The Crown Prince Thinks I'm a Guy

Shaky Friendships

After I finally learned about who the Order's target was, I knew Joren and I weren't safe. We were currently standing around a completely trashed room, a room owned, in fact, by that very target. If Zepherin or Leila or even Assassin Vincentus were to enter through the door right now, I wouldn't know what to do.

"We have to leave," I told him drily.

Still panicked, the redhead simply nodded in agreement. And with that, we were off to the night. Joren simply followed me, and didn't even question how I had somehow accessed the ways to the dormitory rooftops. I sat on the tiled roof, waiting for Joren to slide down beside me.

"So, why did you suddenly decide to attack the professor's study?" I asked after a short silence.

He looked down in shame. "... I'm not sure. I looked 'round for anythin'... anythin' to prove he's a bad man, and I, I knew he's your mentor, and ya look up to him, so I..."

I sighed. "That was idiotic. You didn't need to do that at all. If you were just curious, or if you just acted out of stupid loyalty towards me, then-"

"That's not it at all, Therion," he denied, and then stared out towards the Forests of Elara. "To be honest, I dunno why I did that... I just feel so uneasy these days, Therion. I had... I had to do something. So when I thought about ya being the target's student, I just... I know it's wrong o' me to use ya as some kind of excuse, but..."

"I... I just think that we became part of some things that we shouldn't have been a part of, you know?" I said, relishing in the cold, night wind. "Your mother, my teacher... I know it's hard, and much harder for you than it is for me, but..."

I took hold of his hand and gripped it tightly. "But it doesn't mean that we should act rashly. Aunt Tabitha wouldn't want you punished because of acting out of impulse, even if it was done for her or because of her."

After a moment, he nodded silently. "I-I get it, Therion. I admit I was... foolish, but..."

I looked at him more closely. "What is it?"

"I did see somethin'..." he murmured. "A letter. Well, an envelope, really. T'was already empty when I found it in the trash, but..."

I waited for him impatiently, although I did mu best to hide it.

Then, he said, "It had the Empire's royal seal on it."

~~

To tell him would be to betray the Order.

To not tell him...

"Eleftherion?" a woman's voice called out to me.

Looking up, I saw the man's wife, looking so much like the mother-figure I had already lost long ago.

"Yes, Nurse Melinda?" I asked, my voice coming off weak.

I was now seated at the nurse's corner of the infirmary. It was currently breaktime, and I had often found myself coming here, if only to avoid Joren or simply to avoid basic social interaction. The nurse herself was awfully understanding of me, and didn't even ask much about my frequent visits. In front of me, she brooded. Her forehead wrinkled as she pouted cutely. And somehow, I was overwhelmed with surging emotions. Here was a woman I just met not too long ago, and her husband was a dead man walking.

"What-" I started, before coughing myself to calm down. "What exactly does your husband do?"

She snickered. "Do not tell me you don't know the profession of your wise mentor?"

I shook my head, trying to appear normal, and not outright interrogative. "It's just... I don't know him apart from him being the Second Head Professor. Is he... a noble? I cannot imagine for the life of me him being a commoner. Does he have other businesses? Does he have outright connections with, with the royal fa-"