Visitation

In an emergency, I sent distress message to Archie and Charles.

The news about the prince and the princess talking about this mysterious man spread fast. Though thanks to that, my messages were read by Archie and Charles immediately.

Currently, they are in my house.

Along with mom and Carla, they brought with them maids to help clean the house spotless because Ofelia was indirectly pressured by the prince to meet with me despite my protest not to.

"Dude, how lucky can you get?"

"Lucky? I'm about to die from a nervous breakdown here!"

"Is there any more I can help you with, Rose?"

We are currently trying to clean my room.

Within the hour, the Prince and Princess will arrive so I have very little time to get prepared.

Thanks to Archie and Charles's parents having ulterior motives to get to the prince's good side, we received monetary support to have the house refurnished as much as we could in this short amount of time.

"Dude, what do we do with your porn books?"

"You have porn books?"

"I may be female too, but that doesn't mean I'll let go of my male self too, Charles. Anyway, let's burn them!"

As much as it hurts my heart, I must let go of these books just in case.

So while I toss them out the window, I set them into flames with my Dark Magic and cry on the inside.

Then after that, I smell myself and notice the sweaty stench. At the same time, Red just came out of the shower.

"Alright, it's my turn to the shower."

Immediately, I take off my shirt which prompted Archie to cover Charles's eyes.

"Rose! We are here!"

"Leave me alone! I'm in a hurry here!"

As I ran out of the room while snatching two towels, Red enters the room to switch with Rose.

"Red, dude, you shouldn't strip in front of us."

"Sorry about that, Rose has my emotions amplified so as much as I am losing my mind right now, it is doubled with her."

"Huh... is that how it works?"

"More or less. Rather, I feel like I'm changing one way or another."

After I wore my shirt, I continue cleaning the room as Red.

All of a sudden, Mom knocks on the open door to get my attention.

"R-Red, can I have you for a moment?"

Looking at mom, she looks like she's about to breakdown from nervousness.

"Why? What's the problem?"

"Uhm... I know you have an important guest today, but I don't think I'll be able to handle being in the same room-house as him."

"What are you trying to say?"

Mom looks at Carla who just arrived. While holding her hand, she looks at me with an apologetic look.

"Carla and I will go to the Brallon household. Archie's mom wanted to me to teach her some recipe."

"Are you trying to abandon me?!"

"I'm sure you can manage! Please, I'm too old to get this stressed out!

Without listening to my protest, Mom and Carla runs out of the house and towards Archie's place.

"But you're only 35..."

Archie grabs my shoulder. When I looked at him, he looks at me with a pity wry smile.

"Don't worry, I'll be with you."

Though he said that, his hand was cold. He's as nervous as I am. I bet his mom also forced him to come here to get acquanted with the prince.

"You aside, why did you come, Charles?"

"You're the one who asked for helped. Though I could have ignored it but it's the prince we're talking about. Not everyone in the lower lineage gets the chance to get acquantes with the Royal family."

"Speaking of which..."

I close my eyes and tried to speak through my mind.

"Princess, are you there?"

"..."

"...fine. Ofelia."

"What is it?"

These days, Ofelia has been acting really spoiled like this. It's easy for a Royalty like her, but it's bad for my commoner heart.

"If you don't mind, can I ask where are you now?"

"In the carriage with the prince. We are almost in your town now."

"Alright, thanks!"

When I opened my eyes, I turn to Archie and Charles who knew what I was doing.

"Alright, they'll be arriving in 20 minutes. Let's wrap up and burn everything we don't need."

This is the craziest Sunday of my life!

After a while, we finally finished cleaning the house and prepared a small banquet for the visiting party. The maids and guards are ready and the locals have been notified of the prince's arrival so everything is set to not displease the prince.

When I look outside the window, the windows of each houses were covered in fancy curtains.

"Even they don't want to displease the prince huh."

Charles commented while he looked as well.

As Red, I stood outside the door with Archie waiting for the prince to arrive.

"Remember Red, royalties are people you really don't want to get against you."

"I know that already! Stop making me nervous!"

"Speaking of which, it's kind of funny how we act really chummy with the Princess."

"Well, ironically, she's down to earth despite being a Dragonoid Princess. I feel like if she wasn't a princess, everyone in class would be friends with her."

"That is true."

We soon see a white and gold carriage drive down the street. Immediately after, my nervousness gets restarted.

"Don't be too nervous."

Out of nowhere, I heard a telepathic message from Ofelia. When I look at the carriage window, I saw her wave her hand at me.

"The princess is way too casual about this."

"Way too casual, I feel like I'm about to get murdered."

When the carriage stopped, one of their escorts run to the carriage door to open it.

With Archie's push, we walked towards the carriage to welcome them.

As the Princess and the Prince exits the carriage, Archie and I bow down to show our respect.

"Welcome to my humble home, Prince Arlen of Bovalia. Your presence graces me."

"You're quite educated with etiquette of Nobility."

"I was raised with my friend Archie of Brallon household. Though we are not of blood, we consider each other as brothers."

"Is it him that prepared for this visit?"

I feel like I'm about to choke at any moment!

"Yes, as well as sir Charles from the Rigmun household. They are today's sponsors."

"Rigmun, I remember the head of the Household but never saw any of his family."

"His son is currently inside waiting for us."

I look at Charles as Rose.

"What are you looking at?"

"You should have went with us outside to greet him."

"I don't enjoy kneeling to men so, pass. I'd rather be with you here."

"I'm still a man."

Back to Red, I waited for the prince to say something.

"You may now stand."

As I stood up, I saw Ofelia behind him just casually waving which doesn't match her expression.

As we entered the house, the prince looked around as if he was surprised with what he sees. But for some reason, Ofelia isn't. Rather, she seems to know where everything is and doesn't seem to find anything odd.

"Your house is quite small."

"Forgive me, Prince Arlen. But this is the average home of a commoner. I wanted to have this visitation elsewhere, but Princess-"

"I insisted."

Immediately, Ofelia cuts me off as we pass through the living room.

"I told him last night that it would be more preferable to have this kept in a small circle of acquaintances."

"Or so she said. If I am to be honest, I had objected against the idea of having a prince enter my small home."

While the prince was looking around the house, I opened the doors to the yard where a newly erected temporary pavilion was waiting for us.

There, Charles and Rose were waiting for us.

Looking from Rose's perspective, I look like I'm about to faint.

"Red, can we talk for a second?"

"Yeah, sure."

Out of nowhere, Ofelia sent me a telepathic message without looking at me.

"So I asked my brother about Dark Magic a few days ago. According to him, it varies for each person."

"What do you mean?"

Ofelia looks at me and points out on a charred object outside. Looking at it, those might be the remains of my porn books.

As I was sweating buckets, Ofelia looks away again but I could see her ears slightly red.

"Uhm..."

"Y-you don't really need to say it, Ofelia."

"That aside, I am impresses by your self-discovery of your own magic."

"You read my memories?"

"You were loud enough for me to notice. Also, who is this Elena?"

"Let's have that talk on a later date."

I really don't want to talk about this one so I hurriedly opened the door to the yard.

"Welcome, Prince Arlen. It's my pleasure to finally meet you."

Though he said he doesn't like bowing to men earlier, it seems Charles doesn't have a problem doing that now.

"Oh, I thought you don't like bowing to men?"

Out of nowhere, Ofelia blurts something outrageous in the presence of the prince. This made Archie jolt in surprise and he started sweating buckets.

Looking at the prince, it seems he didn't understand what Ofelia was talking about which is the silver-lining.

"Excuse me?"

"P-pay no heed to such, your highness. I just find discomfort lowering my head to someone who isn't a woman."

"I see... I do somewhat understand that feeling."

We got lucky. Thank god.

After the chaotic introductions, we proceeded with resting under the pavilion.

The seating was like this; On the middle is the Prince on the left and Ofelia on the right, I sat next to Ofelia then Archie beside me, and on the right is Charles sitting next to the prince then Rose.

Aside from the huge pressure of having to sit in the same table as the crown prince, it's kind of off-putting to have maids serve me in my home. Being a commoner and all, I never once thought this could happen to me.

"So, before anything. I'd like to thank you for going through the trouble of creating a comfortable environment for us to have this little gathering."

"I'm humbled by your praise, your highness. But this wouldn't be possible without our sponsors."

When I pointed that out, he looks at Archie then Charles and then smiled at them.

"Well certainly. You must be quite the character to be friends with such people with good pedigree."

"I am just lucky, your highness."

When he praised them, it seems Archie and Charles felt a bit proud of themselves. I can see it in their smirks.

With this, I have somewhat repaid my debt to them.

"That aside, I'm curious as to how you became acquanted with the princess of Azureth. May I know the details?"

Ah.... this topic.

Ofelia already told me not to tell the prince about the Sins of Ascension so it's quite troubling how to explain the situation. I mean, even Charles and Archie doesn't know anything about it.

"We'll, let's just say we have something related with one another."

"Oh, care to elaborate?"

How do I even get out of this one?

Looking at Ofelia, she doesn't seem to be interested in helping me. Rather, she's enjoying the sight like a sadist.

"Uhm... You see, I actually have Demon Blood in me. So naturally I had double elemental affinity like Ofelia."

"That's quite a gift. But aren't you too human-like to be a demon?"

"W-well I'm only 8th part demon so it's heavily diluted with my human blood. Even I doubted myself."

"So what makes you a demon then?"

Hmm... That is a good question.

I mean, Dark Magic isn't exclusively for demons only. There are cases where humans are born with Dark magic affinity.

When I look at Rose, she doesn't seem to be related to Dark Magic or a Demon-like trait.

"Honestly, outside the knowledge of having demon blood, I really don't know."

I stand up as Rose to head to the restroom.

But when I did so, I got the prince's attention.

"Um, excuse me."

"Yes, your highness?"

As I turned towards the prince, by pure chance, I looked at him straight in the eyes.

It was by no means an exaggeration, but from this perspective, I could see myself being reflected in his eyes. It was without a doubt a feeling that I can easily recognize.

"I'm sorry for not noticing you sooner, but may I know your name?"

-End of Chapter-