Alex cast one last glance back at the old man seated behind the front desk, a book held loosely in his hand, his head tilted forward as he read. Alex turned his head around. The library was empty. Utterly empty, save for the warm glow poured out by the lamps stationed at every corner. Old Wan had mentioned that he would be leaving a little late, as he was nearing the end of some fantasy novel about a boy reborn as an overpowered villain, and since he was approaching the final pages of the first book, he had barely acknowledged Alex's thanks as Alex made his way toward the exit.
Alex found it surreal, seeing an old man like Wan absorbed in a fiction novel, but he shook the thought away and pushed it to the back of his mind. He should not be concerned with what the old man read. What mattered most was focusing on himself and on the present. With that resolve settled in his chest, Alex stepped out through the great entrance of the library and descended the staircase that joined the path leading to infinitely many places, or so it felt. Yesterday, he had experienced enough of that feeling after losing his way to his dormitory, a place he had completely forgotten to locate before leaving the library.
But today was different. He knew the way, and so he trudged along the cobblestone path, the street lamps pushing back the darkness on either side of him. A cold breeze moved swiftly through the air, making his ears tingle, and the path was as empty as it had been the night before.
The library closed late, and no one tended to roam at this hour. Most students had likely exhausted themselves throughout the day and were resting in their dormitory rooms by now, which Alex would have preferred as well had he not been tasked with helping in the library. Though, if he was being honest with himself, he had to admit that he had come to enjoy his time there. When there were no books to return to their shelves, he was free to read, and while he did have to wipe down covers and dust the shelves, there was rarely much to clean since the official library helpers were thorough in their work. Still, Old Wan always managed to find a few books that needed attention.
Lost in his thoughts, Alex navigated the winding paths of the vast academy area and soon found himself nearing the boys dormitory. The place never failed to impress him. There were so many buildings and facilities here that the students of this academy truly lived with the best of everything. The boys dormitory itself was a large, multi-storey building set beside the path, with more than half of its windows dark, meaning the students in those rooms had already fallen asleep.
Alex quickened his pace, and when he had nearly closed the gap to the entrance, his feet stopped beneath him without warning. His hands, which had been tucked into his pants pockets, began to tremble, and he clenched them tightly to bring them under control. He was only a few meters from the dormitory building, but instead of stepping inside, he stood frozen in place.
Because Princess Eva was standing at the entrance of the boys dormitory with her arms folded across her chest.
Alex's breath shortened. His eyes darted toward the two guards stationed at either side of the entrance. They were armoured and regal in posture, their backs pressed against the walls, their gazes fixed blankly on each other. They looked as though they would not stir unless a proper intruder or an impersonator appeared before them.
Princess Eva eyed him. And, without warning she quickly crossed the distance between them, and before Alex could do anything, before he could even make sense of what was happening, she wrapped her arms around him from the front in a tight embrace. Her hands clasped him firmly and her head came to rest against his shoulder, while his own hands remained stuck inside his pockets. His eyes moved anxiously toward the guards, and he was relieved to find that neither of them had turned or so much as glanced in their direction.
But he could not say the same for the boy who had peeked through the window of a room above. The boy had straight black hair, and for a moment his eyes went wide with disbelief. Alex recognised him immediately because this was the boy who answered nearly every question in Professor Jaxon's class. He slid aside the obscuring curtain and pushed his window open. He was not wearing his usual oval glasses, and he squinted and rubbed his eyes as though trying to make sense of the figures embracing in front of the boys dormitory. Alex's gaze swept swiftly across the other windows and he exhaled in quiet relief when he saw no other faces peering down.
Before Alex could put any distance between himself and the princess, before he could think of a way to conceal them both from the boy's still-squinting eyes, Princess Eva released him. And in that moment, as Alex looked at her, something inside him cracked. Her cheeks were streaked with tears.
"Someone is watching from above," Alex murmured, and the princess turned toward the window. She grabbed his hand without hesitation and pulled him away from the building at a pace that Alex struggled to match. He followed closely, glancing back and forth between his former fiancee and the dormitory windows, silently hoping no one else would see them. He took some comfort in the knowledge that the boy likely had not gotten a clear look at them, given how poor his eyesight was without his glasses and how frantically he had still been rubbing his eyes as Alex and the princess had moved away.
***
"Alex, are Eldric and his friends giving you trouble?" the princess asked, her brows drawn together in concern and her hands pressed tightly into fists in her lap. They were sitting on one of the benches along the path, having first made certain no one was nearby.
It has been so long since I heard her speak to me like that. Alex thought, her worried voice reaching something tender inside him. It felt like ages since he had heard her sound like that.
"No, there is nothing to worry about," Alex replied with a smile carefully shaped on his lips, trying to keep her concern from deepening. And, more than anything, he did not take Eldric's warning lightly.
"Alex, you are lying, aren't you." She insisted
Alex felt his breath catch. His eyes traced her face in search of an answer. Was there someone in the restroom who saw what Eldric and his friends did to me?
No, that cannot be. There was no one. I even cried out for help and no one came. He shook the thought away. There had been absolutely no one present in that restroom while Eldric and his goons had beaten him without mercy.
"No, I am not lying," Alex insisted, his voice firm. "They are wary of being punished by the student president."
Princess Eva shook her head, unconvinced. "I did not see you at the canteen. And your..." Her voice wavered as her eyes moved slowly across his face and then down to his uniform.
"There is nothing wrong," Alex claimed, his voice rising a little. "You do not have to worry about me." He meant every word of it. There was no reason for her to carry concern for him. She had a bright future ahead of her, and he was someone who could never keep pace with her. It was better for both of them that their marriage agreement had been dissolved. But it hurts. It pains me. Why does she have to marry Lucian?
Alex let out a slow breath.
The princess reached across and took his left hand which was resting on the bench beside him. Alex's eyes widened as he looked at her. She met his gaze without flinching, her beautiful black eyes were so near him, and those eyes, which had always felt calming to him, were now full of turmoil.
"I am not marrying Lucian," she declared. "I will marry you."
"What," Alex breathed, and the word came out barely above a whisper. For a moment he thought he had heard her wrong, but he knew with certainty that he had not. He should have been overjoyed and overwhelmed. He had come to understand in the most bitter of ways, the day the emperor cancelled their marriage agreement, that he loved her, and he had regretted not telling her sooner, not being certain sooner of what she meant to him. That day had taught him that he wanted no one else, that he wanted to be bound to her, to spend the rest of his life beside her. I want her.
"Alex, I love you." Princess Eva's gaze softened, and a deep rose colour crept into her cheeks. "Don't you love me?"
"I love you too." The words left his mouth before he could hold them back, and he was startled by his own certainty. "I regret not telling you before. I want to be with you for the rest of my life." His voice carried a quiet strength he had not expected to find in himself. But even as he said it, a shadow of doubt moved through him. Shouldn't I be keeping my distance from her? Won't I only hold her back?
***
They sat together on the bench for a long while, sharing the things they had never said before. They spoke of how they felt about each other, and then of the first time they had met as children, and how Alex had rushed to the gate to help her despite the danger. The princess confessed that seeing him there had been a tremendous relief because it had been her first time inside a gate and she had been terrified, but then she said with a laugh that she had also thought him reckless and foolish for coming, though she had felt glad afterward, deeply glad, that he had appeared. She claimed that she had been the one to deal most damage to slimes. Alex, naturally, disputed her account and pointed out that she had done considerably less damage to the slimes than she was claiming. They quarrelled cheerfully over it for a while before both of them burst out laughing.
The silence that followed was long and comfortable. Alex was not certain about what to do with their feelings. How they could possibly stand against the emperor, but Princess Eva declared with quiet triumph that she intended to grow strong enough to challenge her father outright and that she would refuse to marry Lucian no matter what came of it, that she would only ever marry Alex. It was wonderful to hear, and yet it filled him with guilt. If he could not manage to raise his level, his name alone might be enough to dim the light of her reputation, and the emperor would never permit his daughter to marry someone who was at level one.
They exchanged a few more words and agreed to part for the day. While bidding each other good night, the princess without notice, leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. The moment she did it they both turned crimson, and she immediately spun around and ran off down the path.
Alex watched her go, her figure growing smaller in the distance until it blurred entirely into the darkness. He stood there without moving, rooted to the spot, and only when she had fully disappeared from his sight did he tilt his head back and look up at the sky. A cold breeze touched his cheek and pulled him gently back to reality. The night was beautiful, dark and still, with silver stars glinting across the sky and a half moon that seemed brighter than he had ever seen it. He shook his head slowly, turned around, and walked back toward the boys dormitory.
***
Alex entered the dormitory building and climbed the stairs. When he reached the third floor, where his room was located, he turned into the hallway and stopped dead before he could take a single step forward.
A primal fear crept up through his body, cold and certain, and his palms began to sweat.
Eldric stood before Alex in the hallway, leaning with his back against the wall. Beside Eldric stood Nack and the rest of his companions, all of them lined up and blocking the path to Alex's room, which sat in the middle of the corridor they occupied.
Alex took a step back, intending to turn and run back down the stairs to ask the guards at the entrance for help. But before he could turn, two strong hands seized him on either side of his head. His head did not move an inch. Eldric gripped him with crushing force, pressing hard against his ears, and Alex winced sharply with the pain. He opened his mouth to call out, but before a single sound could escape, Eldric shoved a cloth between his lips.
Alex tried to push him away, straining with everything he had, but his efforts were completely useless.
Eldric did not budge. Instead, Eldric leaned his head close to Alex's ear, his voice was low and measured with a coldness that seemed to border on not being a human at all.
"Bastard. Keep quiet and follow us to the restroom, if you don't want trouble to find your lover."
Alex went still. His eyes shook. And Eldric smiled.
***
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