Chapter 16: Agreement

Tomorrow morning in Alicia's room,

'knock knock'

"Princess Alicia" There's no response after she knocked on the door a few times so she called in.

Because there's still no response from inside. The maid informed the senior maid in the mansion.

'knock knock'

"Princess Alicia" The senior maid called Alicia but also doesn't get any response, so she barged in

"Princess Alicia, I'm coming in" The senior maid barged into the room.

After searching for a while, she doesn't find Alicia inside her room. She panicked. Every day, Alicia won't go out of the room, before the maid dressed her up. So seeing that Alicia not in the room, The senior maid panicked.

"Princess Alicia, Princess Alicia" The senior maid immediately reported there's no Alicia in her room. The head maid panicked hearing the report, so she immediately ordered the maids to searched Alicia, while she informed what happened to the grand duke.

After hearing Alicia missing. The grand duke panicked too. He immediately searched around

'Alicia Alicia, where are you? Are you really against the marriage with Alex?' the grand duke searched his mansion while thinking about this.

"Husband, what happened?" noticing the situation, The house lady, grand duke wife asked.

"Alicia was missing" uttered grand duke.

"What?! Why ? where?" She throws many questions to the grand duke.

"I...I..." Thinking about yesterday when he and his brother want Alicia to marry Alex but there's no way he can explain this to his wife.

"You know something right? So you did something... Explain!!!" The lady angrily grabbed grand duke demanding an explanation

"Yesterday. I and brother asked Alicia to marry Alex. That's right. Alex!" he searched the garden, all the room in the mansion except Alex's room "That's right Alex's room!"

He immediately set off to Alex's room

"Alex, I'm coming in" without bothering to knock, he barged into the room.

But what he never expected what he saw. On the sofa, there's one man and woman sitting side-by-side, Leaning to each other, because of the curtain that was not closed yesterday, the sunlight illuminated them, and of course still sleeping. Looking at the scene, you can see a harmonized couple sleeping so lovingly.

'Perfect' grand duke was mesmerized by the scene

"Husband! Do you see Alicia" After the lady catches up with her husband, and saw the scene. She too was mesmerized by the scene.

They looked at each other.

"Let's go out?" They asked each other. But before they have time to went out of the room, Alicia woke up

"mmm..... already morning?" Alicia yawned

But after she looked what in front of her, she confused why her father and mother in her bedroom

"Father, mother what are you doing here?" She asked but soon she froze. She noticed this room wasn't her room. She recalled what happened last night. Alex and she were discussing their engagement, and because she was sleepy. She dozed off.

"Fa...ther...Mot...her... this.. is not what you think" She immediately want to explain to her parents. Her face gets red so much like a tomato.

"It's was alright daughter. You don't need to explain. Please enjoy your sleep" Grand duke with 'I understand' face

"Yes, Alicia, we understand. Your dad here already explained to me too" though she doesn't know why grand duke wants to marry her youngest daughter with her daughter. She knows it's for her daughter's happiness, she trusted him.

"Nooo...." Alicia shout. Alex started to wake up.

"mmm..." Alex opened his eyes and froze.

"Grand duke, madam." He greeted them as nothing happen. But after he realized that Alicia was beside him. He immediately recalled what happened last night "Let me... expl..."

Before Alex completed his sentence. Grand duke places his hand to Alex's shoulder with 'I understand' face "You don't need to explain. You can start calling me father"

"My husband is right, you can call me with 'mother' too"

"This... this..." Alex speechless

"Father... Mother...!" Alicia shout and run away with a red face

"I...I..." Alex wanted to explain but no words come out from his mouth

"As I said, you need to start calling me father"

"Yes. Call me mother too" They grabbed Alex like a ferocious wolf, not letting Alex off before they completed their objective.

Looking at them, Alex doesn't know what to do. He surrendered

"Fat..her... Mo...ther..." Alex called them with an awkward voice. He forgot when the last time he said this word.

"Good..good son" satisfied with Alex, they got out of the room. Alex can only sigh.

Not long after, the situation around the mansion calms down. Alex and Alicia got called by the grand duke

After the incident in the morning, the grand duke explained to his wife what happened yesterday. After knowing the reasons, she satisfied with her husband's choice and considered Alex as her son-in-law.

"Alex, Alicia. Since you two don't have any problem with your marriage then it's decided." Grand duke said happily.

"Father... We.. we...Alex Explain!" Alicia wants to explain but no words come to her mind so she ordered Alex to explain

"This..." Alex calming himself down he started explaining "Alicia and Alex decided to keep the engagement for now. We decided to test the relationship. After graduation from the academy, we will decide if we want to marry each other or not. If not we want to annul the engagement"

"Annulled ?" Grand duke catch this word from Alex explanation, he looked at Alex and started releasing his aura

"Father! We already decided this" Noticing his aura Alex scared, Alicia immediately explained firmly.

Looking at his daughter's reaction, he calms down a bit.

"We decided to wait and see first until graduation. It means three years. You and uncle want us to engage. But respect us too" Alicia shout to the grand duke

Grand duke surprised with his daughter.

"But.. daughter you know you will become 19 years old by then.. if you two not...." before grand duke complete his sentences,

"Father!" Alicia shout, releasing an imposing manner.

Looking at her, he can only sigh and compromised.

"Grand duke, we need to keep secret about this agreement" Alex looked at Alicia, then the grand duke.

"Fine, I agreed to it. But I need to add a condition"

"What is it?" Alex and Alicia asked at the same time.

"You need to call me father" he looked at Alex.

"I..I.. agree... Fat.her.." Satisfied with Alex's response, he smiled while Alicia blushed.

After reaching the compromised. They have lunch together and grand duke decided to announce their engagement.

"Haha... I'm announcing a piece of good news for you all. Alex and Alicia now engaged."

"...." Everybody shocked by the news. While Alex and Alicia's face darkened, 'aren't we agreed to keep this secret' they thought.

"Ufufu... now I have a son. Now call me mother Alex" The lady urged Alex.

"...." Alex speechless. While the sisters congratulate Alicia.

"Alicia congratulation, now I have brother-in-law" the first daughter, Lea said.

"Alicia congratulation" Mia said, 'with this, I can get closer to him to get stronger'. Well, you can see this girl was what you called a muscle-brain.

"Sisters!" Alicia flushed.

After lunch, the grand duke went to the castle to inform the king about the agreement.

"This agreement.." King said while thinking something.

"We need to plan something else. We need to make sure they are together". Grand duke nodded his head

"How about we let them got to the same room in the academy dormitory? There are many nobles who have their maid accompany them in the room aren't they." The king explained his plan.

"We can do that. Same room, same class, sit next to each other, any school activities they need to do must be together." Grand duke added.

The king agreed with the plan. He wrote two letters, one to Alex as a recommendation, and the other to the school about Alex's arrangement.

Tomorrow

"Alex, this is your recommendation letter for the academy, since normally the academy needs to test your ability. With your ability, you will needlessly pass. But, we need to keep your power secret." Grand duke give the letter to Alex

"Thank you Gran.." Before Alex completed, grand duke, releasing his aura

"Thank you, Father!" Noticing this, Alex immediately corrected himself. Satisfied with Alex response, he continued

"The enrollment will start next week. So you can familiarize yourself with this royal capital. Asked Alicia to take you to stroll around the city"

"Yes..father" after that he got out of the room.

For the next week, Alex asked Alicia to bring him around. Of course Alicia happy to do that. They strolled around the city and of course shopping.

On the last day, she brought Alex to the academy.

"This is Acacia Royal Academy, the best academy in this world" Alicia proudly introduced the academy to Alex.

"..." Used to exaggerated pride for her kingdom, Alex only ignored her and looked at the entrance.

She started bombarded him with how great this academy is. After an hour, she started to pant

"Tired? Let's lunch first" looking at the time, it's perfect to have lunch, so he suggested.

"Yes, let's go to Phoenix Restaurant. Sisters said their food was great and cheap, so many students eat there" She pointed at the restaurant in front of the academy.

"Alright, let's go" He agreed and walked to the restaurant

They searched for an empty table at the corner and sit there.

"What's your order, sir and miss?" Asked the waiter

"Let's go with today special for both of us." Alicia ordered their food

"Tomorrow is the enrollment day right?" Alex asked Alicia.

"Yes.. we will set off in the morning"

"This is your orders" The waiter plated the table with the foods.

Alex and Alicia started eating.