"Excuse me." Vladstin went to the crowd surrounding Leron again and interrupted as loud as he can. "Is the daughter of the Marquise of Mascarutia here?"
"Oh? She's here with us?" Leron raised his eyebrows when Vladstin approached them again.
"Blyat! Prints ischet menya! (Fuck! The prince is looking for me!) " The young lady said with a thick accent of the Mascarutia dialect.
"I would like to offer you a dance, my lady." Vladstin formally bowed in front of the noble crowd and offered his hand.
"Vau! Konechno ya budu! (Wow! Of course I will!" The young lady nodded and took his hand.
"Uh.... I take that as a yes? If you will excuse us." Vladstin stole a glance at Leron to see his reaction.
Leron just smiled. "I'm not much of a dancer, so I hope you'll enjoy your dance! It's nice to meet you, Lady Stacia of Mascarutia."
"Ya tozhe. Ya nadeyalsya, chto ty, krasivyy negodyay, priglashish' menya na tanets, no prints operadil tebya. (Me too. I was hoping that you, handsome rascal, would invite me to dance, but the prince got ahead of you.)"
Leron just politely nodded, actually thankful that Vladstin took away the young Lady Stacia who can't speak in the Common language.
Vladstin and Lady Stacia danced, and the young prince of Crescentia don't know what to say. "So, uh.... Do you really not speak any Commons?"
Lady Stacia shook her head sadly. "Nemnogo. Boyus' sebya opozorit. (Just a little. I'm scared to embarrass myself.)"
"I take it that you don't. Ah, I don't know how this will work." Vladstin frowned, and admitted the truth. "I'm sorry, I actually asked you to dance with me because I'm trying to make Leron notice me."
"Leron?" The Marquis' daughter repeated, and pointed at the birthday boy who was surrounded by guests.
"Yes. I was bothered that he was talking with other people when I'm right here." Vladstin groaned frustratingly.
"Ah...." Lady Stacia nodded knowingly. "Ponimayu, ponimayu. Znachit, vy na salom dele pytayetes' zastavit svoyego parnya revnovat. (I see, I see. So you're actually trying to make your boyfriend jealous.)"
Vladstin raised an eyebrow. "Uh.... I guess?"
"Pochemu ty ne skazal ob etom ranshe'? (Why didn't you say so earlier?)" Lady Stacia chuckled and slapped Vladstin's shoulder lightly. "Ne volnuysya. Ya pomugu tebe! (Don't worry. I'll help you!)"
Vladstin was just confused why he got slapped on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, I don't understand...."
"HAHAHAHA! VLADSTIN SO FUNNY!" Lady Stacia giggled and said in the most coquettish voice. Her loud cackling voice gained the attention of everyone in the room.
Vladstin blinked several times.
Lady Stacia rolled her eyes and whispered to his ear. "You laugh too. Say I'm funny."
Vladstin took a long while before realizing what she was doing. "Oh. Hahaha, Lady Stacia is so funny as well! That was a good one!"
The two kids laugh with each other and acted all chummy like good pals. They became the new topic of the ballroom.
"His Highness seems to favor Lady Stacia quite well." A young man from another duchy concluded. "Despite their language barrier, he still sought after her. Ah, young love."
He said this beside Leron, who watched the two dancing kids curiously. "Young love? Does a dance already count as a sign of love?"
"You might not know this because you're from a foreign country." A baron's son told him. "But in Crescentia, you can't just ask anyone for a dance. You must be genuinely interested in them."
An old lady giggled to herself. "Do you think that girl may be the future queen of our kingdom?"
Another lady with a very tall wig that looked like cream toppings over her head laughed as well. "Oh, stop. We cannot tell for sure! When he gets older, he's bound to meet more ladies that will gain his favor. Boys are like that, they move on from one person to the next!"
"Especially a prince like him. It's very easy to fall out of favor once he gets bored of you." A butler agreed.
Leron frowned at this. He was not concerned whether or not Lady Stacia will be the next queen. Vladstin can decide who he likes to be with but....
The thought of falling out of his favor, and being replaced by someone else..... deeply bothered Leron.
"I am parched. I will be having something to drink, excuse me." Leron excused himself and left.
Vladstin turned around to check again at Leron, but he was gone. "Where did he go?"
Lady Stacia shrugged and look around as well. But Leron was nowhere to be found.
"I hate this. It didn't work." Vladstin sighed and let go of Lady Stacia's hand. His head was hanging down, his usually smiling lips going down in a frown.
"Sorry. He come back soon, promise!" Lady Stacia patted his back and comforted him.
"I'm okay." Vladstin shrugged her hand off gently, and walked to one of the tables to sit the whole party through.
Someone sat beside him, orange hair hanging low on their face as well as they sulked.
Vladstin turned and raised an eyebrow. "Yulio? Why do you look so glum?"
Yulio scoffed. "Who wouldn't when you get that scene right in front of you?"
He gestured to a couple dancing in the distance, all smiles and talking with each other. It was Raishti and Suzhi.
"You're not with Raishti? You two are always within each other's reach." Vladstin's golden eyes were wide as he looked back and forth from the dancing pair and the devastated Yulio.
"Well, we don't anymore. He has Suzhi with him." Yulio leaned on the chair, scowling. "What about you? You and Leron are also always within each other's reach."
Vladstin looked down to the floor. "He was too busy socializing with other nobles, he doesn't have any time for me anymore."
Yulio nodded. "I see. It sucks, isn't it? Just being away even for a single second from the person you thought you would always be together with."
"I don't know why it even upsets me so much." Vladstin shrugged. "This is the worst. This is the worst thing that could happen to me and Leron!"
Yulio suddenly chuckled, and Vladstin glared at him.
"What's so funny? I thought we were comrades with the same suffering here!" Vladstin yapped.
"Nothing, I just realized how childish you were. You two are really too young." Yulio ruffled his hair. "Trust me, there are much worse things than Leron just not paying attention to you."
"Like what?"
"You think I'm upset that Suzhi and that bastard are dancing together?" Yulio said. "I'm not stupid, I know this tactic before. He probably asked Suzhi for help to make me jealous and she offered to dance with him. They're not really having fun with each other, they just wanted to see me get annoyed and make me notice Raishti again."
"That is.... what Suzhi suggested to me also." Vladstin rubbed the back of his head. "Wait, notice Raishti again? Were you two in bad terms?"
"We had an argument. I was angry at him and ignored him for these last few days." Yulio admitted.
Vladstin was more than surprised, he was baffled. "How is that possible? You two always get into fights, but it's not that long. Can't you forgive each other again?"
"This time is different. I can't forgive him because.... he didn't really do anything wrong." Yulio got a glass of wine that was owned by someone else and down it to the last drop. He wiped his lips and told Vladstin the whole thing. "I wanted to be the general of the military, remember? That was my biggest dream. The soldiers are now recruiting, so I told him that we should sign up for the infantry...."
"But then he told me he doesn't want to be a soldier. He wanted to be a diplomat, or be the head of finance. That's ridiculous, why would anyone want to just sit their butts on a chair computing the treasury or speaking to people? If we joined the military, we get to train together, to travel to distant lands and go on adventures!"
Yulio continued while biting at his thumb. "But he says he doesn't want that, that wasn't his dream. I lashed out to him and said 'So you're just leaving me alone!? Fine then, let's go on separate ways from now on!'. I was so mad I even slammed the door on him."
Vladstin frowned. "That really.... unfortunate. I think you acted too harshly."
"Pfft, what will you do if you and Leron were in that situation?" Yulio asked him with a raised eyebrow. "You wouldn't get mad or be afraid of him leaving you? You would just let him go?"
"I don't know...." Vladstin averted from his gaze.
He realized that he really was too young, this situation was unimaginable for him. It would be more difficult for Yulio and Raishti to reconcile than him and Leron. They weren't even really fighting anyway, he was just petty from all the attention Leron was getting from other people.
"Can't you two just.... talk? I feel like, that's what I would do." Vladstin finally said.
"Take your own advice first." Yulio said. "It's easier to tell Leron you were upset with him for ignoring you at a party you helped to create, compared to me who got mad at someone who didn't even do anything wrong. My pride keeps me from apologizing, I'm still annoyed with that insufferable.... Ugh!"
Yulio was staring at Raishti's face as he talked, and he seemed aggravated by something he saw. Vladstin could not tell what it is, all Raishti had been doing was smiling, so why was he so mad?
Yulio muttered to himself as he zoomed past the room. "That freaking smile.... I hate it so much....."
He grabbed Raishti's arm and said. "Hey, you! Let's get out of here and talk!"
Raishti's mouth made an 'oh' as he was very surprised to have Yulio approach him. Suzhi gave two big thumbs up as the two men walked away and talked somewhere alone.
Vladstin shrugged. He really can't understand teenagers, they seem so dramatic. It irks him that he will be one soon.
He felt a light tap on his shoulder. "Vladstin, can we talk? I'm sorry I didn't pay attention to you earlier."
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Ok, I'm getting desperate and pathetic so now I'm willing to accept bribes. I get jealous easily of other books that have a huge following and get sad everytime, thinking what's the point of writing if I feel like no one's reading/appreciate it.
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