Alaric continued down the corridor, his pace steady and composed as always. Servants bowed slightly as he passed, but his mind was no longer on the morning reports he had been reviewing.
Instead, it lingered on the strange conversation he had just had.
Ex…fo…liate.
He frowned faintly.
The word had rolled off her tongue so easily, as if it were common knowledge. Yet he had never heard it before. Not in court, not among scholars, not even among merchants who traveled between kingdoms.
Exfoliate.
He tried to repeat it quietly under his breath, testing the sound of it.
The result felt awkward.
And there had been others.
Moisturize.
Hair mask.
None of them sounded like anything he recognized. They weren't part of any language he knew, yet she had spoken them with complete confidence, as if everyone should understand.
Alaric slowed slightly, his brow furrowing.
Princess Elowen was… unusual.
At first he had assumed it was simply boldness—perhaps even immaturity—but the longer he observed her, the more peculiar she seemed. She spoke of things that did not exist, asked questions no noblewoman would ever think to ask, and behaved with a familiarity that bordered on reckless.
And yet she did not appear foolish.
That was the troubling part.
Alaric stopped briefly at a window overlooking the inner courtyard, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
"Ex…fo…liate," he murmured again, attempting to shape the word properly.
It still made no sense.
He could not even mention it to anyone without sounding ridiculous.
With a quiet breath, he pushed the thought aside and continued walking.
Still, the strange words lingered in his mind, circling like a puzzle he had no pieces for.
For the first time since the princess arrived, Alaric began to suspect that Princess Elowen was far more complicated than she appeared.