Apparently, I'm the Infamous Earl's Legendary Bride

Book 2: My Lord Saves the Citizens - Chapter 56

Quinn

It was ten by the time Aldric and I returned to the penthouse, and since it was already late, I knew Aldric wouldn't be heading off to do more work, or training and studying. As we walked in through the door, I was both nervous and anxious. Tonight would be the first since we've arrived in Norsewood that we'd be going to bed at the same time, together, and despite my keen enthusiasm before, now I just didn't know what to expect or how to behave due to the mixed signals I had been receiving from Aldric.

Normal. I decided that I'd just act normally, like I usually did. That was the easiest way, and as tired as I was, I was in no mood to worry too much.

We were just coming into the living area when I spotted Jonah sitting on the barstool by the countertop, drinking something. I suspected it was hot cocoa.

Aldric said, "Jonah, why are you not in bed?"

The boy said, "I got hungry, so I made myself a hot cocoa. I'll go to bed again when I finish."

Jonah was hungry, eh? I touched my own tummy and felt it rumbling a little. It seemed I was, too. It was probably because of all that talking at the meeting.

Strolling toward him, I said, "Have you ever had a midnight snack before, Jonah?"

He perked up and asked, "What's a midnight snack?"

"It's a snack you eat around midnight." I tapped my finger on my cheek as I tilted my head to one side. "Come to think of it, I have the notorious habit of having a midnight snack, especially when I'm up most nights cramming for exams."

He frowned. "Why would you be cramming? And what's an exam?"

I said, "Don't you know, Jonah, when you grow up and study at university, you have exams. They're tests and are horribly hard, as in tearing your hair out, crying, and begging for mercy hard, so you have to lock yourself in a tiny prison cell that is your room and study all day and night before the important dates until your eyes bleed and you're nearly dying from exhaustion; that's called cramming for exams. And once you've done your tests, you just collapse and never wake up again until three or four days later." I was exaggerating, of course.

He stared at me, horrified. "Cramming for exams sounds barbaric."

I chuckled. "It is, isn't it?"

"You went to university, Quinn?" Aldric asked, his eyes on me.

I grinned. "Of course. Six years in total, and I got myself a master's."

"You're a master?" Jonah asked, his eyes wide. "That's on par of a high priest." He turned to Aldric. "Isn't that right, Papa?"

Aldric nodded. "Mm-hmm."

"And you're not even old," the boy continued. "You must be very talented and blessed by many deities, more than me."

"Uh, high priest?" I asked, confused.

"They're blessed individuals with powerful magic. They're the highest tier of priests working closely with the saints and the royalties. They also have their own religion, too. It usually takes a priest many years, around twenty to thirty, to become a master priest."

Jonah nodded, his large sparkling eyes still on me, and to say he looked stunned was an understatement.

Oh dear, it looked like Jonah was jumping to conclusions here, thinking I was a divine being or something. It appeared he and Aldric were getting it all wrong. My master's degree and this master of priest thing were two very different entities.

I said, chuckling nervously, "Oh, no, no, no. I'm nothing like that, for sure. It didn't take me anywhere near twenty or thirty years to get my master's. It only took me four years of undergraduate study and then another two to get my master's and—"