Ch. 41: Griffinkiller City (2)

"Alright. I know that I asked you a few days ago, during our last training session, but what's your deal?" Rosy asked once they got to their room, sitting on the bed cross-legged.

"Only one bed, huh?" Adrian asked, doing his best to keep his mind clear so that Rosy didn't sense his anxiety.

"Nope. You're gonna talk this time." Rosy told him, not letting him change the subject. Over the course of their relationship, she'd gotten to know Adrian's personality rather well, so she had an idea of what was nagging at him, but she couldn't figure it out through their bond without asking. He had a really good ability to change his mind and avoid thinking about certain things, so he could control the emotions that she could sense, at least to a pretty good degree.

Unfortunately for Adrian, he couldn't use lies against Rosy. Their bond made it impossible for them to lie to each other, so he needed to skirt around the subject instead.

"I'm getting-" Rosy cut Adrian off as he reached for the door, intent on using hunger as an excuse for getting out of the conversation. Instead, a small knife impaled the door with a thump.

"Nope." She was getting annoyed. 

"So you're just-"

"Shut up and talk. Honestly."

"Funny, coming from you." Adrian decided to hit her with a low blow, but it didn't shake the princess. She knew all about her unstable personality. Honesty wasn't exactly her strong point, but she'd been a lot better since the bond stabilized her personality. She was slowly coming to grips with her past, accepting it as a part of who she was.

That didn't mean that she forgave herself for it, though.

"Dude." She gave him a look that said, 'you aren't going to skirt your way around it this time.' Realizing that, Adrian finally gave in, letting out a long sigh.

"Fine. I've got feelings for you... okay?" He admitted it honestly. 

Rosy wasn't shocked at all by that. She was pretty good at measuring her strengths and weaknesses. Her appearance was one of her strengths. Another one of her strengths was her ability to 'seem' innocent. Between the two, seducing men wasn't too hard.

Since Rosy considered Adrian an ally, she'd done her best to bring out her sweet sides around him. She'd been incredibly honest and understanding toward him. She'd seduced weaker men with less.

"Do you think they're real?" She asked him. Adrian may have seen more of her sweet side than her other side, but he'd gotten a heavy dose of her sadistic tendencies as well. His feelings for her couldn't be real if he couldn't accept her horrible actions as well as her sweet ones.

"I think so." He told her. He had a pretty good ability to judge character, but with Rosy, he always came up a little short. She wasn't nice or sweet at all, but when she wanted something, she'd go for it without any sort of reservations. He couldn't help but fall for that.

"I'm sorry. I like you too." Rosy admitted.

"You're apologizing for that?" Adrian wondered. 'If they liked each other, what could be wrong with that?' He wondered. She explained further,

"I think it's a side effect of our bond. Our feelings aren't real, just mutual. We shouldn't act on them." She made sense. He hadn't had any romantic feelings for Rosy at all when they first met. It was only after he'd talked to her in her room shortly after he escaped that he'd begun falling for her. Apparently, she had felt the same way, but she was a lot more experienced in controlling her emotions than Adrian, so she'd thought it through a lot deeper than him.

Honestly, he agreed with her, after having it put that way. Acting on feelings that weren't real would be exactly the same as what she'd been doing up to this point with her bloodlust. Following a path that the 'real Rosy' didn't want. Doing that would be wrong, and neither of them wanted that. Adrian's expression fell, but he didn't need to verbalize his agreement.

But her next words were a slight contradiction, "But... I think that we should go on a date."

"Huh?" Adrian wondered.

...

"That's got to be her. I heard that she was prettier in person than in the signs suggested, but seeing it in real life..." The man trailed off. By pure coincidence, Gerald had been passing through Griffinkiller Park when he caught a glimpse of a certain girl. It was the Rose Princess. She was actually on a date with some guy. The guy was pretty good looking, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a good physique, but he was nothing compared to Gerald. 

Gerald had once been a part of the King's Elite... the Fraeguard Corps. After being forcibly kicked off the force for being too weak, he had travelled the world. He'd been to every single large city that he could find. Every place where he could find a single physical challenge. He'd grown far beyond even they Captain of the Fraeguard, in his own opinion. Now, he was planning to gain renown by climbing the famously impossible Griffin mountain, kicking all of those stupid gryphons right off of Gryvus to make them die, groveling at the king's feet. 

Luckily for Gerald, at least from his thought processes, fate seemed to have a different plan for him. He'd ended up finding the Rose Princess herself during his journey towards undeniable renown.

'How dare she leave the Fraeguard willingly, after everything that I did to earn my way back in!' He inwardly screamed, watching her smiling and laughing in public with that random guy, like there was nothing in Griffinkiller city that could harm her. Gerald would teach her a lesson. He'd tear her limb from limb, along with her mysterious lover! 'Not even the Rose Princess will survive my absolute power!' He took a certain magical crystal out of his pocket, smiling sinisterly as he planned his trap.