I shouldn't have married the Crown Prince

Chapter 26

All the school was talking about Andrew for a few days and I immediately went to Gilbert, worried:

"Are you okay?

-You are so cute for worrying about me sweety. I'm great and you?

-I heard the rumors.

-About Andrew?

-Yes... I hope this won't turn against you."

Gilbert shrugged.

"Andrew said he would take care of it and no one bothered me since then. He can be quite useful.

"I'm relieved. And... Is he okay?"

Gilbert laughed.

"I thought you didn't like him.

-I don't... But having people harassing you isn't nice...

-You are adorable, darling. I'm sure he's fine."

I was relieved to see that Gilbert was fine. He was right, I didn't like Andrew but no one deserved to be bullied and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I was eating in the cafeteria with Cadmael, Diana and Alphonse but wasn't really paying attention to the conversation. Suddenly I heard my name and woke up:

"Yes?"

Diana frowned:

"Are you okay? Do you feel dizzy? You haven't eaten anything."

Cadmael checked my forehead for a fever :

"Do you want to drink water?"

I was overwhelmed by all this attention and shook my head:

"I'm fine.

-Are you sure?

-Yes. I was just thinking about what happened recently.

-Are you talking about Andrew and the rumors?

-Yes."

Cadmael frowned.

"I don't understand why people are so mean to him... I know he isn't a nice person and I don't like him but he doesn't deserve to be bullied."

Diana smiled:

"You really are just like the protagonist."

I shook my head:

"I'm just worried. He must feel really bad with everyone talking about him. Can't we be friends with him. Until it gets better at least."

No one seemed to really like the idea which made me even sadder.

"Is it that bad to like men? Why can't everyone like who they want to? We are not in his body. Why would his feelings affect us? As long as he doesn't kill the ones he loves or torture them, I don't care."

Diana smiled softly:

"We don't care about that. But he did behave horribly in the past, especially towards Gilbert. Gilbert is your friend. Do you really want to be friends with him? I agree that the rumors are too much and I want to help with the bullying but don't want to be friends with him. That's too much."

Diana did in fact stop her friends and all her class from spreading rumors. She did way more than me and I was here winning. I suddenly felt bad. I should start by stopping the rumors. It started quickly because as soon as I arrived in class I heard people talking about Andrew. I went up to them and called them:

"What did Andrew do to you for you to talk about him?"

All of the class went silent and looked at me. I was the son of the Duke so they had to watch their tongues in front of me. They always stuck to me to get to be my friends and it was the first time that I went to them myself. Everyone was shocked.

"Andrew loves a man. What's the problem?"

One of the classmates on my left didn't even dare look in my eyes but still managed to say:

"Men can't fall in love, it's unnatural.

-Who told you that?"

He didn't answer.

"If it really was unnatural it wouldn't happen. But it does."

I was really angry. How could they think like that? I hated humans so much.

"I find you all pitiful. You can't help making fun of everyone's differences but what does it get you? Do you get richer? Do you get smarter? Do you feel better? Are you feeling better with your insecurities if you concentrate on things that you don't like on others? You should start by looking at yourselfs because none of you has what it takes to criticize others. And no, being gay isn't unatural. It isn't a fault that has to be fixed. People are born straight or gay and there is nothing you can do about it. He isn't in love with you so why are you getting worked up? Are you maybe jealous? Usually it's people who are secretly gay that are the most homophobic. You don't have to be ashamed. I won't make fun of you. In reality, I hate Andrew. I think he is a horrible human being but I don't care that he is gay. I care that he hurt my friend and that's all. If he had been a good person I would have been friends with him, him being straight or gay. But I can't stand back and watch you make fun of him for the wrong reasons. No, sorry. You shouldn't make fun of anyone but especially not for being gay."

I almost didn't breathe during my speech. I was so worked up that I wanted to scream.

"How could you find every little reason to hate the others? It doesn't get you anything. Humans started hating each other for the stupidest things: the color of their skin, their beliefs... And now you are hating people for something we all share? Love? What is next? Are you going to hate people who breathe? Get some common sense!"

I suddenly realized that I had been screaming and covered my mouth. I had never been this angry. I turned to Cadmael embarrassed. For a second I saw him glancing at the boys behind me but he quickly smiled at me softly. No one dared to say anything and the silence started to make me uncomfortable.

"The Duke's son supports gay people. I hope you don't forget this."

I got back to my seat and Cadmael waited for me to sit down and even for the teacher to arrive before he went to his seat. I didn't really think that I would be of some help. I was just really angry and didn't know what I was saying. However, my speech had a big impact and half of the students complimented me for speaking up while some of them thought I was as weird as Andrew for defending him. There were even rumors that I was gay but for some reason everything died out rather quickly. I didn't know why and guessed maybe it was because they heard I had a fiancé.

Andrew got slowly forgotten by the others and he started hanging out with new friends instead of the ones who abandoned him when they heard about the rumors. Everything went back to normal for a few days and I couldn't wait for the next event in the novel. Cadmael had finally fallen for Diana thus I was sure it was going to be great. While waiting for the event, I stayed a lot in the library with Cadmael exchanging about our tastes in books. I was very surprised to see that Cadmael really liked thrillers and violent stories. It wasn't my favorite genre so I didn't read a lot of them but I liked listening to him tell me about it.

Therefore, Cadmael read all the books that I didn't have the courage to read and told me about them. At the same time he read all my favorite books and read me his thoughts while listening to my opinion. I really liked these moments spent with him and recommended him thousands of books. I got overly excited and so did Cadmael because he spent all his days reading when he wasn't with me.

The only two times we weren't together were during class and his sparring training. During class he read and didn't listen to the teacher at all. This drove them crazy however they couldn't say anything because Cadmael somehow managed to get perfect scores anyway. Therefore I didn't have any objection either and let him read, curious about his opinion. I started looking at him a lot during class and found it hard to focus sometimes but still managed to stay head of class.

During his training he couldn't read and he wanted to miss a few training sessions but I didn't let him. He finally agreed to stay when I told him I would watch him. He seemed really happy and couldn't stop looking at me while sparring with Alphonse. This made it seem really effortless for him and attracted his other classmates' admiration. When he looked at me I waved just like I would for a child and as I was watching him I heard someone sit next to me. When I turned my head I saw Gilbert. He smiled and pointed with his chin to Cadmael:

"Are you rooting for your little foal?"

I smiled.

"He really wanted me to watch him train.

-I can understand. It is always more interesting to flex in front of your master. I have to say, I would never want to be his opponent. Especially when you are watching."

As Gilbert was talking, Cadmael saw that I wasn't paying complete attention to him and he started exerting more and more violence against Alphonse who didn't seem steady. This made Gilbert laugh:

"The poor guy will soon faint if this goes on more."

Now that Gilbert was talking about how strong Cadmael was I had an idea: Diana needed to see this. She would be amazed and maybe would like him back!

"You are a genius!"

I jumped in Gilbert's arms and he smiled:

"I know."

Suddenly we heard a loud noise from the training grounds.