More Than A Princess

Finding a plan

“So, are we really going to go ahead with the wedding?” Callan asked her. They have left the bath, dried, dressed and are now seated together at the sitting room. The servants had brought a change of clothes for Lyvia too and fortunately it was a plain velvet gown. Not some tight confection full of lace and taffeta and all those unnecessary materials. 

Lyvia shrugged. She didn’t see anything wrong with marrying Callan. It would solve her problem and get that asshole Henry off her back once and for all. She likes Callan and their lovemaking was nothing short of phenomenal. She can absolutely live with being married to him. Their nights will be so good. The fact that he is not a prince but a librarian from a magical world is just a tiny problem that her parents shouldn’t know about. 

“Since you are here and we don’t know how to send you back…you might as well marry me,” she told him. 

“At least as my husband, you don’t have to worry about being attacked or anything and Henry can’t do anything to you,” she added.

Callan hemmed and hawwed and harrumphed. 

“I just think it’s not right…” he said finally. 

Lyvia leaned on him and rested her head on his shoulder.

“I mean we have great chemistry…don’t you like me even a bit?” she pouted up at him. Time to turn on the seduction game a bit. Callan turned beet red, even his ears were red. He cleared his throat nervously.

“I…er…well, we barely know each other so, I dont’t like to rush things,” he admitted. 

“Is it because I am a princess?” she asked. “Or is it because I am larger and bigger than the average damsel in distress?” 

“No, no, no! No! You are perfect as you are! I would never want you to change anything,” he protested. 

“So, will you marry me?” she asked, looking at him pleadingly. 

“This whole situation is just bizarre…aren’t I supposed to be the one who proposes?” he said. 

She waved it off airily. 

“Please…we may be a primitive world compared to yours but really, I don’t believe in such gender specific rubbish…if I want something, I go for it,” she said. 

“But…your parents…and that was not what I read about the information on Vernia!” he argued.

She rolled her eyes.

“What you read are just the general idea of what most people here think…I am not most people as you would have realised,” she said pointedly.

She gestured at her velvet gown.

“Just look at this, if I have my way, I would be wearing jeans and t-shirt all the time or sweatpants and hoodies. This gown is so uncomfortable,” she complained.

She lamented about being born in the wrong world and to the wrong family. 

“I would have done better as a commoner in a modern world like yours, no one to force me to get married because ‘it’s my duty’ and no one to tell me countless times to be more ‘ladylike’ and not stride around like a man,” she rolled her eyes. She caught Callan’s eyes. 

He was looking at her with amusement on his face.

“You are right…no princess would snuck into a common librarian’s room and seduce him and then accuse him of taking her virginity,” he replied drily. 

She squared her shoulders defensively and lifted her chin. 

“Well, I do what I want and I chose you as my first man, you should be honoured,” she said haughtily. 

“First man?” he asked. “So, there will be other men even after we get married?” He frowned at her. “I don’t remember reading about polygamy here…is it a thing here? Will you have a harem of lovers like some royalties do?” he was genuinely curious. He also sounded slightly unhappy.

She laughed. Imagine a harem! Her parents will probably die of heart attack if that ever happened. But she wanted to tease Callan. 

“Of course, there will be harems! Everyone has it, I mean, how can a royal even go through life without a harem? My father has one and my mother has one and sometimes, they even share,” she lied. 

His face darkened considerably. 

“I see, I never read about that…I suppose it’s not good information to share with potential world travellers,” he said, regret apparent in his tone. 

He looked at Lyvia sadly.

“I am not sure I can accept this though…I am more of a monogamous kind of guy so maybe you should look for someone else to marry,” he told her. 

“But you will have your own harem too…filled with women, or men, of your own choosing,” she teased.

He looked visibly sickened by the thought and actually paled. 

“I think, I , er, will pass on that. I mean, it’s your country’s customs so it’s not like it is a bad thing or anything but…but I would rather not,” he said apprehensively. 

She couldn’t take it anymore. She laughed and slapped his back. Hard. Making him go ‘oof’,

“I was just teasing you!” she said in between her shouts of laughter. 

“I really don’t think it’s that funny,” he replied indignantly. This prompted her to laugh even more. When she finally calmed down, wiping tears from her eyes, she noticed him glaring at her. 

“Are you done?” he asked, looking suitably upset and angry.

“Awww…come on Callan. I was just teasing. Who knew you would be so averse to harems…isn’t it like all men’s fantasy or something?” she asked.

“Look, I don’t like infidelity okay? If I am with someone, I do not like to cheat and I surely do not want my partner to cheat either,” he said seriously, looking at her meaningfully. Now she got it. He must have thought she is one of those women who sleeps around even after marriage, regardless of whether she is a princess or not. 

“I was just teasing…honestly, I ‘ve never been in a relationship before, it was frowned upon…I am supposed to ‘do my duty’ and marry a prince to build relationship with another kingdom for politics, remember” she reminded him. “I did sort of flirt around with my friend, Elliott, who taught me how to fight but it wasn’t exactly serious,” she added.

 “What about Henry? Were you actually with him before falling into JorvTown?” he asked her. 

“I honestly don’t remember but I am certain I was not with him at all…I couldn’t have chosen him, he gave me the creeps and I have a feeling, he might have tried to do this to me before,” she said. 

He was silent for a moment.

“But if we are to get married, what happens after that? I don’t have a palace or castle for you to go back to nor do I have carriages and horses for us to travel to my supposed kingdom,” he pointed out. Which is true. He doesn’t have anything in this world except for the clothes on him when he arrived and those clothes are strange in Vernia. 

Lyvia pondered over this. She had given it much thought over the last few days. Her plan was to just run away with Callan and disappear into the country after the wedding. Maybe live out their lives as normal peasants. It would be fun…okay, scratch that. Maybe not as peasants or farmers. It would be boring. She will die of boredom and she doubt that she could get used to living in tiny cottages without any of her conveniences in the palace. 

“Do you think you can find a way back? My plan was actually just to run away with you back to your world,” she said finally. 

Callan shook his head dejectedly. He had tried searching for a rift and he had tried summoning even a tiny spark of his magic. It was no use. 

“I don’t have any magic here, I can’t even try to find a portal or a rift without any powers here,” he told her. 

They both sat silently, trying to think of a way out. It was obvious that after the wedding, they have to go somewhere. They can continue living here in this palace. A princess, once married to another kingdom, has to go back to her husband’s kingdom. The King and Queen have already ordered their servants to pack her clothes and her jewellery and a large dowry to bring with her. Except that she and Callan has no where to go. 

 They only have three days to figure out a plan and there was no plan.