Free Web NovelChapter 324: TOKEN
Quite some time passed in the blink of an eye.
Aristia had been watching the visions of original Aristia’s life for most of the time during that period of time, and she learnt one thing.
Original Aristia wasn’t a bad person. But she had a certain loftiness, maybe because she was pampered by her family right from the time she was born.
She was seen as arrogant, haughty and maybe, even self-centered.
But since Aristia had gotten the chance to experience things from her perspective, she found out that original Aristia wasn’t like that.
Sure, she was arrogant. But who with her status wouldn’t be?
But she was the type of person to not react when people she considered beneath her acted a certain way.
During her encounters with Carolyn, it was easy for others to assume things because Aristia didn’t bother to correct them. Not once.
She wouldn’t even speak much. She would just watch with a deep gaze.
She would only look on like a detached observer, considering the drama as not worth her attention or reaction.
To others, she seemed to give off the feeling that the other person was beneath her, and that made people dislike her.
Aristia didn’t understand why, but that was just the way the original character turned out to be as she grew.
That made it easier for her bad reputation to skyrocket.
Ivan and Wade continued to be involved with Carolyn and support her, even when that meant causing Aristia embarrassment.
Watching that interaction, Aristia herself had even begun to feel distaste for her paternal cousin.
On the other hand, she had begun to like Liam the more.
As for Wade...
Well, she saw him every other day, and the boy was totally different from the one on original Aristia’s memory. He wasn’t the least bit whipped by Carolyn Cornwell.
Aristia felt some kind of satisfaction watching Wade not swayed by the heroine, and even disliking her.
***
It was two days before the Kingdom’s anniversary.
Liam, Ivan and Paige had already returned a little more than a week earlier.
Aristia dipped her hands in the fountain, allowing the cool gushing water to pour over her hands. It felt absolutely refreshing.
She removed her hands from the water and straightened her body. She turned around to leave.
As she left, her mind wondered.
[They’ll soon meet Carolyn. I’m not sure how they’ll take her.]
She was thinking this because her friends had been writing to the three in the academy. They mentioned Carolyn Cornwell, and what they said about her was not so welcoming because, just like Aristia had said, Carolyn’s character was problematic.
Her friends all saw the way she would react around Aristia at events they would attend even though they could see clearly that Aristia hadn’t done anything to her, and they didn’t like it one bit.
Even though Aristia had decided to do all she could to avoid Carolyn, there were some events she had to attend and meeting the latter was inevitable. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
And even though she found ways to turn the situation around, her friends disliked Carolyn even more and they didn’t fail to write to the others who were not present.
Aristia herself hadn’t bothered to say anything in her letters.
Truth be told, she was also looking forward to seeing their reactions when meeting Carolyn, especially that of Ivan.
Aristia got into the carriage waiting for her outside the mansion with Millie and Alaric.
"To the Palace, Lucas." Alaric said.
Lucas replied and the carriage began to move towards the direction of the palace.
They would be meeting with Liam and the rest for the first time today since they returned.
It was because Aristia hadn’t felt like seeing Ivan’s face for the time being. She had told Alaric that he could go see Ivan and the rest if he wanted, but Alaric said he would go with her whenever she decided to.
He only thought that she had been busy, which was why she didn’t go to visit.
She had considered seeing Liam and Paige, but she knew it would come off as strange if she only visited Liam and Paige but not Ivan.
Because of that, she had to hold off on seeing the three of them.
They also couldn’t come to visit because Aristia would always use one excuse or the other. It was either she wasn’t at home, or she was too busy with her classes and studies.
Even when Ivan contacted her through the link between their daemons, her response was still the same.
Finally, she arranged to meet two days to the Kingdom’s anniversary.
While Aristia was thinking about these past events, the carriage gradually slowed to a stop.
She and Alaric looked at each other and spoke at the same time,
"We’re here."
"We’ve arrived, princess and prince." Lucas said as he got down to open the carriage door and help the siblings down.
Aristia and Alaric came down from the carriage one after another. Behind them, Millie didn’t follow after them. Instead, she exited through the other window.
As soon as her feet landed on the floor, Aristia looked up to see Ivan and the twin princesses, Liam and his sisters, and their cousins, Alicia Eldridge and the Kiran Kids standing at the entrance to the palace. Wade was present too, and even Allen.
The three who had been away at the academy stood at the front of the group.
Seeing both herself and Alaric, the group had huge smiles on their faces as their eyes lit up.
A servant had informed them of Aristia and Alaric’s arrival so they had gone to meet them.
Aristia smiled back at them, lifting her skirt with one hand while holding Alaric’s hand with the other as she walked towards the group.
"Hello, everyone." Aristia greeted with a light wave.
"Hello, Tia and Allie."
"Hello, princess Tia and prince Allie."
"Hello, princess Tia and prince Alaric."
The last greeting was from Wade.
Everyone was just short of hugging Aristia and Alaric.
Scratch that.
While the boys showed restraint, the girls didn’t because they went right up to Aristia and Alaric and squeezed them in a hug one after the other, talking about how long it had been and how much they had missed them.
They had missed them a lot after not seeing them for a little more than a week.
Aristia had the same reason for not seeing them as she had for not seeing Liam and Paige— there was no way she could see any of them without Ivan being present.
Now that Aristia finally had the ’chance’, they all headed to the palace on the agreed day.
Was she being too hard or unnecessarily harsh towards Ivan?
She didn’t know. What she did know was that she only felt annoyed anytime she saw Ivan in the dream memory.
She knew she shouldn’t let the dream influence her, after all, the Ivan in the dream was probably not the same as the current Ivan. And he hadn’t shown any of the same awful attitude as in the dream.
But she felt like giving him an attitude as a small token for the original Aristia.
"Let’s go inside." Serina said.
They all turned to head into the palace.
Aristia asked Beatrix, "What about Aunt and Uncle?"
Beatrix answered, "They’re handling preparations for the banquet, so they’re quite busy."
Aristia nodded in understanding. Even her father and mother were busy carrying out their own roles as the Imperial Prince and Princess and only Grand Duke and Duchess of the kingdom, so it was expected that the king and queen would also be busy.
While they were walking, Liam came to stand beside Aristia. In the time they had been apart, Liam had grown quite a bit, though the changes were not too noticeable.
It was the same with Paige and Ivan too, and the rest of them, though they wouldn’t notice since they saw each other frequently. The only people who would notice any changes in them were those who hadn’t been present.
Just as she was thinking that, Liam spoke up.
"You’ve grown taller." He said with a small smile.
Aristia looked up at him for a second before saying, "You too." It was as if they had still retained their previous heights because the height difference between them was still the same.
Liam chuckled and nodded.
Then he suddenly whispered into her ear with pride and joy in his eyes. "I have something I want to show you later."
Aristia’s curiosity was piqued, but judging from the glint in Liam’s eyes, he wouldn’t say what it was yet.
[I wonder what it is he wants to show me.] She wondered as she nodded in response to his words.
But since she couldn’t find out now, she do think too much and turned her attention to the front.
She quickly noticed that they weren’t headed in the direction of one of the palace’s gardens. Instead, they entered a room.
