Chapter 28: Chapter 14: War?
"I want my engagement annulled." I stared at him with determination.
Honestly, Prince Kyle was one of Emilia's main love interests and I was not keen in being in the middle of the relationship. There was a large chance I would be exiled or worse, killed.
"Annulled? Do you not like Prince Kyle?" Father stroked his chin, "I'll respect your wishes. However, this is the royal family we are talking about. Unless you marry another royal family with more power than them or achieve a great accomplishment and gather many powerful allies, it will be difficult to annul your engagement."
Haha… Don't underestimate me!
***
I leaned my head against the wall.
Doom…
I hit my head the wall a couple more times.
What accomplishment was I supposed to achieve?! And how was I supposed to gather powerful allies? I had just insulted some high-status girls at the Christmas ball…
"Hey Rei!" I stepped down the stairs quickly, going downstairs to talk with Rei.
"Yeah?" Rei stopped walking, holding stacks of documents in his arms.
"Those look really heavy… Is this child labour?!" I gasped, reaching for some, "Give me some."
Rei attempted to pull the papers away "No wait-"
"Haha, too late." I grabbed half of the pile, "Anyway, I'm going to try to annul my engagement."
"WHAT-"
"Anyway." I quickly interrupted him before he could scold me, "What accomplishments do you think I need to do to annul the engagement?"
"I don't understand why you're doing this…" Rei sighed in defeat, "But, I can think of a few. Just meet me up in the library after I finish talking to the kitchen chef about what ingredients he needs."
"I'll be in your care!" I grinned, rustling his auburn hair, much to his annoyance.
***
"Many times, in history, there were quite a lot of people who annulled their engagement with royalty by accomplishing a feat." Rei polished his glasses, reading a history book. "For example, some became known as a selfless and kind person and got a huge number of commoners on her side. Commoners caused trouble all over the country to prevent the girl from marrying the tyrant king."
Hmm…
That sounded effective; however, I did not have a personality like the heroine. It would be tiring for me to pretend to be sweet and caring to everyone I met.
"Probably not." I shrugged.
"Okay then." Rei flipped to the next page, "You could be a war tactician or strategist and gain the army's power as allies."
I had levelled up my 'intelligence' skill level with gold and this job seemed inviting enough.
However,
"I can't become a war tactician or strategist if there's no war." I smiled wryly, "And honestly, no one wants a war to happen right?"
"I'm predicting a war with another country will happen soon. But you're too young to partake in the war." Rei nodded, looking outside towards the window, "How about… a knight? You'll probably get a lot of discrimination but…"
"That's a good idea!" I grinned, clapping my hands together, "Thanks!"
"Haaaah…" Rei sighed.
***
"CHRISTMAS BANQUET!" Easton came rushing downstairs where the rest of us were waiting, "FOOOOOD!"
"…This guy only ever thinks of food…" Rei sighed, putting on a thick scarf.
"Wear your jacket." I handed Easton his coat, "It's snowing heavily."
"Yes sir!" Easton saluted me as I tackled the coat on him.
"Be good and don't cause any trouble." Luke playfully hit Easton on the back of his head.
"If you freeze yourself to death, it's not my problem." I smiled tightly, lifting my fist up threateningly as Easton attempted to take off his jacket.
"Let's go." Luke grinned, putting on thick, woollen gloves.
***
"There's a food!" Easton sniffed the air with gleaming eyes, "Let's go! I want to get the cotton candy first!"
"Look there's free candy!" I rushed towards a stall with Easton.
Out of the corner of the eye I saw celeste blue hair going behind a building. The only person I knew who that hair colour could have been would be the heroine.
"Wait! Ditch the plan and let's go this way!" I pointed to where I saw the blue hair.
"What about the candy?!" Easton exclaimed, following me as I ran in that direction
"WHY WOULD WE MISS THE CHANCE TO GET CANDY?!" I roared with indignation, "Just grab them as we pass by!"
Easton gasped in shock, his lilac eyes widening,
"That's ingenious!" Easton clapped vigorously.
As we darted pass the candy stand, I grabbed some sweets and Easton threw the money on the stall.
"Where are we going?" Easton peered at me while sprinting at the same time.
"If you see a girl with blue hair, notify me immediately." I nodded as we rounded the corner.
We followed a singular path twisting and turning around builders until,
"…A dead end?" Easton inspected the tall, stone wall looming in front of us.
"She must have entered a building." I shrugged, "Let's head back."
As we trudged back, I noticed Easton dragging his feet, behind me.
"What's the matter?" I paused, turning around to look at Easton.
"I'm just imagining all the options of how Luke will kill me for letting you run off." Easton stared into the distance with dead eyes with a faint smile.
***
"Prepare for your death." Rei smirked as Easton nervously backed into a corner.
"It's not my fault!" Easton whined, "Why are you attacking me?"
"Young Master gave me the orders to discipline you for not being a responsible older brother." Rei smirked as he cracked his knuckles.
"But I'm your Young Master as well!" Easton hollered as he ran away into the distance with Rei trailing after him.
"I heard from Rei that you wish to become a knight to break your engagement with Prince Kyle." Luke mentioned nonchalantly, smiling at me.
"Are you going to interfere?" I asked cautiously.
"I don't understand why you're choosing to do this; however, I will respect your wishes." Luke grinned, "Whatever you do even if you chase the most ridiculous dreams, I'll always be backing you."
"Haha, you're going to make me cry." I averted my eyes started t walk off, "Let's go towards the sword tournament and watch it."
"…This hurts…" Easton dragged his feet towards us, his eyes as dull as stones… if stones could bruise.
***
(NEXT DAY)
"This is frustrating." Luke stared into the distance with dead eyes, "I can feel wrinkles forming on my face already."
We all sat on a table in the library, all of us attempting to teach Easton 'Ancient Language'.
"I feel you…" I lay slumped against the wooden table, "My soul… I can feel it fading away…"
"Ahahahaha! I don't need to learn any Ancient Language!" Easton puffed up his chest, "Look on the bright side, guys!"
"Aren't you frustrated, Rei?" I turned my head to look at him.
"I don't give any hope for idiots." Rei replied calmly, continuing to read a book he had picked up earlier. "The higher your expectations grow with an idiot like him, you'll just end up falling even harder."
"Why are you even studying like this in the first place?" I yawned, turned to the next page.
I only met an uncomfortable silence.
"… In a few months, your father is admitting us to an all-boys private school." Rei answered nonchalantly, "We'll be gone until we return to enter the Noble Academy."
"You too, Rei?" questioned, slowly closing my book.
"I have to be refined enough to serve you." Rei pout his book back on the shelf.
"I'll be one year higher than Luke and Rei." Easton yawned loudly, leaning back in his chair, "But I need to catch up with my year level knowledge."
To be honest, I had already expected this, after all, it had briefly mentioned it in the otome game.
"But I have more important news to announce." Rei stated gravely, "Our country, is going to war."
"What?!" Luke blurted out, turned to face Rei, "But's there's been no announcement!"
"Not yet." Rei agreed, "But I figured out that soon, the Royal Family will declare we will be going to war very soon. But based on my inspection, I have noticed that our country isn't very likely to win this war. So, I recommend we all focus on our fight skills and improving them."
"We should visit the poorer people and supply them with rations to last throughout the war." Luke mumbled, "Maybe some blankets too���"
"We should make friends with the enemy!" Easton cheered, "Then there will be no war!"
"Sure, like being 'friends' will go swimmingly." Rei sighed sarcastically, picking up another book.
"Do you think we could use candy as peace-offerings?!" Easton hummed cheerfully.
***
(?)
When the four of us were in the library, I noticed something strange. Ivory didn't seem too shocked that we were going to the All-boys academy. Did someone tell her beforehand? I doubted that was possible. Strange…
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