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“I wonder if I should be embarrassed or blessed to be in the arms of a beautiful lady,” the Crown Prince commented with a mischievous smirk while being held by the waist by one of Corlissa’s arms as she flew through the sky.
Corlissa, who was slightly angered by his comment, took her free hand and lightly punched his head.
“I never knew you were so flirtatious, Crown Prince,” she replied with her eyebrow twitching out of annoyance.
“And I never knew you were so bold, who in their right mind challenges 2 races?” he questioned with his eyebrows raised in sarcasm.
“Hey, if my plan works and I don’t have to take extra actions then I would return to being part of the humans. Honestly, I made the wrong choice and I regret it now but I’ve already kidnapped you so I won’t be able to return without getting killed.”
“How do you say such things so calmly? It’s your death, if you get killed this time there are no second chances.”
“Death was never fun and quite honestly, I don’t want to die extra times. You guys could’ve at least made dying less painful,” Corlissa casually spoke with a small pout.
“Um, you concern me with how offhandedly you talk about dying but uh- yeah- sorry that was our bad,” the Crown Prince awkwardly said while stuttering slightly before continuing.
“Anyway, what did you mean by you messed up?”
Corlissa lightly chuckled, “I went straight for the extreme option, honestly, I didn’t want to risk more deaths if I gradually built up to the final resort. However, by kidnapping you I’m going to have no way out if it succeeds.”
A dark expression made its way onto both Corlissa and the Prince, a tense suffocating silence enveloped them before the Crown Prince decided to ease it.
“So...where are we going?” he questioned like a lost child.
“Somewhere away from everyone, ‘demons’ and humans.”
“How would you know where if you haven’t gone past the runes?” he interrogated with clear suspicion.
Corlissa responded with a slight glare towards the direction in front of her, “That is not something a hostage should be asking.”
She had suddenly spoken with malice, they were on close enough terms to joke around but the sudden change in her tone made the Prince realise.
He stepped over the line.
While in an awkward yet pressuring silence where it was becoming increasingly harder for the Prince to breathe, they had passed by the Dela Morte.
‘What bad timing. I’m going to have to try really hard just to breathe now, I must have some bad luck,’ the Crown Prince thought with a sigh as the atmosphere turned stiff.
Luckily for the Prince, they quickly reached their destination where he found it much easier to get enough oxygen to process thoughts normally.
There was absolutely nothing to be noted at the location, it was just barren uninhabitable land that held no benefits. Not a single blade of grass grew in the area and they were far from any civilisation.
The Crown Prince displayed visible confusion as to why they were at a worthless area where it was impossible to live.
With a heavy sigh, Corlissa crouched down and placed her hand on the ground before muttering quietly as the Crown Prince subtly leaned in closer to hear what she was saying.
“Just please this one final time. If I die now none of your wishes can even be heard nor done since I’d be gone, as long as I’m alive all of you have a chance to persuade me more,” the Veronique uttered as quickly and subtly as she could.
With a slight delay, the previously barren ground morphed into a luscious plot of land with an apple tree and an orange tree both bountiful in fruit. A house began forming by itself from the foundation to the roof and details, even the furniture was made.
His eyes widened an ample amount, “Woah,” he spoke under his breath before abruptly covering his mouth and turning away from the young lady.
“I’m done, let’s go inside.”
“Ah- um yeah...wasn’t I meant to be a hostage though? Why is my room so fancy?”
“I never intended to harm you to begin with. You were the option that gave me the least hassle, I would even go as far as to say that you were the one who I wouldn’t mind spending my final days with.”
“Oho~ the ice-cold prodigious princess of Amiere Academy admitted to liking someone?” the Crown Prince teased causing her to start lightly blushing.
“I remember when we first met, you were all panicked and formal. Haha, you kept on pushing me away even though I was so obvious about it,” he continued to tease.
“Be quiet, that was in the past.”
They began silently reminiscing about when they were children when everything seemed colourful and full of life. Even though Corlissa had lived many lives she had still found that her childhood was fun, it was enjoyable when having to deal with the co-existence of 2 similar yet different species was a distant future.
“Enough of that sappy stuff! Tell me about your magic,” the Prince requested with a vibrant grin.
“I’m sure you have already done enough research into it, there’s no need for me to carelessly show off my weaknesses. But I would like to know, what is your magic?”
“Haa well, it’s absorption. It’s practically useless for combat but it works for defence, it is kind of overpowered,” he answered with his hand on the back of his head and a nervous smile on his face.
“I see.”
“Anyway, when are you going to do something fun again? You literally just pissed off the equivalent of 2 billion humans,” he commented with a deadpan expression.
“Heh, soon. Awfully soon. Enjoy your final and only 2 days absolutely no responsibilities. I’ll wake you up when breakfast is ready tomorrow so sleep comfortably,” Corlissa spoke with a rare soft smile on her face as she turned to leave the room.
As she reached the door frame she kept her back towards the Prince as she spoke barely loud enough for him to hear, “I’m sorry that you have to go through this, I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt.”
The prideful prince upon hearing those words blushed furiously red. Despite his age and status, he had little to no proper interaction with females. The only interaction he did have was when he was in the academy where he and Corlissa had a verbal knife at each other’s throat at their annual meetings.
It wasn’t that simple though, those meetings were chances where they could gauge each other’s growth, power and standing in the world.
Of course, the other interaction that the Crown Prince had with females was the daily cold glare, which was quite unforgettable, he looked at everyone aside from people he acknowledged with that classic stare. He was fair, regardless of their age, gender, sexuality or race unless they gained his respect they would be treated like dirt.
Thus were the reasons why the mighty Crown Prince went to sleep much later than usual as he pondered staring at the ceiling while also having his face adorned in a bright crimson.
He was lucky that a certain redhead wasn’t there to tease him about his face to no end.
True to her words, the next morning Corlissa let him sleep in before waking him up for breakfast and he really did have no responsibilities for 2 whole days.
His meals were provided by Corlissa, hot water was also free for him to use, there were no lessons or work for him to attend to. He could just relax and talk calmly with the blue-haired Veronique.
He enjoyed those 2 days.
But it wasn’t the same for Corlissa.
She couldn’t deny that the time she spent with him was entertaining but she had too many things on her plate to stress about. Corlissa had to account for every factor to ensure that her plan would succeed without a hitch, she also had to plan out how she would be able to return the Prince.
Not to mention, a way to deal with a highly possible conflict between her and 2 races both wielding magic. She was sure that the humans had yet to form an alliance or meet the ‘demons’ so she was planning to carefully unveil all the secrets that were kept hidden for centuries.
“I’m starting the next step, let’s go,” Corlissa called out to the Prince who held a solemn gaze after processing her words.
“Promise me you’ll stay alive.” To which Corlissa responded with a half-hearted smile, “Of course.”