100 Prompt Challenge - Astelle

Prompt: An AU where Noelle is a sheltered princess (kind of), and Asta is made her personal knight.—

The palace walls were high, and the silver gates gleamed under the moonlight like barriers of untouchable divinity. To the people of the kingdom, it was a sacred place—hallowed halls where nobles ruled with grace, where the royal family existed above the grasp of common men.

To Princess Noelle Silva, it was a cage.

Born into the noblest bloodline, she had never set foot outside these walls without an entourage. She had never wandered the bustling streets, never breathed the scent of earth after rain without the polished stone pathways of the royal gardens beneath her feet. And she had never, not once, spoken to someone who did not bow before her.

Until him.

Asta.

A peasant-turned-knight, the kingdom's only magicless warrior, and her newly appointed personal guard.

She had first seen him in the grand courtyard, standing among a line of armored men, shoulders squared despite the sneers cast his way. His armor, though polished, bore no noble insignia. His sword was well-worn, a weapon that had seen battle and hardship.

And when the other knights smirked, whispering about how absurd it was for a peasant to stand among them, he merely grinned and folded his arms.

Noelle had expected him to be like all the rest—another servant of the crown who spoke in rehearsed reverence, another noble-born knight who wielded his title like a weapon.

But Asta had done none of those things.

Instead, when she first addressed him, he had laughed.

"Wow! So you're the famous Princess Noelle! I heard you're super strong with magic, but I guess I'll have to be the one keeping you safe now, huh?"

She had sputtered, indignant. "E-Excuse me? You are my knight?"

"Yep! And I take my job very seriously!" He beamed, his bright eyes completely unaffected by her title. "So don't worry, Your Highness. No harm will come to you while I'm around!"

It had infuriated her.

And yet, when she looked back on that moment—when she recalled the way he had spoken to her as herself, not as a princess—she couldn't help but remember it fondly.

And that had been the beginning.

The beginning of something she never expected.

—

"You've never been outside the palace?"

Asta's voice was aghast as he sat beside Noelle on the steps of the palace's east wing, where the moon cast long shadows across the polished marble. It was the only place where they could speak without prying eyes.

Noelle pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, her silver hair gleaming in the low light. "Of course not," she huffed. "A princess doesn't simply walk into the streets like a commoner."

Asta gave her an unimpressed look. "That's ridiculous."

She stiffened. "Excuse me?"

He grinned. "You're curious about the outside world, aren't you? I can see it in your eyes."

She scowled, turning away. "That's absurd. I—"

"Wanna go?"

Her breath caught. She turned back to him, wide-eyed. "W-What?"

His grin widened. "Sneak out with me. Just once."

She gawked at him as if he had gone mad. "That is the stupidest—most reckless idea I've ever heard!"

"C'mon," he coaxed, voice light with mischief. "What's the worst that could happen? You finally get to see the city, and if anyone recognizes you, I'll just—uh—throw you in a barrel and roll you back to the palace!"

Her lips parted in outrage. "You—You barbarian! Do you even hear yourself?!"

Asta only laughed.

And before she knew it, she was laughing too.

—

That night, under the cover of darkness, Noelle wore a plain cloak and followed Asta through hidden passageways known only to the knights. They slipped past the palace gates, darted through the alleyways, and emerged into the vibrant streets of the capital.

It was nothing like she had imagined.

The air smelled of fresh bread and roasting meat. Lanterns flickered against the cobbled streets, casting a warm glow over laughing children and merchants calling out their wares. Music played from taverns where common folk danced without restraint, free of the etiquette and poise drilled into her since birth.

Noelle stared, her heart pounding with something she had never felt before.

Freedom.

And when Asta turned to her, eyes bright with exhilaration, she realized something else.

It wasn't just freedom she had been yearning for.

It was him.

—

It was inevitable.

The stolen moments. The nights spent whispering beneath the stars, hidden away in the palace gardens. The way Asta always stood a little too close, the way her pulse always quickened when he smiled at her.

And then, one evening, after a particularly reckless training session where he had goaded her into sparring, something shifted.

She had shoved him to the ground, their bodies tangled, her breath ragged. Asta stared up at her, lips parted in shock, and she realized—

She was straddling him.

Silence.

Heat coiled in her stomach.

Her hands trembled where they pressed against his chestplate.

Asta swallowed. "Uh… Noelle?"

She should have moved. She should have said something.

But instead, she leaned down.

And kissed him.

It was clumsy, desperate—nothing like the practiced, noble kisses she had been taught to expect. But when Asta made a strangled noise of surprise before wrapping his arms around her, pulling her closer—she melted.

It was reckless.

It was forbidden.

But she didn't care.

Because for the first time in her life, Noelle Silva was truly alive.

And she would fight anyone who tried to take that away from her.

—

But the world was not kind to love between a princess and a knight.

Whispers began.

Nozel Silva, her eldest brother, knew.

And soon, the king himself would find out.

"You cannot be with him," Nozel had told her, his voice sharp with command. "Do you understand? He is a knight—a commoner. You will marry a noble. That is your duty."

Noelle clenched her fists. "No."

Nozel's eyes narrowed. "No?"

"I refuse," she hissed.

Because she had seen the world beyond the palace walls.

Because she had tasted freedom.

And because she had fallen in love with the one person who had shown it to her.

If the world wanted to take Asta from her, then fine.

Let them try.

Because Noelle Silva had never lost a fight in her life.

And she wasn't about to start now.