CHAPTER 294: WHAT IS THIS?!

The carriage rolled along the street, heading to Willows Haven.

Aristia sat with her head out of the window while Owen sat beside her.

It was a day later, and they were on their way to the orphanage just as she had said the previous day.

Finally, the carriage stopped in front of the gate. The gateman immediately opened the gates on seeing the official seal on the carriage.

He bowed the whole way as the carriage passed.

The carriage then rode on the straight cobblestone path leading to the main building that was Willows Haven.

Aristia looked at the surroundings. Around the cobblestone path was very low cut green grass.

The last time she was here, she hadn’t had the time to take in the surroundings. Well, it wasn’t necessary because she was the one who had provided the design for the whole place.

By this time of the day when the sun was high in the sky, there weren’t much children playing outside. Some of the others were either taking naps, or doing some other thing inside.

The children outside were all children younger than her, the same age as her, or slightly older than her.

"Her highness is here!" Seeing her, they yelled with excitement, stopping whatever they were doing.

Finally, the carriage stopped in front of the mansion-like building.

Aristia came down from the carriage with Owen following her.

They were quickly surrounded by different children.

"Your highness, you haven’t come in a long time." One of them said.

Aristia nodded. "Yes, I wasn’t around."

"Princess, did you hear about what happened to Leif and Leilani?"

"I did. I’ve already spoken to Dahlia and Dorothy. I’ve already arranged to search for them."

Before another child could ask more, the front doors opened. The people inside had heard the loud voices of the children outside.

"Don’t stand in the way. Let her highness come in."

It was one of the older girls. She stood with her hands folded and lightly scolded the children. She was the one who had chosen to check on the children to make sure nothing was wrong.

Seeing Aristia look at her, she smiled and bowed. "Hello, princess."

Aristia responded with a smile. "Hello, Miriam."

Miriam smiled and returned inside the mansion.

Just like Aris, princess Aristia didn’t need to be shown the way inside.

Princess Aristia and Ari’s were the only two girls who visited constantly. Miriam thought. Oh, there was the boy too. Both Aris and the third princess had a boy who always came with them.

Despite thinking this, and knowing that Aris’ and the princess’s names were similar, the children didn’t think much of it and also didn’t suspect anything.

The children around Aristia finally stopped surrounding her and Owen.

"Okay, princess. We’ll leave you alone now." They said, before leaving and returning to their previous activities.

Aristia and Owen walked inside.

She met the other older children, and they all inquired about Leif and Leilani.

Aristia assured them that something was being done about it, then left them to meet whichever Kendall sister was home.

Dahlia was the one at home today, so she was the one she met.

Dahlia wasn’t in the office, so she found her in the kitchen speaking to the cook after asking the children.

Dahlia had just finished giving instructions to the cook who was almost finished with making lunch when she heard that Aristia was here.

She finished off with the cook and left the kitchen.

"Princess Aristia, Master Owen," she greeted with a pleasant smile on her face.

"Hello, Dahlia. Good to see you again." Aristia responded with a smile.

Owen nodded politely. "Hello, Miss Dahlia."

"I just decided to visit today," Aristia said, then gestured to herself. "As me."

If anyone had passed by or had overheard her words, they wouldn’t have understood what she meant, but Dahlia understood.

She understood from her discussions with Aristia that the missing Leif and Leilani might not be found.

It pained her heart because these were children under her care and whom she had taken care of and something had happened to them.

And worse, she didn’t even know where they were, or what they could be going through. She didn’t even know who could have taken them and why.

Most of the time, she blamed herself. If she hadn’t agreed to let the children attend the spring festival, then they would have been safe and sound at home, not missing with little hope of finding them.

But the truth was that Dahlia was not at fault for letting the children go to see the festival.

Just because they didn’t have parents didn’t mean they wouldn’t be allowed to do what other children did.

No one would have known that something like this would suddenly happen.

A sigh escaped her lips.

Seeing Aristia and Owen staring at her, she shook her head and smiled.

"Princess, will you be staying for lunch?"

She knew that Aristia would say no, but she still asked anyway.

And just as she expected, Aristia shook her head.

"No. In fact, I think it’s time to leave." She said.

"Then, have a safe return, princess." Dahlia said with a short bow.

Aristia nodded and turned to leave when she suddenly remembered Heidi and Penelope.

She asked Dahlia for the twins’ room.

"The twins?" Dahlia asked, remembering the twin girls that had joined Willows Haven. Her sister had told her about the girls brought by the princess while she was working at the restaurant.

"Their room is..."

After getting directions from Dahlia, Aristia then went to meet the twins with Owen.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

She knocked softly on the door.

"Come in,"

Permission was given from inside the closed room.

The door immediately opened.

The twins who had been in a discussion stopped and turned towards the door.

They were surprised to see a younger girl standing outside the door.

The first thing they noticed about her was the grey hair.

"Your highness?" The greeting came off as a question, and they bowed.

They raised their heads, exchanging glances filled with confusion.

Aristia noticed they looked healthier and happier than the last time she saw them. They were also wearing better clothes. It was obvious they were being treated well.

Her eyes caught a pencil in Heidi’s ear, and her eyes raised in surprise, causing Heidi to quickly remove the pencil.

"Can I come in?" Aristia asked.

The twins quickly caught themselves.

"Oh, yes. Come in." They said.

Aristia and Owen entered the room.

The twins watched them carefully, noticing that they looked familiar, but they couldn’t exactly remember.

"How have you been?" Aristia asked.

The twins were surprised at the question, but they suddenly remembered what Dorothy had said about the princess and Willows Haven. She was also the one who had built it.

"We’re very good." Heidi said.

"Very good indeed." Penelope nodded in agreement.

To Aristia, they were like...

[The female versions of Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Except that aren’t round.]

She looked around the room and stopped at a chair placed beside the girls’ bed.

She had heard from Dahlia that the twins stayed in a room alone.

There were a lot of rooms in the building, and most of them hadn’t even been filled up yet.

Each room was made to house two to four children.

The twins walked towards a bed.

Aristia took a seat on a chair in front of the bed the twins were standing by— she didn’t know whose it was between the sisters— while Owen pulled another chair from beside the other bed, putting it beside Aristia’s.

She noticed the girls standing rigidly.

They hadn’t met any of the princesses before and thus weren’t familiar with her, and since it was their first time seeing her royal self, they weren’t sure how to behave in front of her.

It was the same with the other children in Willows Haven when they first met her as the third Princess, before they begun to get used to her since she was always easygoing and welcoming.

"Won’t you sit down? Or do you want to play the role of guards or knights?" Aristia asked with a raised brow, then joked to lighten the atmosphere.

The sisters chuckled awkwardly at her joke before taking a seat on the bed.

But as Penelope’s backside met with the bed, she stood up immediately.

"Oh!"

She said. She had sat down on a paper placed on the bed, crumpling the paper a bit.

When she picked it up and straightened it before moving to put away, the paper slipped from her hands and fell on the floor, landing just beside Aristia’s feet.

"Oh, I’m sorry." Penelope apologized, going to bend to pick it. She could be so clumsy sometimes, she hoped the princess wouldn’t mind.

But before she could bend, Aristia helpfully picked up the paper, only glancing at it casually, but all of a sudden, her eyes returned to the paper.

"What is this?!"