I stepped around the two girls, quietly thanking them for their earlier actions as I did, and gently tugged on the princess's arm to get her attention.
"He's not worth it, Princess."
"But he—"
I shook my head—"You're making a scene."
She looked around at the numerous people gathered around whispering, gossiping, and gawking at the two of them. Her eyes dropped to the ground and I noticed her shrinking in on herself.
"Thank you for protecting me... Kami."
...
"What did you just call me?"
"Princess, I said princess."
"No, you said Kami."
"Hey,"
"I did not."
"You did!"
"Did not."
"Hey!"
"Did too!"
"Stop ignoring me!" Lukas yelled.
...
"You're still here?"
I watched as his face grew even redder and I imagined steam coming out of his ears... Kind of like a teapot.
"I'm gonna kill you, pig!"
You can certainly try.
"Oh no, I'm shaking in my boots."
"Richard, Micah!"
Things one and two stepped around Lukas and approached me with what I can only assume was meant to be intimidating looks on their faces.
The princess made to step in front of me, but I held out my arm and stopped her.
"Don't cause a scene, princess."
"You've already caused a scene, you idiot!"
"Well, yeah... But I'm a boy so—" I slammed my forehead into the larger of the two's nose as he reached for me. I felt his nose give way to my forehead and he stumbled away with a cry of pain and blood running over his mouth and down his chin.
He may have been a goon, but he was still a ten or eleven-year-old boy, so I didn't really want to hurt him. Which is why I didn't take advantage of the situation and press the attack while I had the chance. In fact, I still hadn't moved from my place in front of the princess.
"I'm expected to get into trouble every now and then." I finished while staring into the eyes of the shorter goon.
"Besides... I've got some annoyance to work through."
The shorter goon looked from his crying/bleeding friend to his 'boss', to me, then back to his boss.
"Don't just stand there, you idiot! Get him!"
The goon looked back at me with renewed determination in his eyes and came at me slightly faster than the other kid. It was still insanely slow compared to Gabriel's stupidly fast attacks, but not bad for a kid.
I tilted my head back as he swung at me and allowed his fist to pass inches in front of my face. Then I opened my hand, put my fingers together, and slapped him across the face as hard as I could.
His head whipped to one side and the bright red hand-print on his cheek was a stark contrast to his pale skin and stood out nicely.
He looked at me with unshed tears in his eyes and cupped his cheek with one hand.
"Want me to hit you again?"
He shook his head no.
"Then you should probably pick up your friend there and leave me alone."
He quickly nodded his head in agreement. He half-stumbled/ran over to thing one and helped him to stand, then the two grabbed Lukas by his arms and practically dragged him away kicking and almost foaming at the mouth in anger.
That boy has some serious issues to work through...
I turned around to see the princess and her two friends staring at me through wide eyes.
"What?"
"What was that?"
"What was... What?"
"That. What was that!?"
"I'm not following."
The princess opened her mouth, most likely to yell at me, but Shana pulled her arm and guided her away from me before she could. Meanwhile, Carla patted me on my shoulder with a half-smile on her face and said— "You were very brave."
"Um... Thanks?"
"You're welcome!"
She turned on her heel and proceeded to skip after Shana and the princess.
...
Even after all these years and two lives... Girls are still so weird.
...
I could probably go home now and they wouldn't notice.
"Get a move on, Aren! You're carrying our stuff for us!"
Or not.
I sighed tiredly and jogged to catch up to them. No sense in giving the princess even more reason to yell at me, after all...
* * *
Chapter 10: The night before departure
* * *
I stepped to the side to allow the group of servants carrying a massive twenty-foot long wooden table down the hallway, and not for the first time today, I felt myself sigh tiredly. The Emperor decided to throw a last-minute feast, inviting all the nobles and the children that were leaving to board the train to the imperial academy tomorrow morning at eight.
Publicly, this was so the princess could meet the kids who would be her classmates for the foreseeable future and to make some friends in the process... In reality, this was to give her an opportunity to network and 'mingle' with future commanders, ambassadors, and head of houses before they boarded the train and alliances were formed. If she didn't pull ahead now, then the empire could lose them to our ally the Tileas kingdom, who also sent their nobles to the imperial academy.
Tileas may have the largest militaries on the known continent, but Ziral's mages were vastly superior in both power and knowledge. Which tended to even out the playing field, if not push it in our favor... Most of the time. However, in the last few years, it was decided that Tileas could send their nobles to train at our academy so long as they continued to reinforce our numbers in the seemingly eternal conflict with the Sukon mountains at our rear. Most accepted the offer, though some didn't. And as the emperor said, "I'd rather have their future leaders close so I can keep an eye on them and know their abilities, rather than hidden in the shadows like a dagger waiting to be plunged into my back."
...
The emperor was a paranoid man.
However, none of that was the true reason I was sighing... No... I was sighing because my parents had decided to see me off. I guess after not seeing me for two months, they remembered they actually had a son.
...
I'm not bitter, nope, not one bit.
I stepped into my room, locking the door behind me as I did. And proceeded to strip off my 'work' clothes, which consisted of a filthy white T-shirt, loose black trousers, and a pair of thin black shoes, so I could take a bath in the next room and try to become 'presentable' to the nobles and my parents.
I thought it was a wasted effort, but the princess, and by extension the emperor, insisted on it so I had to at least try.
...
The key word there is 'try', by the way... I never specified how much effort I would put into succeeding.
I stepped out of the oversized steel tub, wrapped the fluffy white towel around my waist, then left the steam filled bathroom.
I heard the knob on my door start to wiggle as I walked over to my wardrobe to select my outfit for such a special occasion.
"Who is it?"
"It's us, son."
A chill raced down my spine and butterflies filled my stomach as I stared at the door in shock. I barely noticed the towel come undone and pool around my feet, causing me to nearly trip over it as I raced to the wardrobe.
"Well, are you going to let us in?"
"J-Just a minute!"
I grabbed a pair of loose underwear from the bottom drawer and practically jumped into them, then I grabbed the pressed black slacks Lucian had left for me in the topmost drawer, before finishing the outfit with a pressed buttoned-down long sleeve shirt that I didn't bother tucking in as I walked to the door and opened it.
My parents stood side by side, looking much the same as they did the last time I saw them... Except for one difference... rather, one big difference.
My mother's stomach was noticeably rounder, her skin was sl
ightly paler, and my father had his arm wrapped protectively around her waist.
My mother... is pregnant. And from what I can guess just from a glance, she is in her second trimester at least. So, this wasn't a new thing for either of them.
...
I guess they'd already decided to replace Aren before I ever arrived.
"Father, Mother, it’s nice to see you!" I said in what I hoped to be an appropriately enthusiastic tone of voice.
My mother glanced down at my waist, presumably at my still untucked and half-buttoned shirt, and tutted at me.
"That's no way for a young man to answer a door, Dear. What if the princess was here with us, would you have shown her such a state?" She asked as I stepped aside to let them in.
"Since the last time you were here I was thrown into her bed wearing nothing but my pants... Probably."
I noticed my father's face turn slightly pale after I'd spoken... Well, paler than usual. And my mother's head slowly turned to look at him.
"What is he talking about, dear?"
My father coughed into his hand— "Never mind that. I've heard a rumor that you can use magic now, is that correct?"
I glanced between my mom's rather annoyed expression and my father's eyes that stared directly at me without moving.
Oh ho, this asshole didn't tell her.
I felt my nervousness slightly fall away and a half-smile crept onto my face.
I went through the motions with the ease of someone who's done it tens of thousands of times, which I probably have at this point, and my gate opened the expected five seconds later. I wanted to smile at my accomplishment, as I'd finally gotten the cast time to my desired five seconds, but I withheld it. From what I remembered from the anime the average cast time for arcanists was two or three seconds, while Masato could use multiple spells in the same amount of time.
I was still only half as fast as the average arcanist and that simply wasn't good enough.
Mother's eyes widened and Father cupped his chin with his left hand as he stared at the gate. He silently walked counter-clockwise around the gate while he inspected it from every angle he could.
"Bring out one of your summons."
"Which one—"
"Doesn't matter. Just bring one out."
I frowned in annoyance at his tone but did what he asked.
"Come." I intoned while picturing what I wanted in my head.
A scant few seconds later a large, blackish-blue ghoul leaped out of the portal on the side opposite my parents and came to heel at my side.
My mother cradled her stomach protectively but didn't otherwise move in the presence of the horrifying beast. My father, on the other hand, looked the ghoul up and down for a moment.
"Why the odd color?" he asked in a confused tone.
"It's a clone."
His eyes widened briefly before they narrowed.
"How many do you have?"
...
"Answer the question."
...
"Twenty-five."
My father stared at me in complete silence for several moments, the anger in his eyes made me want to take a step back... But I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
"You have another summons, yes? How many times did you clone it?"
"Thirteen times."
"No side-effects?"
"None that I can feel."
Even if I were feeling side-effects, I doubt I would tell you.
He slowly nodded his head.
"I'll see you at the party." He stated as he stepped around me and shut the door behind him on the way out.
I felt two soft hands cup my cheeks and my mother turned my head away from the door to face her. She had a tired smile on her face, and she pulled me into a warm hug.
"We're proud of you."
...
"It doesn't feel that way."
She tilted my head back so I could look at her and she kissed my forehead.
"But we are. Your father just has a tough time showing it."
"Yeah, the two months I've spent here told me just how proud of me you are." I said sarcastically.
"I wanted to come back sooner, but Ulfric is a bit... Paranoid about me right now." She giggled, "He barely lets me leave the house anymore. He says it's 'too dangerous in my condition."
"Because you're pregnant?"
She narrowed her eyes at me.
...
Crap... I forgot I was supposed to be twelve-years-old. I probably wasn't supposed to understand what that means for a few more years.
"The Emperor mentioned wanting to get another one of his wives pregnant, so he explained it to me when I asked what it meant." I said without batting an eye.
Hey, if I had to suffer through the night, I wasn't going to make my last night here easy on him. Let him deal with 'mama bear' for a few hours.
"Is that so?~" She replied with an honestly creepy smile on her face. "You should finish getting ready, dear. The party can't start without you." She patted me on the head and waddled out of the room.
I breathed a sigh of relief at finally being alone and finished getting dressed by pulling on black-silk socks and dark leather shoes. I properly buttoned my shirt, leaving only the top three undone, then pulled on my dark purple vest which I left open.
I checked myself out in the mirror and grinned at the lack of a double chin on my reflection. I wasn't sure exactly how much weight I'd lost, because neither my stomach nor my hips had gotten any smaller, but it was obvious that I had lost weight.
I'll take what I can get.
I had a feeling I'd never be the 'hot' or the 'skinny' guy in the room, my chest and hips were too wide for that, but it was a start.
I noticed the ghoul blankly staring at me in the mirror, so I turned to look at it and mentally gave the order to enter the gate and return to its room. It promptly responded to my order and I shut the gate behind it.
An odd thing I noticed about the clones and this was the reason only one ghoul came out in the first place. Is each clone gets its own 'room' inside the gate. I suppose this was to prevent them from tearing each other to pieces or possibly breeding in the case of the imps, but it was causing the gate to fill up at a rapid pace, so I needed to take steps to fix it before things got out of hand.
...
Which is why I shoved all the imps into a humongous room that I'd created by merging three floors together, and gave them the order to multiply as fast as possible. What started out as ten imps had grown to thirteen in just a few days without any extra mana from me, so I've been able to focus solely on creating ghouls. This also had the effect of reducing the number of rooms occupied by imps because they were all birthed or 'spawned' inside the room I'd set for them.
Once again, I was thankful they didn't need to eat, sleep, or poop. Otherwise, I'd be in deep shit... Literally.
I left my room following that horrible joke and made my way downstairs to the main ballroom. The designated setting for tonight's festivities.
I morosely sighed as I stepped off the final stair.
I nodded to the two guards standing at attention in front of the double doors leading to the ballroom, they nodded back with wide grins on their faces and the guard on the left side of the door pushed it open for me.
The door opened to a massive fifteen-thousand square-foot and four stories tall ballroom. The walls had been decorated with the banners of the various noble houses in attendance tonight, the marble floor was polished to a mirror shine, the massive candelabra hanging from the ceiling sparkled like diamonds... Of which it was encrusted with about seven-hundred of them, and hundreds of people danced and mingled to the sound of a small orchestra playing on a stage at the far-right side of the room.
The emperor and his three wives could be seen at the forefront of the room laughing with a group of what I assumed to be nobles.
"Took you long enough."
I looked to my right to see the princess leaning against the wall beside the door. Her hai
r was pulled into a bun behind her head with what looked like chopsticks shoved through it, she wore a red silk dress with a gold lioness embroidered into the fabric around her waist, and three white roses were laced into a cloth bracelet she wore around her left wrist.
"Yeah, well, your home is too big. I keep getting lost."
Her left eyebrow lifted in what I assumed to be amusement— "Is that why you're always late?"
No, I'm always late because I try my best to avoid running into you.
It's awkward enough being trapped in the body of a puberty-stricken boy as it is. Throw in a pretty girl who, for some reason, has decided to take it upon herself to become your 'friend' and you get a cocktail of hormones I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy... Except for Masato, screw that guy and his pretty boy looks.
"Could be."
"Maybe we should have a map drawn up for you?"
"That would certainly help."
Preferably one that shows your location at all times, so I know which rooms to avoid.
The two of us continued to chat as we walked through the crowd to the large buffet table at the far-left side of the room. The tables weren't the same ones I'd seen earlier, those were probably in the courtyard somewhere, but they were very similar in length. The two tables were both manned by three servants each and they would allow you to pick what you'd like to eat and drink. Then, they would have the chefs make it fresh for you while you sat at one of the nearby roundtables.
...
Once again, the emperor was a paranoid man. The 'order then prepare' method was supposedly meant to keep people from poisoning people and ruining the party. Which, I supposed, was actually a good idea considering the looks I've seen people giving the emperor, his wives, Kami, and... Me, oddly enough.
The princess and I ordered what we wanted, then walked to a table about thirty feet away and sat down. I made sure to pull her chair out for her, as was my habit, then I sat down a few chairs away.
Her perfume wasn't making this easy on my hormone riddled body.
The two of us continued to talk until Shana and Carla showed up and the three of them ran off to find their other friends, while I finished my meal.
"Oi, pig, didn't you know animals aren't supposed to eat at the table?" A snide voice said from just behind me.
I'm the Bad Guy Page 7