Chapter 11: Before the Christmas Ball

…I just whacked Raven.

Prince Raven.

There was an extremely uncomfortable and heavy silence as we gawked at his unmoving body.

"Isn't he dead?" Rei confirmed nonchalantly, inspecting his gloves.

Luke and I stared at Rei with dread, our eyes widened in horror,

"How can you talk about death so casually?!" Luke gaped at Rei, his violet eyes widening.

"Look at that!" I gasped pointing at a trembling Raven, "He's moving! He's not dead!"

"…He's trying to write his will." Rei shrugged, "Pass him some paper, these will be his last moments."

***

"Are you sure your okay?" Luke passed Raven some water, "Please forgive my younger sister, she really didn't mean to."

"It's alright." Raven nodded, his face expressionless as usual. "I guess I shouldn't have scared you like that."

"What are you doing here today?" I asked, "And where are your guards?"

"Oh... I snuck out." Raven averted his eyes, his tone unemotional.

"Then, you can join us." Luke offered, "We're going to pick up Easton first, though."

"He's probably freaking out by now." Rei smirked.

"Well… we did kinda ditch him." I shrugged.

***

"Where. Did. You. Guys. Go?!" Easton huffed, glaring at us from the bed.

"You don't get the privilege of asking us questions." Luke retorted, tilting his head, "How did you even get drunk?! It's not good for your health!"

"…I don't care about his health…" Rei sighed, "It just gives me more work to do."

"…Drunk?" Raven frowned in confusion, "…You? A child managed to get alcohol?"

"No seriously, how did you even find alcohol in the first place?" I smirked, shrugging.

"I thought it would be fun to try to be drunk." Easton eyes avoided eye contact with us as a menacing aura enveloped Luke. "And I just coincidentally found a bar."

"You're a child." Luke frowned and rubbed his forehead in circular motions, "It's dangerous for such a young kid to drink alcohol. How am I supposed to explain to father?!"

"Please don't." Easton paled to an alarming white, "He's going to kill me."

"Go drink some water." Raven sat on a stool, reading a book, "You're going to get an awful hangover."

"Ahahahahaha!" Easton cackled, sticking his nose in the air proudly, "This prodigy wizard has so much mana that most of my pain is numbed!"

"Speak properly, you sound dumb." Rei stood up from his chair, "Well, let's go outside now."

"Even if you have an amazing amount of mana, you should still rest for a while." Raven added, not taking his eyes off his book, "It's impossible for a person to not feel pain, even if they are an exceptional wizard. I can see that you're slightly wobbling."

"Nope!" Easton guffawed, standing up immediately, "See?"

Easton wobbled and fell back on the bed.

"…" Raven looked up at Easton with an unamused expression.

"Don't say, 'I told you so'!" Easton huffed, whipping the blankets back on him.

"Let's not fight." Luke smiled, clapping his hands together, "How about we play a card game to pass the time?"

***

Help. I glanced up from my cards and looked around.

Great.

Raven was expressionless as usual.

Rei was smirking.

Luke was smiling peacefully.

I couldn't tell if they had bad cards are not. As we continued to play the game, their facial expressions didn't budge. I could clearly read Easton, though. As I received a bad card, his face twisted to an expression of gloom, when he grabbed a good card he grinned.

This guy was too obvious…

"Let's make a bet!" Easton huffed with determination, staring earnestly at his cards, "Whoever wins get a wish from each person."

"Is there something you want?" Rei asked, tilting his head, and studied Easton.

Easton smiled wistfully and softly for a moment before he grinned, "Yup! Loads of things! And I bet I'm going to beat you all!"

"Sure, that sounds like fun." Luke shrugged, "How about we do a little spell to make sure we can't break it?"

"A spell?" I asked.

"It's a pretty simple spell, so I can easily do it." Easton answered, deeply focused on his cards.

"Alright then." I shrugged.

***

"Hahahaha!" Luke threw his head back as he laughed.

We were walking out from the inn and checking out the stalls. Unfortunately, Luke had won, and Easton was sulking. As Easton and Luke argued and squabbled, I looked at the shops. Suddenly, a whole wave of people come barging through.

"Ivory!" Luke's hand stretched toward me before we were separated.

Rei, Easton, and Luke remained on the opposite side of Raven and me. Where were all those people coming from?

"I think we should split up for now." Raven inspected the long line of people, "I doubt it's going to stop crowding for quite a while."

I inspected the line. There was an incredible amount of people. I wondered why so many people were here. It would be a good opportunity to learn about Raven, as I had rarely seen him in the Otome game.

"Alright." I shrugged.

A loud gasps and cheers rippled through the air and I immediately turned my head around to see what was going on. On a large stage, there stood the Royal Family. Prince Kyle stood there smiling and waving, his tawny hair rustled in the wind and dark indigo eyes shining. Raven paled and his golden eyes widened. I had the feeling that Raven was meant to be on that stage, with his family. Suddenly, Prince Kyle's spotted Raven and his eyes widened for a second. Then, he smirked and shook his head in exasperation, he whispered something in the Queen's ear and her golden eyes instantly flew towards us.

"Run!" Raven's hand grabbed mine as he started running.

The wind ruffled Raven's ebony hair as we dodged people and headed away from the stage. Some guards chased from a further away distance as our hurried footsteps padded across the stone ground. After a while, we glanced over our shoulder and the coast was clear, so we slowed to a stop.

"We should be alright now." Raven looked around and halted.

He glanced at our adjoined hands and instantly let go, the tip of his ears a faint pink. I stifled a laugh,

"Let's keep walking around, alright?" I grinned, trying not to laugh at his embarrassed expression.

We continued walking down the marketplace occasionally looking at the shops.

"Why did you run away from the stage?" I asked, peering at Raven.

Raven paused for a moment, and stopped walking gazing up at the sky.

"I guess it's really because-" Raven began, tilting his head.

"Ahaha! This was where you were, you rascal." Prince Kyle slung his arm Raven's shoulders.

Raven sighed dramatically. Prince Kyle sapphire eyes flashed in recognition of me, and he instantly stood up in the correct posture.

"Ah…Lady Ivory." Prince Kyle smiled, "Thank you for taking care of my brother. We'll be leaving now; I think Mother's ready to kill him."

I watched as Prince Kyle laughed and dragged a struggling Raven into the distance. I think Rei was right. There was something awfully fake about Prince Kyle's smile that I could not understand.

Oh well.

I shrugged. I guess I should be heading back.

***

"Don't go running off like that again!" Luke huffed, "Just watching you disappear into the crowd shaved a few years off my life…"

"He's not lying." Easton nodded frantically, "I thought I saw some wrinkles form on his face when you disappeared."

We sat back at home, in the living room. As soon as Raven and Prince Kyle had left, I heard Easton, Rei and Luke calling my name.

"That reminds me…" Rei looked up from where he was leaning against the wall, "You're going to visit the royal family soon… Easton don't do anything stupid."

"No one trusts me these days…" Easton sighed tearfully.

***

"Greetings to His and Her Majesty." We all respectfully greeted.

I glanced to my right to check if Easton was behaving, unfortunately, since Rei was a mere butler, he was left behind back at the manor.

"Oh, Duke! Did you hear about…" His Majesty smiled warmly to father.

I stopped listening to their conversation as they started discussing about swords and whatnot.

"I'll excuse myself, then." I whispered in Mother's ear before disappearing.

I walked to the gardens, guided by some maids conveniently around. I decided to stretch my legs and walk around. Suddenly, a light shower of rain started, and I was already lost in the garden. I continued to walk, trying to find the entrance with no success. Unexpectedly, the rain stopped showering on me, I looked up and saw an umbrella.

"You should get back inside, it's cold." Raven grinned, rain showering on him.

***

EASTON:

As the Duke continued to chat away with His Majesty, I carefully slipped away without being noticed. I had no idea what they were talking about swords, but it seemed that Luke was earnestly interested.

Boring…

I sighed. Was this where Ivory was going to spend most of her life once she married the Crown Prince? Because, honestly, it just seemed so dull and lifeless.

Sure, maybe the cherry blossoms speckled with pink petals and the fountains glistening under the golden sunlight may be a beauty, however, these mere things were only on the surface, I could only guess how much corruption was hidden behind the loveliness. Ivory's life would not exactly be a fairy tale. A Queen's survival would depend on how many allies she could gather and how she would use her skills.

I heard loud 'thud's from a distance behind me. I headed towards the direction, something amusing may be happening.

I used a simple physical enhancing spell and lightly jumped onto a tree. I simply spectated as Prince Kyle swung his katana, and glowing cherry blossoms appeared, spearing into the archery target. This was interesting, it turns out that Prince Kyle had awakened with an Earth Magic. He used his sword like a magician's wand to summon sharp cherry blossoms and used his sword to slice people. Multitasking. However, it was clear that he hadn't trained with his power for very long, as his physical strength was only slightly boosted by his magic and the blossoms occasionally missed the target.

In strength, it was clear that Prince Kyle was worthy of my little sister. But if his personality was not fit for Ivory and even made her shed one single tear…

I would personally exterminate him myself. I smirked and returned towards the castle, as rain started dripping from the grey clouds and the tree's crisp leaves rustled in my wake.

This would be fun.