All of them, especially Louis, turned to the male aide as he muttered. He cursed under his breath when he realized that he said something that is forbidden to be known by the young prince.
He smiled at Sherin and whispered, but it was loud enough to be heard on purpose, "That's the prince's...servant." he immediately came up with a lie, not exactly a lie but at least he did not say that he was the prince of Antares.
Sherin just stared at Niro with her expressionless face but Niro knows that the female knight was getting suspicious and was not taking his words.
She looked over to the young prince for confirmation and His Little Highness just smirked and sighed, "He is right. I took him in as my personal servant."
Niro was relieved that Louis did not notice the sudden change of his words. 'Phew, I thought I would be dead any moment.' he thought.
He saw the crown prince staring at his way, not even blinking or trying to look away. Niro slowly averted his gaze, pretending that he had not seen that. 'T-that is a scary stare.' he thought but kept a neutral face.
Sherin just stayed silent, she got the confirmation from the young prince but she still feels something off about how Niro was behaving. Her guts has never been wrong before.
Her gaze dropped down to Chance and then swung to Alec. Then something came to her mind.
"Who were you calling 'Your Highness' earlier?" Louis asked and narrowed his eyes at the Valorian, when he remembered that he also turned around to greet a royalty. Sherin also had the question in her mind, but the prince got to ask it first.
"It was me." Caliber responded in his stead.
The young prince raised his brow and turned to his brother, "Normally, they would call you prince first."
Caliber laughed slightly, "It is fun messing with him, I even got him to call me Highness." he said. Alec and Caliber stared at each other, rather than stare, it was more of a glare.
Despite Alec's emotionless face and Caliber's smile, they were emitting dark auras, making the atmosphere even more tense.
Chance noticed the enmity between the two, he just cannot understand why they both do not seem to like each other. Even from their first meeting, never did Chance saw them getting along, not for once. 'Could these two possibly have history?' he thought.
'If so, I wonder what happened.' he was curious indeed, what made them be so hostile to each other.
Other than the two, he glanced at the unfamiliar aides who were also glaring at Alec. If looks could kill, Alec would have already been dead more earlier.
Chance could not help but to grimace, 'What did my knight do to get them so mad?' he thought. As he views it, it seems like hating the Valorian knight is starting to become a tradition for the people of Canopus.
Since Chance was nearest to where Alec stood, he put his hand on his shoulder and the knight turned his head to him. "Are you okay?" Chance asked, he looked fine of course, but he wanted to make sure that he was not starting to get irritated.
Though Caliber surely is irritated.
The Valorian knight nodded as a response, he bowed his head slightly and Chance felt that he was still the same. It was great that he was still composed even after the swords were on his face, ready to slice him open by the spider and the hawk.
For a moment, Louis was distracted by the knights. He examined Alec from every part, feet to head. At first he laughed when Chance told him that their kingdom's knights would not stand a chance against the knight, Alec Valorian.
Now that he witnessed what had happened earlier, his opinion changed. "Might even be the same level," he muttered.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Brother, you sure came back early." Louis said as a greeting to Caliber, who has just arrived in his secret place.
The young prince was a bit surprised that his brother did not even approach him. Caliber just smiled at him as a response and went straight towards the house. 'What?' Louis thought with a raised brow and narrowed eyes.
He looked at the two aides to get a clue of what happened, Niro and Sherin just bowed to him and followed Prince Caliber. Louis's gaze just followed the three figures and spotted the knight from Antares right outside the door.
Caliber stopped as he faced the knight in front of him, "Move." Caliber commanded firmly.
The two partners felt the bad blood between them but they had no idea who the man was.
"Enemy?" Sherin asked Niro in a whisper. Niro just shrugged and continued watching the two men glaring at each other.
Niro remembered how Sherin also did not answer and just shrugged, knowing that he had also done the same in return, he laughed inside.
'How does it feel that you have been ignored and answered with a shrug. Do you understand what I feel now?' he asked her, but only inside his mind. How pathetic would it be if he really did ask it.
Sherin knew exactly what he was thinking of, she just ignored it. 'Uh, I do not really care.' she thought. So all of what Niro thought was just him being desperate for revenge.
It was really hard to fight Sherin, be it in real battles or battle of mockery. He would stand no chance as he did not understand what kind of specie Sherin was. An alien perhaps.
"I said move." Caliber repeated with even more emphasis.
He received silence as a response as Alec just stared at him without saying anything. A little while, Alec's lips parted, "Sleeping." he said. Just one word and nothing else came after it.
Caliber understood what he meant immediately and took it as 'Charles is sleeping inside.' While the aides were confused as to who the man was talking about. 'Who is sleeping?' they thought.
"Ah, damn it. I have been using too much of my brain this day." he said in a low voice as he complained about every confusion he goes through because of the prince.
Sherin just laughed at his remark. "I did not know you had a brain." she said and Niro turned his head to her with a bored look.
Caliber was getting impatient and could not wait for the Antares knight to get out of his way so he walked towards the door and forced himself in.
Sherin and Niro felt something was going to happen so their hands made their way to their swords, ready to pull it out if ever the Knight does anything.
Louis just shook his head, pitying the knight before he got hurt. He looked over to the other knight that was with Alec when he came.
Tristan stood, leaning on the tree while Louis was up on the branch, watching a good show. Louis smirked and poked Tristan with his hanging feet, "You might as well want to help your captain." he stated.
Tristan looked at him with a curious face, "Huh? Why?" he asked.
Louis raised a brow when he saw the knight nonchalant about it. "Your captain might die before you even know." he responded in a sarcastic way.
Tristan blinked and stared. After a minute he laughed, "That does not seem to be possible, Your Highness." he stated with confidence, very sure that his captain would not lose.
"Let's see where your confidence takes you." Louis said, a bit annoyed that he takes the strongest knights of Canopus too easy.
"Sure." Tristan answered.
Too focused on the show, Tristan even forgot to speak formally to the young prince. Even Louis did not notice his casual way of talking.
Caliber had already gotten close to the door when Alec, who was beside him, spread his left arm to block his way.
The Canopus prince ignored the arm and his hand made its way to the knob. He was about to open it when Alec suddenly grabbed his hand tightly.
Caliber looked at his hand then stared at Alec blankly, not liking what he did. "Impudent." he muttered.
Alec broke the staring contest and he sensed something, his eyes went to the corner and raised his other hand to catch the fist that was aiming for him.
It was the prince's male aide, Niro, who tried to attack him.
It was quite a strong punch, but he was also strong enough to catch it. Even though Niro's fist was already in his hand, he felt himself move a bit from the force that Niro caused.
He sighed, it was against his will but he had to let go of Caliber's arm. The prince smiled, "Thank you, good sir." he said with obvious mockery and went inside where Chance was in.
Secretly frustrated, he cannot do anything about it. He turned his focus to Niro and pushed his hand away before dashing backwards. With no time to waste and not even taking a pause, Niro dashed forward multiple times and so did Alec in the opposite way.
Alec felt no need to continue dashing in circles so he stopped back in the middle and Niro was startled by the sudden halt so he took a step, to make a gap between them just in case Alec charges.
But Alec just stood there, not bothering to attack him. Like a flash, in one blink of an eye, Niro was not in his position anymore and was already near his face.
Alec dodged multiple times as Niro did not stop attacking him, 'Hmm, fast.' Alec thought as they battled in terms of speed.
Despite Alec thinking of how fast Niro was, Louis was not sitting on the branch anymore but on the ground to see the fight more clearly. "Alec could keep up with the hawk's speed?" he thought, finding it unbelievable.
Sherin stood still, not moved from her spot since earlier. At first, she did not want to join the fight as she knew that Niro could handle it without her.
Her chill and blank face vanished as her forehead started to crease. "Did he get slow or is Alec really as fast as he was?" she muttered.
After minutes of continuous lunging and dodging, Alec started to get a bit bored, 'Still not tired yet?' he thought. He just wants Niro to get tired and stop but the male aide still went on.
Once again, Niro disappeared in front of him in a blink and Alec immediately knew that he would be just behind him. 'Predictable.'
He turned around but no one was there, he realized what Niro did, 'Side.' he thought and looked at his left, catching Niro's hand in a perfect timing before it hit his face.
It was a left hand that he caught, but Niro was right handed.
Niro brought forward his other hand and let out the hidden blade but that was what Alec's waiting for.
He grabbed his ring finger and twisted it, making Niro spin around. He pulled the ring out and threw it in the air before kicking Niro away from him.
As Niro turned his head back to Alec, the ring fell and went to Alec's finger, a perfect fit and the same size, Alec thought.
Sherin does not know how to react but she wants to laugh, "You are getting old." she said.
Niro ignored her tease and pulled out his sword and the female knight went silent, 'Niro drew his sword?' she thought.
Niro started to swing his sword to Alec but the knight just kept deflecting the attack with his scabbard.
After not talking for a long time even from the start of the fight, Alec clicked his tongue showing annoyance, "This was my favorite scabbard." he said.
Distracted from his words, Niro has thoughts inside his mind but Alec used his scabbard to attack for the first time in their fight.
Alec swung his weapon, just the wood, hitting his hand upwards and making him let go of the sword that flew on the air.
The knight of Antares caught the sword and pointed it to Niro's face.
Silence.
Louis could not say any words and Tristan remained smug. Sherin did not blink at all and just stared at the familiar knight.
To break the silence, Alec flipped the sword, the handle of the weapon was now the one pointed to Niro.
"Here is your sword, great work." Alec stated shortly.
Niro did not utter a word and just slowly took his sword from Alec to put it back. He felt kind of humiliated, what suddenly made him fight aggressively and sucked?
While they were all silent, Alec planned to go inside to check in Caliber and Chance but he heard someone walking close to him.
He turned around and saw Sherin stop in front of him. "You there," she called out.
She pulled her sword out and stared at him directly in the eye.
"Fight me."