"I'm sorry."
Lunaria was greeted with the sight of Kaze bowing deeply in front of her the next morning.
Upon arrival at school, she was surprised to find Kaze already standing there and waiting for her. At first, Lunaria thought that perhaps Kaze wanted to thank her once more for what she gave him the day before, and instead got confused when he suddenly bowed and apologised to her.
"W-What's wrong Kaze?" Lunaria asked, finding the situation a little awkward since they could be seen by the other students entering the school. "Do you want to change location? It's a bit…"
"Ah, yes please, if it is making you uncomfortable," Kaze immediately agreed, not wanting to disagree with Lunaria.
Once the duo had moved on to a more secluded place within the school compound, Kaze proceeded to explain the findings of the night before. He started off with words of gratitude, as Lunaria had expected, then moved on to show her the pair of panties he found inside of the same package. Lunaria felt a little surprised by this, but mainly very embarrassed since she had indeed misplaced the panties in the wrong package.
"…. And with that, I am sorry!" Kaze apologised once more, handing out the panties with both hands. "I swear I did not do anything to them. I only kept them aside and waited to hand them back to you."
"It's not your fault, I was the one who was careless," Lunaria quickly took it away from his hand and hid it in her dimension storage. "And I trust you, don't worry. Let me make it up to you by treating you lunch."
"You don't have to do that princess, I mean, Lunaria," Kaze fumbled with his words. "It is already an honour that you bought so many things for me."
"One thing you should know about Lunaria is that she won't give in," Shoko, who had been leaning against the wall this whole time as she watched them, spoke up with a sigh. "Just accept it Kaze. The sooner you do, the better off you will be in the future."
At her words, Kaze finally caved in even though he felt bad about accepting her offer. It was almost as though the recent situations had made Kaze felt special in a way that Lunaria was being cordial to him.
Lunaria made a bright smile at this, feeling thankful her friend helped her to give Kaze a push. Pulling Kaze along with her, they made their way back to class. Since Lunaria was holding onto his hand as she pulled him along, weird stares were given to the two by students all the way until Lunaria had brought Kaze back to his classroom. By right, it should have been the opposite but the ever-insistent Lunaria made clear that he was to follow her instead.
"Woah, what was that about?" Yuuji asked Kaze with a smirk as Kaze made his way back to his seat while hanging his head in shame. "You should have seen the smile on Lunaria's face as she waved you off."
"I don't want to hear that from you…" Kaze slumped onto his desk and sighed in exhaustion. "I couldn't refuse her…"
"I'm sure you could, you just chose not to," Yuuji slapped Kaze on the back and laughed out loud. "I can't imagine anyone rejecting what Lunaria has to request of them anyway, you can't deny she is a beauty."
"Hm, I thought you have a fiancé?" Kaze tilted his head towards Yuuji. "Does she know about this?"
"About me thinking Lunaria-hime is pretty? Of course," Yuuji smiled. "No one wouldn't know about Lunaria since the first week she came. No, it would be more appropriate to say the first day alone when she made her grand appearance."
"Who is your fiancé anyway?" Kaze asked, feeling a little curious now. "Does she not study here too?"
"Nah, she is currently being homeschooled," Yuuji shrugged it off with a light wave backwards. "I'm thinking of allowing her to start schooling soon too, but I'm going to have to make this request to father and mother to arrange a talk with her parents too. In case you were wondering, her name is Miavyusse Revya Arnau. I apologise for the strange long names that most of us in the capital possess though, I understand other places don't have such complicated names."
"How do you know I don't come from the capital?" Kaze felt surprised at Yuuji's deduction. "Is it because of my name?"
"Not true, orphans of the capital don't have surnames too," Yuuji shook his head. "Its your behaviour towards most of the people here, especially towards nobles and royals like Lunaria and I. If you grew up in places like Tristania, then you would understand what I meant by class interaction. Whether you like it or not, there exists a disparity within higher-up nobles and nobles with titles, and an even bigger disparity within the general class of nobles and commoners."
"I don't think I need you to tell me that for me to find out," Kaze sweatdropped and took a glance at the jealous eyes of the nobles in his class. "I already knew that."
"Of course you do, you snagged the attention of the first princess of Aravel," Yuuji grinned. "I'm obviously not, since I already have a fiancé and my father being acquainted with Aravel. Czech and Aravel benefit from technological and agriculture trade, so I have nothing to say."
"Isn't that all the more a good chance to get closer to Lunaria?" Kaze asked. "If you want to form closer ties, it might be better to be friends with her."
"You know that doesn't work on Lunaria right?" Yuuji raised an eyebrow at this. "Lunaria already told us the reason she became friends was because she could tell we weren't the type to become friends for the sake of the benefits. If I were to change my opinion and make becoming friends secondary, then I can't say that I am qualified to be a prince of Czech."
"That is true," Kaze mused. "Still though, has the thought never crossed your mind before? That it would help."
"If anything, Lunaria being here with us for the next three years is already a bigger help than you would imagine," Yuuji sighed and slumped into his seat. "It is crazy hard to enter into a negotiate with Aravel, be it for casual reasons or business. I only know this because I'm the first prince, so take my word for it."
"Are they that conservative about it? Maybe dragonkins feel conscious about allowing other races to indulge in their culture since they have a lot more restrictions to be careful about," Kaze nodded. "Its like that tail and wings thing that happened a few days ago."
"I suppose so? No one really knows why but I guess you can try to find out from Lunaria herself," Yuuji shrugged once more. "She seems friendly enough with you for you to be able to ask her more politically sensitive questions."
"Erm… I'm not sure about that," Kaze shuddered at the mention of him being friendly with Lunaria. "She might be secretly hating my guts right now."
"Uhh, what happened? You seemed weird when you entered the classroom too," Yuuji asked, dragging himself close to Kaze. "Is it not because Lunaria dragged you over to the classroom?"
"Um, you see…"
"You mean, you gave Kaze your panties?"
Sera asked Lunaria in disbelief, her eyes widening as she watched her friend grovelling her face into the table in embarrassment. How Lunaria did so was beyond Sera's understanding, since she was rarely ever this careless since they were in a foreign country. Rena and Shoko could only sigh at their friend's rare slip-up, wondering why Lunaria was acting this way.
"U-Uuuu…. I might have made him think I am someone with this strange fetish of giving away my undergarments," Lunaria looked at her three friends with teary eyes. "What do I do? I invited him to lunch but I don't know if that is enough to consider an apology… I must have made him panic…."
"Wait, wait, calm down, you are going to make everyone look at us," Rena rubbed her temples while trying to stop Lunaria from rambling. "First things first, if you two have apologised then its fine, no need to keep pondering on this. Just accept that you made the mistake and he knew about it, clarify this during lunch if you must."
"It's not like we can't understand why you are acting this way Lunaria, we know that it is rare for you to find someone whom you can get along with," Sera calmly explained to Lunaria. "Which is exactly why we ask you not to panic, its only going to make yourself look worse if you do."
"I-I know, I just… need a moment for myself," Lunaria took a deep breath and sighed, wiping away the tears from the corner of her eyes. "Let me make the most out of my lunch break with Kaze then."
"Do you want us to be there? We don't want to interrupt your romantic moment~" Shoko giggled, teasing her friend.
"S-Shoko!" Lunaria blurted out, feeling embarrassed once more.
"Sorry, sorry, but we will give you some space," Shoko smirked knowingly at Lunaria. "We will be next to you two just in case though."
The dreaded lunch time arrived for both Lunaria and Kaze, who had been internally anxious the whole time throughout lessons. When Kaze got to the lunch room, he was surprised to see Lunaria already waiting for him at the empty table. Sera caught sight of Kaze first, waving him over to them without hesitation. Yuuji wasn't with Kaze today, so he was all alone. This made Kaze a lot more conscious than he already was without his friend to be there for him.
"H-Hey Lunaria," Kaze addressed the princess as he took his seat opposite her. "Were you waiting for me?"
"Yes, let's get lunch together," Lunaria smiled, standing up. "I'm paying remember, you just need to tell me your order. Don't be afraid to splurge."
"You know I can't do that," Kaze sighed in exasperation at how big-hearted Lunaria was. "I'm afraid of your friends beating the crap out of me for doing so."
Gradually, the two began to get more comfortable with each other after several light conversations during lunch. Sera, Rena and Shoko could only smile while watching the two from the sideline, happy that they were able to resolve their conflict easily. In the first place, it wasn't something that complicated but it was supposedly awkward for the two friends.
"Right, I have someone I want to introduce to you," Lunaria smiled at Kaze. "Do you like animals?"
"Oh, is it a pet?" Kaze asked as he ate his food. "I like animals. Having grew up in the countryside, I work with animals all the time."
"Not really a pet, but I consider her as my daughter due to how attached I have become with her," Lunaria giggled.
Slowly removing her hands from under the table, Lunaria revealed herself holding a fluffy bunny. This caused Kaze to widen his eyes as he had never expected there to be a bunny. It was average in size, but still big enough that a normal person wouldn't be able to hide it with them this whole time. The bunny noticed Kaze after Lunaria lifted it in front of him, its white ears perking up as a result.
"Uhh, is this… your daughter?" Kaze asked Lunaria. "She is a cute bunny."
"I'm glad you like her," Lunaria nodded, stroking the bunny's head lovingly. "Her name is Shiro. You want to try petting her?"
"Yes please," Kaze nervously stretched his arm forward. "Pleased to meet you Shiro."
The moment Kaze's fingertips were inches from touching her fur, Shiro suddenly snapped at Kaze's hand and bit him before scurrying into Lunaria's lap.
"Yeow!" Kaze jumped back as a result and clung to his right hand. "You didn't say she bites?!"
"Sorry!! I really didn't expect her to react this way," Lunaria got a scare from Shiro's actions as well. "She is usually friendly, but I guess it takes her some time to get used to strangers. Your hand, I will heal it."
Pulling his injured hand forward, Lunaria quickly casted healing magic and healed the bite wound on Kaze's forehand before it worsened. Shiro glanced at Kaze's pitiful look for a split second before turning her head away pridefully, snuggling into a little white furball on Lunaria's lap. Kaze's head drooped at this, wondering why Shiro disliked Kaze so much.
Meanwhile, Lunaria was glancing nervously at her friends for help. What turned out to be a wonderful talk became horrible instantly when Shiro betrayed her expectations. Right now, Kaze was injured because of her which turned Lunaria's own words against herself. Lunaria's friends all felt the blow as well, knowing this wasn't intentional. Whether or not Kaze knew that was different, although he showed great understanding to Lunaria.
After lunch, Lunaria had invited Kaze for a walk during the evening to get to know Shiro better and to further apologise for what had happened. Kaze accepted it immediately, knowing that Lunaria must have felt horrible after what she did. He didn't want to leave any doubts with Lunaria because it was wrong to do so.
"Kaze, um… I don't know what I should say," Lunaria mumbled.
The two were currently walking side by side on a light stroll in the park, not far from the dorms. With the atmosphere being a little awkward, Kaze could only remain silent as he listened to Lunaria muttering to him. In her hands was Shiro, the bunny looking precariously at Kaze. Kaze felt a little uncomfortable from the stares that she was giving him, but could only accept it silently. He didn't want to make Lunaria feel even more stressed than she already was.
"It's fine I suppose. You can say we are even now," Kaze forced a smile at Lunaria. "I feel like it is fair that Shiro reacted that way. Animals are normally more sensitive to strangers after all."
"Perhaps that may be so, but I thought she might have trusted you after I told her all about my interaction with you," Lunaria sighed. "Listen, I was the one who made you injured and I feel bad about it. I need to make it up to you in some way or I won't feel good."
"As far as I am concerned, you being here with me is already repayment itself," Kaze soothed Lunaria. "I doubt some of the nobles would even go so far as to act like you did."
"Ugh, please don't compare me with some of those people you mentioned," Lunaria coughed and stuck out her tongue at him. "I know that not everyone is bad, but I really don't like the attitude of some of the nobles in our school. This is one reason why we didn't have the class system in Aravel like Czech does."
"Oh? What does Aravel have then?" Kaze felt intrigued by Lunaria's words. "I want to learn more about your country."
"Sure, I will gladly tell you what you need to know," Lunaria sighed in relief at his words. "Treat it as compensation, but I won't be able to answer anything concerning our nation's secret."
"Sure. Um, I would like to know about the system in Aravel then," Kaze nodded. "How is it different from Czech?"
"Well, dragonkins and other people in Aravel are all normal people other than some families with titles, but they only have titles because they serve my father directly, the Emperor," Lunaria explained. "You see, we have a council much like Czech does to discuss issues relating to the nation itself or things regarding issues between countries we have or have not befriended."
"Oh, well that makes sense I suppose," Kaze tilted his head to make a comparison in mind of the two nations. "So people there don't have as much power as nobles do here?"
"As I have said, only a very small percentage do and those are only people we trust," Lunaria agreed with Kaze's statement. "I can't go much further without revealing how our inner politics work, but all I can say is that dragonkins care for each other. The last time we had such a big disagreement was about a hundred years ago. By then, my father and his faction had already gotten rid of the opposing factions within the civil war. You can say that we are now living harmoniously and it also became one of the reasons why we govern our nation's visitors very strictly."
Following their conversation, it became an exchange of knowledge displayed by Lunaria to Kaze. While it wasn't school-related, it got Kaze to understand Lunaria and her nation in a deeper level rather than reading it from some book. Getting to hear it from the princess herself was a huge help, especially with how passionate Lunaria seemed towards her country. It made sense that she felt this way, otherwise she wouldn't have agreed to coming to Czech.
From what Kaze could gauge from the conversation, it was made clear to Kaze that while dragonkins weren't xenophobic, they still held a certain standard towards outsiders. Humans and other races alike live within Aravel in small numbers, but they were well-liked by the community from the trust that was built up. The only problem lied with how much admission they should allow for outsiders to enter their nation. They certainly didn't want a repeat of the civil war that nearly ripped the nation in half, but at the same time didn't want to look hostile in the face of the other nations that they benefited from either.
Several hundred years back, there was a war between nations that involved several countries at a time. By the end of it, Aravel had formed close ties with the nation of the elves, Yvel, and the nation of the tailed beastkins, Ile. Czech was one of the few countries that gained a lot from the war itself after calculating their gains against the losses, considering how formidable an opponent it was in the past too. One reason for the war between nations were due to greedy humans who manipulated information within different nations that nearly caused misunderstanding on who they were truly allies with.
The scars of the past certainly dug deep within races that lived a longer life like the dragonkins, which explained why human nations like Czech felt different. Most of the humans who lived during the war era had already passed on, generation after generation. It only made sense that the war was a thing of the past, but a reminder to the affected. Right now, Aravel was thriving with life despite the low birth rate within the nation, but this was due to the nature of a dragonkin. Unlike humans who could reproduce with ease, dragonkins naturally have a low birth rate as though it compensated for how strong they were compared to humans.
The conversation would have gone on from there if not for Shiro climbing out of Lunaria's lap and onto Kaze's. The two sat next to each other on a bench at the park, so it was a pleasant surprise that Shiro acted differently for once.
While Shiro still had doubts on her fuzzy little face, she seemed adamant enough that Kaze could stroke her head without much problems. Kaze was still a little hesitant about Shiro in general due to the past, but he was more accepting of Shiro now since he could finally rub his hand against her soft fur. Lunaria was the one who felt most joy out of this, because it seemed like Shiro had finally been convinced that Kaze was someone trustworthy.
"I still have another daughter by the name of Akaru," Lunaria happily added while watching Kaze patting Shiro. "She is a black cat. I allow her to wander around within the streets of Czech, so it is unlikely you will get to see her anytime soon. She does come back to me if I use magic to connect to her, but I don't want to disturb her. She should be back in my room sleeping around this time."
"Oh wow, you have two pets with you?" Kaze asked, only for Shiro to playfully bite his finger once more.
"Daughters," Lunaria reminded Kaze with a wry smile as Shiro hopped back into her arms. "They don't like to be called pets, it just feels degrading to them."
"A-Alright," Kaze broke into a cold sweat at this, wondering if Shiro was able to understand their conversation somehow. "Just how smart are they?"
"You will be surprised," Lunaria made a sly smile, causing Kaze to feel slightly confused by the intention behind it.
The day ended pleasantly for the two of them, bridging together a deeper connection for both Kaze and Lunaria. On the way back, Kaze felt like the gap between the two of them had gotten just a tad bit smaller from the events of a single day alone. This made Kaze look forward to the future even more, for he wondered how his friendship with Lunaria would turn out.
Little did the both of them knew that instead of friendship, the seeds of something similar had already been planted deep within them, something that would continue to bud and grow unconsciously.