74 Intruder?
After dinner, only Robin knew how he had managed to convince everyone that he was the last one who actually wanted to drop Nora off, but it was something he just had to do- because he was a kind soul and was doing it for everyone's sake. Keeping a long face throughout this process might have been helpful, too.
But deep down, he knew how much he really wanted this to happen, and how much he really wanted to drop Nora off alone, to make sure that she reached safely and without getting into any new troubles.
He was just about to leave Nora at the gate and return to his dorm- after all, he needed to sleep too. No matter how strong his body was, it still needed some rest in order to go through all the trauma of rescuing his new best friend from all the troubles she was surely going to meet on a daily basis.
He froze mid- motion when he felt a grip on his wrist, and before he could have a look at her to figure out what she needed to say, she hugged him without any warning.
"Thank you! Thank you for being the home I was in search of, for so long."
Saying this, she ran inside the palace without letting him utter the savage reply he had been contemplating;" Do you have some kind of a hug magnet, or what? "
When he also knew that he didn't really hate that hug.
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It was morning again, and today, Nora was up half an hour before the designated time. No matter how much she had tried, she had been unable to forget the torture she had gone through yesterday, which they insisted on calling 'exercise'.
But she knew that there was no way to escape her fate, hence she decided to get ready and stuff some fresh air into her lungs before having to swim through hellfire.
With that thought, she came down stairs, and happened to see the figure of someone standing by the window of the dining room, from where her entire lobby was visible- and more importantly, the pipe attached to that wall also led to her bedroom.
Thinking that it must be David once again, who had descended there from his Demon Palace with some new prank ideas, she rushed outside to catch the intruder.
But before she could spot the intruder, she barged into Louis, who was just there to wake her up.
"Nora! What happened? You look panicked, darling! Everything okay?"
Louis prevented her fall by holding her by her shoulders, while asking why her face had gotten deathly pale.
"I… I saw… De… I saw someone near that window."
She stopped herself from taking David's name, as she did not want to be the person who blamed someone before their guilt was proven.
This was the only reason she always used to give David the margin of doubt.
But while she was immersed in her thoughts of whether she was right or not, Louis rushed towards the window to get a proper view. He did find the grass near the window, brutally crushed by a person who had slightly bigger feet than usual. From a glance, he could tell that the shoe number was probably somewhere near 10, or bigger than that.
But he decided it would not be a good idea to give Nora further reasons to panic, hence he came back and replied;
"Oh sweetheart. You might have seen some rabbit and gotten scared , but nevermind, I have already arranged the guards and the cook for you, and asked them to keep themselves in disguise and give you proper privacy.
So don't think about it much, rather, think about the practice session of today."
He noticed the colour washing off her face, and dragged her to the forbidden forest.
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"I can't do it anymore…please don't ask me to do any more planks, push- ups or runs before next year. Or else, you all will find me six feet down in the ground-"
"Just zip your mouth and complete your exercise."
Robin spoke, knowing that the drama queen gene that somehow only appeared in front of him, Myron and Louis, was at its best.
But contrary to his command, he heard her voice again;
"I have done so many -"
"Yes you have done a total of 3 Planks of 15 seconds each, two push ups, 100 meters run and lots of whining after completing one sit up. You still have squats and crunches left."
Robin replied again, doing his cross fit.
"How can you be so brutal I have been all this from the last-"
"Fifteen minutes."
Robin replied again.
"Hahaha!"
But before Robin or Nora any of them could have erupted like a volcano, Louis laughed loudly as he jumped into the conversation;
"Nora ! I have never thought that I would ever see this side of yours. You have done 1% of the total exercise that Robin has completed in the same time!
But never mind, let's make a deal. If you complete your exercise today, I will not take the extra class on fencing which I was planning to-"
"Moon Goddess!! Please have mercy on me and take me with you."
She yelled, lifting her both hands towards the sky, while continuing her exercise, knowing there was no other option to escape her torture session.
She didn't even know why it was so important in the first place.
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Nora knew that today was going to be her last day of private classes and the last day to choose the house she wants to be in, before she would be transferred to the common classes and have to do everything like a common student- apart from having some privileges acquired by virtue of her birth.
But she was happy, because it was the life she wanted from the core of her heart. She never wanted the loneliness of the large castle but she wanted the chaos of the small home, where she wanted to shout, run, bicker for everything with her siblings… or friends, but she had never been blessed with either.
And while thinking about all this, she was covering the distance from her palace to the school. She was about to barge into someone on the staircase once again, and snapped into the present when she heard;
"Nooraaa! Good morning honey! Are you in a hurry today as well?"
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