Chapter 12
3511words
“Well, I’ll be damned…” Minerva thought to herself, as she stood next to the bed watching the adorable pair of father and daughter snoozing without a care in the world. “You actually managed to do it.”
Astaria looked as if she were in pure bliss, gripping the shirt of her father’s pyjamas tightly, her relaxed face pressed into his chest.
But you’d think Cadel was in even more bliss. Both his arms wrapped around her tiny body, the blanket only covering Astaria, but Cadel’s huge figure is still able to provide enough warmth to the both of them anyway.
She couldn’t separate those two even if she tried with all her might. However, as much as it pained her to wake Cadel up, she had to do it.
But before doing that, she stood there for a few minutes, basking in her adorable, unstrained daughter’s face. She wished she had a camera to capture the moment and hang it up on the wall of their royal bedroom.
Then she proceeded to raise her hand and pointed her index finger towards Cadel’s neck, she conjured a cold, concentrated gust of wind and sent it his way.
She also cast a shield spell in front of Astaria’s sleeping face, making sure she was protected from the gust and to not be caught in the crossfire.
When the spell reached him, it grazed his neck, but he did not react–not one bit. He’s always been a heavy sleeper after all, which irritated her quite a bit.
She cast an additional spell; this time, however, it was more concentrated and even more powerful. Alongside it, she poured more of her magic in the shielded spell and cast another one around Cadel’s mouth and neck to silence his groan or yawn so as not to wake Astaria from her deep slumber when he woke up.
The cold, concentrated gust reached him once more, scraping his neck again and compressing it lightly.
After all that effort, his lazy eyes began to slowly open. The first thing he noticed was, of course, his daughter latched onto him. He smiled with warmth at her as he brought her closer and kissed her on the forehead.
Then he noticed the woman standing beside the bed, arms crossed and with a bothered expression.
“Come on, get up!” she mouthed at him, as she made a wave towards herself.
He looked at her as if she were insane; who’d be crazy enough to leave his place and intentionally abandon such comfort?!
“I can’t!!!” he mouthed back while gently pointing at his daughter. Her grip on him was quite strong and deep, so just a simple movement would most likely wake her up.
Minerva sighed at his weak-willed reaction, but she couldn’t say she didn't understand him…
“We need to talk!” she mouthed back while pointing with her thumb towards the exit, her back to the open bedroom door.
Cadel didn’t respond; he only returned his gaze to his sleeping child, whom he stared at solemnly. He caressed her hair, brushing it away to get a good look at her beautiful face. Her mouth was slightly open, giving out soft breaths.
Using his hand, he gently closed her mouth shut and lightly rubbed her cheek with the palm of his hand.
Meanwhile, Minerva stood there furious, not out of impatience, but extreme jealousy that she wasn’t the one currently in his position, one she’d kill for.
Oh, what she’d give to be in his place.
After enjoying the feel of his daughter’s soft skin on his hand, Cadel hardened his resolve, steeled his nerves, and gently began unclasping Astaria’s strong grip from his shirt. Pain was incredibly evident on his face, but it was an ordeal he had to face, nonetheless.
With small movements and tender unfastening of her hand, he dangled one foot off the bed, getting ready to escape. But unfortunately, to his worst nightmares, Astaria groaned in her sleep and gripped even harder on his shirt.
Cadel stopped abruptly, looked away, and closed his eyelids violently while biting on his lips.
Minerva couldn’t handle the severely difficult sight unfolding as she immediately covered her face using both her hands and used her inner voice to scream loudly.
The man looked onto his wife–helplessely–for any type of assistance, but she just stood there instead, offering zero aid.
Breathing in and out, he prepped up the same exact escape sequence. He once again began easing her grippy fingers away from the folds of his shirt and surprisingly this time, it was effective.
He dangled his other foot off the bed, stood up, and looked at his daughter’s sleeping face one last time before slowly walking away towards the exit so as to not make any sudden noise.
Before he made it to the door, Minerva swiftly cast a silencing spell on both the door and the empty food platter on the floor. Then she conjured a wind spell under and around it to lift it off the ground.
She had a happy, proud smile as she looked at the empty platter, not even a crumb on it, almost like Astaria licked it clean off.
With the food platter secured, Cadel opened the now-silenced door and walked out with Minerva right behind him, and the platter floating near her.
The couple finally made their way out of their daughter’s room after that whole ordeal, and they sighed in relief right after closing the door.
“Minerva, what the hel–” But before he could complete his sentence, she slammed her palm on his mouth, immediately hushing him.
“Shhhhhh!!!” placing her index finger flat on her mouth, she proceeded to look in Astaria’s general direction and sighed out of relief. “The silence spell was just dispelled. If you have anything to say, just be patient!” she spoke in a whisper.
Cadel nodded his head but didn’t utter another word for obvious reasons.
She removed her hand and they continued walking away from their daughter’s room. And once they were far enough…
“What the hell was that for?! You just had to wake me up, didn’t you? I couldn’t have felt more content with my situation!!” Cadel burst out, incredibly frustrated.
“We just needed to have a little… conversation, that's all.” She responded calmly as she formed a shield around the food platter, cast a water spell in the shield with it, and manipulated the water to wash everything thoroughly.
“Oh? ‘A little conversation’, you say?” Cadel replied with a sly smile. “Is that the tone of jealousy I'm hearing?”
“That's not–” Minerva clenched her hand tightly into a fist, the water wave in the shield getting more intense. “I am not jealous, Cadel. Just a bit curious on how you did it.”
“Well, I did it no thanks to yesterday's encouragement from you.” He said as he pulled the rod out of his hair bun which surprisingly still held up, albeit looking thinner.
“Are you going to keep acting childish or will you answer me?” She said, in a huff.
“Haha, alright alright.” He pocketed the rod in his pyjama pants. “So, I arrived at her bedroom door and…” Cadel retold the entire event, unfolding it in detail, as if recounting a battle, for his wife's enjoyment.
He mentioned the first few minutes where his heart was pumping uncontrollably, like he was in a life or death situation. He talked about his hesitation to even knock on her door and let the ball start rolling, because the moment he knocked and woke her up, there'd be no turning back.
He wanted to shove the door open and rush to her to make sure she's safe, but he ultimately decided against it.
“Smart decision.” His wife praised.
Her bedroom door was closed, yet, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, he could hear her heartbeat alongside her soft sniffles.
Cadel spoke of his great courage by opening his heart to his own daughter and spilling out his feelings and thoughts, hoping it’d inspire her to become braver and open hers to take action as well.
And by the end, Astaria got over her intense fear and opened the door to her father, where he then heard all her worries and concerns and assured her that it was all okay and that nobody’s disappointed in her.
“So, in the end, all that occupied her mind was the destruction of the library and wondering whether she made others think less of her…” Minerva said right after Cadel was done retelling the events. “Why does she have such deep thoughts at the young age of nine? That cannot be healthy.”
“Nine is the prime age for an individual to start changing, even if that change seems to be for the worse. Hell, I wielded my first weapon at nine.”
“Don’t impose your Trahho culture on our daughter, she will be wielding no weapons at a single digit age.”
“And you’re letting her cast spells, why? Imposing Sterran culture on her, doesn’t seem like you're upholding your own rules.”
“Astaria already possesses three rings at such an extremely young age, that is unprecedented!! Most mages don’t even have three rings at the age of twenty. She MUST learn how magic works and how to make it her own by controlling it, the type of power she can display in the future would make or break history.”
“Anything but a normal life, huh…”
Minerva softly sighed before responding.
“You already know what type of lives we’ve led, Cadel. Astaria will have to make a tough choice for her own future… and for her own good.”
“I just wish we could’ve avoided this outcome if possible.”
“I know.” She says as the water currents are still sloshing in the barrier. “You should be glad this chaos is over. We can finally go back to our ordinary days without hectic incidents. Back to being the mature Emperor and Empress of Fluorin.”
“Heh, leave it up to you to be glad about returning back to a dull, professional life.”
By the time they were done talking, they’d already arrived at their royal bedroom. Minerva opened the door and headed in first with the food platter still being washed and Cadel right behind her.
The door closed and he gave his body a good stretch before standing right behind his wife.
“What’re you going to do with that?” He looked at the shielded platter, puzzled.
“I’ll take it with me to the kitchen, what else would I do with it?”
“Right, naturally.”
Silence filled the room as Minerva stood in front of the body mirror, fixing her hair and tidying up her clothes.
She left in a hurry in the morning to check up on her daughter and husband, meaning she had no time to probe for any folds or creases.
He looked at her back intently as she fixed herself, his eyes once again compressing into a slit.
“Don’t you think I deserve…” Cadel extended his arm and groped his wife’s ass and hugged her tightly from behind smelling her hair in the process. “A little reward?”
Minerva gave him a wide smile before patting his crotch gently with her left hand. “Keep that big boy in your pants until the evening, then you’ll receive an adequate reward.” She said seductively as she turned around and held his chin between her fingers.
She couldn’t really deny him a good reward, especially after not only proving her wrong, but also bringing their daughter out of the depressive episode she was going through.
“For now I need to head out and start disciplining the trainees. This will be one long session…”
Cadel holding back his sexual desires let go of his wife.
“Don’t forget to not go too hard on them, or else that might upset Astaria.”
“I know, I know, I’m aware. Also, don’t you have something to tend to? Something along the lines of an academy, perhaps?”
“Nah, I’ve sent a short note letting the administration know that I might be absent for the foreseeable future. I’ll return to the academy when I’m absolutely certain that Astaria’s mental state is more than stable.”
“Very well then.” She said while fluffing out her beautiful midnight purple hair. “So, what’ll you be doing in the meantime?”
“Not sure, I haven’t really planned that far ahead yet. I guess I’ll go around the first and second floor, making sure everything is in line, especially with the workers.”
“Alright, you do that. I’ll be at the training ground in case you need anything.” Minerva finally finished tidying herself up and got ready to head out and walked towards the exit. “Oh and, give Astaria this floor to roam around freely. No guards or workers, understand?”
“Yes, ma’am. Understood.” Cadel gave a salute.
“Perfect.” she replied with a smile.
She opened the door but before leaving, she turned back, facing Cadel.
“Oh, and Cadel.” She called out, with a warm smile.
“Thank you for saving her, and sorry for doubting you. You did great.”
“Took you long enough, but it’s better late than never, I suppose.” He answered with a victorious smile. “You should have never doubted me to begin with, honey.”
“Of course.” She waved with her fingers at him and walked out of the royal bedroom, leaving Cadel alone as he basked in his own glory.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
–27th of Munro, 101 CE, ?? AM–
“Haa…” I stretch my body a bit right after waking up. The sunlight phasing into my room through the curtains hitting my closed eyes and bringing me back to reality.
Remembering yesterday’s night, my mind immediately sobered up and I started feeling around with my hands without opening my sleepy, lazy eyes.
What I felt was only the soft, smooth fabric of the bed and the light blanket covering my body, and not the steel surface, hard-as-rock body of that man who consoled me yesterday.
The man who consoled me…
My eyes opened up narrowly to see myself alone in bed–he left just the same way she left me last time too. But, I can’t judge him too harshly, he’s an emperor after all, surely he’s got too many responsibilities to tend to…
My mind began flipping through the events of yesterday like a cassette tape, and I started being reminded–in gross, embarrassing detail–of everything that occurred last night.
I take the pillow from the back of my head and I drive my face into it, screaming loudly into it.
Urgh… that was so incredibly humiliating!
Bawling my eyes out like that and blabbering on and on about these things that hurt the man who supposedly cares for me!
But I have to admit… It did feel kinda nice. It feels like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
There’s still some baggage over what happened in the library but I guess being the emperor gives him the ability to renovate the library whenever he wants to.
And he said he’d be able to replace the books. I'm unsure how he could possibly reach out to the writers and request a personal version for the royal library but I’ll just have to trust his judgement for now, even if it might be incredibly expensive…
Groaning, I take the pillow off my head, throw it on the other end of the bed and roughly run my fingers through my hair and shuffle it around in frustration.
The good thing about having white hair is: people could never guess if it’s natural or from extreme stress.
Why even white? Neither of them have white hair, their ages don’t count as they’re like… a hundred years old. Still haven’t been able to move past that.
I should stop fucking around and start the damn day already. What time is it even?
Lazily, I turn over to my side where the bedside table where the clock is. I gently touch it and the current time flashes. 10:34 AM.
Today marks the second or third day since my arrival to this world and I haven’t done much except cause chaos and cast a world-ending spell.
My mind suddenly flashes to the dream I had yesterday. Myself approaching me and forcing me to act and move on from my weakness. “Make yourself proud.” Yeah, I really should.
This is going to be a long day…
After a very short reminiscent moment, I lift my body off the bed and stretch my arms upwards. I look around me and think about what to do first.
When I’m done figuring it out, I get up from the bed, slide my feet into the fluffy slippers, and walk towards the window where I pull the curtains to the side, letting some of the light in. Some natural light is good for the soul.
Then, while I’m there, I pull one of the drawers open and I take the page of star stickers with me to the calendar that was still hung up on the wall.
The last star was on the 26th, which–I think–was the day I arrived on… I spent a night with my new mom, the 26th, and marking today which is the night I spent with my new dad, the 27th.
Did I actually arrive on the 26th? I believe it was the 25th since I’ve already spent two nights. And since the 26th is marked, then I believe that mom must’ve stuck a sticker on the calendar before leaving.
Anyway, I took it off the wall, stuck a star on the now time-accurate calendar, and with a smile, I hung the calendar back where it was.
I push my chest forward, feeling accomplished and proud of myself right after I place the sticker page where I found it.
It’s the finer things in life, really.
Haa… what to do now. So many things to do, so little time.
I turn around and squint my eyes towards the bedroom door, checking for any presence. Thankfully, I neither hear nor see anything.
As much as yesterday was some nice… development, I still want to process things as much as I can. Even if it was just for an hour more.
I’m really hoping they kept their word and chose to not do anything harsh to Rosaline…
My hands wander around my clothing and I realize that–once again–I’m in pyjamas.
I’m not sure how I feel about having my clothes changed without me realizing, but I guess it should be fine.
This sense of deja vu, however, is something I am most definitely not into.
My eyes take a quick glance at the dressing table and then to the wardrobe.
Should I change my clothes? I’m really not feeling it right now.
It doesn’t take me much thinking for me to decide on just staying with my current choice of clothing, my comfy pyjamas.
And who could possibly critique me for doing that? Rosaline? Pfft, she isn’t here right now, is she?
Still… hopefully she’ll be back soon.
I should at least brush my hair, though.
Once again, deja vu.
With my eyes being fixed once more on the door, I start walking towards the dressing table. I grab one of the hairbrushes on the table and look straight at the mirror, at myself.
Fluffing my hair outwards using my hands before passing the teeth of the brush through it.
Look at you, even though it almost felt like you just went through a war, you remain adorable as always.
Change is a lengthy process, and all it required was a start.
It seems like you already took the first step. You couldn’t be more proud of yourself, could you?
Was it too sudden? Too quick? Did you need more time to figure out your emotions? I believe so too.
However, there’s no need to go through this alone. There are people out there, who if you called out to, would undoubtedly rush to your aid.
Don’t feel too bad about yourself. Bolting into action only due to desperation is a recipe for chaos and disorder.
Let’s take things slow, step by step, and then everything will be okay.
So, let’s be patient until then, alright? Leave everything up to time.
It’ll come, sooner than later, just make sure to keep your heart open to it, okay?
Okay. Yeah.
I placed the brush back on the dressing table before I gave out a light sigh.
After that, I looked straight at myself and gave a soft smile.
Everything will be just fine.
Anyway, it’s time for me to start the day properly.
Get out of my room, wash up, and have a nice meal if I dare.
I give myself one last look in the mirror before getting up and tucking the chair in.
My eyes are fixed once more on the door confirming that there’s still no one there.
With an inhale and exhale, I walk over to it and get ready to go out.
Let’s face the music again.
