I ran and ran, turned from corner to corner, and went to the point where I cursed this damn castle for being so big. I mean, what the heck? Why would they need a bigger castle if only a few people were living here, right?

I finally arrived at the library. I gulped hard before I entered. The door let out a loud creak as I entered. The windows were all open, letting the sunlight the whole library. "Hello?" I called out. My voice echoed in the room. I took hesitant steps as I looked at my surroundings, trying to see if I could find his royal highness.

My gaze fell on the usual couch where Ace would have been—sitting there on the couch with a book in hand. But when I came there, there was no sign of Ace.

He has to be here!! Or else, I wouldn't know any other place to look for him.

I decided to try and walk around in case I might find him. I sneaked a peek at each place between the bookshelves in hopes that he might be there looking for a nice book, but he wasn't. "Where the heck could he be?" I wondered out loud.

As if on cue, something hard hit me on the head. "Ow!!" I clutch my head and look down at the object that had fallen. It was a hard leather-bound book. No wonder it hurts.

With a hand still on my head, I picked it up and wondered how the heck did this book get here?

"Looking for something?" My body tensed at the sound of the voice. Actually, I really didn’t know what to feel when I heard his voice. Excitement? Fear? Annoyance?

I looked up only to find the person whom I really came for in this place. He was at the library’s second floor, leaning on the balcony and looking down at me. His black hair fell and shadowed his face. Now with his elongated ear, he looked so different.

Crap.

I started to open my mouth, but no sound came out, and I stood there looking like a fish.

What am I going to say again?

When I didn't speak, Ace only raised an eyebrow at me before he decided that I wasn't worth his time and started to leave.

"Wait!" I called out to him. With the book still in my arms, I hurriedly ran towards the stairs and to the second floor. I saw him by one of the shelves. He was looking at me and studying me as I came to him panting.

"What?" His voice still has its rudeness in them that makes me want to slam the book to his face. But I didn't. Instead, I gave him a sweet and adorable smile as I politely handed him the book. Trust me, it's hard to do this when you're facing his gaze right now.


"You dropped this," I said and offered him the book.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "I threw it at you. Why would you give it back to me? Tch." He said and quickly snatched the book from me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing. I was just having some sort of experiment to see how hard an idiot's skull can be. It turns out that It's pretty hard. The edge even got damage." He started to massage the said spot with his thumb.

"You dropped the book on purpose?"

"Yep."

Please...Just this once. Give me the patience to deal with this guy.

Instead of wrapping my hands around his neck and throwing him off the balcony while shouting insults about elves, I simply gave him a tight smile. "Oh really? That's cool." I said and added a little laugh, in which he responded with a grimace.

"Stop smiling. You look like an idiot." He said and started to place the book on one of the shelves.

I, on the other hand, am fuming with anger. Why does he make it so hard for me to apologize?!

Once he finished placing the book, he turned to me. Since he doesn't want me to smile, I just lift the corners of my lips in which he just rolled his eyes. "Ugly cow." I heard him say.

I can't take this any longer. "What's your problem? Why are you such a jerk? Can't you see that I'm trying to be nice here?!" I burst out.

He slammed the bookshelf behind me and studied me before he turned his eyes back to the shelves. "Nope. You don't look like it."

I swear. This guy makes me wanna pull my hair out. "Uh-huh. And I don't look like someone who has ears as if a fishhook was pulling them."

Ace stopped scanning the book as he turned to glare at me. "At least I wasn't stupid enough to faint when a werewolf speaks in my mind."

"Did you just call me stupid, Santa's helper?"

"In fact, I did, you stupid blonde."

"Gosh! You're so...annoying! Why can't you just be nice?"

"I was given a mouth and a tongue for a reason. And that is to tell you that you're an ugly cow whose face looks as if it was dipped in wolf shit."

"Well, it's better than having pointy ears. I swear if I have a ring with me right now, then I might throw it at your ears."

Ace frowned at me. "Did you just come here to pick a fight? Because I am not in the mood for one." He said and started to walk away from me.

I mentally slapped myself for almost forgetting the main reason that I was here. I'm supposed to apologize to this jerk for what I did earlier, but he made it hard for me to do so. "W-Wait!" I called out to him. He stopped and turned his head to the side.

"What now?" Annoyance was evident in his tone as he said it.

I tried to look for the right words, but I couldn't find any. So I just looked at him as my tongue-tied. "I-I....."

Ace sighed. "Look. If you want to say something, then say it. Might as well get this over with."

"I'm sorry!" I blurted out quickly. Ace must not have prepared himself for this because he looked slightly taken aback and turned around so he could fully face me.

"What?" His face looked as if he was confused, which would have been adorable if he was not giving me that look. It was as if he doubted my sincerity.

I took a deep breath and tried again. "Look, I heard everything from the princes. They said that you were the one who found me for the price for the return of your 'power'." I made air quotes in the air. "Assuming you were trying to kill it?"

"Tch." Ace averted his eyes from me and looked to the side. "It couldn't be avoided." He mumbled. "Besides, I didn't do it for you. Don't get ahead of yourself. The thought of saving you disgusts me." He said as he took a book from one of its shelves before flipping its pages. He didn't say anything more as he examined the book.

I, on the other hand, was fidgeting. I mean, did he take my apology or what? "Um....Ace-"

"PRINCE." He corrected me.

I rolled my eyes. "PRINCE Ace, what now? Do you accept my apology?" I asked nervously. Ace paused for a second, and then he looked at me before saying a simple flat, "No."

I sighed. Well, I should have expected that from the very beginning. "Well, if you wouldn't take my apology, then can I at least say thank you?" Ace took a deep breath before shutting the book close and facing me. He studied my face for a moment, then an unexpected thing happened. The corner of his mouth lifted.

"Sure."

A man of few words. That's all I can say about Ace right now. I mean PRINCE Ace.

Well, at least he accepted my thanks. Feeling a bit better, I offered him a tiny smile as I started to turn my back to him. "Hey." Ace called me. I suddenly stopped and looked at Ace and gave him a questioning look. "Have you met with the queen yet? I believe that she's worried about you."

Where that question came from, I don't know. "Yeah. I met her while I was heading here. Why?"

Ace shook his head. "Just curious. What did she say?"

I thought back to my encounter with the queen and shrugged. "Nothing. She just made me promise not to run off again."

"And you said yes." He said it not like a question, but a fact. Like something I should have said, which I did.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Is that all that she said? I assume that with this situation, she might cancel the ball." He pointed out.

A ball? Oh yeah. The stupid formal dance. How could I forget?

I thought about it for a while until I finally recalled what the queen had told me before I left. "Uh....not quite," I said. Causing Ace to raise one of his eyebrows in question. "What I meant was, I was given a choice whether to continue the ball or not."
Ace stared at me for a long time before he finally asked the question that even I hadn't bothered to ask myself until now. "So, what now? Are you going to say yes?"

"I don't know. it wouldn't make much of a difference even if I agree to it, right? I'd still be here. Away from my home." My voice faltered a little as I mentioned home. And Ace, being the jerk that he was, rolled his eyes at me as if seeing me in this position sickens him.

He walked and stood in front of me with a book in hand - completely towering over my height. "Like what you said, your choice won't make a difference whether you go or not."

"Your point?"

"Why don't you enjoy your stay here instead of just moping around and doing nothing. It's not like this will last forever." He said before he went by me and headed for the stairs. He paused at the edge of the stairs as he turned to me. "And if you do decide to stay, then learn to embrace the truth." His words carried a sort of message that I hadn't thought of before. He's got a point. Whatever I do here, as long as the orb hasn't recharged, I can't leave, so why don't I just enjoy it?

I ran after Ace, he was already heading down the stairs when I stood in front of him. He raised his eyebrow at me as I blocked his way. "Thank you." I beamed at him before I ran down the stairs and out of the library. Before I fully closed the doors behind me, I caught a glimpse of Ace's confused-looking face, which then turned into a disgusted look.

As expected of the PRINCE Ace.

A smile was plastered on my face as I leaned against the library door. It seems as if a part of the worries in my mind had cleared up. A question that I hadn't thought about was answered. Staying here in this world was clearly not one of my options. But it's pretty clear how welcome I am in this castle so why not just stay here and live with them for a while and experience what it is like to live in this world?

Embrace the truth.

Having those thoughts in my mind, I decided to look for the queen to tell her of my decision. As I retracted myself from the wall, a question suddenly popped into my head. Which way is headed to the queen?

***Meanwhile***

It took a while, but he was finally here. He finally found the place where his master was staying. The little wolf dropped the cloak as it panted. It wasn't easy slipping past the guards. Nor was it easy to find his way through the vast garden without being distracted.

It was already nighttime. His master must be asleep by now.

A tall figure emerged from the castle. The wolf suddenly tensed up and moved to hide in the bushes. The man looked troubled as he read a letter. His blonde hair glimmered in the moonlight.

The wolf sniffed the air. This guy is a warlock.

His slight movement rattled the bushes. "Who's there?" The blonde man asked. The wolf suddenly panicked and ran away, leaving the cloak behind. He immediately stopped and hid behind a rock to go back for the cloak. Too late.

The blonde man was headed his way but stopped short when he found the cloak. The man picked it up in wonder and gazed into the empty forest. "How did-"

"Prince Fred." A second man appeared. This guy has dark hair and pointy ears. When the man saw what the blonde was holding, he frowned. "Why do you have that?"

"I just found it lying on the ground. What are you doing here?"

"I felt a foreign presence here. But I can't tell what it is."

He's an Elf. The wolf thought. Suddenly it felt a weak tugging at his consciousness.

"I can feel it, but I can't control it." The Elf mumbled to himself.

The wolf whimpered. He had to leave. There's an Elf with a dangerous power around. He was sad that he couldn't see his master yet, but at the same time, he couldn't let himself get caught.

He'll meet with his master: one way or another.