Chapter 156: Shortened Deadline
The Royal Guard led the way to the dining hall, where Dominic was the last of the suitors to arrive.
The Princess wasn’t there yet, and likely wouldn’t be for ten or fifteen minutes, but Dominic saw that there were Royal Guards for each of the others, plus two for one of the Princes.
They wore an emblem that marked them as serving a Prince, and not Crown Prince Claudius, but Dominic hadn’t memorized everyone’s personal heraldry yet.
The similarities and the portion that included the Cygnia Royal Crest were enough to let him know that it was a Prince and not a Princess, but not which one. He would find out soon enough, as if the guards were here, the Prince would be coming to join them for lunch.
Likely as a second chaperone to the Princess, unless the Crown Prince had been called away.
Dominic did notice that each of the others had at least one piece of black clothing on, hedging their bets against the rumours spread by staff that Dominic knew what Princess Alexis was going to be wearing.
Then, Dominic realized what had happened.
The staff hadn’t realized that he was going to change, they thought that he was on his way to the dining room when he was talking to the Guard, as the route was the same.
So, the black robe that he wore as his ’uniform’ during official meetings was expected to be what he wore to lunch. It made sense. The robes were quality magical armour, and highlighted his status as a Royal Sorcerer just as much as the brooch that Marquis Bridgegover was wearing emphasized his status as a titled noble.