บท 78: The Shadow of a Prince
Sneak was sneaking up to me.
For the rest of the day, my assassin trainee senses kept telling me that someone was tailing me. And whoever it was, he was doing a God-awful job at it.
First time I felt it was right after Assassin Vincentus had dismissed us (and after Leila had dismissed me as well). I was walking on my lonesome towards the cafeteria, feeling a sense of loss within my heart, when I heard a muffled cough from behind a pillar. Of course, since I already knew who he was, I simply walked on and ignored him.
The second time was when I was lining up in the cafeteria hall. It was a large room, with tall enough ceilings that I knew I couldn't reach without notes supporting me. But even with the hall filled to the brim with new students and old, I could still corner out the boy through my senses. I would glance at him through my peripheral vision, and every time, he would crouch down on his table like he could somehow be unseen if he simply just... tried his best.
'Idiot,' I called him. 'I can see you from a mile away.'
By the time I had my tray, I decided I didn't want to have him pitifully follow me a third time. So, I made a beeline straight towards him. He now held up a book in his arms, which he hastily raised up to hide his face. I almost laughed.
"Yes?" I asked, dropping my tray on the table with a resolute bang.
He took a long time to answer. He coughed a little, and then his voice came out very different from his usual pitch. "I-I don't understand. I don't know you?"
This time, I did laugh. "Come on, Charles. I know it's you. You've been following me since my class ended."
"... I don't know you," he muttered, his voice cracking back into his normal one. His hands looked like they might be shaking, especially since the book was quivering like a beginner having a try at a bow and arrow.
I reached over to pull down the book, but with a speed comparable to a trainee of the Order, he had jumped away, book still covering his face. "Sorry, dear stranger! I'll be leaving now!"
He had run off before I could put a word in.
I sighed as I gave up, knowing full well he'd still be going after me anyway. Sitting down, I took a sip at my mystery soup.
~~
His tailing after me has now passed a certain level. Before, he would only follow me through hallways. Now, a week after school had started, he had finally crossed the line.
'Why are you here in my classroom??' I asked him with my eyes, but he had already looked away hastily, whistling innocently at the air. He had taken a seat at the far back of the classroom, where a lone seat was probably prepared for an observer, and definitely not for him...
Alas, when our professor came in, he only glanced at the boy for a few milliseconds and then continued on with his lesson without a care.
'Why?!' I asked in incredulousness. In fact, it seemed like I was the only one who was bothered by this visitor. He was clearly not our classmate, but it seems like his addition to the group was perfectly normal. When the professor had ordered us to form two lines to head off to the academy botanical gardens, no one questioned him slipping easily into the edge of my line. Feeling annoyed, I went over the line to glare back at him. He only looked at me with a titled head.
"Sir Eleftherion, if you will just fall back into your line, please," the professor called out chirpily. "Yes, yes. Now, children, follow after me."
Afterwards, I could only gloat in silence. My first week in an actual educational institution (the first in my two lives!) had been ruined by a boy who did nothing but follow me around. What's worse was that he wouldn't even speak to me. In fact, I would try to catch him every single day, but once I got too close, he would promptly run away. It was a stupid game, but I was seriously getting tired of it. Every too often, I would find myself surveying my surroundings for his figure, even when I was truly alone.
Now, all I thought about was him...
Well, I've had enough of it! I'm getting sick of seeing his richly brown eyes, and his hair of soft waves, or his dimpled smiles...
'Yes," I thought. 'I was growing crazy. I must kill him now.'
But I quickly shook my head from my dreary thoughts. I was clearly growing a bit too edgy after a week of this little unending game of tag, where no one really knows who was 'it' half of the time. By the time I had cleared my thoughts, we had entered the garden's greenhouse (I had thought we would have gone to the 'garden' where that boy had literally bumped into me, and I'm glad our destination was different, for I would have just started a real fight with the pent-up annoyance I've been feeling lately).
But, for a long moment, my negative thoughts melted down as I breathed in the earthy smell of the greenhouse. There was a sophistication to the glass room. It was wide enough to be called a mini-forest. There were varied heights to the levels of floral arrangements inside too, creating a fascinating specimen of modern irrigation systems, combined with magical engineering. Some of the trees simply floated in bare air, its gnarly roots reaching down towards us. There were a variety of plants all around us, both magical and mundane. For whoever came up with this arrangement, I could only applaud to. He would have needed to consider so many variables in maintaining the balance within a specific space. Where should he have put the poisoned lilies? Would placing the Mandragora beside the Exploding Wallocks be alright?
With a space so rich with life, I felt myself being rejuvenated as well.
Unfortunately, though, the lovely time existed only for a mere minute, because I had caught the eye of the sneaky boy again. This time, though, I was surprised when he actually walked towards me. The lines were already broken down anyway as the professor allowed us to roam around ("But no touching anything! Who knows what'll make you go down in a bout of boils!"), so it wasn't weird to see groups of friends and acquaintances start to form.
But, this... He actually wasn't running away anymore.
I stared as he stood awkwardly in front of me. Then, he smiled shyly. I wanted to smack him on the head for daring to appeal to me with his face. As though to make it worse, he murmured cutely, "Hi there, Therion."
My left eye twitched. "Hi there, Charlie dear. It seems like such a long time since I've last... seen you."
He dared to laugh, although he still looked guilty. "Sorry 'bout that?"
"Apologies, but what did you just say?" I asked with a carefully placed confused look. "How ever did you come up to the conclusion that you are... sorry?"
"Eh heh..." The boy scratched at his head. "I-It's about those... ah, those times I've been..."
"Yes?" I prodded innocently.
"I've been following... you... around," he mumbled, each word getting softer than the last.
"Ho!" I finally let out, a pointed finger up to the sky. "There was, indeed, this persistent shadow that's been hovering just outside my vision for the past week. I've been meaning to follow it, but as most shadows often do, it simply manages to elude me. It was such a pity whenever I couldn't reach it..."
He gulped nervously. "And why is that?"
"Why, it might be because I would have wanted ever so dearly to flash upon it a ball of the brightest fire so that I could smother it into empty nothingness!" I finished my speech with a cutesy smile.
His face blanched out and he sputtered into the air. "I-I, uh..."
I tilted my head at him, just the way he had done earlier. "Yes, Charlie boy?"
"I'm just... sorry." He sighed in desperation. "I know I've been a trouble-"
"A trouble..." I repeated with an empty gaze.
He cleared his throat. "A huge trouble... but I suppose I owe you more than an apology, and so I've come with an explanation."
"Ah, the great ways a gentleman could prove his honor," I muttered. "Need they always speak of explanations when they clearly had done a wrong? Much to pity from a young lad like myself, ah, but I am only a commoner, and my liege... a 'prince'. So, pray tell, go ahead with your... explanation, so I might find reason in myself to actually forgive you."
He coughed. "Therion, has anyone ever told you how you speak so very eloquently?"
I glared at him with all my being.
"O-Okay," he spluttered out. "My explanation then! Well, you see... You see..."
"I only see a lying boy in front of me, procuring out a flimsy excuse for the incredibly... 'huge trouble' he had accosted me," I said monotonously.
"Ahh ha ha ha..." he laughed emptily, and then stood up straighter. "I am sorry for following you around for the past week and not daring to come any closer. I have little friends in my life as is, and I was simply frightened at the prospect of losing you!"
Immediately, my mind stopped working. 'What in my Lord King's buttocks is this boy saying?'
"Losing me?" I asked. "Why ever would that happen?"
"Be-Because!" he shouted loudly for the whole greenhouse to hear, maybe even enough to awaken the sleeping Mandragora. Thankfully, their slumber was not so easily broken by loud, little boys alike. He then continues, his cheeks blushed up, his tone fearful. "Because... I embarrassed you that day. Your clothes were ruined, and I've probably hurt you in the clash-"
I snorted. "You can't hurt me, kid. Your punches are like that of a mosquito."
He smiled at me wearily. "Even so, I've brought you unnecessary attention, and now the whole Academy knows about those two new students who dared have a fight on the castle gardens. And, well..."
His hesitation annoyed me, and so I urged him on. "What? And what?"
"Well..." he mumbled. "Haven't you heard? They think... Well, they don't actually know me, since I had my hood up the whole time, but they recognized your face, and..."
I was about to smack him when he hastily continued, "... and they think the new kid, Eleftherion, mighty boy with the advanced wind magic and the first to exit the Forests of Elara, was, uh, utterly defeated in a fight of strength..."
My mind became jumbled. Sure, I cared very little for rumors, but maybe I should've paid more attention to this. I mean, didn't I find it weird how many people would whisper around amongst themselves when I enter a room that wasn't a classroom? But, well...
"I don't care much about that," I replied honestly with a shrug. "It's better this way, actually. I didn't want to become know as the... boy with advanced wind magic or the first to exit the Forests. With time, these bored nobles will run out of interest for me, and be on their merry way!"
The boy blinked at me with his wide, brown eyes. "... You aren't angry?"
"Nope."
"Not even a little?"
"I'm more angry at you following me around like a half-assed assassin!"
Finally, he laughed truly, his every being collapsing into a state of relief. "Thank the Goddess Luna..."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Was that really all of it?"
He nodded at me, his countenance already going back into his joyful and mischievous one. And then he looked up, like he had just had a thought. "Yes! Also, I wanted to tell you that I'm not a liar."
I rolled my eyes again. "Sure."
"No, really!" he uttered.
Snorting, I asked, "If so, why don't you have any attendants like the Prince Clement has? That one attendant man never leaves his side. I would never dare think the crown prince of the Mond Empire itself would ever be left alone."
He scratched his head with a close-eyed smile. "I told you. I left them behind."
"Then, why are you here dressed down like a commoner?" I asked, eyeing his clean, yet simple garments.
He shrugged. "I needed to act inconspicuous. Besides, those frilly shirts constrict me so."
I laughed, imagining him all dressed up like a royal brat. "True. I could hardly think you'd fit the image."
"On the contrary, my Therion boy!" he said with a grin and a flourish. "When I am dressed fittingly to my name, I am simply the peacock in a field of sparrows."
I blurted out a guffaw. This boy certainly had a lot of guts. Soon, he was laughing with me. Seeing him laugh like this, I also didn't want to ever see it scrunched up in pain if he gets flogged down due to impersonating the crown prince. I didn't know why, but I had to protect him...
So, I walked forward until we were practically nose to nose. He immediately stopped laughing. I said, "Do you know what I think? I think you're a bored out noble, looking for excitement in your life. You got that when you ran out to Malaya. And you definitely get it now, whenever you claim you're a great figure that everyone would adore. But, it isn't right, Charles... or whoever you really are. As a friend... As your friend, I'm here to tell you to stop it. I don't want to see you hurt. And if you really value me as your friend, then I urge you to stop this nonsense."
His eyes were clouded at first, but then suddenly focused. He smiled softly at me, "Then you are only asking me to live a lie."
I took in a sharp breath, annoyance growing deep inside me. 'A child!' I called him with my eyes. 'Definitely a rotten, probably spoiled, noble child! Who are his parents? Ugh!'
Seeing my look, he only sighed. "I can truly understand your worries, Therion, my friend... But, I ask you not to worry. And if it would please you so, then I'd like to invite you to my quarters, tomorrow evening. My... attendants will be there by then as proof of my claims. And if you are still distrustful of my words, then I could ask a missive from the Empress herself, if that would please you."
I blinked up at him, confused and still disbelieving. I have long understood that too many a man have sprouted lies from their mouths, so I also couldn't believe the words that came from this... friend of mine. But... I will give him a chance.
If it turns out to be false, like I thought it was, then I'll only chide him.
"You'll be preparing dinner, won't you, Charles?" I asked him wearily.
"Of course!" he replied enthusiastically. "The best course the Empire has to offer!"
I found myself smiling, already imagining the mish-mash of cafeteria food he'll be bringing to his rooms. I could already imagine us laughing it off the moment we make it to his standard-sized rooms. We would then have a hearty meal, while we bickered away through the night. Then, somehow, we would make it up on the castle roofs, stretched out on the tilted bricked spires. We would stare up at the night sky and speak about jokes and imitations.
Surely, I won't find myself in the presence of royalty again.
If it turns out to be true, then I wouldn't know what to do.
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Hua_Li_An
Hua_Li_An Hi guys! So happy more people are reading this novel! :D
Anyway, wahhhh!!! Elle just got an invite to dine with Charles. What will she do when she finds out the truth?
Thanks for reading, and I hope you leave a comment, vote, or a review!! I appreciate any feedback I can get.
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