The Royal Banquet (1)

The palace was busy preparing for the banquet of the first prince, Brother Ethan, who was about to turn fourteen years old. Every person in the palace has a duty: maids decorating and polishing the palace, gardeners managing the garden, Imperial knights tightening the security as the banquet is coming, chefs making new recipes, and tailors from the boutique shop delivering the suits and dresses to be used on the special day. And we, Papa and I, were just here, glancing at the balcony because there are humans outside the palace coming in and out. As we watched, there was a carriage that stopped at the garden, in front of the golden lion statue. The carriage opened and a girl who was dressed in a floral dress came out. She had white skin, orange short hair, blue eyes. She is pretty cute.

Knock, knock, knock.

"My Lord and My Lady, there is a visitor waiting for you."

"Let him inside," Papa replied.

The door opened; standing there was Max holding a sword and a basket. "Long time no see, Brielle, Mister!"

"Max!" Papa let me sit on the chair while Max put the basket on the table. "I'm glad you came here. I thought you wouldn't visit."

"Sorry for my late visit, Brielle. I have been busy with my sword training," Max said. He raised his sword, and showed me some swordsmanship techniques, "Look! I'm getting better and I used Mister's mana stone."

"That's a lousy posture," Papa chuckled.

"Just wait and see, Mister. I'm going to beat you."

"Go, Max!" I cheered. Oops, I feel the sinister aura behind me. I need to change the topic. "What is that, Max?" 

"That's for you. From Mother and Father."

I opened the basket and saw different snacks inside: roasted deer meat, flower biscuits, chocolate muffins, and some tea. "We should eat these before it gets cold." Papa asked Lydia to bring some plates and tea cups so we could eat what Max brought. 

"Palace is so big! I didn't expect, even in my dreams, to be able to go here," Max exclaimed as he took another bite of muffin. "When I grow up, I'll be an Imperial Knight!"

"Is that why you've been practicing?" asked Papa, sipping his tea.

"Yeah," replied Max, inaudible due to his mouth full of food.

"We should leave as soon as possible before he becomes a knight here," teased Papa.

I missed this; Papa and Max arguing with each other. I just ate a muffin and watched them argue with each other.

After thirty minutes

"I'm full," groaned Max.

p"How can you not be full if you almost ate all that you brought?"

"It's…uhm…because it's delicious," Max mumbled.

"Max, there's a training ground for the knights outside. We can go there and play."

"That's awesome! Let's go, let's go," he exclaimed in excitement.

"Wait. Brielle needs to manipulate her mana. You can just wait there."

Max stands beside the door while me and Papa do the mana manipulation. Like what I did for the past times:

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Concentrate the mana in the core.

Allow it to circulate through your veins.

Feel it and repeat the cycle.

Ugh. This time was different. My mana felt really cold and minute by minute it traveled throughout my body.

"Open your eyes. You did it, Brielle."

My tail was gone! It was really gone. "Papa, I returned back to normal!"

"I-it was l-like MAGIC. MAGIC!" shouted Max.

"Yeah, yeah, it was like magic. Go out for a second. Brielle needs to dress up."

"Oh! Okay," Max blurted, flustered.

***

Creak…

"You're done, Bri-Brielle."

"Yeah. Let's go— Huh? Are you alright Max?"

"You're too cute."

Papa held my hand and said, "My daughter is cute, kind, and talented. You don't have the chance with my daughter."

"My mother said I'm handsome!"

"Only your mother," mocked Papa.

"Max is handsome"

"Heh, Mister, it appears that you're wrong," 

"Stop fighting. Let's go to the training ground."

As we went to the training ground, the maids were surprised as they saw me standing with two feet, and dressed in a yellow dress. They greeted me enthusiastically and that made my day. When we arrived at the training ground, Max's jaw dropped as he saw the Imperial knights. Unlike the other day, they were all dressed in black uniforms and I noticed that Sir Helden was not there. 

"Is that Brielle?"

"Good morning!" I greeted.

"You have a fee—" They all looked seriously at Max, thinking what a child was doing here.

"This is Max, my friend. He knew that I'm a mermaid so it's okay."

"Oh, is that so?"

"I thought I'm going to dead."

All the faces that had been tense a while ago were relieved. They were instructed to be silent about it, no wonder they were scared for a moment.

"Could I train with you? I really want to be a knight like you!" Max requested.

"Of course. Let me get the wooden swords."

"No, I have my sword. I want to use it."

"Alright. Let's start, Max."

Max and the knights started to practice sword fighting and we just sat there and watched them. They were really cool swinging their swords; I wonder how the emperor and the first prince looked when they wielded their swords. They must be really cool. Also, I wanted to see Brother Kye use magic; Max said he is an excellent magician. While I was mesmerized by observing them, I saw something shiny behind the bushes. It was moving, and I could see something orange.

"Papa, I'll just look something there."

"Be careful while walking."

I silently walked toward the bushes where I saw something strange. 

Rustle, Rustle, Rustle. 

Carefully, I moved the bushes to see what's behind it. 

"Aaaargh!"

A girl with a white skin, sunset orange hair, and blue eyes. The girl from before. 

"Shhh, act like you don't see me," she whispered.

Seeing her up close, I noticed that she has freckles on her face. Judging from her appearance she was about the same age as Max. And the weird thing was she was holding a binocular, and a paper with a sketch of the Imperial knights.

"Do you like old men?"

"Wha-what? Tha-that's ridi- ridiculous!" she stuttered.

She was lying. It was all over her face that she was fascinated by the Imperial knights. She was just too shy to admit it. "All right," I replied. "Do you want to meet them?"

"REALLY?" she blurted. "Ahem, forgive me for my late introduction. I'm Halley Fulhert Lemaitre, the daughter of Marquess Lemaitre. It's a pleasure to meet you."