My name belongs to me only

Daniel Furlorn and Shallom Wildon

The trio and Steve had arrived at Nanos, at perfect timing for the Liume jewels were to be discussed, welcomed by the servants of the palace, witnessing the lost Alaric daughter with the heir of the Alaric family, Jake Alaric and Erica Gallagher, the heiress of the Gallagher family.

Lucia was intimidated by the number of servants. She was never good with crowds, ever since she was two, Jake attempted to give a head pat to Lucia. She flinched in contact with him. He noticed quickly and started his hand at the back of his head, pretending to be scratching his head instead. Erica witnessed the entire scene and stood quiet. Jake started singing his favorite song in the lowest tone, he could mutter.

"I am a hopeless romantic."

"There is nothing I can do about it."

"I could never stop it."

"The only way I could stop feeling this, is to stop falling for you."

"But I can't stop that."

"I tried for many years, but I ended up falling deeper for you."

"Every single fault I find in you, makes me end up sinking deeper in this feeling."

Erica didn't notice when she joined Jake, but she still went along with the song.

"I have always looked for a way to escape this feeling."

"But I end up failing."

"I keep looking for a way."

"I am a hopeless romantic."

"Dreaming about things that will never come true."

"We were always friends from the beginning."

"But I never saw you that way."

"I wanted us to be something more than friends."

"But it was like the world was against me."

"I couldn't be with you, even if I wanted."

"Because you will always look at me as your friend."

The duo sang in perfect harmony, Lucia had an excited expression watching the two best friends singing together. She saw a portrait that caught her attention. It was a family of four and the father was smiling sheepishly at his wife, who was simply pulling his ears to her side. It was a little boy who looked to be disappointed in his parents. At his side was a little girl who seemed to be covering her laughter. It was a really exciting portrait. She held up her hurt wrists and traced the portrait with her fragile fingers, she had a sad smile on her face.

"I wish my family was like this."

"Wish your family was like that, Lucia?"

"Um I didn't say much, but how do you know my name? I never told you."

She said meekly, subconsciously touching her ears, Erica studied her facial expression, her breathing became higher and unstable, her eyes became dull, she clenched her chest with her tiny little hands, she was clearly having a panic attack, and she couldn't differentiate between reality and her hallucinations. She was quickly closing her eyes. She almost lost consciousness, but a little boy caught her with his hands.

She opened her eyes and his concerned face caught her attention. He was a lot like the boy in the portrait, clear deep ocean blue eyes, one could simply get lost in. His hair, which seemed to be as fluffy as cotton candy, his face was clearly a bit too charming for a child, even if he was around her age, and he was wearing white bleached shorts , his worried look was something she barely saw from others. She was mostly used to seeing disgusted looks from her 'parents' and 'brother' and pitied looks from the neighbors or passersby who always got a glimpse of her 'parents' and 'brother' behavior and way of treating her as their golden goose, who could lay golden eggs when asked, but in her case, it was demanded from her.

"Hey, are you okay?"

She was brought back to reality by his voice. His tone wasn't mocking her like her 'brother' or the strange man who accompanied her to the Moria desert, only to leave her in the hands of two strangers, who looked very familiar to her, but she couldn't remember them. The boy's voice sounded like a caring brother. She always wanted to have, but she was still scared of interacting with kids her age, so she instantly stood up from her position and hid behind Erica and Jake.

"Good evening, Aunt Erica and Cousin Jake, can you please tell me who the girl is next to you?"

"None of your business, Daniel."

"You have no right to say that to your second cousin."

"Erica, don't interfere in this conversation."

"But I didn't say anything."

"Then who was it then?"

"It was me, obviously."

The voice belonged to a lady walking up to them with an exhausted expression, her short dark brown wavy hair wrapped around by a short cream towel, she was in a casual white shirt and black pants, which meant she had just come back from training.

"Hello Queen Shallom, how are you?"

"Drop that tone Erica, I was clearly talking to Jake."

"What do you want from me, Shallom?"

"Easy, I want that little girl hiding behind you to be my son's playmate and I also want to listen to that song. You were singing down the halls, I have never heard that song before."

"Because it wasn't meant to be heard, and it wasn't a song, it was more of a poem."

"A breakup poem sounds more like that."

"Erica, why did you tell her?"

"It wasn't much of a secret, if she already knew before the rest of us."

Jake had a look of shock and betrayal, glaring at Erica, who had diverted her eyes to the children, who were getting along, if getting along meant Lucia still hiding behind Erica's back, when attempting to talk to Daniel, moving his eyes from the bubbly and cute atmosphere and having a confrontation with Shallom, his elder cousin's wife, which meant she was his cousin-in-law, even if she did have a vulgar mouth for someone of her status.

Shallom Wildon, the second princess of the kingdom of Arenelle, the current user of the Mysterious Risme of the Royal Family. The Wildon family is the most mysterious royal family after the Wester family, The Stane family is the third most mysterious royal family and the Furlorn family is the fourth most mysterious royal family, due to how many secrets of the family leaked out to the public.

The Wildon family have been ruling Arenelle since Eric Gallagher's time, which is why Erica is Shallom's personal knight, even if she can fight for herself, but is greatly looked down on by the nobility. Females are allowed to be knights, but the nobles see this as a distraction for women to dump their responsibilities on maids and servants, who have been employed to do enough hard work. The nobles are afraid of women will overpower them in social status, which is why it is restricted for a woman to be engaged to a man or to be rewarded with a rank above marquess, when they reach the age of sixteen, to clip their wings and stop them from achieving such dreams.

Unfortunately, Shallom was one to not follow the rules of the nobles not to, they were either two or three ranks below her. She used her power anyway. She seemed fit, she wasn't gentle or sweet like most noble ladies liked, she was brash, blunt and always expressed herself. She, in the most uncivilized way, was the reason why her elder sister was able to achieve the rank of duchess, without marrying a man, of any race or social rank.

She was known to be lazy about situations she caused, so she simply dumped them on Erica, her personal knight, when she was eight. There was a seven-year gap between both of them, but both graduated and finished being squires and promoted to knights in the same year. She wasn't really interested in getting married to Clover. The two were like oil and water, they could never mix together and yet ended up having a child together.

"I assume you are here for the meeting between the four kingdoms of Umend."

"Yes, we are, Shallom."

"Go back to your formal tone, Erica."

"Could you please stop messing with her."

"Jake, it's okay, of course Queen Shallom."

She held him back from talking, he glared right back at Shallom, who had dragged Daniel away, who was waving goodbye to Lucia. She looked away but managed to wave back at him, as Shallom and Daniel had left the three in the hall.