บท 38: She's on the Run Again
While Robin was still speaking with Keith, Christian woke up with a splitting headache, courtesy of the wine he had downed earlier that day. The stench of alcohol no longer felt quite as pleasant now, with his stomach in its current condition.
He sat up, despite the painful throbbing, and poured himself a glass of water, trying to stabilize his roiling stomach, ending up splashing half of it on the floor.
But after drinking the water his head just throbbed more painfully. He moaned. And tried to stand up. He needed to find some sort of painkillers, soon, or he'd go crazy.
He staggered down the hall, forgetting the guards, or even the maids as he made his way to the Court Magician. After all, eating medicine sometimes had unexpected repercussions when combined with the alcohol that was consumed. It was far better to simply ask for a pain reduction spell or an antidote potion to help deal with the headache.
Of course, Christian really should have just stayed in bed. What happened after this, was his own fault.
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Jasmine and Albus, the Court magician had already finished up with studying Robin's aptitudes, and were now discussing other magical topics.
"Ah, that's right, I have a sample of it here." Jasmine said, taking a small glass bottle out and put it on the table.
"Even after trying to counteract the effects, I still ended up failing without using the waters of the holy spring. The only thing that I managed to do was to switch the intended target's gender around." Jasmine frowned.
"Perhaps I've taken the wrong approach? What do you think, old man?"
"I think you'd better not uncork that in here, is what I think." Albus chuckled.
"Of course not! I'm no dimwit!" Jasmine sniffed. "But, you shouldn't worry too much. The spell only activates within five feet of the consumer. So some idiot'd have to drink it before it would have any effects on anyone else. I was just wondering if you could let me see the notes of Legendary Doctor Balak. I know you have them hidden away up here."
Albus sighed. "Very well. Come with me, they're in the archive room."
He brought Jasmine into a side room to look through the collection of records that he had accumulated there.
The substance in question was left behind on the center of the desk.
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"Okay, thank you. You saved me a lot of time!" Robin said to Keith as she returned to her room. This time, she placed her mask inside her bag. She was never going anywhere without it again. Stalkers were too scary.
"Oh, that's right! Jasmine said that she would have my aptitudes mapped out by now. I wonder if she's done?" Robin then began heading towards the magician's tower.
As for Keith, he headed to the kitchen to see if Ponshieu could make the hangover remedy that Robin had passed to him just now. He also wanted to check on Christian to see if he was okay. As someone who had a high alcohol tolerance, Keith would not be bothered by the amount of half a barrel. But Christian was a different story.
'He'd probably be waking up around this time.' Keith surmised.
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Just when the two magicians were in the midst of their search within the archives, with parchment records stacked all around them, Christian arrived.
"Albus!" He called out. "Are you here?"
Albus glanced over at Jasmine. Her eyebrows were furrowed into a frown as she was fully concentrated upon reading the record in her hands. She couldn't be bothered.
"I'm quite busy at the moment, but what is it that you desire?" Albus called out from the archive room.
"I have a splitting headache from all that wine I drank earlier. Can you do something about it?" Christian asked.
"If I can extricate myself, then surely-" The sound of fluttering pages sounded from the archives. "Ah! The records of Jankey Moll fell! No, no! They'll get mixed with Daruth Ynfael's Chronicles!"
Albus felt flustered as he went to separate the scattered pages. He called out to the prince.
"This will take me too long. Can't you just use one of my ready made spell potions? I think there's an antidote potion on my desk somewhere."
What Albus had forgotten was that he had cleared the table of potions in order to make room for reference documents of heroes in times past, in order to compare them with Robin's results. Therefore, the only bottle that was on the table was Jasmine's mystery potion.
Christian picked it up, and looked at it. It was surprisingly a bright purply-pink color.
"Albus, are you sure this is an antidote potion?" He asked.
"That should be the last one from the batch I made last week, yes." Albus replied, as he continued separating the two documents.
"Okay then." Christian unstopped the cork and downed the whole bottle.
It was at that moment that Robin came in. "Hey, Christian! I didn't think you were up yet. Have you seen Jasmine or the other magician anywhere?"
The first thing Christian realized was that it wasn't an antidote potion. The second thing he realized was that this was not good. The third thing he realized was that his headache was not only not going down, it was getting worse. He grabbed his head, almost falling to the floor as he yelled in pain, .
Robin was surprised, but she quickly noticed that something was wrong. She jumped forward to prevent him from banging his head on the desk, then guided him to a nearby couch to sit down.
Hearing the Prince's anguished cry, it was at that moment that Albus realized something was not right. He jumped up from his sorting and hurried to the door, along with Magi Jasmine. Stacks of papers fell over left and right in their rush to the door. Upon arriving, he was about to enter, when he tripped and fell over. This invariably saved him from being trapped in the pink cloud that spread out from Prince Christian at that moment.
Jasmine, who arrived behind him, stepped over Albus and observed the scene. With the pink cloud around the couch and the emptied bottle at the desk, it wasn't long before she realized what had happened.
She rushed to the desk and grabbed the empty bottle, aimed it at the cloud, and barked, "Spell Vaccuum!"
The pink cloud was sucked inside of the bottle, which she then corked properly.
At this point, Christian stopped moaning from the pain, and sat up.
"Hold on, there...the headaches going away?" He finally said.
It was true. His headache was gone. The alcohol had been expelled from his body within that cloud of pink mist that had forced its way out through the Prince's pores.
At that moment, Keith ran into the room. "What! Has Jasmine decided to kill the Prince!? I could hear his shriek all the way at the bottom of the tower."
"I don't know, but he's feeling better now." Robin explained.
"Did you drink the contents of this vial?" Jasmine asked Christian.
"Yes. Albus told me there was an antidote potion on the desk, this was the only thing there, so I drank it." His eyes then widened.
"That, it wasn't poison, was it!?" In his fright, he spoke normally to Jasmine.
Jasmine shook her head. "No. It isn't poison per se….but some might say that it is worse than poison."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Robin asked.
"This happens to be a tasteless, odorless substance that has been enchanted with a certain property...that causes one to chase after an individual of the opposite gender...its name is 'lovesick'. It began appearing in the city recently, and, seeing that it was enchanted, I was tasked with finding a way to counteract it." Jasmine explained.
"Have there been many victims?" Robin asked.
"Several. This was a gender-specific substance. That potion is a failed attempt at removing the effects. The only thing that was changed was the targeted gender. Now, instead of affecting women, it supposedly affects men.
As the closest woman to you two, you should be feeling an inordinate amount of affection towards me. Well? Robin? Christian? Are you feeling anything towards me?" Jasmine asked.
Robin shook her head. "No."
'Is she confirming that it truly doesn't affect women?' She wondered to herself, then turned to look at Christian.
Christian raised an eyebrow at Jasmine. "Is this some kind of a joke? Because I'm not feeling anythi-" His eyes stopped upon Robin, mesmerized. Badump!
Why hadn't he noticed that Robin's eyelashes were this long?
"You were saying?" Jasmine asked, breaking him out of his earlier thought.
"Hmmm…" Prince Christian thought about it, then stood up and knelt on one knee down by Robin.
"I suddenly feel that parting from you would be the worst thing possible. Would you please stay at my side at all times?" Prince Christian asked Robin, taking her hand, and clapping it between his two larger ones.
Everyone in the room fell over. He had fallen for Hero Robin!? A male!??! Over his own cousin, even! Jasmine was unsure whether to be relieved or insulted.
Then a terrifying thought occurred to her. What if...the potion now only promoted affection between members of the same gender? Those failures back at her house could never see the light of day.
The hairs on Robin's neck stood up as an unpleasant chill trickled up and down her back. While Christian was a fool, she preferred his prior state over his current one.
Shuddering, she quickly extracted her hand from his, and backflipped behind the couch.
"Jasmine, what's going on?" She asked, scared.
"Now that he's been struck by the spell, he will only chase you." Jasmine explained. Robin was circling around the couch, making certain to keep it in between her and him.
"How do we make it stop!" Robin asked, slightly panicky.
For that, I need the waters of the holy spring." Jasmine replied. "It's back at my place. I'll have to go and get it."
"And how long will that take!?" Robin cried, as she concentrated solely upon keeping the couch in between her and Christian.
"Approximately an hour." Jasmine said. Christian finally broke the barrier between them by vaulting over the couch. He stood in between Robin and the door.
"Now you can't escape me." He chuckled playfully. But Robin simply backed up. Then she turned and jumped, smashing through the stained glass window.
"This is the thirteenth floor!" Jasmine cried.
"That was the only remaining original stained glass from the beginning of this country!" Albus cried.
Everyone ignored Albus as they ran towards the window only to find Robin gaining a head start as she ran across the castle rooftop towards the gates.
"Hey, wait for me! Robin!" Christian also threw himself out the window, ignoring several cuts gained from the broken glass he landed on. He took off running after Robin.
"It's worse than I thought." Jasmine sighed. "Keith, follow them and make sure Christian doesn't do anything life-threatening."
Keith nodded, and also jumped out of the window, chasing after them. But it was not to stop Christian. Instead, he took out a recording magic eye.
He was going to catch every moment of this to show Christian, later, after this was all over. Keith chuckled. How big of a mess would he get into this time?
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