[CHAPTER 3: PREPARATIONS]
* = Author's thoughts for explanations.
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'This is crazy,' He scowled with a pissed-off frown, hiding in one of the Imperial Garden's oak trees. He was completely hidden behind the thick lushes branches. Sneakily, he peeked out from the leaves before retreating back inside the leaves when he spotted the dozens of maids searching for him.
Those maids belonged to that strawberry blonde-haired woman, the one who called him 'Darling~!' Just the mere thought of her caused goosebumps to appear on his skin. With a sigh, he sat cross-legged on one of the branches and silently watched the maids get frustrated. A gentle summer breeze past him, causing the leaves and his hair to flutter with it.
It felt cool and relaxing, giving him a sense of relaxation. He almost dozed off from how nice it felt. The sounds of the maids searching for him got drowned out by him as his head started to nod, slowly slipping into a snooze. However, the crack of a branch beneath him snapped him wide awake.
"Is Sister Lorelei going coo-coos for you again, Uncle?" A teenage boy's voice teased from below him. He glanced down and spotted the teen leaning his back against the tree trunk with his arms crossed over his chest. It seemed that the teen had no intention of exposing his hiding spot, so he made it appear like he was observing the maids.
The boy - known as the Youngest Prince, Saide Aeonian - looked to be around fourteen or fifteen years old. He had short peachy-blonde curly hair and slightly hooded golden-coloured eyes. He was dressed in caramel brown shorts and a white short-sleeved shirt, he wore brown leather loafers and calf-length socks.
"You could say that, Your Highness," The ravenette answered him with a chuckle, "I would appreciate it if you don't tell them I'm here..." The teen hummed with amusement, tilting his head to look up at the hidden man in a mischievous way.
"What's in it for me, Uncle?" He questioned, hinting that they should negotiate. The ravenette narrowed his eyes at him in disbelief and sighed, knowing his personality. "I'll teach you some combat mana," He offered. That seemed to catch Saide's attention and he sent the older man a thumbs up, showing that he accepts that condition.
"Oh? Your Highness? What are you doing out here? You have morning classes with Professor Zike!" One of the maids called out to him when she spotted the teen leaning against the tree. She approached him with a smile and raised a brow when she saw the panicked look on his face. "She's coming, she's coming," He whisper-yelled to the ravenette.
Scowling, the ravenette snapped his fingers and a puff of black shadowy smoke with neon-blue tips surrounded him. Seconds later, the smoke vanished. The teen heard some branches creak and bend above him. His eyes widened when he heard a low growl escape between the branches.
"You madman...!" He whisper-yelled at him without breaking eye contact with the maid a few meters away in front of him. "Your Highness? What are you doing out here...?" Her question trailed off when she spotted the beast climbing down from above the teen, who didn't move an inch. Her face grew pale and her entire body trembled in fear.
The beast was taller than a human male; it was a furred lung dragon. It had blackish-blue fur, however, his throat, stomach and ribcage area was a bright oceanic-blue colour that pulsated with sea current-like markings. It had curved horns with golden markings on them while his panther-like paws had similar marks.
The beast had an extremely long and fluffy tail that draped like a dragon's tail. The beast's piercing yet menacing turquoise irises were pinned on the maid's trembling figure. A snarl escaped its jaws, revealing the sharp canines hidden under its lips. The maid almost shrieked at the sound, it was fortunate that her hands covered her mouth before her fear could be heard by the beast.
The other maids looked over in their direction and acted as if they turned into stones when they spotted the beast. "...I-I came to look for Father's Aurorium* because it got out of the Northern Annex again," Saide lied with a crooked smile, chuckling to make it more believable. Her gaze shakily placed itself on the beast that observed her from behind the teen.
The Emperor's Aurorium: it was named Leith. It's one of the Emperor's most prized possessions in his life and no one sane dared to approach this beast if they valued their lives. 'I'm scared!' She held back tears from spilling out of her eyes and took a step back. The beast observed how she continued to retreat back without taking her eyes off it.
Once she was a safe distance away, she turned around and sprinted for her life, earning shouts of 'Don't run!' from the other scared maids. However, the beast made no motion of hunting her down. "Hey, Uncle," Saide whisper-yelled at him and turned around to face him, "Why did you shift into my father's beast?!"
The beast released a puff of hot air into his face before strolling past him, slapping him in the side with its tail. Saide wiped his face off, inaudible cursing under his breath. He jogged to catch up with the beast. Casually, the beast entered the empty corridors with an unbothered expression. The teen walked beside him, squinting his eyes at the lack of people.
Once they were out of people's sight, the black smoke from before surrounded the beast again. With a small sizzle, the smoke disappeared as the ravenette dusted himself off. The teen tensed up when a sweet yet strong scent fluttered past him. "So..." The teen awkwardly dragged out the first word before asking, rubbing the back of his nape, "How was the subjugation in the South?"
"Chaotic as usual," He answered while fixing his shirt's collar, "Why do you ask, Your Highness?" The ravenette glanced down at the teen with a raised brow. "Um, well," He stuttered out for a second before clearing his throat, "The nobles in the palace are talking about how you wiped out the Demonic Beasts quicker than usual."
At his words, the ravenette paused in his step for a second before walking again. "They must be really bored if they're keeping an eye on how long I'm away from the palace," He noted with a sour tone and folded his hands behind his back. "I had to be quick this time too," He added, humming with a frown, "The Demonic Beasts looked stranger than usual..."
"How so?" Saide retorted with his ears perked up at his words. He could see that the ravenette was contemplating whether to tell him or not. "They looked more human-like," He revealed with a concerned expression. Saide felt his skin crawl with uneasiness and frowned.
'That's not good at all,' The teen noted to himself, recalling the hideous and gory appearances of the Demonic Beasts he had seen in his textbooks, 'Are they evolving? If they are, then...' He shook his head to get rid of those thoughts and followed the ravenette with worried eyes.
Soon, they arrived in front of two large oak doors. The ravenette unlocked them and held one of them open for the teen. Saide entered the room first and looked around the spacious room that resembled a library and an office. There were looming windows facing the door.
They led to a large terrace outside that showed off the overview of the imperial garden and the other imperial buildings in the distance. There was a large chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling. The ceiling was decorated with unnoticeable small patterns. On either side of the room were dozens of rows of bookshelves.
In the left corner of the office was a dark oak door that led to a bedroom for anyone to rest. In front of the terrace doors was a long and wide desk that was filled with piles of documents and folders. In the middle of the room were two couches facing each other with a coffee table in between them.
"You can use the couches however you want, Your Highness," The ravenette told him from behind and approached the work desk, "I still have some work to catch up on so make yourself comfortable." Without any hesitation, the teen leapt towards one of the couches and landed with an 'oof!' He laid down with his arms crossed behind his head.
Lazily, he lifted his index finger and a faint golden light surrounded it. On the other side of the room, a few books from the shelves glowed with that same faint golden light and flung themselves out of the shelves. They floated towards the couch. The books neatly piled themselves next to the couch while a maroon-covered book placed itself into the teen's hands.
Meanwhile, the ravenette was sitting behind the desk. He wore a pair of round golden framed glasses that had thin chains dangling off the frames, creating tiny 'ting-ting' sounds. The office was soon filled with a comforting silence as the two of them occupied themselves with something. The only sounds that filled the silence were the quill against paper and a page being flipped.
The ravenette was occupied with looking through the guest list, as well as the preparation lists of food, entertainment, and alcohol for the Imperial Summer Ball. He was in a good mood when he noticed that everything was organized. However, his mood turned sour the moment he spotted a few names from the Holy Empire.
A bitter taste was on his tongue and his jaw clenched so tightly that veins popped out of his throat. Saide raised a brow when he noticed the sudden annoyed look on the ravenette's face. With a huff, the ravenette tossed the paper to the side and took a deep breath to relax. Gradually, his shoulders loosened up and his face grew relaxed.
"Uncle, I have a question," The teen told him, catching him off guard for a second. "When are you going to come to me as my personal knight again?" He asked with a raised brow and pouted, "Father promised me that you will be my knight again." The ravenette stared at him for a few seconds before smiling.
"I thought that you disliked having a scary knight by your side, Your Highness?" He teased the teen with a smirk as he started organizing the documents in front of him. "Didn't you always start crying when you saw me?" He asked with an amused tone, chuckling.
"T-That was in the past!" Saide retorted with a beet-red face, completely embarrassed when he remembered how ten-year-old him cried every time he saw the ravenette. "You looked very scary to a ten-year-old, you know! It's not my fault that I cried!" The teen shouted with a redder face and pouted when he heard the ravenette burst out laughing.
Without noticing, the teen had a soft smile on his lips. 'It's nice to see you smile more than before,' He watched how the ravenette continued to laugh. It was four years ago when Saide met the ravenette for the first time; he was ten years old and the ravenette was nineteen years old.
The nineteen-year-old ravenette had just returned from a two-year participation in a religious-and-territorial war close to the Malefic Archduchy's borders. It was no surprise that he looked terrifying to the ten-year-old boy. Saide could still remember how the ravenette looked that day.
His charcoal black hair was unkept as it reached his shoulders and his sunset irises were empty-looking. For several months, the encounters between Saide and the ravenette always ended up in failure because the young boy kept running away from him in fear.
However, it all changed when it was in the first week of winter; the Emperor issued the ravenette and First Order Knights to subjugate the Demonic Beasts at the Western Border. The ravenette left wordlessly. He didn't tell the young prince about his departure. The very day after their departure to the Western Border, Saide wondered where his scary knight was.
He assumed that he was late or busy that day, so he spend the day with his nanny. However, when he didn't come for the next few days, he started throwing tantrums. He demanded to know where his knight was and threw bigger tantrums when he found out that his father sent him to the Western Border to kill the monsters.
The young prince gave his father the silent treatment until his knight returned from the Western Border. He felt confused as to why he was upset about his knight leaving, but he realized it was because he actually liked that his knight never gave up trying to talk to him. On the day of that winter's last snowfall, the First Order Knights returned from the subjugation.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the joyous arrival that Saide was expecting. The entire palace was turned upside down when the ravenette returned from the subjugation in a brink-of-death state. The ravenette was ambushed by a group of Holy Knights from the Holy Empire when he was patrolling the Western Border for Demonic Beasts.
It was a miracle that he massacred the Holy Knights before he lost consciousness. Saide was in pure horror at the sight of his knight being rushed to the infirmary ward in the dead of night. Blood poured from several large gashes on his abdomen and limbs, staining the marble floor. Everyone in the palace and parliament was in distress at the news of him being in critical condition.
For several weeks, he was in a coma. He only woke up in the middle of spring. The first person to greet him was Saide, who was crying nonstop when he hugged him. From that day onwards, the young prince refused to let the knight out of his sight. He even started to call the ravenette 'Uncle', creating a small uproar of disapproval in the palace but it quickly settled down.
Saide glanced at the ravenette, who finally stopped laughing. His emotionless face from four years ago overlapped with his present face which was filled with life. "Don't even think about running away from me, Uncle!" He declared with a comedic angry expression, pointing at the amused ravenette, "You will always be my knight until the day you die!"
"My, oh my," The ravenette mused, chuckling at his words, "It seems that my little escape plan is useless then." He got up from his chair and approached the young prince. Once in front of him, he kneeled on one knee. Saide stared at him with a gobsmacked expression. "I will always be your knight and protect you with all my might, Your Highness," He told him with a reassuring smile, "I will never abandon you."