"Ah! That hurts." Aefia hissed between her teeth as she accidentally bumped into him while getting out of the water. "Fuck you Helio!" She cursed under her breathe while peeling back her sleeve to see the damage.
"Well sea water can cause infection." He answered while bending his head to the side and hitting the opposite ear. "At least you can still hear you know? The sand got into my ear."
"I am lucky! Otherwise I would have been frustrated with myself!" She shouted while looking towards his direction with a glare and a smile, clenching her hands into fist at either sides of her. When he shifted his gaze to her face, her fist connected with the side of his head and immediately—
"My ears! I can hear!" He yelped in happiness as he swung around to lifted Aefia up by the back of her knees and spun her around.
"Seriously! What is wrong with you these days?!" She gasped on shock as her feet touched sand again. "Do you have mood swings?!"
"Not really. I am just so happy." He whispered while leaning down again to kiss her cheek. She blocked him with her hand, pushing his face away just a small distance so she can dry him off while staying out of his cheeziness.
"You are drawing many people's eyes. They are probably thinking 'is that young guy harrasing that young girl or something?'. How many times do you need to kiss my hair?" She asked him annoyingly.
"However long I want? I mean why do you care about them. We are aliens from another world. We don't care about them and they don't need to care about us."
"We are sixteen and practically displaced from our parents. I am not against being in a relationship, but if it is just being close and coating my face with kisses... Then I will reconsider." She answered while dusting her clothes in a way to coax it into an illusion while she dried herself up with her fire element.
"Why? Do you hate me when I am taking care of you like that? I am just being caring." He whined while wrapping his arms around her neck from behind in a hug. "Do you hate this too? A simple hug?"
"Yes." She answered straight-forwardly. "I hate any idea of interacting too much if it isn't for medical purposes. Besides... You causing me more pain in my arm is making me hate it even more."
Immediately, he let go with a much softer face. "I am sorry Aefia." He apologized while coming to stand next to her and hold her hand. "How about this?" Helio asked while sliding his fingers between his.
"Maybe not this. But simply holding hands is something within my liking." Aefia replied while taking her fingers off his but clasping her hands with his. "There. This is much better. Isn't it?" She smiled while looking back up at home.
"Actually... Yes. This is actually much better." He whispered while staying that way. It felt like a silent moment that will remain a very beautiful memory instead. "I think I like you more because you are more of a romantic in a soft radar. Like not too much to start hating, but not too light. A very easy-going, affectionate one."
"Right? And besides... They say a healthy relationship is one which knows boundaries."
"I agree." He answered while her hand a little. "If you say so, I will appreciate your boundaries too. Just let me know if you don't like it that way."
"Thanks for understanding." She leaned onto his arm while looking at her sleeping brother as they approached.
"You know something?"
"What?" He asked softly.
"Nada would have been jealous if she realized that I was in a relationship faster than her." Aefia spoke while shifting her gaze to his face. "She will be shocked of course. But I think I remember hearing her telling you to look after me and giving me a life while she was away. Which makes me think if she will be happy with you. However, I will want to know her reaction."
"Oh really? Well I would like to see her reaction too. But..." He paused to tap his index finger against her nose. "Let us just try to grow our relationship first. When it is incredibly firm, then I will tell her myself." The orange sky cast a beautiful shadow on his face as Aefia saw, completely stunning her for a few seconds before she let out a light laugh.
"Oh hell naw! I need my share to see her reaction too!" She smiled while shoving at him. Then immediately breaking away from his hand to wake her brother and pack their bag. The sun was already setting, so they had to go. But the scene was quite spectacular to immediately leave behind, so she decided to spend some time chatting with him instead.
"Do you know for a fact that I am actually getting a coronation of my own?"
"What coronation is that?"
"I recently accepted an offer by the Guardians to be the third Aethalgard Heir. I happened to have passed the test, so I am going back to the Guardian Realm for it. The position is quite powerful you know... So the actions for it is quite spectacular. I wish you and Nada could see it, but that isn't quite possible."
"Oh I don't mind it." He answered while sitting on the sand beside her. Leaning back on his palms, backwards. "At least I can brag about my girlfriend being a very powerful Guardian. And if you are really desperate for it, we can host a private coronation after you return?"
"Don't bother wasting energies. I will see if what I can do at my most. If it isn't possible, I will just inform you." She whispered back while looking far into where the water crashed against the shore.
"You are the one who shouldn't waste their energy."
"But life is quite hazardous and short to quite witnessing it alone you know."
"For you, it is extremely short somehow." He countered while looking towards her direction. She let out a yawn as her eyelids grew heavier. Others were already departing, but they were the only ones left. "I think it is about time we head back?"
"Yeah. Wait, let me just wake Felix up." She whispered while standing up and dusting her dress. He watched as she exhaustingly tried to lift the kid up, her fingers trembling slightly due to the pain in her arms. Finally, letting out a sigh, he stood up and stepped between Aefia and her brother.
"Look at this guy. He got roasted so much that he died. Poor kid. I guess we have to bury him in this beach—"
"What are you saying you idiot?! Bury him—?!" She tried to shout as he placed a finger against her lips to silence her.
Within three shoves of sand, Felix jolted up. "I am not dead!"
"Oh god! This kid has been resurrected." Helio stayed blatantly as he crossed his arms in front of him. He didn't smile, he only looked down with a strict elder brotherly look which Aefia didn't know he had. "Now get your ass up and pack up. You have tanned to the point that even chickens will be like 'god I am alive?!'"
Aefia let out a giggle as she walked past them to a nearby restaurant and book three seats. Afterall, they say do it when you have the time.
As a teenager, she has an ideal amount of time.
***
The route back felt longer and more tiring. If anything worse, it was actually always the return route that had to be this hard to cross. Even though, their hotel wasn't even far. They walked back—that was the distance.
Along the way, everyone was silent. Only Felix cried over his tanned arms, and decided to just stay indoors until he found a way to recover. But then... He recalled...
His sister's boyfriend had the healing element.
So then... That was that.
Now it was just trying to finish dressing the wound before accidentally falling asleep. Like how Aefia was currently. She was sitting up at the edge of the mattress while Helio meticulously cleaned up her wound and wrapped it.
He worked so carefully, she didn't feel anything. And like how any other teenagers were, having a full stomach made her drowsy. She leaned against his shoulder as he pinned the bandage with medical staples and slowly nudged Aefia to tell her it was done.
She was already existing in another world. The more he shifted, the more she leaned into him. Seeing how tired she was, he cradled the back of her head and stood up, then placed her head onto the pillow. All while he stayed silent and watched for even a flutter of her eyelashes.
He pulled the duvet up to her chin as she let out a sigh. Before he left the room, he pressed a kiss on her hair and shut the door.
***
Aethalgard... Isn't it a brilliant place to be? Or am I just... Daydreaming?
Aefia stared at the intricate ceiling with awe. The painting were more elaborate then what she had seen inside the Imperial palace's library. If anything, it appeared to her that this showed more life to try painting than the ones at the palace.
Not only that, the background was made in a way that looking somewhere else would seem like the picture moved. But of course, the servants said nothing about this picture was moving even when viewed in a different perspective.
So Aefia just took it as her imagination. As for the coronation, she was honestly a bit anxious. It hasn't even been twelve hours since she has been here. And Justice has already started to nag her about what will be done. Apparently, like how she had thought of it before, this coronation truly was about a month long.
The banquet in specific. It just goes on and on and on. The words made Aefia's eyebrow twitching a millimeter before she decided to drain it down.
Then again, she was to be present for at least twenty-six banquets. That is thirteen lunch and dinners. If it wasn't for a near-by chair, she would have fallen to the floor and lost her dignity as a newly pronounced Aethalgard right there. Not only will it be embarrasing, it would torture her for years just by recalling it.
Just recently, she had finally managed to get past the real role as a guardians. Apparently, historically speaking, noble houses are ranked by their titles.
Such as; emperor or empress are the highest of ranks. King or queen comes next. Duke or duchess follows after. Marquis or marchioness leads on. Count or countess have a rank below. Viscount or viscountess are considered second-last. Then baron or baroness serving last. Of course there are knights, lords and feudal—but they aren't recognized much even when respected quite a lot.
But in Nikoan, you could say;
Aethalgard, then guardians, then emperor or empress, followed by the other roles. And of course the guardian role belongs to a scarces few people to inherit. Along with the Aethalgard since only three are occupiable.
Since Silence had claimed the previous Guardian of Death's title along with others, she had multiple spots vacant to pick out heirs. And once you have been considered 'heir', you are higher than all the other rankings in the world. It's like how princes and princesses are, accept, you are just heir or heiress.
So if Silence had chosen Aefia as her inheritant from a long time, she had been titled heiress until she claimed the throne of the dead.
Which actually makes her feel more comfortable, because as an Earth human, hearing someone call her princess creeped her out—since her parents always refrained from saying that to keep her from feeling high and worthy—so being called heiress made her think "oh yeah this feels nice to hear!"
Regardless, that was just a matter of fact.
To think that currently, she had to think of ways to get out of the banquet if she can. She was an introvert at the end of the day. Crowded places were not only an offense, but a third-degree murder case where Aefia was a first-hand witness being questioned right after the murder happened.
Before long, she came to her own assigned quaters. A seperate castle that reached to the sky, it's spikes piercing the clouds and erupting higher. It looked intimidating and also very nice. It felt nice to have her own property which she herself earned.
The throne room was very large, spanning with a few knealing knights and a few greeting servants. For such a big castle, she seemed to have a very small number of crew to manage it. But since she was new, she was pleased to have even ten servants at maximum.
She got to choose her own butler, her own handmaid, her own escort.
Her wardrobe was full. Her dressing table was spanned with jewelries. Her vanity filled with different kinds of perfume and miscellaneous objects that other girls might need. Beside the mirror was a long shelve holding different crowns.
To think, Justice personally prepared it for her.
The previous Seraphina truly was like a daughter to him. Or maybe she was. Oh wait—she was.
And Aefia was supposed to have looked like her.
So it was understandable. When Justice lost one of his most loved child, he sought to look after another who looked exactly like her.
I wonder... If now that I am gone... My parents are even looking for me. But why would I care about it anymore?
She diverted her eyes from the crowns to the mirror. She caught her own reflection looking back at her like a completely different person.
Time and situation did change people a little too much. She once had midnight black hair and souless black eyes. To now having black hair with silver ends and red eyes.
But the difference of the personality was what was more staggering.
A person who was constantly feared and fearful of her own surroundings to trusting someone else to stitch her up as she slept. Not only that, dying and waking up to try and make her life better.
If it was Aefia who just left Earth, maybe she would have rather been like;
"Humans are meant to die. So why not just give up everything and go back to my grave?"
But instead, Aefia was like;
"I died, I can't reverse it. But I woke up with another chance, I better not waste it."