Chapter 15: Ch 15. A little later…
"You've matured a lot these past four years Gali, I'm impressed. I see you've even given up your sleeping mask." Having just recently returned to the capital Fuegoleon catches up with his younger brother over tea at the vermillion estate.
"I didn't need it anymore."
"You getting engaged was rather unexpected. I thought with your temper, you'd be the last of us to get married."
"Believe me, marriage was not in my plans, especially not so soon. Willing to bet it was some political scheme pops cooked up."
"And to Lumiette Kira-Clover no less, now you're in line to be kin-"
"Let stop you right there Fuego, I haven't changed that much. If a Vermillion sits on the throne it'll still be you. Your competition is going to be fierce though. My rival has his eyes on it, and I don't see too many even holding to a candle to him."
"You think a child is my biggest competitor for the throne."
"He's as strong as me, but motivated…that sounds like someone to watch in my book. Haven't you heard what he's done with Hodge village?"
"I heard it's thriving."
"Very much so, some say as much as the capital. He's a real leader."
Fuegoleon can only nod his head, his little brother was as lazy as ever. No that wouldn't be fair, the adventurer's guild he put together was very well done. "You've quit the running for both wizard king and king?"
"Pretty much, fighting bad guys and finding treasure is really all I wanted to do."
"How do you have time for that as the guild master?"
"That's what employees are for. All I gotta do is approve this, appear there and the rest works itself out."
"I thought I heard that charming voice in here." Lumiette peeps into the doorway, seeing Galileo she comes kisses him on the cheek and sits next to him. She takes his fork and eats the last strawberry on his cake. "Good morning Gali."
Fuegoleon watches curiously, everyone knew touching Gali's food was a grave offence. How would the new and improved Galileo handle this?
"Morning Lumiette, hope you slept well. You know my my big brother Fuegoleon." Much to Fuegoleon's surprise he was completely unbothered. "Fuego, this is my fiancé Lumiette Kira Clover."
"It is a pleasure to meet you Fuegoleon."
"The pleasure is all mine. I hope my brother hasn't been too hard to deal with."
"Unfortunately, I did find out firsthand why he's called the tiny terror, he used to make me cry all the time. He had a way with coming up with the most hurtful words."
"(How can you sell me out with such a happy expression?) Hey used to, used to!" Galileo can feel daggers from his brother's cold glare. "I was opposed to the wedding originally."
"Yes, but then you eventually came around. Ever since that night, you've been absolutely wonderful."
Fuegoleon nearly spat out his tea, but he manages to keep it down. "Wait, what happened that night?"
"Oh he was so gentle as he held me…" She blushes innocently while holding her face as she is reimagining the incident "…It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before."
This time Galileo actually spat his tea out "Don't say it like that! That's how-" He's suddenly snatched up by the collar of his shirt.
"Galileo you little dog! You are way too young to even be thinking about something like that!"
"Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding! Lumiette! Finish your thoughts!"
"Hmmm? Right! I'm sorry, Galileo fendeded off magic beasts to save me, and he confessed his true feelings for me…what did you think we…" Her face goes an even deeper shade of red as she realizes where their heads were. "Oh my! Is anyone else getting hot in here? I think it's getting hot! I need some air!" She rushes out in a flustered panic, fanning herself furiously.
The two brothers just stare at each other dumbfounded before they burst into laughter. "Hahahaha, my fault Gali." He set Galileo down and smoothed out his clothes. "I jumped to a BIG conclusion."
"Bwahahaha! Don't worry about it bro. She has a bad habit of getting lost in her fantasies like that."
"Seems like a nice girl though."
"She is. A little extra, but she grows on you. Doesn't hurt that she's stupid rich either."
"Shameless…" Galileo only smiles back casually "but tell me about this romantic confession of yours that has her swooning."
"She always does that too, and I wasn't all that romantic. Honestly I was just cleaning up my own mess…again. It was two years ago, a little after my birthday. Leopold, Yuno, and I had gone deep into the wilderness to hunt magic beasts for training (I really wanted to test my new mazoku powers). Lumiette has another habit of popping up wherever I am, so I guess she decided to follow us…."
"Where are all the magic beasts? We've been out here for hours!" Galileo is the first to complain about the uneventful expedition. The sun had begun to set, not that it mattered since they were so deep into the forest that the heights of canopy almost completely blotted the sunlight out. Through the use of haki and magic sense it was easy to tell there were living creatures in the area but the signatures felt too weak to be bothered with.
"You're probably scaring them off. You are more like a monster than person at this point, anyways." Yuno teases him, "and it's not like magic beasts strong enough to challenge you are common to begin with."
"Hahaha! We can always go back, I'm sure wifey has been waiting for your 'triumphant return'." Leopold adds jokingly.
"She can wait a little longer, we got a hunt to finish."
"Poor Lumiette must be forever lonely with a fiancé like you."
"Shut it Yuno."
"(Déjà vu...)"
"What is your deal with her anyways Gali? She's kind, thoughtful, and supportive not to mention very refined. Huh, that's everything you're not. Maybe she could rub off on you."
"That was so funny I forgot to laugh. No one's going to tell me who I gotta marry. It's as simple as that Leo."
"Yet you're engaged to someone you didn't choose, funny how that works. I wonder if Lumiette even knows the wedding is off?"
"She will. I'm just waiting for the right time to tell her."
"Can't hurt to wait a few years. It's not like she's head over heels in love with you or anything, despite all the hurtful things you say and do."
"You two runts going somewhere with this?" Galileo is starting to get annoyed with the tag team interrogation. "It's not my fault she won't leave."
"Make it clear or get on board with the marriage. It's not fitting of my teacher and unfair to Lumiette." Yuno states it plainly as he walks past Galileo, the little bit of playfulness in his earlier jokes is now gone.
"Blunt, but pretty much Gali. The way you're acting is a waste of a lot of people's time. We could spend the time you use running from Lumiette for more training or on that guild of yours, she could chase someone who actually wants her, and our family wouldn't have to waste so much extra effort to look extra good for her family. What is it bro, you worried about what dad is going to say?"
"Why would I be worried anything pops has to say, what's he going to do spank me? Ground me? I think we all know that's not happening. I'm just trying to save that dumbass king of ours some face by not flat out dumping his daughter. Nothing more nothing less."
"Sooo…you're scared of the king?"
"You wanna get beat don't you? I don't get scared, and if I did, I still wouldn't have a sliver of fear for a useless dump lump of flesh and jewelry like him."
"So then what's the hold-up." At this point Leopold had continued prodding as Galileo usually doesn't share his real feelings often. Maybe if he got just a little more worked up, he'd say what was really on his mind. "If you're not scared of the consequences, why even go along this far?"
"Look, man she's a nice girl and all but no one is going to tell me how to live my life. I'm especially not going to be cornered into some bullshit wedding with someone I don't even know. It's just some dumb political move by some old geezers. How do they even know if I like blondes? No one knows cuz no one fucking asked me! Then if I break things off I'm the bad guy and the king will be mad. I'm not taking any punishments behind it. If I'm not getting punished, you think I'll let a hair on any of my family's head be touched by that chump? Then once he's gone who's running what's left of the kingdom? Not me for sure. I'll give him that much at least he knew how to keep clover orderly, though it may be a stretch to even sa- " A ball of light magic smashes into his face, right in his mouth to be exact. "The hell was that?" He scans his surroundings for the foolish soul that wants to die first. To their surprise it was Lumiette, eyes full of rage, with a smoking palm outstretched towards Galileo.
"What are you doing out here?" Yuno was the only one not stupefied enough to ask.
"When I found out you guys were going to train in the forest I thought I'd surprise you with a nutritious lunch…" her expression softens a bit picturing Galileo's unrealistic expression of gratitude and fawning over her, quickly hardens again when she goes to speak "but then I got lost. When I finally found you, I heard you talking about me so I decided to listen. What do I learn about you? Nothing aside from how much contempt you have for my father. You can say what you want about me, but DO NOT insult my family! I knew you weren't capable of very many nice words, but you're just a malicious, lazy, spoiled, selfish…brat!"
"Hahaha she nailed you to the cross Gali!" Murderous stares from both Galileo and Lumiette immediately end Leo's laughter. "My bad I'll be quiet."
"When I was told the tiny terror would be my future husband I wasn't upset in the slightest, I was elated. I thought I was betrothed to a domineering young dragon, who would one day stand above all others and become the greatest king Clover has ever had. Apparently, I was wrong, I got forced into a wedding that was doomed to fail before it even began. My father didn't ask if I liked redheads! He definitely didn't ask if I liked whiney punks who can't even be honest with a little girl! Why would a CHUMP like YOU even think you're even worthy of having the chance of being king? You don't have to worry about waiting for the right time to break up with me. This is goodbye" tears start welling as she turns to leave. "I'll make something up to tell my father, so you won't have to deal with me ever again."
"Wait Lumiette I-"
"Goodbye Galileo!" Just like that the boys watch her disappear into the darkness.
"Pretty smooth." Yuno says casually.
"I don't see either of you getting out of this forest in one piece. Let's find the damn magic beast." Galileo trudges off in the opposite direction, looking nowhere near as happy as he should have been to be rid of Lumiette.
"So you're not going after her? This area is pretty dangerous for her to be alone." Leopold hustles up next to Galileo.
"Not my girl, not my problem. Besides doesn't she have guards or something watching from the shadows."
"Maybe, but still we're pretty far in what if a really strong beast does show up?"
"We'll kill it. Now come on!"
Elsewhere in the forest Lumiette wanders all alone. Now no light reaches the forest floor, so she holds up a small ball of light magic to illuminate her path. "Everything in this darned forest looks the same. Ooh I'm hopelessly lost again. It seems I've wandered even deeper into the forest, I can't even see how high up these trees go anymore. Stupid Galileo…you're such a jerk. So much for our romantic evening *sighs* I suppose I don't need this anymore." She tosses her picnic basket off to the side and it lands by a large glossy jade green boulder. "Oh, what's this?" The stone sparkles as if the entire night's sky was engraved on it's green surface. "My, what a pretty stone. It would be nice if I could bring this home."
Much to her surprise the boulder pops up and reveals itself to be a three horned jade beetle the size of a mastiff. The beat of its solid heavy wings was enough to knock Lumiette off of her feet. It rotates mid-air to show razor sharp mandibles and teeth inside. Hooked on one of its mandibles was the magic knights robe of a member of her personal guard. Did this thing kill them? No way, they were all incredibly capable knights handpicked by her father himself. If that was the case how could she stop it? The beetle launches itself at her "Kyaaaa!" She panics and blindly fires a full power blast of magic smashing the bug into a tree and it writhes in pain before dying. "Wha? Did I just? If it was really that easy how could such a weak creature possibly-" She's cut off by the sound of buzzing from above. Three more beetles descend from the dark heights with ground cracking horn thrusts. Lumiette dives to the side barely dodging them and runs away. The buzzing continues as now more than ten are chasing her. "How many of these creatures are there!?" She runs and blindly rapid fires killing a few but more quickly replace them. "I'm not a snack! STAY AWAY!" She fires a full powered blast that sweeps the a few away and rises high into the canopy. To her terror up in the trees were thousands of these beetles illuminated by her blast, buzzing to life. "I hate bugs..." countless beetles dive down where she's standing and she braces herself for the end.
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