New World, New Life: I Became A Bigshot In The Ancient World
Chapter 67: THE NOVEL’S VILLAINESS

Chapter 67: THE NOVEL’S VILLAINESS

[Alicia Eldridge. The novel’s Villainess! She doesn’t look like a villainess to me though.] She thought, staring at the cute and innocent looking girl.

Alicia Eldridge turned to her and their eyes met. Aristia froze from being caught staring, not knowing how to avert her eyes now that she had been caught.

She passed a polite nod at her and looked away as if she hadn’t been caught staring. That made Alicia curtsey before looking away too.

She wondered why the princess who had never cared to speak to her before was now staring at her so intently. Did the princess want to say something to her? But the princess just looked away. This confused her.

Just then Beatrix and Serina arrived at the corner of the banquet hall their group was standing in.

"Tia," Serina called out and everyone turned around to see the princesses.

"Princesses." They bowed in unison.

Beatrix and Serina nodded in response. They were actually very excited. After all, this could be considered their first time of coming in contact with the aristocrats apart from the people they met who came to the palace to see their father or to carry out other duties.

They had attended the banquets held the previous years, but they were too small to be left alone by their nannies, only sitting on the thrones.

Most of the people here were unfamiliar to them, but using the information and description their tutor provided about the noble families, they were able to figure out who was who among the aristocrat children gathered here.

When Lauren noticed Beatrix and Serina beside Aristia, her smile vanished and her expression changed to that of a glare which Beatrix and Serina returned in full.

Aristia shook her head. [Why can’t they stay together for a moment without glaring at each other? There are people watching the princesses and Duke’s daughter having a stare down.]

They were both her cousins, but they didn’t get along with each other. During their stay at the Royal palace, her maternal cousins had come to visit her and they had come in contact with Beatrix and Serina.

They quarrelled any chance they got, and to her astonishment, it was all over her. But their mothers had formed a bond. Aristia shook her head at the thought.

It was just like that of book Aristia and Alicia. Their mothers were close, but the children were not.

"Princess Aristia is wearing matching dresses with princess Beatrix and princess Serina." Someone blurted out. Only then did the others notice.

"That is true." Nova Kiran nodded, staring at the three of them in surprise.

"The dresses are very beautiful." Lauren grumbled as Serina and Beatrix glanced at her with a smug look on their faces. They seemed to be telling her that they were the ones wearing matching outfits with Aristia, not her.

Even so, she couldn’t deny the fact that the dresses were beautiful, therefore, she wouldn’t withhold her praise.

Aristia, Beatrix and Serina were indeed putting on matching outfits. They had the same design and colour.

Aristia’s gown was the color grey, same with Beatrix and Serina. However, the embroidered flower designs in Aristia’s dress were purple, while the flower designs in Beatrix and Serina’s dress were white in color. The ribbons used to tie their hair up was white in color. Aristia’s was black.

If someone didn’t know better, they would think the three of them were triplets.

[I think I am being affected by the original Aristia and her family’s taste in color that matches their natural features. After all, her room is a mixture of grey, black and purple— a combination of her parents’ features. Beatrix and Serina’s room is a mixture of grey, white and green, also a combination of their parents features. I don’t know how they do it, but they do it.]

"I have never seen a dress of this design." Paige Kiran said.

Everyone understood what she wanted to say. She wanted to know where it was bought and who designed it.

Serina held her head up proudly and her gaze landed squarely on Lauren as she opened her mouth to say who the dress was designed by.

"Oh, this dress was designed by..."

"Oh, this dress was designed by T—" Serina was about to blurt when she was interrupted by her sister.

"The dresses were designed by a mysterious person." Beatrix cut in quickly.

[Seriously? Mysterious person?] Aristia held back the urge to facepalm.

Serina realized her mistake and nodded in agreement. "Yes," she said as Beatrix shot her a look. That was a close call.

It was supposed to be a secret that Aristia designed the clothes. Now that she thought about it, many things about her cousin were to be kept secret.

"The design was sent as a gift to the Royal family. We had madam Grace make the dress. They are a new designer for the royal family." Aristia added calmly when someone wanted to speak about who the mysterious person was and where the person resided, quickly dispelling any thoughts they had about purchasing one or getting their parents to ask the person to make designs for them to.

After all who would dare to impersonate anything the royal family used? And it was the royal family’s personal designer. Could they ask the person to design clothes for themselves? That would be preposterous! No one asked about it or said anything more about it.

New conversation was brought up and soon topic of the mysterious person was buried among new topics.

The children conversed a while, then just as planned, Beatrix, Serina and Aristia pretended to leave the group to mingle with other aristocrats, but while no one was looking, or better still, while they thought no one was looking, they sneakily left the banquet hall, unaware of the pair of eyes watching them with curiousity.

However, Wade, who was left behind with the other children, wanted to follow along. He subconsciously wanted to stop Aristia. Was she leaving him here with these children after bringing him here?

Before he could move or speak, Aristia had already left. He was left standing awkwardly and feeling nervous. Strangely enough, now that the third princess was gone, he wished she stayed or better still, take him with her.

Aristia wasn’t aware of any of this.

"Operation Sneak Out Of The Palace Without Getting Caught is now in action," Aristia said once they were out of the banquet hall, and Beatrix and Serina giggled.

They moved quickly to the planned spot. There was a little bush in front of the thick palace wall.

"Come on." Aristia whispered with a gesture as she crawled through the bush. The little bush wasn’t really little. It was a bit taller than herself and was covered with dense leaves, making it possible for her to stand behind it without being seen.

She quickly changed her clothes before putting on an already arranged cloak. The dress she designed was simple to open with the classic zipper at her back.

Picking up a vial, she drank some of the contents, watching how her long hair changed from grey to that of a plain brown.

With great effort, she pushed down the brick in front of her and crawled out from under the wall into another similar bush on the other side of the wall.

She was beginning to suspect that someone had snuck out using this method before.

She waited behind the bush for her companions.

Because of what usually happened in movies, she had asked Rosalind and Sienna to carefully search the walls for any openings they could fit, and to her amazement and happiness, they had discovered this secret exit that the maids didn’t even know existed.

Beatrix and Serina did the same as Aristia and by the time they exited the bush, their hair had turned brown and they were putting on plain commoner children clothes.

They crawled out of the other side of the bush, and to their surprise, they had exited the palace walls.

"Let’s go," Aristia said, taking the almost empty vial which Serina handed to her.

***

Alicia Eldridge watched as the princesses turned around to mingle with the other aristocrats. She was about to turn back to her group when she noticed the third princess leave the palace through the exit door.

A few seconds later, one of the twin princesses followed after, and then the last princess followed suit.

’Where could they be going?’ She thought.

Curiousity got the best of her and before she knew it, she was carefully making her way out of the banquet hall, in the same direction she had seen them leave.

She carefully followed them as they made their way out of the palace, watching the princesses dodge servants and maids.

She hid behind a wall, then watched as the princesses crawled under a bush.

After a second of thinking, she decided to crawl under the bush too. She saw folded dresses lying on the ground beneath the large bush.

’Aren’t these the princesses’ dresses? Where are the princesses?’

She thought, looking forward in confusion at the wall in front of her, wondering how she couldn’t see the princesses when this was where they had entered. She had seen them enter.

She brought her hand forward to touch the brick, but her body fell forward, which caused her hands to push hard at the brick. That pushed it backward.

Alicia stared through the hole at the bush outside in shock. She crawled out, looking around in amazement. She was outside the walls of the royal palace!

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Let’s set a goal dearies. Top 3 in win-win and I’ll give 10 bonus Chapters. Let’s do this!