Chapter 11: Hilda

Post poll chapter reworked.

Poll results are in and it looks like its a big win to No.

20% (yes) - 80% (no)

As such, this is the re-written chapter to not have the little sister be included. (lines changed and deleted)

If you guys are satisficed with this chapter, I will remove the prior chapter 11-12 and continue writing chapter 12 onward from here (:

(Estelle might get added to waifu voting later)

For those that still want Natsuki to be included, I may make her an OC later on (still unsure)

Don't forget to drop those power stones and add this fanfic to your collection!

*

My voice trailed off and echoed in the hallway as Estelle and I vanished from sight, obviously from lodging a complaint at her. Yet Estelle ignored it and sped up her dash into the soldiers' quarters.

"You really are going too fast you know. You are going to trip over.", I retorted as I was in an awkward sprint to match her pacing. Yet at this time she suddenly came to a halt which almost had me crash into Estelle.

"But it's fun!.", Estelle responded back happily as if doing such things was natural for her.

Although I was wanting to berate Estelle some more, she was behaving more and more like the explorer she was. At least Estelle knew that it was rude to open up closed doors out of the blue, that I could see, which gave me an inward sigh of relief.

At this time, we started to approach the end of the soldiers' quarters, only to spot a few open rooms. Estelle seemed to enter a conundrum of sorts, unable to decide which room to enter. She thought for a moment, before pointing her finger at the leftmost room. Thankfully there wasn't any people in there.

"I choose...you!", Estelle pointed to the left room, before entering a dash again. We entered a rather large room with two beds in it and a simple table with a couple chairs around it Estelle spotted the closest bed and dove right onto it.

I was expecting a hard flop the moment Estelle did, but surprisingly her small body bounced a couple times, signaling the bed was pretty fluffy. Estelle smiled again feeling this and let out a giggle.

"Hehe, fluffy bed!", Estelle let out another happy giggle as she started to jump up and down the bed.

"It's good for a soldier to get a good rest so they can be ready for their next battle and a good bed does wonders. Still, where are you getting this energy from?", I mumbled.

"Energy?", Estelle asked, placing a finger on her face, tilting her head a bit in confusion.

"Guess she wouldn't know too much about stamina yet...", I uttered to myself. "Energy let's you move around like you are doing now, Estelle.", I decided to explain to her a bit.

"How I move...? Oh!", Estelle responded with a nod, but she probably didn't understand my full meaning. I'm not too sure how many there are who are like me knowing more than what the age suggests, that is remained to be seen.

"Daddy says the same thing to me too.", Estelle responded to me. Looks like she's heard this before. Guess comes kids are hyper like her?

"Well, we have a full place to explore here. You don't want to tire too quickly, do you?", I decided to ask.

"No!", Estelle immediately denied me. "I want so see see more things here!", Estelle complained a bit. She then stopped her bouncing, and spoke out again, asking me a question this time.

"But, question first.", Estelle asked me, looking my way. Seeing this, I took this time to clime up onto the closest with her.

"What is it, Estelle?", I asked back.

"Why is your daddy going to fight my Daddy?", Estelle asked, not knowing the answer. Hearing her ask that brought a smile to my face for some reason.

"Well, that's because my dad and your dad are rivals in what they do. I am not sure if they have engaged in combat face to face before, but it will definitely be fun to watch.", I explained to Estelle, who nodded hear head in excitement.

"Fighting is fun?", Estelle asked again, which suddenly caused me to halt. Seeing me suddenly do this caused Estelle to become confused again.

"About that...", I began to say, only to go into thought for a moment before explaining. "It can be fun yes, but you can get hurt from it too. Unless Mister Bright specifically tells you that you can fight, don't do it, okay?", I asked Estelle in a serious tone. She nodded her head again.

"I'm not too sure what you mean by that Naoto, but okay!"

Hearing Estelle say that, I nodded as well, letting out an inwardly sigh of relief. Hopefully I just didn't speed up Estelle's training to become a Bracer later on by doing that...She will follow in Cassius Bright's shadow in terms of combat ability, learning his pole arts. Let's just hope with me saying this she doesn't start too early...

"Still, it probably won't be long until Mister Bright notifies the Head Maid, and if she catches us our exploring will be over. Do you want to stay in this area, Estelle?", I asked her.

"I want to, but let's go! There's a whole lot right?", Estelle asked.

"Of course there is. the second floor terrace is even better to have a look.", I also said. Estelle's eyes brightened hearing that. I knew the layout of Grancel Castle pretty well by now, and several years down the line, this castle may get inherited by me. Queen Alicia did seem to notice my background just from a first glance, or I wonder, did she know of me before Giliath and I arrived here?

With that thought, Estelle stopped jumping on the bed and reached out her hand. Seeing this, I smiled again and took it, causing us to get off the bed again. Even I had to admit it was rather fluffy. Knowing that we still had much to explore, Estelle left the room, and entered a dash again.

Yet Estelle didn't didn't seem to see where she was going now within the eastern wing. Unfortunately for her, it didn't take long before she suddenly ran into something in front of her.

"Oof...", Estelle said, feeling a large impact strike against her, causing her to tumble back a bit. I placed my hands behind her back to catch her from falling. Estelle recovered, only to look up the stern figure in front of us now.

"Scary lady...', Estelle said, only to take to my side.

The stern figure didn't seem phased by this. Instead, we heard a stern yet warm voice reach out ears that came from the figure Estelle just ran into. This voice was actually directed at me instead of her.

"You really are just like Crown Prince Judis when he was little...", The voice said, which seemed to belong to an older aged woman as a figure of a maid was seen before us. She had purple eyes and brown hair that was in the process of greying. She was currently wearing a green blouse and a long red skirt.

Seeing the Head Maid appear before us and say that, Estelle became quiet and kept by my side. As for me, I did a light bow to the Head Maid.

"it looks like Mister Bright was able to find you miss Head Maid. That does seem to be the case. While I do not remember my birth mother much, she does appear related to the Queen. The Queen was that person on the balcony from earlier, right?", I asked, returning to my usual self. We had not actually introduced each other in person yet, but we likely will once we reach her throne room later.

"That regal person you saw on the balcony above was indeed Her Majesty, the current Queen of Liberl. It is of great joy to see another member of her family before me, Your Highness. While your stay this time may be short, it is still a pleasure to introduce myself to you. I am the Head Maid, Hilda.", Hilda said, doing a curtsy, introducing herself.

"Hilda, is it? It's nice to meet you too. are you here to come pick us up?"

"Naoto, play?", Estelle asked that after being quiet for a moment. This caused me to let outa a light chuckle.

Hearing Estelle asked that, however, caused Hilda to shift her eyes onto Estelle. She saw a little brown haired girl next to me which caused her to raise her eyebrows.

"And you must be the daughter of Colonel Bright and his wife.", Hilda spoke out to Estelle.

"Yeah! Nice to meet'cha, scary lady!", Estelle responded happily as Hilda introduced to herself to Estelle. Yet as she did, Estelle's response caused a mark of anger to appear on Hilda's face.

"Hmph. Just like Colonel Bright. Anyways, I have come to let Your Highness know that you and your family will be granted audience with Her Majesty in one hour. Please be sure to show up on time. Otherwise, I will come find you and drag you there myself.", Hilda said in a serious tone.

Now that's the Hilda I know, stern on the outside but still an understanding person.

"Thank you Hilda. Does that mean you won't watch us until then?"

"Only from afar. Please refrain from entering the second floor as that will lead to the open terrace to where Her Majesty's and Her Highness's private quarters."

"Her Highness?", I asked while nodding my head in confirmation, becoming interested. However, Hilda only smiled back at me, and didn't say anything. Guess she wasn't going to say anything about that for now. If I had to guess, she was most likely referring to Judis's daughter, since she wasn't present during the time of the sinking. (A/N: For those who played sky, you know who this is)

All I saw was Hilda turn around, and folded her arms. Seeing Hilda do this, I looked down at Estelle and spoke out to her.

"Looks like we can still explore a little bit, but our range became limited. Let's go, Estelle.", I said to her.

"Okay!", Estelle responded happily. We then parted ways from Hilda, and started to search the ground floor and first floor of Grancel to our hearts content.

Before we knew it the next hour passed. I had yet to talk about Elie's situation to Estelle, and I probably won't either. It will be a nice surprise for Estelle to meet Elie tomorrow once the funeral for the late Crown Prince Judis and his wife begins. If the two of them become friends earlier than later, Estelle might want to visit Crossbell more frequently in the future.

But first, it looks like we now have an audience with Queen Alicia the Second. Father did say she was my grandmother likely due to the age difference, but Giliath still had a child with her sister, who was my late mother. She died during childbirth implications, but would that make me more of her nephew instead of grandson?

Well, I didn't want to think about that too much. For now, it was time to meet her in person.