I cried and cried in my room. I was sad that my father hadn’t eaten my cookie, but I was mostly sad at how I wasn’t even able to help him. Lance was already helping our father deal with signing off documents, even Tristan had been going around the capital helping deal with criminal activity before he disappeared. I was the only one unable to help our father and that made me frustrated.

“Princess Claire are you in there.”

“Go Away!!! I don’t want to talk with anyone right now!!”

After my command, the person at my door was silent. I had thought they left and began to cry even more. I was crying so much that I didn’t even realize that the person that knocked on my door was Clive.

“Hmm, I wonder what this cookie I found while chasing Princess Claire tastes like. Ugh, it’s so sweet.”

He hadn’t left, instead he was speaking exaggeratedly loud so I would be able to hear what he was doing. In that moment I was extremely angry at what he was doing. I was angry that he was eating my cookie that was meant for my father, it wasn’t meant for anyone else. I angrily stomped towards the door and flung it open. In front of me was that same boy I had met a while ago licking his fingers with crumbs on his face.

“What are you doing! That wasn’t meant for you!!”

“Hmm, who’s is it then? I remember a grumpy little princess throwing this away. Since it was already thrown away, why couldn’t I take it for my own then?”

“‘Grumpy little princess’. How dare you call me a grumpy little princess!”

“Aren’t you one? You’re just a grumpy little spoiled princess who was just about to waste food. Do you know how much time and effort were put into the ingredients you used for your cookie? The sugar, the butter, the flour, and even the eggs. All of these were grown by your citizens, and what for, to just barely be paid to live. They all have their own families to feed and you were just about to throw away all their hard work because you were unhappy.”

This boy I barely knew was furious and he was even berating me. No one had ever talked down to me like this before and I was angry. The things he was saying I didn’t understand, so I could only respond back with anger.

“Shut up!!! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! You don’t know anything about me!”

I slammed the door shut on your father, and jumped back towards my bed. I was sad that my father didn’t eat my cookie, but now I was also furious at Clive. What he said really struck me because I had never thought about how much work was put into those ingredients. But me being young and emotional, I wanted to deny it. I wanted to deny everything Clive had said to me. I didn’t want to accept being called a ‘grumpy spoiled little princess’, but deep down I knew I was a spoiled princess, which made me want to deny it even more. With all these emotions swirling within me, I cried my eyes out until I fell asleep.

…...

A week passed after I had met Clive. That entire week there was no news about my brother Tristan. Lance had come and checked on my condition every few days when he had time. He knew that I was the closest to Tristan and knew that I would be devastated. It was comforting that Lance would come once in a while to visit me even though he was busy.

There was one thing during that week that I couldn’t accept though. Clive was still around and had not left. He followed me wherever I went, and I promptly ignored him. I didn’t want to see him or talk to him at all. Even when I asked my father to get Clive away from me, he said that it was for my safety that Clive stayed by my side. I even told Lance about the situation and his response was the same as our father.

But on this day it was different, I woke up and had my maids dress me. I walked out of my door expecting Clive to greet me as usual in his sarcastic tone. For the past week every time I opened the door, he would say something along the lines of “Good morning, oh holy royal Princess Claire.” I usually ignored him, but since he wasn’t here to greet me, my routine felt off.

‘Humph, why do I have to bother where he is.’ I stopped thinking about Clive and walked towards the room where my lessons were held. I was a princess so I was expected to know things a princess should know like dancing, greetings, charm, and various other things. That day I was going to learn about the history of the capital and the residents.

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“From our lesson last time, you should know that the capital is separated into 5 different classes: The royalty, the nobles, the citizens, the beggars, and the slaves…”

I don’t really remember much from that tutor because I zoned out. ‘Humph, that annoying boy is finally gone from my life. I hope he never comes back.’ I didn’t even realize it myself at the time, but all my thoughts were already filled with thoughts of Clive.

“Citizens are the one to grow our plants and make other necessities for living. The city and nobles gain money through taxing the citizens when they sell their produce.”

This was the one thing from the lecture that had caught my attention. It was when he mentioned how the citizens produced our necessities that I remembered what Clive had berated me on. So I decided to learn more about the circumstances.

“Um, Mister Shallow, how long does it usually take for our citizens to grow plants and stuff. For example how long does it take for wheat to be turned into flour.”

“A good question Princess Claire. Wheat is usually planted within the fall season and harvested during the spring or early summer. So approximately 7 to 8 months for the wheat to grow. This is only the first process in making flour but also the most difficult. The weather, soil condition, and insect invasions are factors taken into account when growing wheat. Depending on the conditions, the harvest could be bountiful or even scarce. Moving on, the next process is to harvest the wheat. Depending on the size of the field, it could take days for the workers to gather up all the wheat. The next step is…”

He continued to explain the process and I was shocked. I hadn’t realize how much effort was put into growing ingredients. I continued to ask my tutor how other crops and items are grown and made. The more he explained to me, the more I began to feel guilty.

I didn’t want to admit it, but everything Clive had said that day was correct. I was a spoiled ignorant princess and that was a fact. I didn’t even know how much our citizens worked to grow the ingredients used for my cookie. After that I couldn’t pay attention to the other lessons I had, all I could think about was how correct Clive was. There was this annoying feeling within me that wouldn’t disappear.

I didn’t know how to make it disappear, but I knew that I needed to talk to Clive again. When my lessons were all over, I ran out of the room and went searching for Clive. I asked the maids and butlers where Clive was, but none of them knew. I didn’t know where he could be at either, I only knew his first name and how he was a boy a little bit older than me with light brown hair. I didn’t know how long I searched for him, but I was already drenched in sweat. That annoying feeling within me still wouldn’t leave, it was pushing me forward, telling me to find Clive.

After searching for a while, I finally found him. He was at the training grounds fighting against one of the knights. In comparison to the knight he was facing against, Clive was only half of his height but he was holding his ground. He was drenched in sweat, but he continued to fight.

“Can you believe it, this is already his 5th fight of the day.”

“Of course I can, he’s Jonathan’s son. He’s only 9 or 10 and he already won 2 fights out of 5. He’s going to be as strong as his father when he grows up.”

“Hey, you guys. You want to hear another story I heard about Jonathan’s son.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve heard that since he was 8 years old, he has been following Jonathan into skirmishes around the borders with other kingdoms.”

“For reals?” “That can’t be true, my first battle was when I was 16. That’s half my age when I had my first battle.”

“No, I swear it’s true.”

I was surprised when I heard the chatter of the other knights. I didn’t expect Clive to had gone through so much, he was only a year or two older than me. In comparison, I have stayed within the castle my whole life doing nothing significant at all.

I remember intensely watching Clive fight. Every attack he made would be blocked by his opponent, and every attack from his opponent made contact. At the time I had no experience in actual combat, but I knew that Clive was losing.

But against all odds, Clive won the battle. When his opponent had gotten used to Clive’s fighting style, that was when he turned the tables. His opponent had expected him to attack from the front just like all the other times, but he didn’t. Clive slid right under his opponents legs and attacked the back of the knee. When that happened, his opponent fell down to his knees and Clive threw an attack towards his head, but stopped before making impact.

“The winner is Clive Lock.”

I was shocked, everyone else was shocked, we had all believed that Clive was going to lose the fight. I watched as Clive helped his opponent up, and all the other knights gather around them. All the knights were joking around with Clive and I could see that Clive had already become their friend. He was smiling and joyously talking with the older knights, and all of this only took him a day to befriend them.

I didn’t know what I was feeling during that time, but I know that I was jealous of Clive. He was able to befriend all of these knights in a matter of a day. The thing that vexed me the most was that he was able to do things I couldn’t even though we weren’t that different in age. He was challenging knights stronger than himself, he wasn’t discouraged when he lost the other battles and continued to fight, he knew more things about the citizens than I did, but most importantly, he was enjoying a life that he had chosen for himself.