Draconia Offline vol. 1

44.2. The Emperor Within Me - Part 2

"Sorry," he tells me the first thing in the morning. He always wakes up before me. I have no idea how he does it. Or do Celestials simply need to sleep more than humans?

"What for?" I blink a few times, my eyes still sleepy and unfocused. I stretch all my limbs including wings and yawn.

"I had a breakdown and then fell asleep on you," he sighs and kisses me on my forehead.

"Don't be sorry for something like that," I shake my head. "Do you feel better now? What about talking to that psychologist?" I check that the sleep helped him and he does feel better. But still far from his usual calm state.

"Zetraya is a Celestial, he wouldn't understand," Erik refuses. "And I think it's something I should come to terms with on my own anyway."

"What's the time? Are we free to cuddle a bit?" I ask hopefully because I feel he's not against the idea.

Erik moves my feathers out of the way and looks at the alarm clock.

"Shit, it's 8:30 already?!"

We're both wide awake all of a sudden, trying to get out of my feathers which are everywhere.

"How come nobody woke us up?" I don't understand and collect my robe from the floor. It's badly wrinkled, though. I need a new one.

"It was an exhausting day, maybe they wanted us to have a good rest?" Erik shrugs and puts on his pants.

I quickly fasten one layer of my robe so that I'm not completely naked in front of the maids but just when I'm about to stand up, my head spins and I end up on my knees. Thankfully, there's a fluffy carpet around the bed so it doesn't hurt much.

"Ryuu?!" Erik jumps to me. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Just a bit... dizzy," I admit.

Erik puts his hand on my forehead but I don't think I'm running a fever. I don't feel sick, just out of energy even after I slept really well.

"Ryuu," Erik repeats my name, this time menacingly. "Don't tell me you didn't eat anything after I fell asleep?"

"W-well," I bite my lip guiltily and let him help me onto the bed. "I transported you here and then..."

"Okay, that does it," he hisses. "If you're not mature enough to watch over your diet, we'll have to terrorise you from now on. I was hoping your Celestials metabolism would make you finally eat normally but no such luck it seems."

I don't oppose him because he's right. I feel totally drained and for a Celestial it means no mana. And no mana means no magic. Well, I should still be able to cast but on expense of my body mass which is dangerous. Especially in my unfortunate case.

"I just can't enjoy food when I'm anxious," I pat my stomach which is rumbling loudly and hurts quite a bit.

"Then you won't enjoy it, you'll just chew to give your body nutrients," he purses his lips. "I'm sorry, Ryuu, but I'm afraid we'll have to be strict with you."

He helps me reach the living room with hope to eat our last night's dinner even if it's cold but instead, we find both of our maids already inside and looking really pissed. When they notice that Erik has to support me, they get even angrier.

"You're lucky that doctor Julia is too preoccupied with the research and her newest patient, Your Majesty," Cien berates me. "Or we'd make you go visit her infirmary to weight you again. Are you sabotaging your meals on purpose?"

"Of course not," I assure the maids hastily. "I'm just not able to eat when stressed."

"So sit and relax now," Ayala says uncompromisingly. "Because your breakfast should arrive in a few minutes."