, after seeing only your noble attire and small frame, the prince here mistook you for his missing cousin. Now, we think that you must be a close relative, or a distant one blessed by the God of Darkness.”


    I continued to stare, taking in this information, my eyes were indeed blue, but was that really a trait of the royal family. Perhaps that was why everybody kept staring at me when they saw my face, they had seen my eyes. Then I realized something else that seemed weird.


    “But I thought there were only eight gods? I’ve never heard of the God of Darkness.”


    The queen sighed with a slight smile, expanding on her previous explanation she began to give me more information.


    “The Goddess of Light, and the God of Darkness are not known to the public, for they are the only elemental gods, the others, Gods and Goddesses of Life, Nature, Chaos, Fate, Wisdom, Luck, Magic and Order are all different entirely. This pair is in a realm of their own. They are not known to give out their blessings often, usually once in a millenia, their names have been lost for a long time by our ancestors, however it was only due to them that we know of their existence. It is likely that you are simply a close relative, rather than being blessed, your eyes simply made me doubt myself.”


    “My eyes? I thought that dark blue eyes were normal for members of the royal family.” I asked, confused. This was all so… strange, so much to process.


    “Yes, your eyes, they are extremely dark, the closest to black I’ve ever seen in our family. Lo-”.


    I cut her off. “If that’s the case, then why has nobody told me this before?” I asked, trying to still maintain my politeness while keeping my confusion from showing in the form of rudeness.


    “I do not know, but commoners do not know the connection between eyes and blessings. The nobles who do know have a limited understanding, knowing that dark blue eyes are a symbol of royalty but nothing more.” She told me, before smiling as though she understood me and continuing her earlier explanation.


    “Long ago, when our kingdom was formed, have you heard the standard tale?”


    I nodded, wanting to know more, wanting to understand. My head was currently fuzzy, unable to process the flood of information that I found myself drowning in.


    “Well you see, long ago the man, Gale, was blessed by God of Darkness, it was a rare sight. But even rarer was the circumstance, for a blessing by the Goddess of Light had also been granted to a woman in this generation. Alexandra. Just like the God and Goddess, these two were fated to be together. It was said that the entire world shifted to allow their union, joining their two continents. After their union, they quelled the war which had been ravishing the land, simultaneously curing the blight at the time, which had been the cause of the war. This war was close to tearing apart the world at the time, and the couple had barely made it in time to stop the destruction of the world as we know it.”


    “If a blessing by the God of Darkness and Goddess of Light is so uncommon, then why did you consider that I might have one of their blessings?”


    “Well you see, my son is incredibly gifted, have you noticed his close to white hair? He was blessed by the Goddess of Light, his hair changed colour after his baptism, where he was presented to the gods. On top of having the small blessing of the God of Darkness, passed down through our family, this is an extremely amazing feat. It had simply been on my mind recently, I had thought that you may be his partner of Darkness who has come at last.” She said this last bit with a grin, as though teasing me.


    If I was to believe her tale, which I found myself already doing, then I might actually be blessed. Hadn’t Alice been said to have been blessed with all elements? But since they had never brought up anything about these hidden elements I doubted it.


    “I doubt that is the case for the world is not in peril. We have a need for saviours.” I replied, playing along while also putting a stop to this joke. I was only eight! I didn’t need an engagement or anything being forced upon me, nor did I even want to think about it.


    “Speaking of your elements, have you had your baptism yet? If so then which gods have blessed you, I understand that you haven’t gotten any blessings from the elemental pair, as I have not heard of it, however you are certain to have received some if not all of the other gods blessings. They tend to favour those with links to the God of Darkness and Goddess of Light.”


    “I was brought up as a commoner until I turned eight, I missed my chance at a baptism. I have not been presented to the gods.”


    The queen gave a radiant smile, as though telling me that it was okay. It turned out that her smile meant something else entirely.


    “It seems that all hope is not yet lost, you may still be his destined bride.” Her smile then dropped as she saw my face, before she quickly cleared up some misunderstandings. “I’m joking, we wouldn’t marry you off to him so easily, you may choose your marriage partner freely.” She said, before adding a condition. “From any of the duke’s families, I recommend the first born heir to the duchy of Windred, he is around your age and has been blessed by seven gods.”


    I just frowned, she seemed extremely eager to marry me off, as though she could even choose who I marry.


    Actually, she probably does have the authority to do that, I’d better make sure that I don’t agree at any point, she seems like the sort to hold me to every word. Also, this is way too much for a normal eight year old to process! Why is she even telling me all this?


    “Your majesty, why are you telling me this? Did you not say that these were secrets unique to the royal family? I do understand why you are trusting me with this information.”


    The queen''s prior smile sunk slightly, she seemed reluctant to answer, as though I wouldn’t be happy with her answer. It was probably something big, something important.