I am not alone?

'That was an awkward conversation and the tension between the two of them was suffocating until the end. It never crossed my mind that this young lady would go this far as to propose something like marriage in front of his highness and still stay totally calm about it. But moreover, his highness's reaction was strange as well.'

"Pardon, I don't think I understood your request. Can you repeat it again?"

"It is simple your highness, I am asking about your brother's, the first prince, hand in marriage."

"And you want me to accept this request? I am sorry to say this, but it is not my place to talk about this. And although I said that the meeting would go the same way as if my brother was here, that doesn't give me the right to give an answer that might conflict with the person in question."

"Oh no your highness, you misunderstood me! I am not asking you for an answer, I am telling you exactly what I was going to say to his highness Alastair if we were to meet. Sadly but relieving, you are the one who is going to pass the message to him and then I will wait for an answer directly from the right person. This is what I meant, and since your highness is in the role of the mediator here, I am using this opportunity to pass a simple message to those who couldn't make it!"

'What blew my mind and made it impossible for me to intervene in that absurd moment when the young lady was asking his highness to pass her request to the prince as if he were nothing more than a lowly messenger, was that his highness didn't question her about the sudden and uncalled marriage proposal. He listened to her and then smiled politely when she finished, giving her his word that he was going to take her request into consideration. They didn't have anything more to talk about after that and the meeting ended. That shocked me entirely, the meeting started and ended so fast that it made me question his reason for calling her here in the first place.'

"Your highness, pardon me for my rudeness! But I don't understand why your highness let the young lady go so soon. I thought that the reason for the meeting was to keep her here for longer."

"That is not the case anymore, you heard it too, didn't you? Unlike me, she was prepared for this and she was the person who send the word to hold this meeting in the first place. If I had to share my thoughts and keep the conversation going, one of us would have gone out losing. In the worst-case scenario, it would have been me, since it looks like she didn't care less about hierarchy or higher position."

"But your highness, she was at a disadvantage here. Unlike her, you are the prince and her majesty's son, the person who has the power in his hand from the moment you were born. To control people's opinions, you can silence them and order those who disagree with you to do what you disagree!"

"Hahaha, you just described my brother. He is more likely to use force in places where people don't agree with him, but unfortunately, I am not like that! He holds the power that I will never have, even if I want it so badly."

'I have seen how terrifying a bearer of the king's eyes can be. When you have that much power that you can make people bow down right after they see you, they don't hear or feel anything anymore, they are satisfied when they watch the other person's body tremble and slowly give up to the great pressure. The title takes the value of a mere accessory to shut the mouth of the person you are facing, and I see both of them are using that as such.'

"You know Axel, hypothetically what would you do if you found yourself in the middle of nowhere, wandering around clueless, and after some time you get thirsty and there is only a small pond? Would you drink it?"

"If there is no other way, I guess I will do that to save my life. But what do you mean by this, your highness?"

"What if there are also two big, strong beasts that are ready to take each other lives to take a sip of that water without wanting to share between them? Would you still drink it?"

"I don't know what to say your highness, I cannot imagine myself in that position."

"Well, an option is to leave them alone and find another source of water if you are scared of them, but it is still a small chance that you want to find any. And the other option is you can irritate them and wait until the pond is all yours. Is the same for me too. I am just going to see how this ends up for them. In front of two wild beasts, the smart thing to do is to let them fight each other and then you have no opponents or obstacles in your way."

'Raeliana Rapha, right? I was part of the ceremony that day and I saw both of the duke's new daughters, still, she didn't use her current last name, but said it loud and clear that she is a beast that does not hide her claws. The mask that she is wearing is a great trap for those who believe she is just a simple girl, and I don't understand why she reviled it in front of me.'

"Your highness… you are so smart! I can proudly report to her majesty now, she is going to love this!"

"Don't tell her everything you heard though, that will ruin all the fun!"

***

"It was too early and easy, I don't like this! The meeting ended so fast as if I took a turn and went back home, and Jonathan didn't even bring up a fight about what I said. He agreed so quickly that I almost decided to contradict myself instead. This is all so strange and confusing!"

Not to mention, this took embarrassment to a whole other level, but I cannot take it back now. I thought that this was the time to see which way my decision was going to take after hearing his response. He might have burst into laughter at someone unknown who become part of the aristocracy out of nowhere and thought that had an opportunity to ask for something beyond her reach, but he went and took it seriously.

My thoughts on this…well, it was a great start, but not satisfying enough to make my suspicions go away. Sigh…my head, everything is starting to get fuzzy and the painting I saw when we came inside is making me want to throw up! I am so tired!

I will work with what I got now, I am thinking all the time and today is draining the little energy I have left. After I go home I will take a hot bath and a good long sleep until my body and mind are all relaxed and ready for the next thing on my list. But for now, …

"Where is Mireya?"

I didn't see her on the seventh or sixth, not even on the fifth floor and I thought that she would be waiting for me near the stairs. Did she go back to the carriage already? I hope she wandered around for a little bit and talked to someone before doing that or this day would be an absolute waste of time.

No boys though, they should just mind their own business before they try to deal with ours! And with this headache I have right now, they better think twice before laying a hand on her, or I will have no other choice but to get even closer to becoming Nasya's marionette thanks to this cursed bracelet!

[Why don't you let it all out? That will save us so much time and unnecessary pain.]

"Now is not the time Rapha…wait a minute, your voice…is not deep and calm as Raphael's. Who are you and why I can hear you inside my head?"

"Oh my, I thought that you wouldn't notice, here is this better? Don't worry about that, just see what's in front of you. Look…see where we are. This academy is filled with all the aristocrat's hopes and dreams throughout the kingdom, all taped in one place. If you let it all out we will not only cause chaos and massive pain to them, but you will also have the opportunity to destroy that ruby in the middle of your bracelet which has held you down for so long."

"Get out of my head, that's not what I want! And that's not the way to destroy the bracelet, if it was I would have done it long ago. You are that dark shadow I saw two weeks ago, aren't you? Just say it, you want me to activate the restraining magic by using that much power and lose control of my own mind!"

"No dear, I want you to release your full potential and end this before your own life fades away in front of your eyes. Stop playing around with mind games and strategies, those are for humans, they are weak and fragile, and they don't know any better. But you, you can do so much more without struggling, with no pain and no unneeded worries. Think about it, the light is not here to stop you anymore, go and have fun just like in the old days."

Old days? I don't remember anything! Did I use to do this before? Reach my full potential, I don't know how far can I go, it is going to be dark and quite like the place I used to go when this happens. I don't have to worry about pain or others' judgment about me and what I am, if they are no longer with us, then what will they say? Right, absolutely nothing!

"You said something about the light, didn't you? That person is not going to stop me if I do this, even if I destroy the whole academy?"

"Yes, I did say that! But don't mind it, they are close, but not enough to get on our way. Be careful though, if you proceed now then you have to stay away from that person, or you will lose all the control you have over yourself. You know that light and darkness don't get along, but you will get attached easily and will lose your chance, might be the last so think carefully!"

"I don't need to think about that, and of course I don't intend to follow a random person's words, talking inside my head even if it's well thought out. I give my thanks to whatever you are for telling me that the light exists, although you didn't tell me how you found out that I called it like that. I always thought that I was the only Rapha here, but now…hahaha…I can balance both of them! And your suggestion will ruin all of it. So get lost, I won't release my power. Not if someone told me to do it!"