Iris Celeste's Point Of View

My name is Iris. I am eight years old and have two older bro- two older siblings. Eric and Lily.

Just so you know, the maid that just snuck into daddy's office is Felice. She was hired a while after Lily went to the academy. Felice is a nice girl, but daddy's room is off limits when he is not in there for everyone except for Eric. Even I am not allowed in there. Since the news of Lily coming home arrived daddy has been in the castle a lot so I figured Felice might try to sneak in.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Iris?"

This is Curtis. He just turned 12.He's quite a bit taller than me due to the difference in age, but he is also training to be a knight, and he is really strong already. Though, not as strong as Lily or Eric, but competing with Lily is impossible. Curtis is still very worried about Lily after she saw me giving him a tiny itty bitty sweet little kiss on the lips. She disowned me, though she cannot. I sent a letter to convince her, but she just wrote back that I'm still disowned, though she cannot disown me.

I have already convinced mommy, Josephine, Ameline, Marie, and Eric. I have almost convinced daddy too. Thus Lily is the final boss in this battle to let me marry Curtis! Marie is my handmaiden. I ran away after distracting her earlier ufufufu~

Back to Curtis before I myself get too distracted.

"No worries. Felice is good at talking, and she is good at sneaking but she does not notice a lot."

This is the third time I am doing this, so it should go well. 

Usually Curtis is busy training and looks quite roughed up, but since he's visiting he is cleaned up really nicely. It's almost like he is ready for a party all dressed up in a brown and green embroidered vest and a properly white shirt. When I get older I'm going to make lace he can put around his neck together with it. I actually asked Curtis to let me play with him today, and since the knight he is under is back at Castle Tepet with his brothers he could not resist my sweet charms for long! Ufufufufufu!

Curtis looks to the office door with a work expression like daddy and Eric when they look towards Cemetre pass for hints of the Zocrian army. He is a bit paranoid about the game we are playing.

This is a game I was taught by Lily for when we get new maids. I saw her watching the new maids a lot and when I asked her to let me play along she taught it to me. It was really hard at first, but it is a lot easier now since I know what to look for.

There is a lot of things you get points for finding out in the game, and Lily said that if I get a fifty points for each maid in the mansion then I will win the game.

Of course, if I win I will ask her to let me marry Curtis, or ask her to teach me to talk to Lumere!

Bop.

Curtis' callous hand is a bit heavy as it rests on my head and his thumb brushes my hairline. Curtis has a really nice smile as he does this and seems to be calmer now. He is a bit paranoid with the servants but he smiles a lot compared to his brothers. His eyes always narrow when he smiles and his eyes twinkle with joy while crows feet wrinkle by the corners of his eyes. Perhaps I am the one falling for his charms...

Still, it is not fair to pat me like a kid. I am doing my best to be a good fiancé though he is older, but some times I think he doesn't see me as anything but a small kid, while he will be an adult fairly soon and go to the academy like all other new adults.

Clank.

The handle to Father's office door is pushed down and interrupts Curtis' sweetness. I quickly grab Curtis' hand and push him into the room we are peeking from. Of course, since I have the chance, I put all my weight into pushing him behind the door and up against the wall too and reach up to cover his mouth.

This is a rare chance to hug Curtis that I cannot miss. I give myself a hundred points for coming up with this plan.

Curtis blinks slowly and stares down at me with his pretty green eyes. Lily says all the brothers look alike, but Curtis' eyes has these pretty sparks of brown in his eyes that make the color change a bit depending on the angle you look from. They're prettier than mommy's jewels. Neither Lionel-sama or Reynold-sama's eyes are like that.

Unexpectedly, Curtis puts an arm around me and presses my head against his chest so tightly that I can hear his heartbeat. Dokun dokun dokun... uwaaah~ his heart is beating quite fast. Have I done it? Have I made him a bit embarrassed? Are we going to kiss again?

Disappointingly, when I try to peek up at him he is not paying attention to me at all. He is staring at the door that I did not close. The sound of the door closing would have caught Felice's attention, so I decided not to close it. After all Felice never walks this way after going into the office. It should not matter, but Curtis is looking very nervous. He is frowning and looks all tensed up.

Before I can pout I hear it too. The sound of Felice's footsteps on the marble floors. She's coming this way. Why?! She was supposed to go the other way! She's gone the other way twice why would she change direction?! Curtis glances back to me and then back to the door. His heart is racing.

His eyes begin to flicker around the room and then to the windows. But... why is he this nervous? Lily did say not to approach or get near the maids that break specific rules consistently on my own, but there's no reason to be this nervous, right? He has trained as a knight for almost five years now, why is he afraid of a maid?

Even if Felice heads in this direction she probably won't notice anything even if she closes the door since we are behind the door. Even so... the closer the steps get the more nervous I get because of Curtis. He's squeezing me quite hard. I move my hand from his mouth and instead grasp at the edge of his vest. I need to calm him down.

My stomach sinks when the door handle to the room squeaks from being pushed down. Had she seen us? Had she heard us? I cannot help but to stare as the door moves, but before Felice appears or closes the door a faint voice echoes through the hallways to our rescue:

"Lord Augustus Celeste arrives!"

It's our butler.

The door is closed and I only faintly hear Felice walking away. See, everything was fine! Curtis got me all worried for no reason at all.

Mmm? Augustus? LILY is back!

I pull away from Curtis and head directly towards the door, only to be grabbed around my waist by Curtis.

"Iris, she just went past there. You can't go out yet." He stops me with a rushed whisper. So paranoid, it doesn't take that long to get down the hallway. Oh, but if not the door then I can still use the window!

I give Curtis a nod, and when he lets go of me I run quietly to the window on my tippy toes and undo the hinges. With a shove the window opens with a little woosh and pop from having been closed a while. A nice smell of earth and grass hits me from the after rain ground as I start crawling out, bum first.

When I look at Curtis he's giving this smile at me as always. It makes his eyes wrinkle at the corners again.

"What?"

Curtis just smiles wider at me and picks me up from being halfway out the window and puts me like a princess in his arms.

"You are such a reckless Lady, Iris-chan," he replies to me with speckles of laughter in his voice.

It is... a little bit embarrassing. I could definitely get down on my own, but compared to this I just cannot make myself wriggle out of his grasp. I can even put my head against his chest again!

Beneath the window a stone ramp appears. Like one of their stone walls, just tilted. It goes all the way up to the window on the second floor. I was just planning to climb down, but Curtis can 'cheat' a bit.

By the time we get to the ground I admit I nearly forgot about Lily. Curtis was smiling down at me all like a knight on a white horse like while the ramp sunk back into the ground, and his hands were holding me really close.

I will treasure this! Who knows when I will ever be able to be princess carried by him again!

"Weren't you going?"

Curtis puts me down on the ground.

...I definitely hadn't forgotten about Lily. Not at all. Now, to apply my plan for making Lily give in and let me marry Curtis!

—-*—-

I dart around the building on the path going through the garden and around the mansion just in time to see the beautiful and handsome sight that is my big sister talking with Eric. Her light blue hair glimmers in a ray of sunshine peeking between the clouds. As you'd expect of someone loved by a water god spirit thing!

She even has two impressive looking young knights standing next to her! Magdalin-chan is there too! She almost looks like a boy bringing home his lover, ufufufu. In comparison Eric only has our maids and butler behind him and our two guards by the front door. Felice is there too. I must remember to call Lily Augustus. Still, she looks way more handsome than even Lord Wolfram Stanbell! No wonder the Claire girl keeps talking about her. Lily's mantle looks a bit worse for wear though. They'll likely have to get a new piece of cloth- those aren't House Celeste clothes.

Ours is kind of midnight blue like our hair, but those are brown and green just like... Curtis'.

Are those Lionel-sama's?! That means that they made up right?! In other words!

"I knew it! I knew you'd support me all aloooong!" I half cheer half wail in relief and happiness as I run towards Lily and throw myself at her to give her a hug of appreciation as I get a little bit overwhelmed with emotion.

Predictably it didn't quite work. As I threw myself at her, with a calm stare she simply put a hand on my face and redirected me just enough to make me fall past her and flop down onto the cold and wet grass.

My dress, thankfully dark blue, gets cold and clammy against my skin immediately. When I sit up and look up at Lily she just stares back at me plainly. You see, Lily has a no physical contact policy that just barely doesn't include her hands. I've yet to be able to hug her. She's a bit mean that way. Even Eric lets me hug him since he's family. Not that he is helping me up right now though he saw all of that. In fact no-one is. Felice being the new maid looks too shocked of what just happened while everyone else is ignoring it. I guess they're used to it.

"What are you talking about, Iris?" Lily speaks out calmly.

Ah, right! Got distracted! I get back up on my feet and try throwing myself at her again. This time I'm ready for her hand!

"Those are Lionel-sama's clothes, right?! That means you get along with Lionel-sama and won't object to my marriage to Curtis, right?!"

"Eh?!" Magdalin's voice sounds somewhere in the background as I do my jump.

The hand does come, but as I brush it aside I know she will try to kick my legs away from underneath me. I may have been a bit overwhelmed last time but I've practiced for this!

Bitterly I have to report that the ground disappears underneath me as she cruelly and rather simply just moves a bit to the side and grabs me by the back of the dress. She just lifts me up and lets me dangle from her hand... somehow I have been utterly humiliated.

One day I'll be tall enough that she cannot do this!

I catch a glimpse of Magdalin-chan giving me a look of pity, but she also looks a bit guilty. Odd.

"Of all the places your mind could go to this is the most useless one, Iris. As long as the two of you have not been indecent again I would have no objections to an engagement," Lily grumbles out at me and puts me back down on the ground. Her brows are all furrowed though. She doesn't seem to take me seriously at all.

Indecent?...

"Why can't I kiss Curtis?! It's just an itty bitty kiss!" I whine back at her. I already know the answer because of Erik, but it is not fair at all. In a bit of anger my emotions burst out.

"Just because you are a prude you cannot enforce that on others!"

I tighten my fists into little fists and decide to give her the most stubborn look I can give. I swear I saw Lily's eye twitch, and I hear a snort of laughter from Eric behind me.

Lily looks me right in the eyes for a loooong and drawn out moment like she's trying to make me take it back, but I will not! You will not make me back down on this!

"Curtis is of House Tepet. If an engagement does not work out and you have to marry someone else then the poor weakling will have to compare himself to Curtis. There is a limit to how cruel you can be, Iris."

...While she's right about that, there is a problem with those words!

"I won't! I will only marry Curtis!"

The moment I say that, I realize what Lily is going to say next. It is something I do not want to hear, so I am about to reach up and try to cover her mouth when she's about to speak... only to have a sudden realization.

Wasn't this the hand I used to cover Curtis' mouth? It was. I still remember the feeling of his lips against my palm.

I stop immediately and put it against my own lips instead.

Thank goodness. I nearly made my sister steal my indirect kiss with Curtis.

Ah. She stopped speaking too, lucky me~ She may be staring at me with suspicion in her eyes but she will never know about this, ufufufu~ I win this.

Plop.

A heavier hand than Curtis' is put on top of my head. It's Lily's... Pat. Pat. Pat. Then she moves her hand away without a word and looks back to Eric all unfazed and continue talking with him about lodging for the knights.

Pat? Lily patted my head? She patted my head instead of scolding me? Instead of teasing me? She looks normal too. She looks normal but... just now, what was that? I reach for her arm and gently tug at her sleeve.

"Are you okay?"

She doesn't ever act like that. I mean, I've convinced her to do something like that by winning games against her, but this is different. This was without me asking for it. Lily looks down to me again but doesn't answer.

"You don't have to do things you don't like," I remind her gently since she's acting weird.

Maria, my handmaiden, does say I force Lily to do things she doesn't like, but it is always kind of for fun. Lily will always call me a little kid or clingy when I make her give in. It's not ever kind of serious like this.

Lily stares at me for a little while. Though I stare at her eyes they're calm like the surface of a pond. Lily slowly leans down to me and then... pulls me into her arms. Into a hug.

She smells like sweat, water and earth. She's been travelling for a while. It is an unfamiliar scent. My face is pressed into the wolf mantle where the hairs tickle my face, but more than that it is her warmth I cannot ignore. She's really warm. Her surprisingly callous hands are all the way around me to my sides and her cheek feels rough.

When she whispers her answer to me it is in a somber voice lower than usual.

"I am alright, Iris. Since it may be the last time I return I decided I might as well spoil you for once, you greedy kid."

She tries to tease me at the end, but her words aren't in any way lighthearted. She's serious.

"But... they said the war would end if you become king," is all I manage to say back. They said the war would end. They said we would be safe. They said we would be fine, so I could marry Curtis.

Lily pulls back and looks into my eyes.

"We have sworn loyalty to the Royal Family and to protect this border. It is not our choice to make, Iris. We must only expect war."

Her words are firm and carry no hesitance. She holds my gaze easily, but the eyes of all adults around us sink to the ground in frowns.

"You do not believe the royal family will take the offer?"

Eric questions Lily with a stiff and serious expression.

"No."

We will go to war anyway? Even though they could take the deal?

Why?

But more so than me... poor Curtis.

When I look back to Curtis his eyes are at the ground. He stops looking happy and starts looking like Eric and the guards. Like an adult.

If we will go to war, then Curtis' family will be the first to die, he had said. He had been so relieved at the peace declaration. He had been so relieved he had cried.

"Why?!"

I look back up to Lily as I burst out that question.

"Why would they not take the offer?!"

I tug at her arm and look between Lily and Eric as they turn their attention to me with hints of pity in their eyes. It isn't fair. Why would they not accept a deal like that when it could save so many?! Lily looks down to me and puts her hands on my shoulders. She looks calm as she answers.

"Because the enemy might easily attack us even after we accept. The words of a dishonorable opponent cannot be believed," she answers me. She says that... she says that, but I can see doubt in her eyes.