Taking her place

Drink to remember

The day looks peaceful as the breeze passes through my hair and the flowers blooming begin to dance at the event happening before my eyes.

“Today is a special day for many of us.” The speaker says as he stands with a black robe in front of all of us. He extends his hands as he looks at the sky. “today we teachers lose some special students, students lose some formidable opponents and some students finally go into the world of adulthood with great pride on their backs as they should!”

The graduates stand in the front wearing all white as everyone else wears black.

We wear black because we'll miss our brothers and sisters as today is, their last day in the academy. They wear white because they will finally be considered adults and today is their first day as one. As if these teenagers finally hit a reset in their lives and became babies in the society of adulthood. Today is their day.

Lenna and the guy who fought with her stand next to each other in the front as they are the first ones to receive the promise of a sword for their adulthood.

Everyone stares at them with excitement and anticipation as they imagine themselves in their place. After all, that is why we are all here.

To receive the ability to hold a sword as protectors of land and sea.

By the time everyone has been given the promise of the sword they release us. “let this be a learning moment for the rest of you!” the man in front speaks as he looks at the crowd. “you will all get your chance if you work hard enough! This will be you in a couple of years! May your path never lead you astray!”

“your sister never fails to pull eyes towards her.” Mike says as he looks at the front. “its moments like these that I realize that you two are sisters.”

I begin to walk away as everyone walks rapidly towards the graduates, surrounding Lenna as she smiles widely at everyone.

There are people crying for her, laughing with her and handing her gifts.

“are you going to leave just like that? Not even congratulating her?” he asks as he walks behind me.

“same to you.” I say as I continue to walk undisturbed.

“I'm trying to stop you.” He says as he stops. “I know you have better things to do but have you thought about how important today is for her?”

I stop as the wind blows through my hair and then I look back at him who looks miserable.

‘its probably because of that.’

His ex-lover.

It was the day when he graduated that Mike never saw him again.

I guess Mike was too preoccupied with what his family was telling him to do in order to win the position of Duke that he completely ignored the fact that his lover had a special day during that time and he currently regrets it.

Afterall after that day, he disappeared.

I sigh as I look at his dull expression. ‘today isn’t a good day for him.’

“ill be seeing her at home, there’s no need for you to worry about those kinds of things. Mother and I will celebrate her tomorrow. We have something special set up for that, so shell be fine.” I walk towards mike as he looks down at the floor. “how about a drink? Shall we celebrate for her since it looks like it’ll be a while before she can celebrate at all.”

We both look behind us.

Lenna is surrounded, even the professors have begun to surround her as they all try to hand her flowers. At one-point actual knights from our family begin to hold the gifts for her as she smiles at everyone and begins to say her thanks.

Mike and I had a few drinks as we sat in the corner of the pub just talking. After about five drinks Mike began to cry.

“you know, I thought we were going to grow old together. Even if my parents did not approve, I didn’t care. He had it good you know! Cause I'm a gentleman.” He drinks more as I look around us.

‘f**k me.’

Everyone is staring at us as he makes a fuss at our table with his liquor at hand. ‘I should have just gone home.’

I drink more as I try to forget that I'm even here, to begin with, and he begins to laugh. “fine, starting today I'm going to forget him! He no longer means anything to me! I'm going to find a nice lady and get married to her, I mean who wouldn’t want to marry a duke.” He stops laughing as he lowers down his gaze “who am I kidding?” he pushes his liquor away as he leans back on his chair. “I still love him. I still want him; I want to find him.” He begins to cry.

‘f**k, if you act like that, I’ll start to feel guilty…’

“I think its time for you to go home.” I signal to a waiter “please get me the check and get this man’s carriage.”

He continues to cry silently as he looks at his hands. “I just don’t understand.”

I grab one of his hands as I pull him up and make him lean on my shoulders.

Once we are in front of his carriage his driver begins to help me with Mike's weight. “I have this may lady, I apologize for our master. He's never like this.”

He helps Mike get inside of the carriage as he is about to close the door mike pops out of the carriage and grabs my wrist so hard to the point that I want to cry.

“you have to help me find him! Please!”

I stare at him in shock as the sensation becomes worse before I put my hand on his. “don’t worry, Im on your side remember.” He stares at me as tears come out again.

“you promise?”

“of course,” I slowly push him back to his carriage and make him sit. “you’ll see him again, I promise.”

I sigh as I feel my shoulders get heavy from how tired I am.

The night is calm and the breeze is still cool.

The only difference between tonight is the fireflies in the distance.

The moonlight helps guide me inside of the mansion as I walk around silently, listening to the breeze as I remember the pain in my wrist, but I try to ignore it.

‘I guess, I kind of deserve it.’

There’s a pain in my chest as I remember his tears. ‘I didn’t know men could cry like that.’

In all my lives there has always been something in common. Society has told all of us that men should not cry and that women should be as fragile as flowers.

I’ve seen women stand up and reject that but in all of my lives, I’ve not seen a man cry, until today.

Well, that’s sort of a lie.

I’ve seen many men cry but for the wrong reasons, for example, whenever they knew that I was going to kill them they would cry while pleading me to give them another chance. If that didn’t work, they would plead for an exchange, their lives over their children, or so on.

Those things though, they weren’t men. They were scum that only took up space in the world. So I did the right thing and I put them back into the earth. At least that way they could become food for plants and their lives would be worth something good.

“you look lost.” I hear someone say as I stop walking and look behind me.

‘what is he doing out?’

I look around as I realize that I'm no longer inside of the house but far in the distance. Farther away from the garden around the entrance to the nearby forest.

“you look more lost than me and this is your home.” Alec says as he looks at the entrance to the forest. “are you sure you want to go in there?”

“I don’t know, I just…” he stares at me as I try to find the words but am troubled by the fact that he's here to begin with.

Just seeing him troubles me because it brings back another issue, one closer to me then mikes lover.

My sister’s death.

 ‘but how the hell would I say something like that to him?’

He begins to walk into the forest as he looks back. “you aren’t coming?”

I follow him as I stare at the sky again. The sky is clear tonight and the magic in the air is clean. I sigh loudly as I feel the wind pass through us.

My fingers can feel the magic in the air with my fingertips along with the wind and I smile. I'm usually not this sensitive with the magic in the air but since I'm drunk, I can probably feel it a bit more than usual.

“if you turn right you'll be able to see something nice,” I say as he doesn’t reply but turns right anyways.

We continue to walk past the trees until we make it to a lake.

Surrounded by rocks and flowers he looks down at it and then looks back at me unimpressed.

“This is nice to you?” he asks as he crosses his arms.

I laugh as I take off my cape and then my shoes. “I like this place, not many people enjoy its beauty because they take one glance and then look away but for those who stay and look for it, once they find its beauty they won't leave it alone.

I take off my clothes as I leave just my underwear and undershirt on.

He senses what I'm doing and he tenses up as he looks straight ahead of him.

I stand next to him as I whisper “make sure you watch closely.”

He doesn’t respond as he looks away. I put my hand on the ground and insert my magic into the ground as the rocks begin to glow. Revealing their true nature.

Huge crystals begin to appear on the bottom of the lake revealing how clean and clear the water is.

I jump into the lake as I feel the crystal-clear water refresh my body and mind.

‘this will sober me up.’

I look at the man as he stares at me and I smile. “not coming in?” I ask as he looks away. “suit yourself.” I say as I dive into the water and begin to swim towards a hole on the ground that leads into another part of the lake.

This part is an entire cave and as soon as I step on the ground the crystals all begin to glow as if they were welcoming me back home.

I smile as even the flowers inside begin to open and reveal their glow.

I hear a splash behind me, but I don’t look. ‘my pride would be hurt if I were him right now.’

“Alora’s flowers.” He says as he looks at them with a shocked expression. “but these are extinct.”

“They aren’t actually.” I begin to walk towards them as I pull one out. “the land is surrounded in them but when they aren’t opened, they look like simple boring flowers.” I hand him the flower as I grab it and begin to observe it curiously.

“This is actually the second time you’ve seen them,” I say as he looks at me with a confused expression.

We hold a moment of silence before he says “the me during the day.” He puts the flower down as I jump back into the water and I begin to swim, enjoying the coolness of the water against my skin. “why? Why are you showing these things to me?”

“well I mean you just happened to be here at the right time so…”

“not right now I mean to the other me.” He turns around to look at me. “If I ignore you while I'm at that state how are you exactly showing me these things?”

I stop swimming as I dive into the water and stay there for a while. Cooling my head, trying to sober up.

‘I f****d up.’

I come back up as I look at him and smile as professionally as I can. “well, you actually like me in your other form. I could not say it last time since I had a feeling that you wouldn’t believe me. I mean would you have believed me?” he stares at me as he sits in the side of the lake putting his feet inside of the water.

“no.”

“see! I wasn’t wrong.” I swim as I stand next to him. “so, what do you think? It's nice huh?”

He doesn’t bother to look as he says, “it’s more entertaining than that room that’s for sure.”

‘he won’t admit that it's nice, what a prick.’

I scoff as I continue to swim.

Once I'm satisfied we dive back into the outside of the cave and I begin to put my clothes back on.

Once I'm back in the dirt I realize that the alcohol hasn’t left my system as I see the ground move from side to side.

‘f**k, I'm still tipsy.’

I put on my shirt but while I try to put on my pants, I almost fall to the ground but Alec grabs my arm. “oh thanks.” I say as I continue to put them back on, he grabs my arms as he smells me.

“you were drinking.” He says as his expression turns dark. “where were you that you got home this late?”

I continue to put on my shoes as he pulls me back up while pinning my chin to look at him. “I was with a friend celebrating and mourning at the same time.” I pull my chin away from his hand as I step backward. “that’s all. Don’t worry I'm still doing my part in helping you. I'm not just fooling around.”

“mourning?” he asks as I finish putting on my cape.

The thought of mikes lover crosses my mind as I pinch the middle of my eyes. ‘f**k I have a headache coming up.’

“my friends’ lover, he doesn’t know where he is, and he was crying. I was just taking him out for a couple of drinks to try to make him feel better and to try to forget. Since I feel kind of responsible for it but I think instead of helping I kind of made things worse instead.” I look back at him as he asks.

“Why do you feel responsible?”

I look at the floor instead of at him as I say “I don’t want to talk about it.” As I begin to walk towards the way back while he follows behind me.

Quietly, without asking any more questions.

The morning greets me with immense pain in my head as lily opens up the curtains to the windows in my room.

“I apologize my lady, but its time for breakfast with the master.”

“yeah, I get it.” I rub my forehead as lily says.

“make sure the younger master also wakes up. He’ll be in a bad mood if one of us wakes him up.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I rub my eyes. ‘wait what does she mean by?’

I look beside me as I see kuro under the sheet beside me.

‘since, when did he?’

I uncover him as I smile sleepily.

Kuro wakes up as he rubs his fingers on his eyes and gets up as he climbs into my arms.  

I hug him back as lily grabs him from the back. “no, no, no. you’ll just go back to sleep if she carries you like that.” She hands him over to another maid “make sure he gets ready for breakfast today. The lady will wear a dark orange color today, do what you will with that information.”

The maid bows as she carried Kuro with her and takes him away as he looks around sheepishly.

Once I have bathed and changed lily begins to do my hair as she hands me a letter.

I open it up as I begin to read it’s contents.

Its literally just two words in the entire paper and I can already tell who sent it without needing the name of the sender.

Orders received.

‘of course, it's him after all.’

I close the letter back up as I hand it back to lily.

“rip it or burn it, whichever. It doesn’t matter. I don’t need it anymore.”

“yes, my lady.” She says as she grabs the letter and puts it inside of a pocket in her dress as she continues to braid my hair.

“tomorrow we will be having a ball in celebration for lady Lenna's graduation so I will be preparing a dress for you. Is there a color you would like?” she asks as she looks at me with a smile.

“no, anything but pink is fine with me,” I say as she smiles tenderly.

“of course my lady.”