WHO MADE ME A PRINCE
chapter sixty eight - feeling blue.

HIS COUSIN, ARIUS'S FACE IS CONCERNED. But that worry went away when Lucas suddenly popped up in front of Arius, causing Arius to flinch backwards.

"What's gotten you looking so glum?" He asked as he sat beside Arius on the couch.

Arius sighed again and leaned on the couch, closing his eyes.

"Where's Athy?"

"In the garden."

Arius opened his eyes and gave Lucas a confused expression.

"What's she doing there?"

"Oh well, long story short, she wanted to use magic."

Arius was mentally exhausted for some reason so he let out another sigh and spoke in a whisper, "Elaborate."

And with one word Lucas began explaining in such an exaggeration and self praising himself, but after a ten minute long story, Arius could place the pieces together and concluded the following :

The two of them decided to spy on Arius's meeting with the Villareals but Athanasia decided she would be the one to cast the teleportation and invisibility spell.

Lucas and Athanasia argued about it for the first few minutes but Lucas ended up complying because Athanasia said something (Lucas didn't mention what she said).

And so after trying for twenty minutes they successfully transported! to the forest.

Afterwards Lucas decides to teleport them back to Emerald Palace, but Athanasia being stubborn Athanasia, she insists she be the one.

And so they've been practicing magic in the forest since then. And Lucas just got tired from her stubbornness and teleported back.

"Don't worry though, she'll get tired eventually and come inside." Lucas assured him.

Arius groaned in exhaustion, "Lucas, I think we both know Athy has unstable mana, what if something happens again?"

"It's stable right now."

"How do you know?"

"I just came from her side."

"But do you know she's okay right now?"

Lucas groaned in annoyance as well. "Can you stop being such a doting and overthinking brother?" He stood up and shouted at Arius.

"What are you even-"

"If you're sooo worried about her, go check on her yourself. I don't get why you don't trust my skills."

Slam!

Athanasia entered the study room.

"See!" Lucas shouted as he pointed his hand towards Athanasia.

"See what? Oh, Brother you're back! "

"I wasn't talking to you idiot." Lucas muttered.

Arius let out another sigh. "Hey Athy. "

"How did your meeting go? " Athanasia asked cheerily as she sat beside Arius.

"Well from the looks of it, it went bad."

"Why? What happened brother?"

Arius gave out a deep sigh. "It went well, I had a fun time."

"Then why do you look so . . . so right now?" Athanasia asked.

"What do you mean?" Arius asked.

Athanasia and Lucas shared a glance and the two of them then looked at Arius with a similar stare.

Arius placed his arm over his face as he leaned his neck on the couch.

"I really did have fun with them. I just feel a bit tired right now, I remembered some. . . bad stuff." His voice got lower and lower as he spoke.

Bad stuff.

Memories from his past life. He hated his parents, they were trash. But he also remembered the time when they were angels to him. They'd go for family outings and he'd be holding hands with the two of them.

All the fun times he had with them. With his mother especially. The time when she would tell him stories before bed, give him a goodnight kiss, hug him so tightly, he felt safe.

What made them treat him like they did? When did the abuse begin? Arius couldn't remember. And he didn't want to open those memories either. It would only make him sadder.

"Hey, do you wanna talk about it?" Athanasia asked as she placed a hand on his shoulder. She had a face of shame for some reason.

"Or take a nap?" Lucas asked as he too sat beside him.

". . .No, I think I. . ."

He felt strange. Sleep wouldn't solve sadness and he was afraid he might have dreams of his previous life. How could he improve his mood right now?

Arius thought of the list of things that made him happy.

Sweets. . .Shiro. . . and . . .

"Ah."

Lucas and Athanasia jolted forward to hear what he said next.

"I. . . I'm gonna go see dad!" Arius spoke with energy as he almost jumped up from the couch.

"Wait What–"

". . ."

And with that Arius ran out, leaving a speechless Lucas and a confused Athanasia.

ARIUS RUN TOWARDS CLAUDE'S OFFICE.

"Dad!" Arius entered Claude's office without knocking and saw Felix and Claude discussing something.

"Your Highness." Felix bowed in greeting.

"Arius, what brings you here?"

"Morning Felix, I just missed you dad." Arius smiled as he ran up to Claude's seat.

Claude picked him and placed him on his lap. "What were the two of you discussing?" Arius asked as he observed the papers on Claude's desk.

"Well, your highness, you're old enough to learn swordsmanship. . . so we were discussing whether to wait further or start your training." Felix told him.

"I wanna learn it!"

"That settles it. Prepare everything for his training, starting tomorrow morning." Claude declared as he leaned on the back of the seat.

Felix bowed and soon left the office.

Claude picked Arius up again and placed him on his lap opposite to the table, so they could face each other.

Arius hugged Claude, wrapping his arms around Claude's neck.

"Okay, what happened?" Claude asked as he too, placed his arms around Arius.

"Dad, I love you. And I'm so glad you're my dad. You're the best dad, do you know that?" Arius gripped tighter.

". . . Are you sick?"

"Oh geez!" Arius pulled back from the hug. "What's wrong with being honest for once?"

"Arius," Claude placed a hand on his forehead. "you're burning up."

"What?" Arius checked his forehead. "Are you sure you're hands aren't cold? It is November. "

Claude stared at his hands for a while. Arius stared too, before touching his hands and saying, "Woah, they're actually cold. A nice kind of cold though. "

Arius brought Claude's hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. "Wow, this actually feels really nice."

Claude suddenly stood up, Arius in his arms. "Wa- Dad! You should warn me before you do that."

Claude ignored him and headed out of his office. Arius squirmed in his grasp.

"Y'know, I'm old enough to be walking on my own." He struggled to break free of Claude's grasp.

"Under normal circumstances, yes. But you have a fever right now."

"No I don't?"

Claude stopped in his footsteps and stared at Arius. "Fine then."

Arius stepped down on the marble floor.

"So where are you going?"

"Join me for a walk."

"To?"

"Emerald Palace."