The next day, Alex woke up with a loud yawn, stretching his body out wide as he rose from his bed. After a light stretch and freshening himself up, he changed into a fine new set of clothes: a white shirt coupled with black trousers and a black waistcoat, his black hair tinged with blue at the ends pulled back into a small ponytail, looking clean and refreshing after washing away.
He looked himself over and felt refreshed, like he had just been born anew. The final exam had weighed so heavily on him, and his body had never properly rested during the whole five days though it had turned out that he had fainted for almost four days there but still had body not felt refreshed even after four days of rest there, but yet now he felt so renewed and alive that he wanted to jump around the room.
He put his childish thoughts away, and focused on his body. He found out that his body still carried some leftover scars that would take time to fade. He had learned the day before that his injuries had been serious, and before leaving the academy, he and his parents had been instructed by the healers to take one potion in the morning and one in the evening, to rest well for several days, and not to push himself. It was advice his parents had followed with great diligence. His father had changed him into a new set of clothes and had even helped him bathe, and though he had worn his underwear throughout, it had not felt the least bit comfortable, showing his half-naked body to his father like that.
His parents had been adamant, insisting he needed to clean himself and change into pajamas before sleeping so that no dirt would enter any leftover wounds and cause it to flare up which in turn might cause trouble later down the road. They were simply being too overprotective. There were no wounds left that could open up, because the potion given by the principal had healed most of his injuries already inside the battleground, and the remaining ones had been healed completely by the healers after he was ejected from the battlefield.
Still, he had heeded his parents' advice and allowed his father to bathe him, because he had been too sleepy and weak to do it himself. As a matter of fact, he had wanted nothing more than to sleep the moment they returned to the estate, and he would have done exactly that had they not been so adamant.
And that had not even been the end of it. He had not been allowed to sleep immediately after changing into his pajamas. Instead, his mother had spoon-fed him dinner with her own hands, which had felt so strange to him at fourteen years old, yet he had relented under the weight of her stern gaze. He had cried in front of them earlier at the academy, which had left him so embarrassed that he had followed most of their instructions without much resistance as he had felt quite awkward after the incident of him openly crying at them.
"Haah!" Alex let out a sigh and downed the potion that had been left for him on the vanity table, just below the mirror.
As the potion entered his body, something soothing radiated throughout the body, filling him with strength and vitality. A silly thought crossed his mind that he could jump up and touch the ceiling.
Just as he turned toward the door to meet up with the friends as the sun had already reached high up in the sky casting the room with bright white light, the door slid open and Princess Eva stepped inside, closing it softly behind her.
"You know, you missed your breakfast," she said, walking toward him with slow, measured steps and stopping just inches away. She raised one hand and gave his chest a light tap, pushing him back a step.
"That is how you kept pushing me away this morning every time I tried to wake you up," she said, folding her arms across her chest. Her lips curved into a pout and she added, "After worrying so much about you during the exam, you dismissed me like I was nothing." She began to shed fake tears. Alex was all too familiar with her act by now.
"Oh, I am so sorry, miss, that I hurt your fragile ego," Alex said, joining his hands together and bowing his head at a full ninety degrees. As he straightened, a smirk spread across his face. "But who told you to worry about me so much?"
Princess Eva did not reply. Instead, she stepped toward him with slow, deliberate steps, reached out and clenched the front of his waistcoat with both hands, pulling him closer. She leaned her head forward until they were just inches apart, her black eyes twinkling with mischief, her silver hair shimmering in the bright daylight. The light makeup on her cheeks and the red lipstick on her lips nearly paralyzed him on the spot.
"As your future wife," she said softly, "if I do not worry for you, then who will?"
This time, Alex froze like a statue. Her teasing had struck directly at him. His azure eyes stared into her black ones and he found them still, like calm water that held no ripple, and he felt his face turning red as a tomato. Her face had turned a deep shade of red as well. He pulled himself back immediately, putting some distance between them and drawing a slow, deep breath to calm himself.
"Alex," Princess Eva said, her voice turning sly as her right hand tucked a strand of silver hair behind her ear, "I have been wondering about our relationship for a while now. Are we just friends, or are we best friends, or something more than that?"
Alex found his lips sealed tight. He tried to find the right words but no matter how many times he opened his mouth, nothing came out. Princess Eva's eyes slowly lost their light and she became sad, as though she were disappointed at his inability to answer. He felt his chest tighten and his breath catch in his throat.
"I... I do-" Before Alex could say that he did not know what to make of this relationship that had begun to grow between them because of the engagement agreement between the Emperor and his family, he stopped short as the door slid open once more. A small, cute face peeked out from behind it. It was his little sister, Ariana.
"Big brother and big sister, the lunch is getting cold!" she said cheerfully, her face bright as a sunny morning, looking nothing like the ghost she had resembled yesterday. He kept that thought to himself, not wanting to make his little sister cry with a careless comment about how she had looked, because he knew very well that he had been the reason for it.
Before he could gather himself, Princess Eva began walking toward him again, this time in silence. There was no playful smile on her lips, no mischievous twinkle in her eyes. She stopped just before him and raised both of her hands toward his neck.
***
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