"I'm breaking off my engagement with you!" In a ballroom that was excessively gaudy a beautiful young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes announced loudly. Her words were directed to a boy in front of her.
The boy had long silver hair with purple eyes that seemed to entrance anyone who stared into them. The boy was quite slender and toned, almost passing off as a beautiful young lady. He had a expressionless face as if he was bored of being here.
"Finally! She's breaking it off with that villain."
"Good! Alice doesn't need him."
"Alice will finally be free from that villain's shackles."
"Calm down, it's not over yet the duke's family could object."
"Impossible we're all from important families we could easily destroy their chances of objection."
The crowd of nobles all started to murmur. Though they all looked happy that their princess had broken off her engagement with that monster of a boy.
"Okay" Silencing the crowd was a simple okay. It was said in an emotionless tone as if he didn't care. The truth of the matter was he didn't. He had no singular emotion regarding the woman in front of him. He didn't feel hatred, contempt, annoyance, joy, sadness.
He felt absolutely nothing. The boy wasn't always like this but he merely adapted to his situations he found himself in and the mask was a protection for him.
"That's it?" The princess or Alice thought he would put up more of a fight but she was met with a disinterested gaze and a feeling like the boy wanted to leave.
"If that's all I shall take my leave." The boy said, turning around clearly not wanting to speak to Alice anymore. Alice grit her teeth and before the boy left she yelled, enhancing her voice with magic.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK YOU'LL WALK FREE AFTER YOUR CRIMES ALDRICH VON HEIN!?!?" Everyone including the 5 boys surrounding Alice all trembled. The princesses' mana overwhelmed them and caused them to instinctively fear her.
The only one not to cower in fear was the boy, Aldrich. He simply looked at the princess with the same eyes as before and spoke.
"What crimes?" Aldrich said. The princess turning red with anger acted like he was lying to her.
"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME! I KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN DOING TO THESE 5!" Alice said, looking at the boys around her. They were all delicate looking boys but they were from very powerful families. Though not as powerful as Alice's or Aldrich's family, theirs combined could easily put Aldrich's family down.
"I have committed no such deeds. I've never interacted with those 5 unless it was during parties hosted by other nobles."
"STILL LYING!!! I'VE HEARD FROM THEM AND OTHER STUDENTS OF THE ACADEMY YOU'VE BEEN BULLYING ALL OF THEM!"
Alice then began to list off deeds Aldrich had 'done.' Pushing one of the boys down the stairs, throwing water on one of them when they had dance practice, ruining a family heirloom the list went on. The boys looked at Aldrich fearfully to show how traumatized they'd been.
"Not only that but your constant harassment of them! You constantly tell them to stay away from me because of your jealousy!!!" Alice said, finishing it off. The other nobles looked disdainfully at Aldrich as if he was a monster. Aldrich looked around and took a small breath then began to rebuke all her accusations.
"Your highness I am okay with our engagement being dissolved but, I would kindly remind you what you're saying is a punishable offense even if you are a princess." Aldrich said.
"ME GETTING PUNISHED?!?! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO IS HARASSING THEM AND CONSTANTLY BULLYING OTHER STUDENTS!!!"
"So you still desire to say baseless accusations at me?"
"YOU COMMITTED THESE DEEDS AND YOU WILL PAY!!!"Alice roared. Aldrich still had his same expression and manner. He then pulled out a weird looking rectangular object. It was black in color and was the size of his palm.
"WHAT IS THAT?!?!" Alice said. Aldrich merely gave a sigh and proceeded to state what it was.
"Do you really not remember? Well whatever. This is a tracker and a lie detector created by the royal family. It was given to me the day I was engaged to you as a way to make me not be unfaithful towards you. If I were to resist you or your family I would be shocked by the lighting element your mother wields through this box."
"..." Alice merely looked on in shock as she saw the box. Aldrich Ignored her and then looked at the boys.
"You, Mika. You say I pushed you down the stairs of the academy correct?"
"Y-yes" the boy stammered. Mika was the son of a count and he was a very shy boy and small, barely reaching 140cm or 4'5.
"Well, your highness, give me the order to state what I have not done." Aldrich said and faced Alice. Alice quickly came out of her stupor and said in an angry tone.
"I Alice Von Schweinheim order you to confess to the crime of pushing Mika Swan down the academy stairs!" Alice said loudly, completely confident that the box would shock Aldrich and kill him. Her mother's magic was extremely powerful so much that Aldrich would die from it.
"Very well. I, Aldrich Von Hein, have not pushed Mika Swan down the stairs of the Royal Academy." Aldrich said in a bored tone. To Everyone's surprise the box didn't shock Aldrich. The nobles quickly wanted to say that it was because the box was defective but they couldn't.
After all, to say the box was defective was to say the royal family had made a mistake. Alice started to look nervous but quickly let her anger take over.
"WHAT ABOUT AUGUST?!?! YOU DUMPED WATER ON HIM INTENTIONALLY SO HE WOULDN'T DANCE WITH ME!!!! I ORDER YOU TO TELL ME THE TRUTH." Alice said. The nobles quickly turned around their nervousness and began to think their princess had got Aldrich in a corner but as expected nothing changed.
"I Aldrich Von Hein did not intentionally dump water on August Flynx, nor did I have a desire to stop the princess from dancing with August Flynx." Aldrich said in the same emotionless Tone. Just like before the box didn't react. Everybody had been so sure that Aldrich had committed the crimes and yet the very thing the queen placed on Aldrich proved otherwise.
The princess, not willing to believe it, started to name the list of the other crimes he had been accused of and just like the 2 the box failed to shock him. The boys had then begun to sweat buckets, clearly nervous. The princess still didn't know when to quit and began to go from a crime she knew Aldrich couldn't deny.
"EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T DO THOSE THINGS YOU STILL HARASS THEM I'VE SEEN IT WITH MY OWN EYES!!!"
"Your highness, I have not harassed anyone."
"YES YOU HAVE. YOU CONSTANTLY TELL THEM "SHE IS NOT YOUR FINACÈ SO PLEASE GET AWAY YOU LESSER NOBLE." Alice yelled with anger. Aldrich finally showed an emotion in his eyes. But it wasn't fear, anxiety, it was just pity. Aldrich sighed and then began to explain.
"Your highness that is not what I said."
"WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE?!!" Alice said.
"I said "It is not appropriate to dance with someone who is not your fiancè" and "A baron shouldn't openly speak to a princess like that so please kindly get away and speak with proper manners."
"T-That's-
"Do you even realize how many rules you and your 'friends' broke? Do you even realize how much humiliation you caused my family? You five are not any better, you all had finacè's and you abandoned them and humiliated them. Do you even realize the repercussions you have brought upon our kingdom? Do you even realize that the 3 of you had 3 Finacè's from other nations and were meant to strengthen our bond With that nation?" Reprimanding all of them with a dignified manner Aldrich then focused one last time on Alice.
"Do you even realize how humiliating it is to have your Fiancé dance with someone who isn't you? Do you even realize how embarrassing it is to constantly cover for said Fiancè? Do you even realize how much pain I experience having to lie to my fathers face and say I am happy with you as my Fiancè '' Aldrich finally finished. Leaving everyone silent. The princess had slowly begun to finally see what she had done wrong but it was too late.
"So your highness. Please order me to tell you my true feelings of our Engagement being broken off." Aldrich said in a calm voice. Seeing everyone's eyes focused on her, everyone looked at her. Stuttering Alice stammered out the order.
"I-I A-A-Alice V-Von- S-SchweInheim o-order y-y-you to t-tell m-me your t-t-true f-feelings." Alice said in an anxious tone clearly she was distressed about the events of tonight. Aldrich, seemingly pleased, finally showed a different expression than his expressionless mask. He gave a bright smile that could make anyone fall in love at first sight just from that smile and spoke in a joyful tone.
"I, Aldrich Von Hein, am extremely happy I no longer have to be tied down to Alice Von Schweinheim by an engagement." The whole ballroom went silent. To exemplify the fact that he wasn't lying the box didn't go off just like the previous times. It was clear to everybody that Aldrich hadn't don't anything worthy enough to even be called a villain,
"Well, seeing as you've broken our engagement with your words, let's make it final shall we?" Aldrich said took out a piece of paper from his suit pocket. He began to roll it out to show it fully. It was the paper his father had signed when he was given the proposal to engage Alice and Aldrich by the queen.
At the bottom of the page were lines that were empty. They were signatures for Alice and Aldrich in case either of them were to wish to break off the engagement. Though it was meant to be signed, Aldrich had made a slight adjustment to it and made it work by voice. By utilizing sound magic he was able to make it so if Alice ever said "Let's break off our engagement" a signature would appear.
Of course he used another type of magic, Dark magic to make the signature but it was worth it as there was a signature there plainly for everyone to see.
This was a backup plan just in case the queen were to force Alice not to sign and it worked perfectly. Aldrich knew the queen would never allow him to ever break off their engagement even if Alice desired it so he needed to make sure he could do it without her being around and this party was the perfect chance.
Finally in a tone of joy Aldrich said the final words to break off the engagement.
"I Aldrich Von Hein break off my engagement with Alice Von Schweinheim." A signature appeared on the paper and a light began to emit from the paper and it slowly went on fire burning up. Aldrich dropped it to the floor as the paper burned, not even leaving ashes. To test if it worked Aldrich asked Alice for one final order.
"Your highness, please order me to tell you what my feelings are for you." Alice didn't want to order him to but the nobles all looked at her and she couldn't refuse or it would bring more shame to the royal family.
"I-I Alice V-Von Schweinheim order y-you to t-tell m-me w-what your true feelings are o-of me." Alice said in a small voice that sounded like what a mouse would sound like if a mouse could speak. Again giving a smile like the sun Aldrich said in the same joyful tone as before.
"I Aldrick Von Hein Love Alice Von Schweinheim so much that I am very heartbroken by our broken engagement. I love Alice Von Schweinheim so much that I'd kill myself if she ever died." Aldrich said. It was clear to everyone what he was doing. He was lying. But the box didn't go off. It didn't react, it did nothing as before.
"Ahaha. I'm free. I'm no longer tied to you anymore." Laughing, Aldrich dropped the black box not wanting to carry it anymore. Aldrich's life was in Alice's hand due to the engagement. It was important Aldrich had this on him due to infidelity reasons and not wishing to have a finacè who was bad for the royal family's image.
But now? He was no longer tied to it, free to do whatever he wished to, free to go down any path in life he wanted and not be the husband of the future queen. Judging by the last words everyone could guess what happened. Aldrich finally calming down, began to leave but said one final thing before leaving.
"Thank you. Your highness. Thank you for freeing me." For the first time since they were children Aldrich directed a smile towards Alice that was not fake or a malicious smile. Just like that the engagement between the son of the magic and sword saint had been broken off with the future queen of the kingdom.
An outcome that would make said future queen lose her spot as heir to the throne.