Confrontation 1

I don't know how to react to this person! He looks happy, but I'm not, he wants to keep me here, when I just don't want to be noticed. And the fact that he knows me doesn't make it any better.

'This guy is strange, it is not possible that I have met someone like him, and he is too young to be part of the slave market… hmm? Even if I try my best, I do not think that I can recall someone with all this attention that we have collected. My brain is out of function right now! '

He was still looking at me with happy eyes. The music started to play in the background and I felt a little uneasy since he was not saying anything while everyone was staring at us standing there. It was like he was ignoring everyone in the hall, making them disappear and creating his own tiny world.

"I know this might sound rude, but I don't have any idea what you are talking about. So can you remove your hand please, is making me quite uncomfortable! "

Even without knowing who he is, I have a feeling that messing with someone right now is going to create strange rumors. I know how much they like to gossip about everything and everyone, and this scene seems to have caught their interest. More importantly, girls maybe want to dance with him, and him staying so close is going to make them hate me from the start. I want to brush it off, this hand that keeps me still here, but what if people take the wrong idea?

Since I didn't leave and also didn't make a move to remove his hand, made him happy and start to breathe freely. He straightens his body which made him look more formal and collected, but when he started talking I noticed that he not only was happy, but he was somehow ... red?

"I-I am sorry I don't know what got into me when I saw you. I was so happy that I met you again after such a long time that I lost control and my body moved on its own… "

'What is this person talking about? I said to him before, and it seems that he is trying to ignore even me, but he should have taken the hint by now that I do not have any idea who he is, so why is he continuing to insist that we have met where we have not? '

"… Ahem, so let me introduce myself. My name is Alan Akriste and we met each other seven years ago in the north! I-I have always wanted to know your name from the first moment I saw you. You left quite an impression on me back then, but I couldn't ask you sooner and you left the city so I lost my chance. So your name is Raelian… it's funny because I always called you an angel. "

'Oi, are you kidding me? This is the famous young duke who will experience a sudden death on the battlefield? So that's why people were seeing me so surprised when I answered him informally. I never expected that he would be so immature and talkative, and the things he said just now are giving me the chills. I have never met Alan and I do not want to have anything to do with him, with Nasya and even with prince Jonathan. All three of them are part of the love triangle. So I have no idea what is he thinking by approaching me, but it is not a good thing that some people are still looking this way.'

"It is an honor for me to have met the young duke of Akriste and for him to actually came here to celebrate my birthday, but still…I don't know you and I would appreciate it if you let go of my hand now before things get more complicated!"

I noticed that my words caught him off guard and he had hoped for something else when I started talking to him formally, but thankfully that made him come to his senses and look at his surroundings. Looking at some of the girls and old aristocrats that had their eyes on us, he got embarrassed and eventually did as I told him. Alan seemed dissatisfied once he left my hand go, but still tried to be formal even after that embarrassing scene. Putting his left hand behind his back and the right to his chest, he looked at me again, this time he wanted to apologize properly.

"I apologize for my rudeness just now young lady Phelter, my activations were out of line and uncalled for!".

'Yeah, yeah get it over with! I am getting tired just by hearing you talk and I don't want to stay in this room forever waiting for you to finish. It is not like someone is going to ask me to dance, but why do I have a feeling that he is going to ask it and make this even more complicated?'

[Child, stop messing around with him and get out of here right now!]

'You know that I am not going to stay here for long, but why the rush? It is not like something bad is going to happen while the young duke is here with me.'

[You don't understand! Even if he is here, that human is not going to help you against magic as dark as this. That black energy, even if we switch places for five minutes, it is impossible to stand against such malice. And if it approaches you, your will is going to get crushed in no time. That's why, listen to me and…RUN!]

I didn't know what to think first when Raphael said those things. I went from being uneasy by Alan's hand to rethinking if raphas were really the only creatures that people should be scared off. I was not seeing anyone approaching us, and people who were focused on us before had started dancing. My left hand started to shake, but I couldn't feel that malice that he was talking about, so what was making my hand act on its own?

"Young lady Raelian, are you listening?"

'Whoa, that really scared me! What is he still doing here? Go and dance with someone else for god's sake!'

"No, I am not! Now if you excuse me, I have to go and see my sister!"

Well, that was an excuse to get out before I found myself trapped there. I don't know what scared Raphael so much, but the shaking of my hand was getting out of my control. It was trembling so much that it made me believe that the bracelet must have had some kind of reaction to the energy that was approaching.

"Huh, what just happen?! Did she just leave me here?"

'*Argh* O my god I screwed up, she wasn't even hearing me! That was the first time I actually talked to her and I made things uncomfortable. She was so cute when she asked me to let go of her hand that it made me not let it go, and the way she said "No, I am not!" was so honest and cool! But what was that awkwardness between us? I always imagined meeting that angel in my dreams, but I messed up my opportunity in real life. *Sigh* I wanted to ask her to dance so we could get closer, but at least I know who she is now, so I can meet her any time!'

"What a coincidence, I never thought that we would meet here young duke Akriste!"

"Pardon, oh?! Greeting the first start of our kingdom, I-it is an honor to meet you!"

'My goodness, talk about bad luck, I wanted an angel and not a grim reaper. Where did he come from, and what is the prince doing here alone without his brother the second prince? He caught me off guard by showing up like that, and the way he is looking at me shows that he doesn't intend to talk to me politely. Huh?! Now that I look at it more carefully, why are his eyes glowing?'

Eyes glowing like a Tanzanite stone, supplied with power by the rage of their user, and the symbol of a king! Alastair Viotto Aleader, the first prince of the Raeon kingdom hated by the imperial family and feared by the aristocrats, known by the names "the grim reaper" and "the black angel". This person wanted only one thing, but it seemed that someone else was after his prey.

"Ahem, so your highness, who can I help you?"

With that and a calm face, it was good to not make eye contact with him for the time being, but no one knew about it yet so they suffered the consequences of their own lack of knowledge. Still, Alan was lucky, he didn't maintain eye contact after he saw them shining, and Alastair wasn't that careless either. But he couldn't take it anymore after seeing Alan and Raelian together and him actually running after her. So he grabbed his shoulder while saying with a normal voice, "Of course, you can help me, that's why I came to you!", and then he squeezed it so hard that Alan felt a terrible pain, but not as much as to cause another scene with the first prince.

Alan looked at him with surprise at his action, but he didn't know that those eyes were piercing through him, freezing him in place. Impossible to move and totally overwhelmed by the growing pain on his shoulder, he couldn't utter a single cry for help.

"Why aren't you screaming, don't you feel any pain?

"?!"

He couldn't take his eyes off Alastair, and was surprised that no one had noticed them yet. He who was praying for his life and the prince who had gone crazy, at first being calm and collected, and then turning totally into a whole different person.

"It's unfortunate, but the hand that touched her wrist has to pay. This arm which moved and touched what is mine has to suffer for its owner behavior, do you understand me? I'm not going to tell you this twice so you better know your place! Don't you dare look or touch her ever again, don't dream about her, don't imagine things that aren't real, and even if she came up and greats you, you have to back off on your own. Say that you are going to do what I say so your shoulder and humanity can be saved, otherwise prepare to look at your arm fall on the ground because I will not care if someone here points their sword at me or accuses me of murder! So take that risk into account!"