Care to Explain
Violetta starts to eat, allowing the food to pass her numb lips with a hint of spicy heat from her mouth.
"Oi, what's wrong?" Blade whispers to Claude.
"Did you realize that the red stuff she put in her mouth were peppers?"
Blade's eyes widen with surprise and suspicion, "You sure?"
Claude nods.
The Supreme Demigod raises an eyebrow in suspicion at the two boys chatting at the side. Meanwhile, Violetta keeps on pushing food into her mouth, hastily but elegant, hoping the spicy flavor doesn't leave before she finishes.
"Wait really?" Blade whispers, still not believing.
"Yeah, really. The color and the smell all match."
Blade takes a five minute break before answering, "... then it sort of makes sense why she needs the seeds I guess."
Claude nods slowly, his eyes showing absent minded-ness.
The meal soon ends, and they head to the plantation. Many of the mages disperse, either satisfied or disappointed by the show.
The small group left behind heads to the plantation. Behind the grand palace, about a few kilometers away, they find a large orderly plantation of red and green. Violetta inwardly gasps at the efficient, gigantic area.
She walks forward and wanders around the large area, completely forgetting her surroundings. Looking down at the red ripe peppers, she smiles. She bends down like a pure and curious princess, stroking the leaves of the plants.
However, that was only the cover. Inwardly is another story…
' Hmm… these are the normal chilis, wow… what a familiar feel and figure. Are those jalapenos?! Damn! Yes! I need these - oh my lord I need to make my favorite Mexican cuisine, now! I'll need more of a variety… there's so many types- Bell peppers?! You've got to be kidding, they're not even spicy bro, but they taste pretty good raw or cooked.'
Violetta contemplates as she stares at the variety with an 'innocent' smile on her face. A couple of male mages blush as they look at how 'vulnerable' and 'cute' she is. Even Claude who has never ever, in his entire life, felt attraction, feels a faint pink rise up from under his skin.
'How can someone look so different with just a smile?!'
Just as Violetta is about to examine a couple more plants, a black, weird blob shoots over dangerously fast. It looked like a black bomb with a weird dark aura around it. Violetta's eyes widen with surprise, however with her guard up, 'trips', perfectly avoiding the fog. But who knew the fog followed its target?! The black blob swerves over, aiming at Violetta again. It engulfs her at lightning speed, trying to eat her up or something. Suddenly, she panics, unsure of what will happen. She waves her arms around, frantically, trying to find something to grab on, or to signal the mages to help.
Right when she is about to disappear into the fog, a streak of silver, blue, and white light shines through, carrying the poor princess covered in something that looks like soot.
She heaves a sigh of relief in her mind, 'Sheesh! Finally! What's with these people just standing there!'
The mages FINALLY react, somehow in a daze before from being caught off guard. The council members and Supreme Demigod start to show a grave look.
"Are you ok?" Claude asks Violetta, who nods in composure. However, there is still a bit of fear trembling her heart. 'I almost forgot this is a magical world!'
Claude turns over to the others with a face of seriousness as he commands investigations and clean up.
He hands the princess over to Blade.
She takes a deep breath to calm her frightened heart before looking back at Claude, who commands the mages in an orderly fashion.
"... I know right, he can actually be serious when he has such a personality…" Blade comments to Violetta with a grin.
Violetta gives a blank expression, as if she doesn't know what he's talking about.
"You can stop acting. I already know."
"Oh, so the successor of the Demigod Society also has a loose mouth," she comments sarcastically, annoyed that her cover is falling.
There would be too much explaining if word gets out.
She reverts to her sharp, proud demeanor, and they walk towards the infirmary area of the palace.
Blade pauses for a second before following along.
He is a bit startled by her coldness, "It's only me and the Supreme Demigod who know."
"Is that so..."
Though Violetta didn't show it. She is definitely appeased, even the slightest bit.
Click, clack, click, clack. They walk along the paved white paths.
"..."
"..."
Awkward silence…
"Ahaha, anyways, I'm Blade, a successor of the magic council, and Claude's best friend / guard. My favorite hobby is teasing Claude. Nice to meet you, princess."
"Oh," Violetta replies with indifference, "Nice to meet you too, laugh- Blade. As you know, I'm the sheltered princess of Beria Kingdom."
Blade looks at her lifting an eyebrow, "...Laugh Blade?"
She turns her head back at him, her blond cascading hair falling to the side.
"Do you really wanna know?"
"Please go ahead."
"Even if it's offensive?"
"Go ahead."
"Well, you see… I was going to say ���Nice to meet you laughing kid….' until I decided it was disrespectful, so it turned out to be 'Laugh Blade'," she explains with a face that says 'I won't care what you think'.
"... oh" Blade speechlessly looks at the princess with a dumb expression.
In a while, they finally arrive to the infirmary.
Violetta settles in the infirmary as the mage doctors check her. A water mage tries to wash off the darkness.
"It's no use," she reports while shaking her head.
She commands the other nurses and doctors, "I will tend to the princess. You guys should get back to work."
Violetta settles down. The dark scar, surprisingly, is actually not giving her pain at all. She sleeps quietly as the mage ponders at the side.
…
A couple hours later, Claude finally frees up some time and visits Violetta.
As only the two of them were there at the moment, Violetta didn't need to act. She looks over at the shining existence with another indifferent expression.
"Care to explain yourself, Demidog?"