Ashley had left the inn without being seen by Roland and waited for Doran. Of course, she had told Ethan before she left the inn, but Ethan dismissed her carelessly. Being in a political situation that he had nothing to do with seemed to make him very nervous.

While she was thinking, 'I wonder if what I'm wearing is too plain', she caught sight of a luxury horse carriage on the street. The carriage was full of red fox embroideries, the symbol of the Lewis family. And it was coming directly to her position.

As the carriage approached, its door opened, and the young prince, whom she had met for the first time last night, got out.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting?" he said, smiling.

Ashley sometimes forgot that Doran wasn't even 16 years old. His demeanor and movements looked quite mature for his age. Besides, she was 21 years old and she couldn't tell if she was the younger one in her conversations yesterday.

“No, I just got out,” Ashley lied. She had been waiting for Doran for about half an hour.

“There were some issues I needed to talk to my father about. I hope you can forgive me." ' asked Doran.

“There's nothing to forgive, I really just got here,” Ashley said.

“Well then, where would you like to start?” said Doran, pointing to the carriage door.

"I don't know anything about Ivarta, I guess you'll have to make the choices."

“You have placed a great responsibility on my shoulders. If I can't amuse you, I will feel guilty,” said Doran with a slight smile and continued.

“Then let's do a short tour of Ivarta. In the meantime, we can ask each other questions, what do you think?

"Sounds good to me!"

After Ashley and Doran got into the carriage, Doran stuck his head out of the window.

“Let's go to school,” he called.

The person driving the carriage nodded, and the carriage began to make its way through the streets of Ivarta, neither too fast nor too slow.

Doran just looked at Ashley, who was sitting across from him.

She was watching the city streets with excitement from the window.

“Different from Terras?”

Ashley turned to Doran when she heard the question.

“I have no idea,” Ashley said.

“How so, you have never seen the Terras? I thought you lived there."

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“I have seen the Terras 2 or 3 times in my life since I am generally not allowed to leave the palace.”

“Why? was it forbidden?”

“After the war with the Oswolt kingdom, royal family members got a lot of assassination attempts. Therefore, it was forbidden to leave the palace without protection. Since I had no bodyguard, I spent all my time in the palace.”

Doran was a little shocked by the answer he got. The princess of the kingdom was living a life of captivity.

When Doran didn't say anything, Ashley continued.

“I had a secret room in the palace. Usually, no one would come there, I would sit by the window of that room and I used to dream that I was a bird, a bird that could see every street of the Terras."

Ashley's voice got a little melancholic.

Doran more or less understood what kind of life Ashley had. Alone. Few people she can talk to who bully her at every opportunity.

Just then, the carriage stopped. When Doran and Ashley looked out, they saw that they were in front of a large building.

Doran opened the door and went out, helping Ashley down as well.

"What is this?" Ashley asked.

“A school where anyone under the age of 16 living in Ivarta can study”

“It's like an academy, but only the basics are taught,” he explained.

Ashley was stunned to hear this.

"I've heard that education is only important to the nobility."

“Actually, that's why my father opened such a place so that everyone can learn to read and write at a certain level.” Doran completely concealed his contribution to the opening of this school.

“Why is there no one around?”

“There is a break for 2 days a week. We came on a holiday, otherwise, hundreds of young people were going to classes right now”

"Oh, are you going too?"

“I was going but I guess I won't be able to go anymore. It looks like Dad will be putting a lot of responsibility on me once I come of age,” said Doran.

“If you accept marriage, we will have to face these responsibilities together,” he said and laughed.

Ashley blushed a little when she heard the word marriage.

In fact, the fact that Doran had given her the choice had made her have a good opinion of him. King Edmund had sent her to Vartica without listening to her thoughts, without asking her opinion. Her chance to choose was taken from her. But Doran had given her that choice back. Because of this, she had already made up her mind about marriage.

After Doran introduced the school a little more, he got Ashley back in the carriage and their journey continued.

When Ashley looked out the window, she saw the green boxes lying on the street.

“What are those green boxes?”

“Oh, you mean the Trash cans. A newly implemented project. The people of Ivarta throw the garbage in those boxes and then they are transported outside the city,” explained Doran. This was another project that he presented to his father.

Ashley finally understood why the streets of Ivarta were so clean.

When the carriage arrived in front of an inn, Doran told Ashlee to wait a moment, then he entered the inn and came out 10 minutes later with a basket in his hand.

After saying "Lake side" to the person driving the carriage, he got on the carriage.

Ashley knew from the basket that they were going to have a little picnic. So she wasn't too surprised when the carriage continued on past Ivarta's city walls.

When the carriage came to the edge of a great lake, it stopped and the Doran came down. When they found a suitable place to sit, he threw the cloth on the floor and started to take out the food he bought from the inn.

Ashley was watching Doran's work from the sidelines.

Doran scratched his head with his hand, looked at Ashle, and began to speak.

"I think I took a little too much, I hope you're hungry."

Ashley smiled at Doran at this.

“I'll do my best, But I don't think we can finish it,” she said and smiled.

Doran froze when he saw Ashley's smile.

“You look so beautiful when you smile,” he said involuntarily.

Ashley didn't know what to say at this comment. No one had ever said such things to her in her life. Her sisters had always told her a book full of words about how ugly she was and that no one would want to marry her. That's why she couldn't describe herself as beautiful. But Doran seemed to like it the way she was.