"All bow down before our Royal family!" An announcer spoke loudly, with his voice ringing throughout the palace's halls and around the ballroom, everyone held their breath as they anticipated for the first appearance of the rumored white lily of the Royal family, Anastasius Clarimieres.

Six years had passed and Anastasius' bad reputation about being an unwanted prince had disappeared far long ago. After his meeting with the King, he was ordered to leave the isolated East Palace to live with his family in the Main Palace. They did have some trouble about Anastasius' new bedroom though, for the younger prince threw a tantrum when the Queen didn't let him share a room with his older brother.

But since Anastasius had already permitted Lucas on sleeping with him when the younger gets nightmares, everything was sorted out eventually (though it led to Lucas, faking nightmares every night just to sleep with his nii-chan).

Every month, the King would also call the most influential merchants in the Kingdom to provide him sets of art materials. He would also brag about Anastasius' art skills to them as they present their products to him. The word about the King's doting on the eldest prince didn't take long to spread out, a lot of speculations rose from the nobles and the commoners, some says it's due to the charm of the eldest prince while some says it's because of the King's everlasting love for the child's birth mother. Nevertheless, they still gave him a pretty nickname much suitable for his role in the Royal family: The White Lily of the Royal Family. This nickname came from his rumored purity and innocence that the flower symbolizes, its majestic appearance was also compared to his enchanting smile that can make anyone stop at their tracks and fall in love. These descriptions came from the palace's servants based of their interaction with Anastasius.

There was also a rumor about how his smile charmed the evil queen and made her turn into a new leaf. Even though the King already cleared their true intention of lowering Anastasius' rank, the people of the country still blamed the Queen for bullying the White Lily. Had it not been for the new rumor that had rose, the people would still be hating the Queen until now.

"We're finally seeing the rumored White Lily!"

"I wonder if he's really that enchanting as the rumors say.."

"What if he looks ordinary?"

"Hush before anyone hears you!"

Murmurs of the audience were akin to the buzzing of the bees, loud and irritating, however it did not falter Anastasius' smile. All he was thinking about was the new set of sweets that they will be serving in his social debut, as well as the gifts that he will be receiving. However he's a bit reluctant about the grand entrance, for he's still not used to large amount of audience in front of him.

Seeing him sigh, the King carried him on his waist with a slight frown on his face.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable? Do you want me to dismiss all of them?" He asked, ignoring Tiana's giggle on the background and Lucas' glare on his hand.

"Papa...I'm already 15 years old, you need not to carry me in your arms anymore." Anastasius said with a pout while his face flushes in the deepest shade of red.

"Why? You're still as small as a 10 year old child though." The King said nonchalantly. Anastasius can only rant in his head saying 'That's only because I was born prematurely and you're freaking tall as a titan, I still have my dignity you know?!'

"Your Majesty, it seems that the Young Master is uncomfortable in your clutches, please do put him down for his sake." Icarus bravely butt in.

'Way to go Icarus!' Anastasius just cheered silently.

"You're getting quite bold Smith, your father didn't talk back to me like this before." The King answered with a playful tone, but still wearing a poker face.

"That is only because it's the Young Master that I am serving, not you, Your Majesty." Icarus answered shamelessly, bowing down.

"Well that is also why I trust you in guarding my prince. Very well, I'll put him down now."

'Thank the gods' Anastasius sang in his head.

The moment Anastasius was put down, Lucas immediately put his older brother's arm around his as a support when they climb down the stairs.

"Umm...Lulu? I think you would only do this for a lady..."

"I will do this for whoever I want." Lucas answered sternly. Anastasius can only smile, these troublesome father and son...

The moment they stepped outside the curtains, everyone gulped at the sight of the beautiful family. The King looks as dignified as ever wearing the traditional Royal clothing that a Royal would only wear in the most important events; the Queen, even if they persisted to call her plain, still stole their breath away in her appearance wearing a long elegant white gown which had an embroidery of royal curled veins, and is wearing the most expensive jewelry that still did not make her look gaudy; Prince Lucas, who even though was younger than Anastasius by one year still towered over his brother with his height of 5'8 (the power of tall genes), he looked a lot like his father, although he still holds youthfulness with his demeanor of course;

and lastly, the star of the ball, the White Lily, the rumored eldest prince, Anastasius. Capturing everyone's hearts with his enchanting smile that clearly wasn't given justice by the rumors, his visuals surpassed the talks of the people! His porcelain skin only shows that he, indeed, was a pampered young man. His pink soft lips reminded them of pink fresh peaches, even though he was not blessed much with height, it only added to the innocence of his looks, his petite figure fits his outfit perfectly and makes one want to coddle him. The way his upturned cat eyes contrasts his soft features gives off a somewhat sultry look on him that makes the other hormonal teenage men and women from the audience want to jump him.

But of course, not on Lucas' watch.

"Oh Charles! You're here too!" Anastasius exclaimed, just the other's name automatically made Lucas grip onto Anastasius more than ever. As if saying I'll protect you from the big bad wolf!

"Of course I would be here, my future fiancé."

Charles mused and was just about to kiss Anastasius's hand if only he wasn't swatted away by Lucas.

"There you go again with your silly jokes." Although those jokes makes his heart flutter, he wouldn't dare to entertain it because he knows that the Prince Charming is destined to fall in love with the heroine anyway. Just staying alive is already a luxury for him, Anastasius thought.

"Have you talked with the nobles? It seems like they're waiting to see your beauty closely." Charles said while wearing a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"I'm really not good with people so... would you two mind if I ask you to stay with me for a little while?"

The two princes beamed at their favorite person's (toy's?) request, who wouldn't agree with such terms?

🔹🔷🔹

They talked a lot about books and happenings in both palaces. Lucas was very effective in keeping away all the bugs that wished to interact with Anastasius so they almost lost track of time if only Anastasius' stomach didn't act up because of too much sweets.

"Stay here, I- I'll go to the bathroom okay?" He said in hushed tone.

"No I'll go with you!"

"Let me accompany you."

The two boys said in unison.

"No. Stay here and I'll go alone." Anastasius said sternly leaving the two with no choice but to wait for him. The older prince, with finely cultured nobility, remained composed under his disappointment, but the other prince clearly showed his with a huge pout. He still have a long way to go, huh?

After cleaning himself, Anastasius decided to go back to the ballroom but he stopped when he heard a sniffle.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" He called, it sounds like a child crying. While peering over the decorative statues in the hallway, he saw a boy in his age, crying in a corner. When the boy saw him, the boy immediately covered his face and said "I-I'm not crying."

He must be shy, crying at such an age. But crying isn't something to be ashamed no matter how old are you. Anastasius thought.

"It's okay to cry, I wouldn't judge you. I would more likely be concerned you if you're someone who doesn't cry, that either means you have issues or you're heartless psychopath." Anastasius joked, since the original Anastasius doesn't cry and he was indeed diagnosed with psychopathy at one point in the book, however the other didn't know his inside joke is about himself so the other still smiled.

"May I know who you are? And, if I'm not being imposing enough... would you mind telling me why you're sad?" Anastasius asked while crouching in front of the boy.

"I'm Lancelot Black, son of the Prime Minister Maximillian Black. Today...my mother died. She's one of the wives of my father. My father didn't even permit me to mourn over her death, he said that our family's image is much more important than the life of my low-born mother so no matter what, I had to attend this social gathering. Who even cares about the eldest prince?! I just want to see my mother for the last time..."

Even though Lancelot basically cursed him and his birthday, he still couldn't help but tear up from the boy's story. In his past life he was an orphan, but he did had a glimpse of his parents' faces before they disappeared from his life completely, so he too, knows the pain of longing to see your parents' faces again.

"Why are you crying? Is your mother dead too?"

"Yes...but that's not the reason why I'm crying. I just... I just know how much you're hurting." He said.

The sight of this teary-eyes Anastasius, crouched humbly with eyes full of sincerity. His ethereal visual glows more than ever under his sympathetic words, made the boy almost forget about his mother. Is it love at first sight?

"Don't worry, I'll ask father to talk to your father about this matter so that you can see your mother for the last time."

"My father is the prime minister of this kingdom...surely there wouldn't be anyone with much higher standing than him who can instruct him anything. Unless..." The boy trailed his words

"Unless it's the King right? Well, I forgot to mention that I'm the eldest prince. But enough of that, I'll be back in a bit, I will make sure you'll get what you want!" Before the boy can even process what Anastasius said, the prince was already running towards the ballroom.

Though there's one thing that's bothering him. The name Lancelot really rings a bell but he couldn't remember where he had heard it.

-

Author's Note:

HELLO LOVELIEEESSS im really really sorry for the delay of this chapter ;-; im finding it hard to gain inspiration to write, but here I am!

Anyways I hope this chapter isn't too lacking :(

BTW

Here's the portraits of:

Prince Charles



Prince Lucas





Lancelot



all of the art were made by @ enaa97 on twitter.

the other characters will appear in the next chapters.