My Dream

🍎 Enter the Beautiful Queen

"Who's there?" The boy asked.

"Ah, sorry about the interruption." Deuce apologized. "We heard singing so... wait you're..."

"Woah, Grim!" Deuce called. "Stop running around our feet!"

Deuce had to take a step back to avoid tripping over the excited Grim and ended up slamming into someone.

"Oh my bad!" Deuce apologized, turning to face the boy. "You alright?"

The boy immediately burst into sobs.

"Eh!?" Deuce looked panicked. "Yo-you're crying!?"

Gwen pushed herself out of Jack's arms so she could approach the boy.

"Teacher, Deuce made a kid from another dorm cry." Ace called teasingly.

"Don't make fun of me Ace." Deuce snapped, turning to the boy. "It hurt enough to make you cry, I'm so sorry. I'll take you to the infirmary so use my shoulder as support..."

"Are you okay?" Gwen asked, fretting over the boy. "Please, let me see!"

"I'm... over this...!" The boy exclaimed.

"Eh... over...?" Deuce repeated.

"Geh!" The boy's eyes widened before he bolted away.

"You're the one I ran into on Main Street the first day back from break." Deuce recalled.

The boy gasped as he remembered as well. "Sorry for that."

"No, it was my fault, too." Deuce replied. "And your name was... Epel, right?"

"Huh?" The boy blinked in surprise. "Why do you know that?"

"That would be my fault." Gwen admitted. "Rook talks about you all the time."

"Jack told us as well." Deuce added. "You're in the same class, yeah."

"Yup, and you're Deuce, Ace... Grim... and Gwen." Epel gave Gwen a little frown. "Rook never shuts up about you either. And lately Vil's been talking about you a lot too."

"Whoa, we must be pretty well known if even you've heard of us." Grim said.

"I really enjoyed watching your exhibition match during the magift tournament." Epel giggled.

"Where we left an impression in all the wrong ways." Ace lamented.

"By the way, why were you singing into the well?" Deuce asked.

"Were you making a wish?" Gwen wondered.

"What?" Epel looked at her in confusion before shaking his head. "No. Because your voice will echo back to you, then you hear how it'll sound to the audience. That's why my dorm head, Vil, told me to practice here."

"Is there some sort of rule in Pomefiore that says you have to be able to sing well?" Deuce asked.

"It's not Heartslabuyl." Ace said. "I'm sure they don't have weird rules like that."

Gwen recalled how Quinn's kingdom had a rule that if one saw two doves they had to sing a love song.

"While it's not a requirement..." Epel started. "I'm trying out for the Vocal and Dance Championship."

"Wow, that's pretty cool." Deuce replied, looking impressed.

"So that means... I need my voice to sound lovely and sweet." Epel sighed, looking miserable. "I wish the whole thing would just go away."