The morning of the engagement feast, Ira woke up in his own bed feeling refreshed. He had spent the last three days listening to everybody and their mother complaining about all of the work to be done and how unfair it was that the prince was marrying a maid, and so was in a pretty good mood from that alone. It was always fun, listening to insults and slander.
As he had known and dreaded, the engagement feast was a grand event held for all allied royalty and nobles, as well as wealthy merchants.
After a little contemplation, Ira had decided to attend the event as a waiter, though obviously he would not actually be doing any waiting. He would just be wearing his uniform and stare intensely at anybody that tried to talk to him.
But he would be going to the event because he had the feeling something fun would be happening and he wanted to be there and see it in person.
And also because there was going to be chocolate cake and he wanted it.
Regardless, as the day passed by, the various servants were panicking about everything from the decor to the candles to the wine. Ira really wanted that cake, so when he saw the sheer chaos in the kitchen, he went down there and offered to help out. He wasn't sure of how much use he actually was, considering he had no idea what he was doing, but he saw them making some cakes, so he considered it a job well done.
In his mind, he could see his Host frantically trying to make the mermaid princess look presentable by the current human standards, which unfortunately included a corset that the former mermaid straight-up refused to wear.
There was a lot of hissing going on.
As evening approached with the kind of rapid speed that signified the universe taking amusement out of the suffering of its denizens, Ira sort of just faded into the background. He very slowly wheeled a cart full of plates up to the ballroom, through a lot of winded hallways and narrow corridors, and he delighted in ordering guards to get out of his way when he passed them.
While they might want to disagree with him and some were very clearly angry with him, they couldn't do anything because the ball had to be absolutely perfect, prince's orders. Ira was not above taking shameless advantage of the situation to mock them silly.
Their faces! Pfft!
When the guests of the ball finally started arriving, Ira ventured back to his room in order to change into a fresh uniform newly cleaned with scented soap, as per the Head Maid's orders. Apparently, even the servers had a standard to uphold tonight.
Who knew?
The ballroom was a chaotic mess with drapes fluttering in the winds through the open windows. The tables were still being placed throughout the room and the servers were frantically running around with heavy chairs in their hands. Smoothly walking in between all of these people looking on the verge of nervous breakdowns, Ira emerged on the other side of the room no worse for wear.
Right next to the table holding the chocolate cake that was the whole reason he was there. Ira glared at it with narrowed eyes to make sure it didn't get stolen from him.
He fully planned to eat until he was full.
Glancing around himself, he grinned and approached the long table at a sedate pace, completely at odds with his fast paced heart and his salivating mouth. He had missed this so much.
Cutting into the cake, he ignored the people around him that were running at frankly dangerous speeds to get everything ready in time. Most of the guests had already arrived, they were just waiting for the ballroom to be ready now. He grinned even wider as he plopped a big slice of cake onto an otherwise annoyingly clean plate and grabbed a small silver spoon.
Heaven. He was in heaven.
By the time he came back to reality, the ballroom was already filling up with guests.
Blinking a little in surprise, he located his Host, who was in the middle of ferrying towels in another part of the large open room. He shrugged, unconcerned with whatever was happening, and went back to his eating in a slightly hidden corner.
Music came from the stage, a slow beat that was tolerable. Ira let his gaze sweep over the entire ballroom, taking in the small details that belied something other than the wanted perfection.
Honestly, they really should have had more time to put together a ball of this magnitude. Now everything was half-assed in an effort to spare time.
Simply put, it was a mess.
Up on the balcony, looking out over the ballroom, the mermaid princess and her love slave were standing, waiting for the right moment to come out and announce their relationship. Currently, the mermaid princess was doing something weird with her face, presumably in the faking of anxiety and fear, and it really didn't fit her.
It was so fake even the prince's bodyguards could tell and they were very subtly stepping away from the nutcase in their midst.
He almost pitied them. Almost.
Ira grabbed another slice of cake. He nearly moaned from the taste of it, so immersed in it that it took him six bites to realize he could feel a familiar soul in his close vicinity.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around him from behind and a hand snagged the spoon from his fingers and took over feeding him. As he was still getting his chocolate, Ira very much didin't care who it was that was feeding him, and so made no attempt to escape.
Besides, he knew who those arms belonged too and while he was a little curious about why he was on land, he wasn't opposed to it.
Ira had — as much as it made him grimace in disgust at just the thought of it — missed him.
Just a little bit. The tiniest.
He finished the rest of his chocolate slice in the arms of the only soul he had ever wanted to kiss and while he wondered at how Silas' soul was here, coincidences did happen, even if humans liked to think differently.
Really, they did.
When the cake was finished, Ira pouted a little in disappointment. He could feel his merman's hot breath strike his ear from behind him and then he heard him speak. It tickled.
"I found you."
Rolling his eyes, Ira answered plainly, "Yes."
The merman in human form just hugged him tighter. Leaning back in the embrace, Ira let his mind wander. His Host was on the other side of the ballroom, staring with stars in her eyes at some insignificant noble and failing in doing her job. The mermaid princess and the prince were still up on the balcony like stuck-up people and the Queen were taking large angry bites out of another cake, just a few meters away from Ira and his unexpected company.
Humming to himself in thought, he saw the way the nobles around them glanced at each other. They were obviously aware that something was going to happen, and they didn't look happy about it.
In their infinite wisdom, they hadn't announced that this was their engagement feast. The guests simply thought it was yet another needlessly extravagant ball to show off their frankly annoying wealth.
They were not happy about it.
Then came the moment that everybody had waited for. The prince called for everyone's attention up on his pretentious balcony.
Ira rolled his eyes again.
"Welcome!" the prince called out in a strong voice. "We thank you all for attending! And now, we have a grand announcement to make!"
The guests stared up at the balcony as a beautiful woman joined the prince's side.
The prince looked smug as he yelled out, "It is my great joy to introduce you all to my wonderful fiancée, Aqualisa!"
The Queen swallowed a whole glass of champagne in a single gulp.
Note that there was no title before her name. That meant that she wasn't nobility of any kind and as any fool could predict, the various distinguished guests did not react well to it. Especially as the prince had, just months earlier, announced his engagement to that noble girl whose name Ira couldn't remember.
Come to think of it, where was she?
Well, whatever. He didn't care.
Angry outbursts came from all over the room, as people voiced their very valid objections. In response, the mermaid princess glared down at them all with a vicious hatred that belied her true feelings.
Not that they were hard to guess in the first place. She wasn't a very good actress.
Like, at all.
At this point, the merman had gotten him a new slice of cake and started feeding him again. Ira was feeling very happy with this and so did not care about how much of a fool his Host were making of herself, where she tried to get the nameless noble's attention. They weren't even especially that good looking.
Was it the money?
It seemed like it was always the money.
Well, he was recording it, so it didn't really matter if he paid attention now or not. He could revel in her bad luck later.
He finished the new slice of cake and watched on as chaos descended like a mad god on the ballroom. Yells were called out from all over, glasses were thrown on the floor, making the various servants almost go crazy and in the end, the guards had to step in to calm things down. This did not, as one might be able to guess, work out well.
More chaos ravaged the ballroom. Curtains caught on fire. Tables were overturned. Decorated swords went flying with all of the wrath of a scorned woman.
It was beautiful.
Ira had, by the time the rug was set on fire, relocated to a chair next to the Queen. The Queen was glaring at everybody that made the mistake of catching her eye, and she had already ordered a full three people to be executed. To be fair, they did attempt to murder her.
Next to Ira, the merman was sitting with a tall glass of champagne held loosely in his hand, looking for all the world as if he was at a picnic and not in the middle of what was fast becoming a riot.
Naturally, as Ira did have some positive feelings for him.
Eventually, to Ira's great regret, the guards finally managed to wrestle the people back under control. Not, however, before no less than five of the kingdom's vital supporters were killed in the mess.
At this point, the Queen had drank a whole bottle of champagne, all by herself.
Somehow, she still wasn't drunk.
With the party, sadly, back under control, the guests started leaving, some of them with guards escorting them to dungeons.
They had to be held accountable for the valuable people they killed. Who cared about the twelve servants that were also killed in the chaos?
Nobody, clearly.
As the ball was coming to an end and Ira had a duty to wheel a bunch of plates back to the kitchen, he turned to the merman and said, "I'll be leaving now."
The merman — now humanoid — stared back at Ira intensely. "Why?"
Ira blinked a little. He hadn't expected the merman to question him. "The ball is over. That means it's time to clean up and sleep."
"Oh."
The merman narrowed his eyes at Ira and he realized they looked very inhuman right now. "You're going to stay here?"
"Yes?" Ira asked, tilting his head. "I work here."
"Good." the merman nodded and their long hair, bound back in a low tail followed. "Then I'll be back."
Ira furrowed his brows and asked, "Huh?"
The merman smirked at him. "Now that I know where you are, you can't expect me to let you go."
Ira just blinked some more.
The merman laughed a little and smiled unfairly gorgeously at him. "You're my treasure. To follow you wherever you go is just common sense."
With a last, quick kiss that was surprisingly chaste, the merman — possibly former — left the ball with a backward wave. Ira sat still on the chair for a few more minutes, thinking, before he decided that it wasn't important and he stood up.
As he left, he waved to the Queen that was still drinking. Confused, she waved back.