Punishment

Chapter 12 - Punishment

In the middle of the Crown Prince Lyzekiel De Murdine's office after the matter regarding the Train Marina's accident since a few days ago.

The matter had finally settled for the public.

Now it was time to settle things privately.

SLAP!

Rohwell's gaze drop after receiving Lyzekiel's slap.

"Lyz..."

Cade held his friend's shoulder to stop him from hurting his other friend anymore. "I understand you're angry about Rohwell's impulsiveness but he's not at fault."

The Crown Prince snapped his head at Cade's words, "Should I thank the man who let danger seep into the land just because he eventually fixed the mess at the end?"

What happened in the end after the investigation was Rohwell's confession.

Apparently Rohwell did not feel the weird magic on the train like Constance, but rather, as he was sure his father who thought he was an eyesore would likely make a move to ruin the trains' structure and rail plans, which Rohwell had handled all on his own. Rohwell went to the driver's compartment to stop it.

Of course Rohwell wasn't sure if it was his father's plan at all.

But when he and Constance closed in on the driver's compartment and saw the intruders, he was sure it was his father who put them up for it.

Of course, the real reason why Lyzekiel slapped Rohwell was because he acted all on his own.

If he had informed them then wouldn't the issue been resolved fast?

With the aid of the Duke and Duchess of Vansia, things had become easy for them but ran out of time, eventually resulting in the derailing of Train Marina's first few cabins and the whole passenger line was sent to a cliff.

If Constance's magic had not awaken at the time, the tragedy that could've occurred because of a careless action...

Cadillac was torn between his friends.

He knew that Rohwell was sensitive when it came to matters connected to his family. He turns into this child who either wants to be praised inside but on the outside he looked like a dog who'd rather bite his father's head off.

This event was the latter.

He acted impulsively because he wished to trap his father and find evidence to push him to a corner.

However he also understood Lyzekiel's side. More than just receiving title of Prince, Lyzekiel would disguise as a commoner and befriend them.

It was one of the reason why he was in Train Marina, because a friend of his gave him a ticket to go together. His care for the people, not 'commoners', was genuine and personal.

Cade shook his head, "It's been a long day we should-"

"No. I want to know why you did that, Rohwell. Must you always act like a child when cornered by your family?"

Cade frowned at Lyzekiel's words. Rohwell had an unreadable expression and did not answer.

'It's not like you don't know, Lyz... So why...'

Cade wanted to sigh.

Before he could do such an act, a sigh left someone's mouth from the other end of the room.

Sitting on the lounge part of the Crown Prince's office while sipping tea and looking bored, was Constance Vansia

Anaiz Allum was there as well, seated on a chair beside Sequentia, but she was pale in horror when the crown prince didn't hold his tongue back.

The usually cheeky and happy-go-lucky Prince was so serious that Anaiz wanted the ground to just swallow her up.

"Sorry. Am I boring you?"

Lyzekiel addressed the female Vansia in the room.

Although his eyes were glaring at Constance, Anainz could feel the weight of his gaze sweep past her.

Sequentia's eyes reached the prince directly, everyone could tell she wasn't scared.

"It wasn't that guy's fault. He just found out after he followed me and improvised during the situation."

She clicked her tongue towards the male Allum. 

'You ass, if you don't defend yourself I'll be in hot water too! You're smart so help me!' Her eyes drilled a hole towards the lad when he turned to her.

But Rohwell looked away as if he didn't want to take part in it.

'This bastar-!'

Sequentia knew that if they disregard her recklessness with Rohwell Allum then the people would hail her as a hero because after all, she saved the lives of a hundred people.

However seeing that the Prince didn't let Rohwell go, wouldn't that mean she was next for the scolding?

And she was also invited to his office even though their parents wanted to take them back immediately.

'It doesn't feel good to be scolded by a child who had not live even a quarter of her life.'

"Well? Lady Constance?" Lyzekiel pressured her to answer.

In the end she couldn't retort back and clicked her tongue.

Even with Cade's persuasion the Prince was adamant in slightly punishing the two reckless people and sent them to train with the knights.

"What?! You can't do that!"

Of course Sequentia complained, this body was stronger than her previous one but she did not have any desire to do physical training at all.

However Cade who thought it was good to see his sister do some exercises pushed her to go as well.

"I will make an official complaint about this, you!"

Constance did not go down without a fight but still ended up training with a sword.

"Ahhhhh! I hate it!"

Sequentia screamed in annoyance. 

She usually wasn't expressive and was rather on the balanced-calm side of people but with stressors left and right, she couldn't handle the irritation from building up and it burst like an unrestricted magic.

The knights watched her with a slight sympathy.

It was common knowledge that the Prince didn't care about social status at all. With the fact that he casually befriends the black sheep of Allum Duchy, plays around with the heir of the Vansia Duchy, and even dress up as a commoner to live freely.

However they were astounded once again.

"To even think of punishing a hero..."

"Plus isn't this the first time Lady Vansia went to the capital?"

"She probably won't visit anymore, right?"

Sequentia heard the knights murmurings. Somehow she felt glad, it wasn't that she was being unreasonable but her nemesis was crazy from the start.

Plus there was one other annoying thing.

"Lady Vansia... please rest for a moment." One of the knights offered her a towel with a blushing face.

"I'm not interested."

It was the fifth knight to try and offer her a towel.

Though Sequentia was apathetic to the customs of civilized nations as she lived her whole life within the comfort of the dark Eldritch Woods, she still couldn't help but know the basics.

Handing someone a towel meant that they wish to be close to someone and develop a lasting relationship.

Though it may seem simple, the term relationship was based off on romance in their custom.

She would've been fine and tried to receive it but only the male knights tried to give her a towel, plus the flushed expressions was a dead giveaway.

It was understandable though.

As Sequentia had evaluated before, Constance was a beauty. Right now she was only in the 17 year old body, but this girl will bloom from a gentle peony into a daring red rose.

Her body calmed down after standing still for a few minutes, and positioned herself again.

The punishment she received with Anaiz's brother was to swing the wooden sword a specific number of times on eight different directions each.

It was one of the basics in learning swordsmanship. 

Sequentia was to swing the sword 50 times in eight directions each while Rohwell had to do it for 200 times.

'But how come...'

Her eyes studied the other person. 'He's already at his hundreds...'

Rohwell saw her eyeing him and stopped.

"You're quite popular."

After hearing Rohwell's monotone compliment, a towel flew to Sequentia's face with force. "Oh please don't misunderstand I'm not giving you a towel because I want to have a relationship with you."

Sequentia clicked her tongue and used the towel. She smiled at him with glaring eyes, "Oho? Is Anaiz's brother in denial of the affections you hold for me?"

Rohwell looked at her with a disgusted face. "What the... You're not my type. I'm not into girls with strong melanin, it reminds me of Cade." He sighed and turned away, continuing to swing his sword to finish his punishment.

Constance stared at him with a smirk, and also continued her punishment.

She hacked at the air countless times until she collapsed of exhaustion.

Once Cadillac nursed her to feel better, Sequentia remembered Rohwell's words.

"By the way, it might be because I didn't study much but, what does having a strong melanin mean?"

Cade raised a brow and chuckled, "Did you hear that from Rohwell?"

The answer to her question was given right away.

"Melanin is a biological component based on science. If Rohwell mentioned it then it's probably his type, no?"

"Yeah.. So what does 'strong melanin' mean specifically?"

"If you produce more melanin it means that genetically you have more darker pigmentation on the important parts. It also means you're genetically stronger than others."

"I see. So when he said that..."

"He's saying you're stronger than him, though I'm not sure why. Also it could be because you have black hair and eyes like me so he hates it."

Cadillac laughed as if he can see Rohwell's unfavorable face towards Constance.

While the older Vansia enjoyed his personal thoughts, Sequentia's mind whirled again.

Another incongruity.

'Black hair and eyes, huh?'

Chapter 12 - End!

Punishment for the hero lol