章 19: Ex
Mei Ruan: March 29th, 20XX
A slender figure burst into my courtyard and made their presence known by causing a ruckus. Their lavender and bronze wings beat up a storm as they hurtled themselves towards me and angry tears streamed down his face.
Lillian looked over from where she was and made to block the distressed person from reaching me, but I waved her off. I’d been expecting him to do something, but it looked like he was planning to go all out this time.
I didn’t really have the energy or the time to deal with him, but I’d feel guilty if I didn’t indulge him this much.
‘Him’ being my fiancee... or rather my ex-fiancee now.
Akseli Linus.
The Linus family barely qualified as a noble family, having fallen out of favour with the royal family a few centuries ago. They had somehow never bounced back from that and now revolved around the circle of high-class noble families, trying to find their way back in.
I had possessed no plans or ambition to get married, but I’d had to rush the issue when Jaya had initially tried to set me up in an arranged marriage a few decades back.
Thankfully, our absentee mother had stepped in and said I could get engaged to whoever I wanted.
In my annoyance, I’d purposefully chosen a family that had enough resources and desperation to threaten Jaya. I also knew that Jaya had taken a fancy to Akseli. It had been the perfect way to get back at her, and Akseli hadn’t been too bad of an option.
If things had stayed as they were, I had planned to marry him. I had dragged out the engagement for about two decades by now, but I wasn’t one to make empty promises or to play along with something I had no intentions of doing.
It was too bad that things had turned out the way they had.
My family had always intended to use the previous queen’s casual promise to my mother to link our families together through marriage, but we hadn’t expected for the long-awaited royal child to be a male.
Once the news had arrived, my mother had discarded her plans to bring back one of my brothers from the human world, and the burden of marrying into the royal family had fallen on either Aruna or me.
Even if Jaya hadn’t chosen me to marry into the royal family, I would have volunteered. Even though Aruna tried to hide it, I knew of her current infatuation with someone.
Sending her to marry into the royal family would be no less than a death warrant. Especially if the prince was anything like the rumours suggested.
Me going to the castle as a representative of the Ruan family made the most sense, and I had my own reasons for wanting to go, but it meant that I’d had to break things off with Akseli.
I thought I’d sent enough of a compensation for things to pass over smoothly, but then again, it would have been stranger if he’d let things pass by so smoothly.
He flew towards me with a distressed look on his usually calm face and a few tears beaded in his thin and sharp eyes.
“Mei Ruan!”
His usually soft voice boomed in as powerful of a tone as he dared take, and his unnecessarily thin clothing flew askew in the wind generated by his frustrated flapping.
“I demand an explanation! How could I hear about the annulment of our engagement from a messenger servant?! Isn’t that just too cold-hearted?”
It wasn’t like I didn’t pity him; after all, the Linus family was famous as a family that mass-produced sons and traded them off like commodities to higher-ranked clans like mine.
As crazy as their plan was, it worked well enough. Their family could count for half of the reputation of a ‘Clan’, which was quite an accomplishment for a family that the royals had scorned.
Aside from the Ruan Clan, the Linus family had already married off three of their ‘successful’ sons to branches of the other three noble clans; the Durand Family from the West, Aslan from the south and Nicosia from the east.
As for the other less talented sons; they had been all but thrown at minor branches of those same families, or at only slightly higher-ranking families to live as little more than slaves.
His marriage to me was probably his best chance of living the type of life he thought he deserved.
I had no grudge against ambition, and I rather admired the trait in others, but that didn’t mean I was okay with him Barging into my home and acting as he had.
Lillian dismissed the surrounding servants while I stared him down, unwilling to respond to the ridiculous display he was putting on.
I wouldn’t physically harm him, both on account of all the time we had spent together, and my reluctance to harm the fairer sex, but that didn’t mean I was going to humour him.
He fluttered around as he waited for my response but lost energy when he realized I would not respond until he calmed down and remembered where both he was, and who he was talking to.
I’d put up with a lot of his tantrums in the past, but that was because we were engaged. I no longer had any reason to be as accommodating as I had been.
Akseli finally descended onto the ground, lightly and delicately, as if to spite the screaming show he had put on earlier, and quickly fixed himself up. He efficiently put his hair back into order and fixed his robes to fall around him in a flattering manner. He then quickly put back up the persona he had slowly built up over the years in order to please me and all his other suitors.
“Mei~”
He began in a sticky and ingratiating voice that only made me angrier and sauntered towards me in a manner that made even the stoic Lillian look twice.
Well, not that I could blame him.
Half of his status in his family was because of his beauty. With features that looked like someone had carved them from ice and an icy demeanour that could lure one into a pleasant but icy death.
Not only was he great to look at, but he also knew how to use his appearance as a weapon and did so freely against me and every other woman in the area.
He draped himself around me like a venomous python and continued speaking in that same slippery and tempting voice.
“Mei~. Are you really going to leave me? After how long we’ve been together? Surely you must have some affections remaining from me. Look, you even still wear the scabbard I had crafted for you.”
I ripped the decorative scabbard from my waist and threw it onto the ground. It was a well-crafted thing, I wouldn’t have used it so often otherwise, but it wasn’t worth the hefty price of putting up with this nonsense.
His icy facade almost completely cracked at my actions, and I could see millions of thoughts whirl behind his eyes as he formulated a new battle plan.
Slowly and gracefully he knelt, picked up the discarded item and carefully wiped it off as one would a child, and with that same impression, he cradled it in his grasp and looked at me like I’d drawn a dagger from that same scabbard and had stabbed him with it.
“Mei… What do you mean by this?”
“You’ve always been a smart man, Akseli. It was one thing I liked the best about you. But for you to be acting like a brain-dead entertainer at a low-class establishment.”
I couldn’t help but let out a disappointed sigh.
“I’m almost ashamed of ever being interested in you.”
A few more cracks appeared on his facade as he tried to salvage the situation. He collapsed even further onto the ground like my words were weapons and a small cloud of dust rose into the air.
I pretended not to notice the small spell his servant cast, curious as to what he would do next. It wasn’t like I hadn’t liked him at all, after all, I’d chosen to marry him instead of many of his other brothers.
He was beautiful and intelligent enough that I usually had fun taking apart his many schemes.
Since this was the last time I would get to do so, I could spend a bit more patience than usual. I’d treat it as a last goodbye to our relationship.
The spell his servant cast made a cloud of dust rise into the air and encircle him like a romantic illusion. He grabbed at my tunic with soft hands and looked up at me with a pitiful expression that didn’t suit his mature features in the least.
“Mei pl-”
A foul smell and an even fouler spell crept toward me and threatened to cloud my thoughts.
So this was the route he’d chosen.
His actions disappointed me, but I was more so surprised.
It wasn’t like I didn’t know about the other suitors he had entertained during our courtship; I had just ignored it since I knew none of them were my competition.
There had to be some reason for him to risk using a cheap witch’s spell on a general. And more so on one that put up with his antics but rarely showed affection as he wanted.
I had treated him well enough during the engagement, but I would be the last to say I had been an ideal partner.
The only real reason I had chosen him as a fiancee was that I knew my sister had taken a fancy to him, but she considered her status as too high to consider marrying one of the Linus family into the Ruan family as her first partner.
There was also the fact that during our first meeting he had shown little to no interest in her, opting to chat with me instead. I’d appreciated how he’d shown his preference for my ‘useless good looks’ over her stern and ‘reliable’ aesthetic.
Being dismissed in favour of me had been too large of a nail into her pride, so what type of sister would I be if I had let the chance to further drive in that nail pass?
But disregarding that? Well, the comparison between a Linus family son and a royal prince wasn’t even worth verbalizing.
“Akseli. You asked for an explanation, but do you think you deserve one? What with how you’re acting now, I could almost completely deny we were ever together.”
From his kneeling position on the ground, his wings sunk until they were flat against his back and he cried into my clothing. His voice quieted to the size of a pin as he replied.
“I just heard that you wanted to break off the engagement because you found another. That’s the only reason I felt confident enough to come here in the first place!”
He suddenly stopped crying and looked up at me with resentful anger in his eyes, showing his true personality behind the mask he had so carefully constructed.
“Which other male in this kingdom can match to me in terms of appearance? In temperament? in skill?!”
The sheer amount of self-satisfaction and pride in his voice at such completely useless accomplishments was enough to make want to me kick him off my leg and stride away, but I restrained myself.
I began in a low tone, disliking the fact that my youngest sister was watching this scene like one of the drama shows she enjoyed so much.
“Akseli. Out of respect for the last few years that we’ve been together and respect for the weaker sex, I will not physically harm you. However, if you keep clinging onto me then I’ll no longer feel the need to respect you.”
He quickly let go and scrambled to his feet, but as he did so an expression of clear disbelief played across his handsome features as he realized that everything he had done hadn’t worked to make me change my mind.
“Fine, then. At least tell me who this person is then? Who is so amazing that you can fling me away in such a cruel manner?”
Such an exorbitant amount of baseless confidence in the self; I was sure even Jaya herself couldn’t match him.
However, as annoying as it was, it had a charm in its own way. Sort of like watching a cat try to jump much further than its physical capabilities would allow.
It was amusing to watch, but how could I even consider marrying someone that put out such a clownish impression? Wouldn’t that make me a laughingstock as well?
Before I could finally answer him, my younger sister finally lost patience and yelled out from her hiding place in the shrubs. Her strong and high-pitched voice bursting with frustration at the drawn-out scene.
“Mei is getting married to the prince, okay?! At this point, you don’t even qualify as a contender!”
She burst out of the shrub and shook out her underdeveloped wings in an adorable attempt to copy the slightly threatening flare that I did when I was angry.
Her wings really were underdeveloped, though. I made a mental note to refer her to a military doctor. I hadn’t seen her for a few years, but she should have been larger than she was.
Jaya had seen our younger sister much more often than I had, so she should have already referred her to a doctor to have it looked at.
Then again, I couldn’t say it surprised me she hadn’t.
Aruna fluttered even closer to us and continued her attempt to look intimidating.
She only ended up looking adorable, and I wanted to wrap her up and send her back to her father’s side. This wasn’t a place for her to be, but I decided to let her stay, thinking she could properly end this situation.
“How dare you! A mere male from the Linus family, talk to our Ruan Clan like that! Even if Mei wasn’t marrying the prince, what right have you to speak to her like that? I know Mei indulges you a lot, but you should know your place! Don’t you realize you’re speaking to the future Queen of the kingdom?! If she holds this against you, don’t you realize that you would have doomed your entire family?! And never mind in the future` what about right now? What do you think the prince would do if he found out you were so actively trying to steal his fiancee?! Remember that unlike you, he actually has the right to barge into another’s home and wreak havoc! ”
In her excited state, she ended up fully extending her wings and flapping up and down like a little puppet on strings. Poor Akseli had to keep looking at her while keeping his head bowed in respect, so he ended up doing a comical neck dance that elicited a small smile from me.
He also grew paler and paler as she spoke, finally realizing that the consequences of his actions went further than securing a comfortable life after marriage.
“Aruna.”
She looked back at me with a slightly disappointed pout on her lovely little face, but I stood firm and glared right back at her. Finally, she stepped back and pretended to return to her quarters even though I knew she was only going to her second hiding place on the roof.
“Askeli.”
He looked up hopefully at my gentle tone, but he soon realized that it was only because of my little sister and it faded into a dead expression.
“General Ruan?”
He switched to referring to me formally and his icy facade was fully up again with no signs of ever coming back down.
That was really one thing I had previously liked about him. Regardless of whatever he had to do, or how lowly he sometimes acted, he knew when to cut his losses and never lost his ridiculous sense of pride... unlike myself.
Because of this, I softened my tone as I spoke my last words to him.
“Worry not. I won’t hold a grudge over this. I understand your emotions overtook you. But you’ll understand when I say I never want to see you again.”
He stiffly nodded, showing that he understood, and then sank into a formal bow and strode away on his own with his back ramrod straight and his wings completely flared.
Akseli was a man with as many virtues as flaws, but for some reason, I could never consider his pride as one of them.
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