Exile.
A word that wasn't heard within the walls of this ceremonial palace for two hundred years. And definitely not one a man in Theo's position should be able to say so easily.
Silence.
If the assassination attempt caused a moment of silence followed by shouts, cries, and all sorts of ruckus, Theo's words caused just silence and then… some more of it.
'Now,' Theo slightly squinted his eyes as he looked up to his father, 'show me the skill you mastered while watching how your dynasty rots.'
"Son…"
After watching an attempt on his son's life, the king hardly reacted. But now? Now, he gulped his saliva and took time to measure his words.
"Son, are you really sure that's the path you ought to pursue?"
'Not bad,' Theo quelled the twitch in the corner of his mouth.
For a second, he almost forgot the hundreds of times all those in the know practiced this exact moment.
But he couldn't just admire his father's acting talent. Theo had his own role to play. And so, he pushed his chin up and pried his eyes open, showcasing as much confidence and determination as he could project.
"That is right."
Not a single soul in the hall dared to utter a word, making each of the king's and prince's voices echo through the whole palace.
The king clenched his fists and squeezed his eyes shut while holding his breath. Then, as he slowly exhaled, his expression came undone, returning to the tranquility his subjects were so used to.
"If such is your will, then so be it."
Once again, the king's steady voice filled the ceremonial hall.
Up until then, everything went exactly according to the script.
But everyone in the know, including Theo, the mastermind behind this whole ploy, forgot one important rule. An act no one could blame them for, given how they had long since stopped fearing the bedtime stories for naughty children.
The divine laughs upon the plans of men.
"Theodore Quadragon," the king's voice boomed through the hall. Then, as he drew his breath, "I hereby exile you from the lands of my dynasty…"
An uncomfortable twitch ran up Theo's spine.
'Well, faking this whole thing doesn't make it any more pleasant, huh?' the prince thought, discarding the feeling.
"… and write you off the dynasty's register!"
Everyone in the palace exhaled.
It happened.
It actually happened!
Regardless of faction, affiliation, or political standing, no person could utter a word to disturb the shocked silence.
It's been two hundred years since someone from the Quadragon dynasty has chosen exile. Heck! It was the fall of the Tridragon house at the hands of the taboo-breaker heir that gave rise to the current dynasty, proving that even those fated to doom were only more likely to fight against their own destiny!
And yet, the well-known young prince, a bane of schemers and the doom of plotters…
He not only has chosen exile, but his father allowed it to happen?
The shared exhale of everyone in the palace turned into a gale. This gale grew into a gust of wind that grew even stronger.
'Something is wrong…' Theo squinted his eyes as he felt the chill for the second time.
SLAM!
The codex that he had just stepped away from suddenly slammed open, its jewel-adorned cover slamming into the wood of the stand. The gust of wind now turned into a powerful current before twisting and coiling above the ancient book. And as if that wasn't enough, the gold adornments of the tome started to shine with their own light as the winds began to carry the massive, weighty book over the stand, making it levitate just two hand-widths above the wooden desk.
The codex's pages began to flutter, as if some invisible hand flipped through it.
Then, for just a moment, a single page stood upright, sending a third cold shiver up Theo's spine.
'Isn't that…'
His pupils narrowed as he could swear he stole a glance of the familiar passage on that particular page.
Golden light exploded out of the book, its mere presence instantly taking everyone and everything into its hold, refusing to let anyone move or even breathe.
Theo's eyes widened.
'So he actually…'
He wanted to gulp his saliva, but with his whole body locked by the golden omnipresence, he couldn't.
A divine force he had taken as merely a part of the legends now made its presence known right before his very eyes!
Then, the powerful stroke of wind twisted into a whirlwind, right as the page suddenly blackened, crumbling as if consumed by an invisible fire. The spinning current of air rapidly tore the pieces of the charred page away, causing each piece to crumble into dust as it rose up in the air.
Finally, as the last bits of the page separated from the codex, the tome suddenly collapsed right back onto the stand, causing the golden light to vanish along with the oppressive force that held everyone and everything at bay.
Silence.
No one dared to utter a word. But, while the king and the prince could only stare at the unexpected event with their eyes wide, while some of the spectators started to faint and others fell to their knees in reverence for the divine intervention, one person moved.
"NO!" Meimei screamed out, breaking the unwritten vow of silence as she rushed ahead.
"CHASE HIM OUT!"
Before the girl could reach the prince, Duke Claudius stood up so hard he toppled the chair behind him.
Everyone, king, prince, and Meimei included, turned their heads towards the voice.
Then, the duke's followers… well, followed.
"Chase him out!"
"The divine creator has sealed his fate!"
"Proceed with the exile!"
Up until this moment, it was all a political play. The moment an unseen hand intervened, though, the ceremony turned into a religious craze!
"CHASE HIM OUT!"
The lesser nobles of various affiliations started to join in on the chant. Yet, as the situation continued to quickly deteriorate, Theo couldn't pay less heed to whatever those nobodies were screaming.
'What in all hells is going…'
His knees nearly gave in under his own weight.
The air grew thick. His body grew heavy. Even drawing breath became difficult.
If not for Meimei's timely support, he would struggle to remain upright.
Theo's lips trembled. After all the time he spent planning for this moment, to watch it all go awry because of some unexpected factor like that…
'This isn't how things were supposed…'
"Chase him out! Chase him out!" More and more voices continued to join the chant. And as those voices grew louder, the guards started to split between those who joined in on the chant and the veterans who readied themselves for the looming trouble.
Theo looked around, struggling to even turn his head. It felt as if something burned through all his strength, leaving him severely weakened, struggling with even the simplest of actions.
"Chase him out! Chase him out!"
By now, nearly everyone—save for the few elite guards—had joined in on the craze, their mixed voices growing louder by the second as the weaker-minded guards started to slam the butts of their spears at the floor while some nobles reached for their own weapons.
Theo was never given the time to recover.
Even his father, the king, started to show signs of reeling from the pressure of the crowd mixed with his own reverence of the divine unknown.
Everyone saw the codex page burning, as the divine intervention directly removed Theo and his fate from the dynasty's tome.
And who was he, a king to men but a mere ant to the divine, to oppose the holy will that set in stone what was supposed to be a mere ruse?
"Offer the…" the king's voice broke, only for the man to shake his head as he gritted his teeth, his determination flaring up in his eyes, "Offer the former prince his due pittance."
Theo somehow found the strength to perk his head up, staring wide-eyed at his father.
Then, the reality hit him.
'God damn it,' he cursed in his thoughts.
His father was really the actor of a generation! And he was both quick-witted and divine-defying enough to take the very next line out of their script and turn it into a tool to appease the crowd!
Under the king's orders, the royal guards rushed to the altar sitting between the throne area and the codex reading stand. There, after gracefully removing the cover, they revealed a set of three boxes—one made out of gold-plated bars of steel, one fashioned out of ordinary wood, and one crafted from charred-black material Theo couldn't recognize.
A standard set for the ceremony, where the gold box held the dynastic insignia that Theo was supposed to be adorned with in the next part of the ceremony, a wooden box where he would deposit the tools of the trade his fate decided for him, and the charred black box…
Normally, the ichor-colored box was there just to remind everyone that not every fate turned out favorable.
Today, however, it was the only one that the guards touched.
First, with a sweep of their hand, they removed a layer of dust that sat atop the box's lid before grabbing onto its lock and inserting the key stored right nearby.
But the box wouldn't open.
It hadn't seen any use in the last two hundred years, so it was hardly a surprise. Or so those in the know wanted everyone to think, given how the king himself made sure to slather the box with dust and had Theo jam its lock. But right now…
The crowd was in a state that wouldn't excuse any delays. So, in the end, one of the guards smashed the lock with their iron glove, finally allowing his colleagues to open it up.
For a moment, the silence returned to the hall as everyone leaned in, both curious to see the insides of the box yet too fearful to step any closer to the scene than they already were.
'So you want to see, but won't step up? Cowards,' Theo thought, only to feel Meimei's hands squeeze his arm. 'Oh right…'
He gritted his teeth.
Previously, he had no qualms about having her accompany him onto the fake exile. But now that the ruse had turned into reality?
Theo's eyes rested on the girl's anxious face.
Her usually adorably cheerful, deceivingly innocent looks were now twisted with worry as her big, brown eyes tracked the guards as they reached into the box.
Her well-honed yet still soft body felt like she was on the verge of trembling, yet mentally refused to do so in a bid to remain a steadfast support for him.
'Just how precious can you be,' Theo gritted his teeth before pressing his hand against his chest as the heartache from before now flared up in his chest.
Now that his exile had turned real—along with all the consequences of it that he had hoped to originally avoid—how could he expect Meimei to follow him?
But the world didn't stop to give Theo time to solve this question. Instead, the guards finally pulled away from the black box, revealing its surprisingly simple content.
Three deflated sacks made from visibly low-quality leather.
Pittance. A charitable offering on the level of what one would share with a random traveler in need encountered on the path. An act depicting the severing of a relationship so final there wasn't even any room left for negative feelings.
As the guards carried the bags towards the prince, the royal mage had already started to spin up the space in the back of the hall, preparing a teleportation portal for the inevitable next and last step of Theo's ceremony.
"Take this offering and leave my lands," the king, now fully back in his serious and composed mode, spoke, "for you are no longer welcome in the lands blessed by the divine creator."
"GET LOST!"
"SCRAM!"
"SCREW OFF!"
The uniform chant from before now split into a dozen or so different ways in which everyone tried to chase their former prince away.
In front of Theo, the guards threw the sacks directly at his feet before turning around without sparing him another glance.
Just like one would toss a coin to a beggar on a street, more to get him to shut up than to actually help the poor man out.
"This pittance…" Theo's voice broke as he intentionally starved himself for air before opening his mouth, "I accept it." He leaned down and picked up the three sacks before pressing them against his chest.
Normally, he was supposed to turn around and walk the length of the hall before diving into the portal conjured at its end. But with Meimei hanging at his arm, Theo couldn't exactly do so.
"I'm afraid this is where we part ways," he whispered, refusing to let this intimate last moment with his lifelong partner become a public spectacle like every other moment of this ceremony.
For one last time, Theo stared into those deep, light-brown eyes that he always found solace in. The eyes that he knew best in the whole world.
"GET THE…"
"SILENCE!"
Finally, the king roared from his throne, his fist slamming into the armrest.
"He willingly accepted his fate!" his words slithered out of his mouth, finally revealing just how much he was holding back not to let his emotions get the better of him in the moment when he needed to act as a king rather than a father. "The least we can do is let them say their farewells!"
Finally, no rude idiots would interfere, allowing Theo to turn his attention right back to the girl.
Meimei, however, lowered her head, making it impossible for him to look into her eyes.
"Hey…" Refusing to let go, Theo reached out, attempting to gently get a hold of her chin to raise her face. Yet the very moment his fingers found their target, Meimei looked up all on her own.
There was no grief, no sadness, or anxiety on her face.
Almost as if their lifelong relationship up until this point was never something she actually cared enough for to feel any emotions over its conclusion.
And strangely enough, this thought gave Theo some peace.
"I'm sorry this ended up this way," he spoke as softly as he could, ready to close his eyes and turn away to walk off into his exile.
"What the hell are you talking about, you moron?"
There was no anger, sadness, or anxiety on Meimei's face. Just like there was no hesitation or doubt in her eyes.
"Huh?"
Just like when the divine descended to mess up his plans, Theo stood frozen in place.
He thought he understood what was going on in the girl's head. He even accepted the fact that their lifelong relationship could've been just a ruse—an act not unheard of, given the rewards a woman would get for becoming a dynasty member's consort.
But now?
Now, Theo stood confused, his brain racing to figure out just what the hell was going on.
Without a word of explanation, Meimei reached out and grabbed Theo by his shirt above his collarbone. Then, without any mercy or pardon or a word of explanation, she dragged him across the hall in the stunned silence of all the many observers.
And then, without even the slightest bit of ceremony, she tossed him into the portal that the court magus had just finished conjuring.
'Huh?'
Only further confused, Theo felt his insides spin as the reality around him warped.
Then, the insides of the ceremonial palace around him vanished like a shadowy mirage, dispelling like a cloud of mist scattered by a gust of wind, only to reveal an open, desolate land instead.
"Huh?"
Thump.
Theo's back struck the hard, solid ground, the process of teleportation costing him his spatial awareness and ultimately throwing him completely off balance.
Yet, even as he lay sprawled on the ground, with the sun only beginning to rise out in the distance, he still couldn't shake off his confusion.
"What the hell just happened?" he muttered to himself as he took the first breath in the world beyond the ancient walls of the royal capital.
And surprisingly, the sense of struggle from before had now vanished, the light felt comfortably thinner, and the overwhelming sense of weakness from before had lifted.
Yet, rather than a clue, it only served to confuse Theo even further as his breath started to accelerate to match his heightened heartbeat.
For a planner like Theo, this sense of confusion was too much. And while it only existed on a mental plane, it was strong enough to cause his insides to twist and his stomach to revolt.
Yet, right as Theo was about to rapidly spin around to point his mouth towards the ground so that he could avoid retching all over his own face, the space above him started to spin and twist…
Only for Meimei to suddenly materialize above him!
Contrary to how Theo himself fell, Meimei managed to control her own sense of directionality, falling not on the ground like the former prince, but landing on all fours directly above him.
And then, she uttered just one terrible sentence.
"Did you really think you were going to leave me behind, you damn moron?!"