---Evening, End of Term Celebration---
Descending onto campus, I steered my car toward the banquet hall where our class was holding the celebration. Parking outside the building, I ran around the car and helped Olivia out of the vehicle. Graciously accepting my help, she stepped onto the cobblestone pathway and glanced over at the setting sun.
"The sunset looks beautiful tonight.", Olivia commented, enchanted by the hues of red and orange painting the clouds.
"I agree, it is a wonderful view.", I acknowledged, glancing over at her dress.
Having received it from her mother, who painstakingly sewed it together by hand for her, she looked simply breathtaking in it. While not as ornate as other dresses, the plain white dress highlighted her natural beauty and did not detract from her beautiful smile. Seeing the love sewn into every stitch, it spoke volumes about the sort of family life she had growing up.
"Is something wrong?", Olivia asked, looking over at me.
"I was just thinking you look beautiful in that dress.", I said, meaning every word.
"Oh…thank you!", Olivia replied, with a flushed red face, "We should get inside, I am sure Angie is waiting on us!"
Scurrying over to the door, in heels, it was very apparent she had never worn them before as she was extremely wobbly on her feet. Falling over just a few feet from me, I dashed over and caught her before she hit the ground. Helping her back onto her feet, I offered her my arm as support.
"Are you sure you want to be seen walking in with someone like me? Surely it will cause you many problems down the road when you start looking for a wife.", she stated, with a hesitant expression.
"When have I ever cared what our classmates thought?", I chuckled, gently nudging her, "Now then, would you be so kind as to join me, My Lady?"
Accepting my offer, Olivia's face turned even brighter red as she leaned in toward me a bit. Slowly walking into the building, so she did not eat it in front of our classmates, we immediately got surrounded by a group of women. Bombarding me with a billion questions, most of them were attempting to smooth things over between us or trying to get me to take them on a date. Noticing them slowly try to peel Olivia away from me, I put my foot down and forced them to give us some space.
"All of you, cease your fake apologies and sucking up this instant!", I shouted, pushing them back with the Force, "I will make this crystal clear for all of you, I am not interested in what you are selling. This whole semester I have been watching everyone closely to see who is worth getting to know, and who is a waste of my time. None of you are worthing getting to know because you are greedy, two-timing whores! All of you standing before me have duped several kindhearted, young men of their money and time. Do not think for a moment I am as naïve as them. Get out of my way immediately and leave Olivia and I alone!"
Glaring at Olivia for a moment, the women scurried off left us in peace. Grateful that they followed my command, instead of stubbornly refusing to listen, Olivia and I began looking around for Angelica. Finding her off in a corner of the room by herself, I greeted her warmly as we approached.
"Good evening, Angelica.", I said, with a slight nod, "You look gorgeous in that scarlet red dress. It really makes your ruby red eyes pop."
"Yes, it does!", Olivia agreed, giving her a hug.
"Th…thank you both for your kind words.", Angelica replied, a bit flustered by our words.
Leaving Olivia with Angelica, I walked over to the bar and ordered three sparkling grape juices. Handing them out upon my return, we gave a brief toast to our continued happiness then took a sip of our drinks. Having never had a bubbly drink before, Olivia immediately began to cough as the sensation caught her off guard. Nearly knocking herself over, Angelica and I propped her up while laughing at her reaction.
"It…is not…funny…", she remarked, puffing her cheeks out.
"It is fine, I had the same reaction the first time I had a bubbly beverage myself.", Angelica admitted, with a smile, "My brother and father laughed at me because, instead of coughing, I snorted it out my nose."
"Haha, oh my goodness!", Olivia laughed, feeling less awkward about her reaction.
Letting the two of them talk for a bit, I looked out over the dance floor and saw dozens of relatively happy couples waltzing around floor in their own little worlds. Wondering how Angelica was handling things, given the harsh new reality she faced, I decided to ask her directly.
"Angelica, how are you holding up? I cannot imagine this whole ordeal has been easy to take.", I asked, genuinely concerned about her well-being.
"That is a big understatement…", she remarked, looking at her glass, "My heart aches for the life I had planned with Julius, but I know now that even if we had married, my dreams would have been crushed. He never loved me, not even a little, and that thought makes all the sacrifices I made hurt even more."
Tearing up, Angelica began to weep silently as Olivia pulled her into a hug. Calmly stroking her hair, I moved in front of them to stop people from gawking at her.
"Sixteen years…sixteen fucking years I gave him, and he could not be honest with me once!", she cursed, in a low voice, "My entire life has been built around me being Julius' wife, and it is all gone!! Everything I am revolved around him; I will have to rebuild myself from the ground up and hope someone will love a broken woman like me."
"Hey now, do not talk like that.", I scolded her, "Any man would be lucky to have a faithful, loyal, loving woman like you by their side. Traits like that are very rare among our peers because they are always scheming to rise further up the social ladder. If Julius cannot see how lucky of a man he was, show him exactly what he missed out on. Rub your own happiness in his face while he flounders out there."
"Yeah, and no matter what happens Victor and I will always be by your side. We are your best friends after all!!", Olivia agreed, with a smile.
"Thank you…", Angelica said, slowly collecting herself, "It means a lot to hear you two say that. Good friends have been few and far between at this point."
Suggesting we grab a bite to eat, before the buffet got cold, the three of us started walking over till a loud commotion drew our attention. Turning our attention toward the courtyard, people began running outside to see what was happening. Following them, we managed to push our way to the balcony railing to see Julius and company surrounded by Clarice's followers.
"How dare you come before Lady Clarice after everything you have done!!", Dan shouted, rolling up his sleeves, "Was the beating Viscount Stark gave you not enough for you?!"
"You should have stayed away from Lady Clarice…", one of the men said, handing his coat to his apparent fiancée, "I am going to enjoy this!"
Instead of defending himself, Jilk got down on his knees and pressed his forehead to the ground. Taken aback by this, the men stopped what they were about to do and looked at him in confusion.
"I am here to apologize for the pain and suffering I caused Clarice, nothing more.", Jilk told them.
"If this is some sort of ploy to win me back, it is not going to work. I gave you everything I had, and you threw it back in my face without so much as a second thought.", Clarice growled, glaring at him angrily, "I refuse to be your ticket back into nobility!"
"I have no such intentions, Clarice. My only desire is to apologize to you so we may both move on.", Jilk reasserted, "It is my fault for not telling you my true feelings a long time ago. You are a kind and caring woman, but I could never see you as my life partner. Since the moment they announced our engagement, I have only ever seen you are the woman my parents thrust upon me without any say from me."
"You bastard!!", Dan roared, grabbing Jilk and throwing him onto his back.
Rushing to Dan's side, the other man pinned Jilk down so Dan could pulverize him. Closing his eyes and accepting his beating, Dan was about to throw his first punch when Clarice commanded him to stop. Believing he had misheard her, Dan looked back at her with a questioning look.
"Let him go, he already paid what he owes me in blood today. Not only that, but Victor also exposed his cowardice and stupidity for all the nobles to see today.", Clarice said, turning away from Jilk, "Do not waste your energy on that cowardly man anymore. Let us return to the party and forget this miserable person ever existed."
Accepting her decision, her subordinates let Jilk go and quickly joined her. Relieved that he was not going to get beaten senseless, Jilk reached his hands up so Julius and Brad could help him up. Waiting for Clarice's group to re-enter their party before speaking, he let out a loud sigh of relief.
"It feels good to get that off my chest.", Jilk said, turning to Julius, "You are up next."
Nodding his head in confirmation, Julius turned toward us and stopped when he saw the entire first year class standing before him. Spotting Angelica right away, he walked right up to her and bowed his head. Giving her an almost word for word copy of Jilk's apology, Angelica's face contorted in rage. Before she knew what she was doing, she smacked him right across the face. Sending the guy stumbling away, he winced in pain as he tenderly touched the quickly reddening imprint of her hand.
"You…you bastard!! Am I not good enough for a genuine apology?!", Angelica cried, "We all heard Jilk give that same apology to Clarice!! You are just apologizing to try and save a bit of face!! I hate you, just stay away from me and leave me alone!!"
Storming off somewhere else, Olivia chased after her while the rest of our peers returned inside. Looking at the moron, who was confused why he got hit, Julius looked back at his friends for an explanation. Giving him a shrug, it was clear to me they had all used the exact same apology.
"Do you five morons share only a single braincell? In what world is it okay to use the same apology for four different women?", I asked.
"It was a genuine, heartfelt apology!", Jilk argued, "Are you saying it was not good enough for them?!"
"I am saying it loses its meaning if you all say it to your ex-fiancées.", I explained, "If you five wrote identical answers down on the final essay, what would happen?"
"The teachers would mark us down as having cheating because it was not written by us alone.", Chris responded, as the light bulb went off, "Oh…we should have written our own, unique apology for our ex-fiancées."
"Jeez…", I sighed, shaking my head at them, "So what will you morons do now? It is almost certain at this point that your political careers are over. Do you have some sort of plan in mind to survive on your own?"
Looking at one another, they each shrugged unsure of how to proceed. Believing they needed a goal to aim for, to avoid causing their families further trouble, I offered them a suggestion.
"How about becoming adventurers, like your forefathers before you? Since you are all free of any political obligations, you can travel around the country in search of wealth, fame, and adventure.", I suggested, "You have better armor, weapons, and training than most newbie adventurers do. If you work at it, you can become top class adventurers in no time."
"You really think we can?", Chris inquired.
"It will not be an easy road, but it will be one full of the freedom you guys want. Out there, the only limits of what you can do are the ones you put on yourselves.", I remarked, "Who knows, maybe you will find your special someone out there in there in a small tavern or village."
Liking the sound of that, all of them seemed to agree that pursuing lives as adventurers suited them perfectly. Quickly vacating the campus, they headed toward the Guild Hall to register themselves.
'Sorry Nicholas, hopefully you can whip those idiots into shape…', I thought, before heading off to find Angelica and Olivia.