Chapter 22

…a few moments earlier…

Audie smiled to himself as he swung the sword in his hand around, how he found it wasn't important, he wanted to show it off to Henri while picking him up for breakfast.

He slowed down to a stop when he met someone standing in front of Henri's room. "Who are… oh, cool eyes… Dio? Hey! I remember you! Why are you standing in front of Henri's room?"

Dio blinked slowly as he tried to keep up with the speed of the newcomer's words. "Standing?" He repeated, his eyes fixed on the sword in Audie's hands.

"You want to hold it? Here," Audie immediately handed it to him. "Now why are you standing here?"

Dio held the sword, a little confused because he had never had someone treat him like he was normal other than Louis.

Henri's yell and a thudding sound came from inside his dorm, alerting Audie. "What was that?" He frowned, eyeing Dio suspiciously now. "Move away from the door."

"Standing." Dio repeated, still holding the sword in the position that Audie had given him.

"Stand over there." Audie countered impatiently, pointing away from the door.

Dio fell silent, slowly blinking at Audie.

Audie sighed and tried to push him out of the way, wondering what was wrong with him. After a couple of tries, it started to dawn on him that he couldn't move him. "How heavy are you?" He asked in disbelief.

"Standing guard." Dio muttered.

Audie's eyes widened in consternation. "Standing guard? The hell you are, move!" He put all of his strength into pushing Dio out of the way and managed to move him out of the way.

He snatched the sword back from Dio and threw open the door to find a stranger crowding Henri. "Get away from the Prince, I've got a sword and I'm not afraid to use it!" He called out, holding out the sword threateningly.

Henri turned to the door in confusion. "What… Audie? What are you doing?" He asked his eyes fixated on the sword in his hand. "Where did you find that?"

Audie lowered the sword at the wary tone of Henri's voice. "That's not important, I thought you were in danger."

"Why would you think that?"

Louis watched their back and forth with quiet amusement.

"Because Dio outside said he was standing guard and I heard you scream…"

"I did not scream." Henri cut him off, self-conscious.

Louis also had similar ideas. "Wait, you said Dio spoke to you?" He spoke after Henri.

Audie stared at him like he had broken into a party jig right in the middle of their conversation. "He did… Dio? Come in, don't just stand outside, man." He paused to speak to Dio who was standing outside.

Dio walked in, his eyes still fixed on Audie's sword.

"Here you can hold it again." Audie handed the sword back to Dio who took it with muted happiness.

Louis was dumbstruck by this. "You had a conversation with Dio?" He found himself asking again.

"Yeah, he has really cool eyes by the way…"

"You need to understand, Dio doesn't talk to anyone." Louis persisted, something like hope in his eyes.

Audie still seemed to not be getting the severity of the situation, he glanced at Dio and frowned. "You want to keep it? No, it's mine."

Once again, Louis found himself blinking in shock. Henri was somehow not surprised by this, Audie seemed like the kind to have a proper conversation with a slab of stone.

Henri had to take the reins seeing as Louis couldn't move past the fact Dio had spoken to someone else. "We need to leave for the dining room if we want to make it to breakfast." He interrupted. "Don't take the sword with you, Dio."

Dio looked a little sad at this but he reluctantly placed the sword on the ground and then straightened up, walking out.

Louis wasn't sure how to react to this, he was used to Dio being treated like he was invisible wherever they went. Louis had lost count of how many times he had been told to ditch Dio because he couldn't make friends with him, but for the first time, Dio had been an active part of their conversation, he had even spoken to someone else that wasn't Louis. It was like a miracle.

"Vale and Nael have already found us a table they should be waiting for us," Audie said as they made their way down the hallway.

"Errol isn't having breakfast with us?" Henri asked curiously.

Audie looked away. "He decided to go with his roommate instead."

Henri was aware that Seton was a touchy subject so he let it go, it wasn't his place to be nosy after all.

-*-

Alois stayed on Cecil's tail even while breakfast went on, now he was currently leaning against a tree in the park in between the year one and two dorms, a little distance from where Cecil and his two friends were seated.

The only issue was that although Alois managed to tail Cecil without being noticed, he hadn't been able to figure out what Cecil was plotting because he had been too distracted by him.

He was impressed at Cecil's ability to easily gather information and network his way up to the right people. The other two, Leeson and Perry were his shadows and Alois couldn't say what they looked like even if his life depended on it.

He had violated a lot of rules in intel gathering but he was already too far gone, not to mention that he didn't particularly care about rules.

Alois brought out a palm-sized mirror from his pocket and used it to spy on Cecil… well staring at Cecil was closer to the truth. He intently watched his lips move and studied every minute expression on his face.

He could easily end whatever they were plotting in as little as half an hour but he was more interested in watching Cecil exist than whatever evil plot he was cooking up.

…

Cecil found himself looking around for the umpteenth time that day, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched.

"What's the matter?" Leeson nudged him to get his attention.

Cecil immediately moved away, a scowl on his face. "Don't touch me, nothing's wrong." He said confidently even as a shiver went down his spine.