章節 48: She Has Never Been to a Ball?
A little bit before lunch, Christian finally finished watching the recording. Keith had enjoyed how his facial expressions had changed colors so quickly. From white to red to green to blue, and then purple until he gasped at how brazenly he had done things. By the end, he had fallen completely silent.
"Well, I think you're lucky." Keith grinned. "It's not every day that you get drop-kicked by the hero."
The Prince placed his head in his hands, not replying.
"You're also lucky that your first target was Robin." Keith replied. "Why, if it had been Jasmine, then she wouldn't let you forget about it for your whole lif-."
"I don't even want to consider that!" The Prince groaned, wanting the ground to open up and swallow him. "Why him!? Why did I end up chasing after him!?"
Keith looked at Christian and edged away slightly. "Is it possible that you like-"
"It isn't that! By the king's throne, it most certainly is not that!" Christian interrupted Keith. "I am perfectly normal!"
"Well, I can't say much, then. Perhaps, because it was one of Jasmine's failed antidotes, it ended up having a very large change in your orientation momentarily?" Keith theorized.
Christian's face was completely covered by his hands now. "Do I even have the face to apologize for this! I, the prince, who has survived every kind of poison thrown at me, was pulled down by a failed product!?"
"Just because you have poison immunity due to your nature element doesn't mean that you have immunity to....boosters." Keith pointed out. "And, since the Hero didn't kill you for it, you're most likely still fine."
"HOW IS THIS FINE!?" Christian stared daggers at Keith, who raised his hands defensively.
"Hey, don't look at me! You were the one who drank the darned thing. Sure, it was probably Old Albus who forgot that he cleared the other potions off his desk, but you should know better than to drink a potion that looks that poisonous." Keith said defensively. But, inwardly, he was laughing his head off.
'Serves you right for leaving me to climb out of that bush by myself.' He thought.
Christian drooped. "You're right. As someone who has learned how to identify potions, I should have known that it was the wrong one. All my mistakes are my own fault...even if it was Jasmine that left the potion there in the first place, I should have been able to tell that it was the wrong one."
"Look on the bright side, at least now that he's seen you at your worst, if you work hard at showing good behavior from now on, he might get a better opinion of you." Keith said some comforting words. But, he and Christian both knew that good first impressions make up more than fifty percent of a person's opinion of someone.
Christian rolled his eyes. "Thanks, but I don't need that kind of a bright side."
"Then you will live your whole life in the dark? Beware of vampires, then." Keith sniggered.
Christian glared at Keith. "I'm not entirely convinced that those wounds you bear aren't entirely your fault!"
"Even if they're my fault, they'll be gone before tonight~" Keith teased. As one of the involved, he managed to snag a free healing potion from guilt-tripping Old Albus.
"You-!" Christian growled, before quickly standing up and heading to the door, recording ball in hand.
"Where are you going with that?" Keith asked.
"To dispose of the evidence." Christian replied cooly.
"You're too late. I've already made several copies." Keith smirked.
"Then you don't mind if I take this one along?" Christian replied evenly as he disappeared out the door. The first thing he would do was to grab some food, while the second thing he would do was look for Robin. If Robin knew that he had been recorded, Christian wondered what would happen to Keith.
"It'll do you no good!" Keith called after him from the door.
"Is that so?" Christian murmured under his breath as he continued walking down the hallway.
Keith shook his head, grinning at Christian's seemingly useless gesture. Little did Keith know, he would soon get into very big trouble due to his oversight. But, for now, Keith headed down the hallway to make his report to the king.
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In the kitchens, Christian met Ponzu nibbling on some sort of solid white cookie thing as two assistants were busy whisking things for him.
"Yo, Ponzu! Got anything to eat?" He asked.
"Yeah! It's in the usual place. But, are you not going to attend lunch today? It's about time for lunch to get served." Ponzu asked.
"Er, I was going to, yes. It's that late already?" Christian asked. "I was going to see if I could find Robin to apologize-hey, what is with that expression on your face?" Ponzu's face had a rather strange expression.
"Well, the thing is, if it's Master Robin you were looking for, then he just left not five minutes ago... You are completely cured of that strange spell potion, right?" Ponzu asked, just to make certain.
"Of course I have! I would never do something so embarassing in my normal state of mind!" Christian exclaimed, his face turning red.
"Oh, good. You're really back to normal!" Ponzu sighed. Then stopped and looked around.
"What are you looking for?" Christian asked.
"If I'm not mistaken, then that person should not be that far away." Ponzu muttered. "he should be somewhere right...HERE!" Ponzu opened a cupboard to reveal Gerard hiding inside.
"Heh heh... hello!" Gerard greeted awkwardly. "I smelled something really sweet baking in here, earlier. Hey, Ponzu! Are those cookies what you were baking earlier?" Gerard's eyes zeroed in on the cookies, which Ponzu possessively covered.
"No, I wasn't baking them. Hero Robin was baking this morning."
"In that case, can I-"
"No you can't! Wait until the next batch is done, and you can have some. I need these for comparison so that I make sure I don't stray from the recipe!" Ponzu affirmed adamantly. No one was going to steal these delectables out from under his nose.
"But I'm really hungry right now." Gerard complained.
"If you're hungry, go have lunch. These are off limits. Shoo shoo!" Ponzu glared at Gerard with an animousity only foodies could comprehend.
"Stingy!" Gerard pouted as he headed out of the kitchen empty-handed.
"Freeloader!" Ponzu called right back with impunity.
"Right, I'll just go to lunch then." Christian said, feeling a bit awkwardly that his most loyal chef Ponzu had just forgotten about him due to Ponzu's obsessive possession of Robin's cookies.
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Robin was already sitting at the table when Christian arrived. This made things doubly awkward for Christian when he sat down, as he wasn't quite sure how to face Robin. Robin, on the other hand, had no problem with how to treat Christian. She simply ignored him. In fact, she ignored anything outside of a radius of two feet around her, and concentrated solely upon her lunch.
The silence was broken about halfway through the meal when Queen Emeline finally spoke up.
"So, Robin, how are your preparations for the ball going?"
Robin looked up, and considered the question for a moment before asking. "Do I need to do anything special for the ball? I've never been to one, after all, so I just assumed I'd be informed after lunch about ballroom ettiquette."
"You've never been to a ball?" Queen Emeline asked.
"To be perfectly frank, in my world, I'm just a commoner." Robin admitted.
"But that can't be true! How can you know how to sword fight and cook and lead men if you're just a commoner?" Gerard exclaimed.
"That was the expensive life insurance at play along with my inheritance after my parents died." Robin explained.
"Life insurance? What is that?" The king asked, intrigued.
"It's a system which was set up for parents to put money aside for their children and close relatives in case they die a sudden death." Robin explained. "You can consider me as one of the children of an affluent merchant."
"...This is not good. Call the ettiquette teachers to the music room at once after lunch!" Queen Emeline announced.
"I'll help too!" Jasmine added. "I can act as Robin's partner for practice."
"That...I suppose you have my thanks, then." Robin bowed her head.
"My, it's no trouble at all!" Emeline dismissed. "Tutors are meant to teach, this will just help them to earn their pay, instead of living off a pension they don't work to obtain."
In all the hubbub, Christian was once more ignored.
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