Fourth Month, the 1st day, 1386.22:09.
RIGHT after leaving the lounge, I walked back to the ballroom. There were less people now. Most of them had either left for home or were currently staying in lounges inside the palace. It's already midnight and it wasn't unexpected for guests to start decreasing in numbers.
I turned to look in one direction and he was there, at the same place I saw him standing earlier. Looking at me, again, directly in the eyes, with a wide grin across his face.
Oh, he knows exactly why I am looking at him.
The Grand Duke is a clever man, acknowledged as the top student of his batch when we were at the Academy. We've exchanged words as students before as he was a senior of mine, but that's all there is between us.
I walk to him, casually observing him. I can clearly see why the late emperor would compare his own offspring to this man. He has everything; the looks, the brains, the riches, and even the skills. The Grand Duke is a flawless man, truth be told…
"We haven't seen each other in nine long years, and you certainly have grown into a fine woman. You look amazing in your knight uniform, Rosalie."
—if only he weren't such a playful man.
I bowed in respect and greeted him, "I greet the Guardian of Kovia, Grand Duke Langstone."
I straightened my posture and looked up to him straight in the eyes. He is a head taller than me, even when I'm considered tall for a woman. "Please refrain from giving such comments to a single woman, Your Grace. We are no longer students, and I have a title as well. Please use it to address me," I called out his flirtatious remarks and lack of respect, and he laughed.
"How tense. I've waited all night for you and this is what I get? A scolding?" His green eyes sparked as he took a step closer to me. I didn't move from my place, and he took the chance to tilt my head up by gently grabbing my chin using his clothed hand.
I can feel the warmth of his body even at inches' distance, and it's beginning to bother me.
"You're not the respectful knight I've told you to become. You're acting like some mad puppet, Dame Adela. What's the reason why you chose to give your life to that brat?" His voice was full of aggression and his eyes glared at mine.
I acted unfazed by his sudden change of mood, and I immediately slapped his hand off my face.
Mad puppet huh… Again with that. It's hurting my ears just by hearing it again.
"You are aware, Your Grace, that you've insulted His Majesty the Emperor just now, no?" I ask him, ignoring his question as I kept my gaze locked with his. He smirked at that, making me more impatient than usual.
"Nonetheless, you are to kill me as he ordered you to… no?"
I didn't respond. I calmed myself, trying to maintain my composure..
This is nothing new; turns out he never changed at all. He's full of arrogance and makes me impatient even when I'm not supposed to be so easily irritated. I knew that this man was never fit to be a knight from the moment he began flirting and seducing a stranger like me.
In the moment of silence, I began feeling conscious of the stares from some people. I nearly forgot we had others watching from a distance.
"Shall we…?" He asked out of consideration as he held out his hand.
I sigh, walking past him. I stepped towards one of the private balconies here and closed the curtains. The cold evening breeze hit my face and brushed my hair. It's a dark night, the moon and stars were coated with clouds.
Is it going to rain soon?
The Grand Duke followed and closed the doors.
"We definitely looked like a couple having a lovers' quarrel back there," he teased me, seizing the opportunity to do so. I roll my eyes at how annoying he's acting.
He never changed. He was still a childish senior in my eyes.
I haven't talked to him for nine whole years. Back then... I was still about seventeen years old. We met at the Academy Library, and it was a rest day for me in training.
I saw an interesting book about mythologies and legends, and decided to take a good look at it. And he approached me with one line;
"Do you think dragons are real?"
It was out of the blue, but that conversation of ours lasted the whole afternoon. I was familiar with his face and name, because he was known as a prodigy and Hael hated him. However, he was entirely different from what I expected him to be. He was flirting and playing with me half the time we spent in the library.
And truth be told, I enjoyed his company a lot. I'll never admit it to his face though.
But the next morning, I heard he dropped out of the Academy to become the Grand Duke. I have never seen him again. He never even visited the Capital after being titled by the previous emperor.
And that was... really all there was between us.
Yes... that's all.
"What's with the long face? Don't tell me you're actually hesitating?" The Grand Duke teased as he walked past me, to the railings. He calmly sits on the railing, like a man child that he is, and looks back at me. "You're supposed to kill me, Madame. I'm a threat, no?"
He wore a stupid smirk, mocking me. I can feel a vein popping somewhere.
This man... When did he become so arrogant? Or is he simply provoking me?
Nevertheless, what he said is true. He is the biggest threat to His Majesty Hael at the moment, and possibly, the hardest one to deal with. While the other nobles can be tamed, Hael had no room in his conscience to start even a friendly relationship with this man. That's why he asked me to kill him the same day he was crowned.
Irrational, isn't it? Killing the only possible man who has done nothing but protect his home country. I'm in no room to question Hael. I know how much he loathes this man. It runs deep, enough to make him go insane.
"Sir Icarus told me that I would fail. He deemed you immortal," I stated as I stood in place. I placed my hands behind my back and did not break eye contact. "Won't you enlighten me about this matter? I am yet to see your skills as a swordsman after all."
He had no weapons in him, not even a single armor. I wanted to see how good he is with the sword, but he seems confident enough to not carry even a dagger with him.
Again, he grins at my question.
"During the Junior Level at the Academy, we are trained and often given practice missions. And when you reach your first year in Senior Level, professors will start giving you actual missions or have you dispatched in subjugations, where you actually fight wild pawns. I'm certain you're aware of how low the survival rate was in these kinds of missions when inexperienced." I simply nodded in response.
Pawns. In other words, creatures with no consciousness. They do, however, instinctively attack humans and eat their hearts for survival. They began appearing almost three decades ago.
They possess great strength and agility, and their sizes can differ so much that you might mistake them for animals when you are not careful. They can come out any time of the day and will look for food. They mostly live in vast forests, cold lands, and secluded mountains, but they can always pay a visit to nearby villages or lands. Maybe even the Capital. The place where they lurk most is in the Southern lands of the Empire.
Hence, in the year 1361, the Academy established a training and dispatch program for the School of Knightage, in order for them to gain enough experience before they become knighted. There's still a low chance for an unskilled knight (or even a student) to survive these missions. Although, from what I heard, the performance level of the trainees these days has increased to an unimaginable rate.
"Whenever I get dispatched to subjugations to the South during the first year in my senior years, most of the wild pawns would attack me specifically... I would survive, severely injured and half dead," he laughs as if it wasn't the most gruesome story I've heard about him.
I am actually flabbergasted. There was never a word about this, not before or after his dropping out of the academy.
"It kept happening in every subjugation and I continued surviving until I got used to it... until I didn't even have to use a weapon to slay each of the monsters that came for me."
I shivered and tensed at the bloodlust that flashed in his deep green eyes for a moment. I nearly grabbed my sword out and stepped back!
He grins at my reaction, which thinned my patience.
"That's the reason why Calloway called me immortal. It's a title given to me by my batchmates," he explained well, and somehow, even without seeing it for myself, I understood.
"Well, now that I've given you the answer to your question, how about you do the same with me?" His smile had faded, and the tone of his voice tells me he's serious about learning the reason why I chose Hael as my master.
We stared at each other in the moment of silence. Aside from his playfulness, it seems he's gone through a tremendous change over the past years. I was wrong, he's changed indeed.
I took hold of my sword's handle and unsheathed it. He still looked unfazed even when I pointed my sword at him. But I guess it's not much of a surprise.
He's been playing with death for almost half of his existence, I don't see why he would be threatened by having a lady point a sword at him.
However... he should be threatened.
"You'll hear about it when I pay you a visit in hell."
Because I have never lost to anyone. Not even to His Majesty Hael himself.
His face lights up with amusement.
"There it is!" He cheered. "That's the Adela Rosalie Oleander I know! Unimaginably daring, overwhelmingly graceful, and utterly mysterious! You dare threaten a Grand Duke?! HAHAHAHAH!" The Grand Duke laughed and clapped in amusement.
He then looks at me with the delighted eyes of a mad man. I can't explain why and how, but I can tell how thrilled and excited he is.
"It seems I was wrong, you haven't changed at all," he comments and acts wondering. "Is it because you're in love with that jerk? That you decided to become his knight?"
"Wha—?!"
This time, I am more than taken aback by what he said. He acts confused as he pulls himself up to stand on the railings.
"Oh? You're flustered? So the rumors of you holding special feelings for him aren't false? Isn't he and your younger sister a couple?" He playfully acted shocked as if he discovered a whole new existence.
My eye actually twitched in exasperation as I held back on carelessly striking him.
"I hold no such thing for His Majesty!" I raised my voice, unexpectedly.
"In denial now, are we? HAHAHA!" He teased me.
"I am NOT!" I really don't!
"Well, it doesn't matter~" he says. "All I want to know now is if you can actually send me to the afterlife."
He then jumped off the balcony with an annoying smile on his face and disappeared from my sight.
I sheath my sword and sighed once again as I followed after him. Of course, he wouldn't let me kill him so easily, not that I planned to (torture is a thing). He's probably having the time of his life playing tag like a brat. I never planned to kill him here in the palace, but once I catch him, I'll do what I have to do.
He likes to play, so I'll give him a game he'll actually hate.