Eating outdoors wasn't that bad. Although Reis had a bad experience with summer picnics for more than one reason, it wasn't bad at all when there was a solid roof above, people to serve the food, and a fairly comfortable weather.
The company could have been better, but he wasn't complaining about that. Reis was currently in the mood to look at the bright side of things.
Like the distraught little boy sitting across from him. Reis didn't know what was so interesting about someone poking at their food, but it got the furball curious enough to stop clinging to his shirt. That was something even the cats in the greenhouse couldn't do.
Then there was the guardian who refused to touch even the fruits. Which technically saved him some expense (not).
"What have I ever done to you?" The young hero seemed to have lost the strength to even accuse properly. The butler standing nearby let out a sigh, thinking this child was sad for not being hired as a guard. But what was there to do? It wasn't a child's job.
As if. This doe eyed child had an entirely different reason for his sadness.
Reis didn't pay him any mind until he was finally done with the letter. "Keith, deliver this to his majesty. Don't give it to anyone else."
"Yes, Your Highness." The butler bowed before stepping away, while hoping that the prince would gently break it down for the poor boy.
Reis sipped the apple juice with a seventy percent certainty that there was some kind of health potion in it while he waited for Keith to be out of hearing range. "You were saying?"
"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME!?"
Yes, right out of the hearing range. A few guards might hear, but they were probably used to this much from this part of the land.
"Whatever do you mean, Cyan?" Reis asked in the calmest voice as the furball ran back to him in fear.
The young boy was fuming, even with the wolflike puppy snuggling up to him. "I didn't even ask for anything!"
He hadn't. Cyan simply offered help because the system promised him it would help him in return. He hadn't asked for anything from this guy with eye bags.
"Then why am I being sent to the Academy!?"
It wasn't even an offer to consider. A direct order for him to go there on the 'next immediate day' which would have been tomorrow if there wasn't a holiday because of what happened with this very person.
Reis wasn't shaken by the outburst; he had expected it. Actually, did it because he knew this would happen. "Children should be in school."
Cyan raised his finger to argue, to blame this man who seemed half evil while he sipped juice. How was it even possible to look sinister while drinking apple juice? This prince must secretly be a villain in the game.
He wished he hadn't listened to that foolish system and gone to save him. It wasn't even necessary in the end!
"You just assumed I'm a kid! I was really old before I got here! You need to take it back."
Reis looked at the protester with a raised eyebrow. He himself had been older back home, so he could believe it.
But since when did old people go around yelling, 'I was really old' exactly with that kind of emphasis? Honestly, he didn't care.
If an old man were as irresponsible, he should be in school, too. "Then you must have been very childish to match with a ten-year-old."
"I'm thirteen!"
Oh. This boy looked much younger than Ann's two siblings, who were fourteen. No wonder he was allowed to leave the capital at that hour. Those rules needed some changing.
"Look, I needed to reward you, and this was the best there was. Isn't this the best way to advance?"
The academy had everything. Books, resources, training grounds and everything in between.
"But…but…I don't have time for this! I…I…"
Reis scoffed internally. This kid had time to run around the forest at three in the morning and he says he can't attend the academy.
"Adults shouldn't act like this, you know. Isn't it a great opportunity? The academy—"
"Shut up!" Cyan slumped down on the table after the outburst. "Just when I thought I escaped from school, too." The boy had already given up on the old man act. Not that it worked anyway.
Reis pushed a piece of cake towards the heartbroken hero. "How old are you?"
"Thirteen."
"You don't have a family and there aren't any other players around here I would guess. Don't you think you need the backing if you really want to progress?"
Cyan didn't answer, continuing to sob onto the table. The wolf tried to comfort the kid, only to be used as a snot disposal. Reis didn't think he'd actually begin to cry.
"Ahem. It won't be as bad as actual school." Reis spoke. He could guess how good of a relation someone ending up inside a game might have with school. Personal experience of sorts. "You can pick what you actually want to learn. Like the fantasy academy stories. You know them, right?"
Reis didn't know why he even had to comfort this kid. Compared being a assassination target, he'd pick being at school any day.
Cyan finally looked up with tear-filled doe eyes as if fully prepared to make the prince feel guilty. "Really?"
"Yes. You can stay here, as his majesty arranged. Once you are properly trained, you can go on and do whatever nonsense you are supposed to." Pause. "But don't bother me. I don't have time for that."
The brown-haired boy blew his nose into the napkin before finally resigning to his fate. After much persuading from the system, unbeknownst to Reis. "...Alright."
He bit into the consolation cake before looking at Reis again.
"But aren't you worried you'd get in trouble with him as your guard?" Sure, he himself was unqualified, but wasn't it a bad idea to have the guardian pretend to be normal?
Yvaion looked at the boy with a cold gaze, making the wolf hide in terror.
But the confused prince could only tilt his head. He could think of multiple reasons for it, but why would anyone else think so? "What do you mean?"
Cyan looked at the black-haired man briefly before biting into a cookie. "Well, he doesn't even breathe." The boy said as if it were the most obvious thing. "Won't people notice?"
Reis hadn't noticed. He didn't even think of it until now. Who even checks if a walking, talking creature is breathing or not?
He looked at the lord who suddenly refused to meet his eye. But Reis still searched for signs of life other than the walking, talking part. "Lord Aion…do you not…?"
"I don't require it." The guardian made his declaration sending the prince into another fit of terror.
This human, who always knew breathing to be an automatic function, would have preferred to go without the information, but, as the world would have it, his guardian didn't breathe.
"Well, I'm off. See you around!" Cyan hopped away immediately, the terrified wolf in tow, as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb. He definitely did it on purpose!
But it wasn't the time to get into a fight with a kid. Not when his entire plan was hanging by a thread. "Since you are in human form, shouldn't it be better…if you acted so?"
Eating was a no go cause the food supposedly tasted bad. OK, he could somehow manage that. But this? Reis wouldn't even get away saying this man was a vampire!
Does he even know how breathing works?
"Yes, I know what it is."
Then could he just do it instead of making Reis walk circles around the point?
Reis waited for a minute. Then two. Until he had almost finished the food on his plate without any response.
"Lord–"
"Do what you are doing, I'm observing."
Oh. The great lord was actually listening to his pleading. Thank goodness. Reis didn't have it in him to convince this creature if he continued to act nonchalant.
So Reis did what he could to help. Which was to do absolutely nothing other than eating silently while the guardian observed him like a hawk.
Inhale. Exhale. Reis himself had never paid attention to his breathing until now.
Then came the fatal moment. The great lord Yvaion sat up straight and followed his movement. Slowly, carefully, pulling in a puff of air from the atmosphere.
And the prince had suddenly lost all sense of self as he watched. Because clearly he had to have imagined the sudden force of wind. Yeah, just a coincidence.
|Danger. Please take shelter. |
Oh no. "Wait! No!"