Chapter 23 - Beauty Treatment
Theodore realized that he was the mosquito that Adeline was referring to so he stopped tickling the Princess.
Hawisa and Osanna both giggled because of how hard Adeline was struggling to speak with the dry mud on her face.
"Stough laahing!" Adeline tried to make them stop their giggling but that was counterproductive. They started to laugh even more loudly. Even Theodore was finding it difficult to control his laughter when Adeline was struggling to speak.
After having a good laugh, the face mask was ready to be removed. Osanna handed a soft washcloth and a bowl of warm water to Hawisa. Then Hawisa soaked the washcloth in warm water and started to wipe the fullers' earth mixed with gold dust off of Adeline's face.
"Will you prepare the moisturizer while I wash this off?" Hawisa kindly ordered Osanna, to which Osanna immediately obliged. She took a small ceramic plate and poured a spoon of wild honey on it. Then she added few drops of grape seed oil and a spoon of shea butter.
Osanna gently mixed all the highly valuable ingredients and placed the mixture by the side of Hawisa. "Hawisa, the moisturizer is ready. What do you want me to do next?"
Hawisa glanced at the moisturizer and checked for the quality. And she gave another task to Osanna, "Light up the coals and start melting the sugar and honey."
Hawisa took some moisturizer in her finger and rubbed it all over her palms. Then she started to give gentle face massage to the Princess.
This was the first time Adeline was getting such excessive beauty treatment.
Even though Adeline was a Princess, she never desired a royal treatment like all other Princesses. All she had ever cared about was going to the training and getting stronger. And even in her previous birthdays, she was never given this kind of treatment because she never asked for it.
But this year, in her sixteenth birthday, Hawisa and Osanna were persistent about following all the beauty procedures. They wanted to make sure to give Adeline the royal treatment that she deserved.
And Adeline also could not deny that she was feeling good when she was being pampered like this. She was closing her eyes and was enjoying the massage. She felt so relaxed that she wanted to sleep for real. And she was even considering getting the beauty treatment every day.
Another process of the beauty treatment was now ready. Osanna had melted the honey and sugar in a pot. She placed the pot beside Hawisa, along with wooden spatula and a long sheet of cotton cloth.
Hawisa glanced at Osanna and said, "Osanna, I need you to hold Adeline's hand."
Osanna did as she was asked and gently held Adeline's hand. Adeline didn't protest thinking they were now going to give her a body massage as well.
Hawisa spread the hot liquid of sugar and honey on a part of Adeline's hand. The warmth was bearable. After that, Hawisa covered that part with the sheet of cotton cloth, gave a gentle tap, and then pulled the cloth with a jerk.
"Ahhhhhhhhh…" Adeline opened her eyes wide and shouted on top of her voice. "Why did you pull that cloth like that? That hurt a lot."
While Adeline was busy shouting, Theodore thought that the maids were trying to hurt his little human and he immediately lifted his hand to attack the maids. A dark aura was gathered on his palm. But luckily Adeline saw that in time and she shouted at Theodore, "Noooooo…"
Thankfully, Theodore stopped mid-attack and a great disaster was avoided.
Hawisa thought that Adeline was shouting because she did not want her body hairs to be pulled anymore. So she tried to calm her down, "It will not hurt that bad the next time, trust me."
Then Hawisa dipped the wooden spatula in the liquid again and brought it closer to Adeline. But Adeline had not forgotten the pain just yet so she flinched.
Seeing the Princess's reaction, Osanna mocked her, "You are a strong warrior Adeline. You are not even afraid of sharp swords but now why are you so afraid of this tiny wooden spatula?"
Osanna had just hurt the ego of Adeline by saying that she was afraid of a piece of wood. So she took a deep breath in and said to Hawisa, "Well what are you waiting for? Just dip me in that sugar already."
Theodore suddenly had a capricious smirk on his face. He was literally imagining Adeline coated in melted sugar, her body shining in the light. "I wonder how her soft lips would taste… well if she is dipped in sugar then obviously she would taste sweet." Theodore's thoughts were running wild and free like untamed horses.
Then Hawisa repeated the previous process on another part of her hand and pulled the cloth off again. Adeline grunted a little because it hurt the same.
Adeline complained to Hawisa, "You said that it would not hurt that bad again. But it hurt just the same. Just when I thought that this beauty treatment was good and was thinking about getting it done everyday... Argh! It stings!"
On one of the quarters of the Palace, Margery and Muriel were also getting ready for tonight's banquet. Their maternal grandmother from the Tarrin Kingdom had sent them several diamond jewelries for them.
Tarrin Kingdom had vast diamond mines and was the richest Kingdom out of the four Neighboring Kingdoms.
Queen Vultrada, the mother of the twins, was a very proud Queen because of this same reason. She would always boast about Tarrin's riches here in Wyverndale, and would most of the time do so by wearing huge diamond necklaces and tiara. She would not miss a chance to belittle other Queens and Concubines.
And Margery and Muriel had inherited their mother's proud behavior as well. They also loved wearing lots and lots of jewelry and boasting them to other Princesses. And when they saw the diamond gifts sent by their grandmother, they could not contain their happiness.
The twins were frantically trying on the new diamond jewelry sets and were trying to snatch the best one from the other.
Margery was sitting in front of a dressing table, and was trying on a necklace which had a design of a peacock on it. Muriel saw that it looked good on her identical twin, which meant it would also look good on her.
So, Muriel tried to get that piece from her twin, "Marge! I had my eye on that piece of necklace first. So just hand it over to me before I snatch it off of your neck."
"Having an eye on it first does not count. If that is to work then I already eyed all of them. See…" Margery rolled her eyes all over the jewelry boxes that were spread on the table.
Muriel was now trying to grab that necklace out of Margery's neck and was shouting, "Stop that nonsense and just hand it over."
As both of them pulled the necklace using all their force, the necklace broke into two pieces. Each of the twins had half a piece in their hand.
Margery was furious because the push and pull had made a small scratch on her neck. She threw the piece that she had in her hand on the floor and shouted, "Great! You not only ruined the best necklace but also scarred my neck."
"Oh please, it's just a scratch. It won't leave a scar you idiot!" Muriel also started to shout at her sister.
Margery had had enough. She dashed forward towards Muriel and grabbed her by her hair. And Muriel was not the one to stand down. She also grabbed Margery with both of her hands and started to pull her twin by her hair. Both of them started to curse and shout at each other and were fighting instead of getting ready.
Though they were already 20 years old, they still behaved like little kids and fought over little things. But if they were to pick on some other Prince or Princess, then they would act as if their two bodies had a single soul.
Their personal maids tried to stop the fight but they were unsuccessful. So one of the maids ran towards the Queen Vultrada's quarter as fast as she could.
When the maid reached to the Queen's quarter, the queen was in her bath house. The bath tub was filled with a mix of milk and warm water. And the mixture was covered with fresh rose petals. The Queen was soaking herself in the tub, and was relaxing and enjoying her bath.
But she could not enjoy her peaceful environment as the maid knocked on her door and started to complain to her about her daughters.
The maid was panting when she reached in front of the Queen. But still she managed to speak. "Your Majesty, I am sorry to interrupt. But the Princesses are fighting and won't let each other off of their grip. We tried to stop but they won't listen to us."
Vultrada was angry at the maid for disturbing her when she was in her relaxation time. "Can't you people break their fight off by yourself? Why do you always have to come running to me whenever they fight? What is the use of employing you people if you can't even handle such trivial issues by yourself?"
"I am extremely sorry Your Majesty. But they won't listen to anyone else except you." The maid was starting to shiver as she was afraid that the Queen might punish her.
Vultrada was furious and she slapped her fist on the water. The maid jumped a little as she was startled by the Queen. The maid even peed a little.
Vultrada got up from her bath tub and her maids quickly brought her a maroon robe with elaborate design of roses.. The Queen wrapped herself in the robe and stormed off towards her daughters' quarter.