3 The Amateur Thief

Gusion Paxley had just ran away from the Paxley house right after his right of passage.

Just when he thought his magical family would finally accept his style of combat magic, they gave him an ultimatum of either dropping down the use of blades or leaving the family.

He left. He knew right then and there that he could never imagine fighting without his magical blades, and his family just wouldn't acknowledge the use of swords in combat. They had prejudice about it of being weak.

But he knew there was so much more to discover about combining the use of blades and magical energy. He just couldn't give it up.

So that brought him there, inside a wooden house of one of the villages of the Moniyan Empire, peering at the Lady Guinevere of the Baroque Family behind a cabinet.

He knew her, alright, as they attended the same school. He had seen her from a distance and heard her reputation of being top 1 on all her attending years.

But he never really felt how intimidating she was until she was standing there in her signature violet belled out dress that had a slit right in the middle, revealing a part of her long, slender legs. 

And a whiff of Violet scent hit his sense of smell as the air rushed inside the room.

A smile tugged on one side of her lips as she crossed her arms in her chest. "I guess I wasn't the only one having a bad post-graduation after all."

That reminded him of why he was there, and somehow it irritated him. "Easy for you to say. You weren't outcasted by your family."

He caught the crease forming in the middle of her brows before he grabbed his bag from the bed and completely turned his back on her to head towards the door.

She scoffed. "Of course not. Just married off. But isn't that quite the same?" She argued, following him towards the door.

He stopped at the first step of the staircase and looked at her over his shoulder.

Being married off had been any families' traditions when it came to daughters, and it would have been the girls' honor to do it for their family. But judging from Guinevere's strong and straightforward character, he knew it wasn't at the top of the girl's to-do list.

"Isn't that hundreds of generation's tradition in this land?" He crossed, despite knowing it would earn him another crease at the girl's forehead.

"Oh what would I expect from men! Ugh!" She rolled her eyes skyward.

"Sure. Now let a man give you a place to stay for the night." He said and started descending the stairs when she spoke again.

"This house has no one?"

"Paid the family to give me that room. But you can have it." He stared at her reaction for a while.

She blinked a couple of times, clearly flustered at the sudden offer. She glanced at him and then looked away when she realized a shadow of a triumphant smirk was on his face, her lips pursed as she tried to keep a straight face.

"Well then, have a good night, Lady Guinevere." He did a slight bow of the head and then completely descended the stairs.

Only when he reached the bottom did he hear the door upstairs slam close.

Then he settled at the wooden chair that was too hard even to sit and lied there for the night.

As he layed at the hard wood which was totally an alien experience for him, he felt bitterness and bias.

His brothers were all tucked in their beds by now, soundly sleeping, while he was here with no pillow under his head or even a cloth to cover himself from mosquitoes.

But he promised to make himself better, no, the best in magical combat by which no one could ever copy. And he would make his family realize what they had missed.

Until then, he had to dress up as the townspeople and live as the townspeople do.

Gusion had just drifted off to sleep when he got conscious of someone else's presence in the room he was in.

He opened his eyes, still half-asleep, and was alerted by the silhouette of unmistakenly the Lady Guinevere's, bent by her knees next to the low table next to the seat he was sleeping in.

She was so focused on rummaging through his bag that she didn't notice him awake.

"Are you seriously committing theft?" He asked, propping an elbow against his makeshift bed to lift his upper body up.

She gasped and jumped back, falling on her butt as she planted her hands against the floor.

She flicked her fingers and instantly, a floating orb of bluish-violet appeared right between them, helping both of them see each other in the dark.

Her eyes were still wide in surprise as he sat up and swang his feet down to the floor.

"What are you doing?" He asked, glancing at his bag which was lying widely open at the table between them.

Guinevere hastily composed herself and got to her feet, her eyes merely glancing at him every now and then.

"The rumbling of my stomach is preventing me from falling asleep since it had been about ten hours since I last ate."

"So that's why you resort to theft? On your fellow runaway?" He asked in mocked disappointment and betrayal.

She merely cleared her throat and suddenly grew interest at the cobwebs overhead.

Gusion sighed, knowing all too well that the girl had too high of a pride to apologize. But he grabbed his bag and took out the remaining piece of bread he had.

Then he handed it to her.

She looked surprise but took what she was offered anyway.

"Thank you." She said and headed towards the stairs again. But before she ascended, she turned to him. "I'm sorry, but may I know your name?"

He glared at her this time. They went to the same school, he offered her a bed to sleep and food to eat only to find out she still didn't know his name?

And he bit his tongue to stop an argument. She didn't look quite sorry at all.

"Gusion."

She nodded. "From what family?"

His teeth clenched at the question. "I prefer not to mention it for now. Not until they acknowledge me again."

"Well, whatever suits you...Gusion. Thank you again. I shall repay you the moment I find my brother, get back to the Baroque house, and cancel this marriage." Then she ascended the stairs without waiting for a reply.

"She sure has a lot to do." He muttered as he lied down again.

Sooner, he was drifted off to sleep again, with Lady Guinevere's Violet scent hovering just around his dreams.