Sera and Shane had left the chambers, and Alex was the only one left behind. One maid in her twenties came into the room after knocking, prepared the bathtub, and was ready for Alex to take a bath, with a change of clothes. In noble family, maid used to bath the young master and mistresses but Alex was bath by his parents till he reached 3 years and after that for one year, he was helped by maids but he didn't like maids touching his body, so, he took charge of his bathing by himself after reaching 4 years of age, since then he had bathed by himself.
Since there was a danger of slipping during a bath, advanced magicians were invited to reconstruct his bathroom, where he would not slip no matter what, and a measuring device that measures his moment for any suspicious signs, falling down, or any difference in body blood flow or mana change, would alert the others. Thanks to this and the maturity Alex had developed from an early age, his parents allowed him to bathe by himself, though they were initially opposed to it despite all the measures in place. But after seeing that nothing happened, they gave in.
Today was like any other day. He went into his bathroom, where the bathtub was in the center, with mild, warm water in it and soap nearby. He removed his clothes and hung them on the clothes hook, his towel sitting ready on the towel rack. He plunged into the bathtub and relaxed there. He looked over his body and found no scar from the previous day. He was healed by the healer, and all the bruises were taken care of.
He bathed using soap and exited the room, his new, fresh clothes seated on his bed, as he was putting on his white shirt and black trousers, a knock came on the door, he had worn trousers already, so he allowed the entry,"Come inside."
Princess Eva was behind the door. After hearing the answer, she slowly opened it and, as she entered, was momentarily flabbergasted, stopping in her tracks and turning red as she saw that Alex had yet to button his shirt. He did not expect her to come when he was wearing his clothes. He looked down on his bare, naked front chest and torso, and he immediately turned back on his feet. She too turned her head to the side and gave a fake cough,"Cough — Ahem — cough". Quickly, he buttoned his shirt, smoothed it, and turned to face Princess, who was still turning her head to the side, not looking at him, though he could see her eyes darting towards him every once in a while. He smiled nervously and addressed her, "Princess, sorry, I didn't know it was you. Forgive me."
Princess turned to face Alex who had dressed himself, it wasn't like she had seen him naked but she still felt awkward and shy nonetheless, she reached near to the centre of the room, and bowed her head and thanked politely, her voice pleasant and small like a stream of water flowing in the lake,"Thank you for helping me inside the gate, I heard from my mother that you entered it to helped me despite you not having any need to do it." She had initially thought he was sucked into the gate with her, but her mother proved her wrong.
Alex was about to say something, but the princess stopped him,"Again, thank you for everything, and I am extremely sorry for teasing you yesterday." Alex hurriedly put his hand on her shoulder and replied, "There is no need to thank me, I only did it because I felt I needed to do it."
Princess slowly lifted her head and looked at Alex. Her eyes were soaked with tears that were daring to burst forward, but she had controlled them. Seeing this, he felt a gut-wrenching pain; he did not know what to do. He spontaneously hugged her, not knowing what to do.
Princess was shocked to see him hug her, it was the first time anyone of her age had hugged her, others would maintain distance and even if they came near her, they did so with only some ulterior motive, she was no more able to hold her tears back and the dam broke out, her tears falling on Alex's shoulder, she sobbed, her face coming in raggered manner,"Thank you, Alex, I will repay you, I owe you."
Alex was not happy that she would always say she owes him and whatnot. He did not like those words. He distanced himself, slowly removed his hand, and stepped back. Clearly, he had not expected to hug her; out of habit from hugging his parents and grandparents countless times, he hugged her, feeling that it was the only natural thing he could do to comfort her.
Alex said, "No need to repay me. You don't owe me. I did it because I felt we were friends." He closed his eyes at the end, embarrassed by his choice of words. He felt they were friends, but no one had told him how to make friends or what the process was. He only knew that friends meant someone close, someone you talk to. He might not be close to her, but he had talked enough with her, so he considered her a friend. Besides, he had no friends and wanted one so much after reading countless stories of friends exploring the world and killing demons; he considered her a friend he could one day embark on a journey with. But he was not sure whether she felt the same. Even though she teased him constantly, he decided to forgive her as he felt friends should forgive each other, though he would take some sweet revenge if he were to get the chance.
Princess could never have imagined how many thoughts Alex was having at this very moment, as she was busy with her own thoughts. She had somehow controlled her tears back, though her face still had remnants of it, and she stood still, motionless, after hearing the word 'friend' from Alex's mouth. It was not like she had no friends; she had friends, though few, extremely few, but not of the opposite gender, and she had lost many friends because they were jealous and so on.
She smiled back, seeing that he had closed his eyes at the last moment and was standing still, clearly embarrassed by the words he had spoken. She had already deduced that he had no friends and replied, "Thank you, friend."
Alex opened his eyes and found sincerity in her words and face. He sighed internally and jumped happily that he had made his first friend. Seeing this, the princess couldn't stop herself from laughing, her tears disappearing from her eyes as she laughed at her new friend's antique. Alex stopped jumping and looked sideways, with an embarrassed face.
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