After leaving the dining room you found yourself in a garden, you had sat down with your face still horribly red from embarrassment. You grumbled under your breath and couldn't decide if you were embarrassed by your outburst or their insults. You gripped the grass under your hand tightly and from the corner of your eye, you noticed the white magic circle forming under it. 

You gasped and quickly removed your hand, 'I can't let myself get out of control again...' You thought to yourself as tears filled your eyes, 'I...' 

"Y/N-nee!"

Hearing the voice you wiped your eyes and stood up from the garden. You looked in surprise to see Kouha running around looking for you, "Kouha?" You called out, walking out towards him. 

He smiled when he found you and walked towards you, "Y/N-nee, I'm really sorry about Judar. He's always like that," he explained, keeping it short as if not wanting to talk about it anymore. 

You shook your head, "don't worry about it. I wanted to get some fresh air anyway," you said sweetly, taking a seat down on a stone bench near you. 

Kouha nodded and took a seat next to you. From the corner of your eye, you noticed him eyeing your hair as if itching to run his hands through it. You stifled a giggle and took the hair stick from your hair letting the rest of it trail down your shoulders, "do you want to play with my hair?" You asked. 

To your delight, his eyes lit up and he immediately began to run his fingers through your hair and braid it. You hummed at the feelings of him playing with your hair, you had to admit it felt nice. It almost made you forget the problems you were having from before... Almost.

"Kouha... Where is... Kouen?" You asked timidly while you twiddled your fingers.

He perked up at your question, "he actually left the room too, just after you did. You must've been walking pretty fast cause I'm sure he's still looking for you," he said while starting on random braids in your hair.

Your face began to warm up again, it wasn't embarrassment this time. "Oh..." You said softly, "okay..."

Kouha chuckled under his breath and continued doing your hair. He wasn't going to lie, at first, he hadn't liked the idea of you, but maybe now he might warm up to you just a bit. After a while of braiding different parts of your hair, Kouha looked glanced at the hair stick in your hands. 

Curiosity got the best of him, so he asked about it. "Hey, Y/N-nee, where'd you get the hair stick from?" He asked, assuming it may have been from a past relationship or maybe from a relative. 

You shook your head to release yourself from the trance of Kouha's fingers running through your hair. "Oh, I got this as a gift from Kouen. I know it seems like nothing and it's tradition to give your betrothed gift, but this is the one I loved the most," you explained with a fond smile. 

Kouha nodded and furrowed his brows as the hair stick seemed familiar to him, kind of like a warm feeling erupting in his chest. He shook off the feeling as quickly as it came and stopped playing your hair. You glanced back at him, "are you done already?" You asked.

He nodded. Kouha had braided your hair similar to a half ponytail except there were braids meeting at the middle tied with a ribbon he had with him. You reached to the back of your head to feel it and smiled, you were sure it was beautiful. "Thank you, Kouha," you said while giving him a smile.

Kouha tried hiding the blush on his cheeks and grumbled a small, "no problem." 

You giggled at his antics and soon heard footsteps coming towards you two. "That's probably, En-nii," Kouha deduced before getting off the bench, "I'll see you again soon Y/N-nee."

You nodded and stood up along with him. Before leaving towards Kouen's direction you laid a hand on Kouha's head and gave it a gentle rub, "I hope you so," you responded before walking away. 

As you left Kouha touched the spot where your hand was and blushed even more than before. There was something so familiar about your warmth that he couldn't pinpoint, but he decided to figure it out later. 

*~*~*

Meanwhile, you held your head down as you Kouen stood in front of you. The whole gravity of the situation soon weighed down on your shoulders like a ton of bricks, you were sure there might be some punishment for disrespecting the Empress in such a manner. 

"I'm guessing that my outburst wasn't taken very lightly by the Empress. Am I wrong?" You asked, still slightly timid around him. 

Kouen only stared down at you before letting out a sigh, "I wouldn't know, I left before I could see their full reactions. I've been looking for you ever since then," he explained. 

You let out a small breath you were holding in and giggled lightly, "I may just have to apologize won't I?" You asked, finally looking up at him. 

Kouen shook his head, "don't worry about that, I'll take care of it if anything comes up regarding the situation," he said while glancing towards your hair along with all the braids adorning it, "I'm guessing Kouha was just doing your hair."

You nodded with a smile, "I think your siblings are starting to like me," you said with a giggle. 

He cracked a small smile, "I can tell. Kouha doesn't braid many people's hair especially when it comes to leaving braids in their bangs," he said, placing a hand where the braids were. 

You reached up to your hair and brushed against them, "did he? I hadn't realized he put some there too." You smiled, "how cute."

Kouen went back to the matter at hand and placed a hand on the back of your head. You looked up at him confused until you felt your face being buried in his chest, you felt your face heat up and you hesitantly wrapped your arms around his waist. 

"I apologize for the way the Empress and the Priest were behaving," he whispered near your ear. You shook your head as if to say it wasn't his fault. Kouen pressed a kiss to your head and tightened his hold, but not enough for you to notice. 

Soon enough he let go and gazed down your face. As he did, he got a better look at you. Like the way your e/c eyes shined and how soft your pink lips looked with the gloss the maids had put on them. He also noticed the scar you had over your eye and ran his thumb over causing you to close your eye. Kouen took this as an opportunity to press a small kiss to the scar. You were sure blush was more severe at this point. 

You pulled away and coughed into your sleeve causing Kouen to chuckle at your shyness. You grew slightly defensive, "w-what?" You asked. 

He shook his head with a small smile, "nothing, I just hadn't noticed the scar running over your eye."

You placed a hand on it, "I had gotten this from the fight your Emporer had set up against the dungeon monster. I won, but not before taking a souvenir to remember him by."

Kouen took a small step towards you, "I had heard you fought valiantly and with a swordplay unlike anyone had ever seen. They said you looked like a true warrior," he said, remembering the words from his brother's and household vessels. 

You smiled, "did they really think so?" You asked. 

He nodded, "I am quite curious to see your skill though," he said. 

You rose a brow, "oh? Are you suggesting a battle between the two of us?" You asked. 

"Just a friendly duel if you prefer."

You nodded, "alright, I accept. May the best swordsman win."

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A/N: Alright that's it for this chapter~! Hope you all liked it~!

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A/N: Just Kidding~!

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"Ow!" 

You sighed while you brought the wooden sword back under your arm. "Kougyoku, pay attention to your stance. It's off," you instructed while nudging her foot with the wooden sword. Kougyoku glanced down at her stance and grumbled under her breath. 

"You need this to become second nature when you're on the battlefield or in a duel. When you're either of those settings your opponent isn't going to give you time to check," you explained while circling her, "it doesn't always have to be perfectly on point but it does help to get it done perfectly the first try when practicing."

Kougoyku nodded to you as she tried looking down at her feet along with her hands to silently critique herself. As she did you smiled at her as she seemed to be taking it more seriously than before. While you gazed at her you felt something creepily staring at the back of your head, when you turned you found the very vain of your existence at the moment. Judar, who had learned was the Kou Empire's priest, was staring at the two of you with a small smirk. 

"What do you want, Magi?" You asked, "can't you see Kougyoku needs to focus?" 

Judar only chuckled, "with that look on her face I'd say she's doing more than concentrating," he commented causing Kougyoku to blush in embarrassment. 

You gripped the necklace containing one of your djinn, Raum, and slammed your foot on the ground causing a small rock to come up from the ground to knock Judar off his staff. He yelped in surprise and fell off causing Kougyoku to giggle along with you. Judar only glared at you before quickly leaving. 

Once he left Kougyoku looked at you with slight confusion, "Y/N, how did you that?" She asked. 

You smiled, "my djinn, Raum, he is one of Earth. A great help on the battlefield that is true, but with great power like this you have to be careful if not... Who knows who may get hurt," you said, gazing down at your necklace with a slight void look in your eyes. 

You quickly brushed it off and sent Kougyoku another quick smile, "anyway, that's it for today. Rest up and we will continue tomorrow." 

Kougoyku nodded and quickly left, probably relieved to finally get that bath she had thinking about ever since she felt herself begin to sweat through her dress. You were soon beginning to think the same thing and went off to find Kazue to help you with your bath. As you walked through the castle halls you felt someone nudge your shoulder, you'd usually think of this as an accident that was until you caught a look at the glare on the person's face.

You rose a brow, curious on who it might be, based on the fancy robes she had adorned herself with along with the headdress she wore. She was obviously someone who was wealthy, not to mention based on the way she glared at you she didn't seem to like you. You only rolled your eyes and thought nothing of it, only thinking of the nice warm bath waiting for you. 

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A/N: So, that's that! But just who is that Mystery woman? Where does Kouha recognize that hair stick from? Why does our reader look so emotionless while gazing at her djinn? How will our friendly duel between Kouen and the reader go? Why am I asking you all these questions?

Find out next time~!