[BL] I shouldn't have married the crown prince

Chapter 22

Alphonse didn't really talk during dinner and Cadmael wasn't paying Alphonse attention at all. I felt kind of uncomfortable in the middle of this but didn't have time to leave because Cadmael couldn't stop feeding me.

"I'll do it myself."

My whole face was red. How could the next emperor feed me? Alphonse seemed to be as surprised as I was and I really wouldn't have imagined this dinner to go this way. We were here for Cadmael to get to know his new friend. Why was he only paying attention to me? This wasn't polite at all. I couldn't take it and turned to Cadmael:

"What are you doing?"

He looked at me with innocent eyes.

"I'll eat myself. Why don't you get to know Alphonse more?"

Cadmael turned to Alphonse as if he just remembered he had been there:

"Do you like sparring?

-Yes..."

He then turned to me and smiled. I couldn't hold back my scowl. Was this what he understood by getting to know him better? Why was Cadmael so bad at making friends? I had to teach him everything!

"Alphonse, why did you join the sparring club?"

The young man seemed surprised to be the center of attention for a second.

"My dad wanted me to.

-I see. But do you really want to be in the club?"

He hesitated for a long moment.

"You don't have to answer. I'm sorry for prying. You just didn't seem that interested in sparring."

Alphonse suddenly raised his head, his mouth slightly open as if wanting to say something. But Cadmael didn't like being left out and handed me another piece of meat:

"Say ah."

I took the fork and ate myself while glaring at Cadmael.

Alphonse liked Eschyle. He was the first person who asked him if he really liked something and it was the first time someone saw that he wasn't interested in sparring. This could seem like nothing but Alphonse was genuinely touched and felt really comfortable for a second. This second wasn't really long because Cadmael kept glaring at him when Eschyle spent too much time talking to him which was quite frightening. He didn't know if talking to Eschyle was worth getting killed later on.

Eschyle even had the bad idea of leaving the two of them together to go to the bathroom. Cadmael's smile immediately vanished and he ate his meat as if chewing someone's head off. Alphonse could perfectly imagine his arm being chewed off like this by Cadmael and he suddenly lost his appetite. He didn't expect Cadmael to pay him any attention and was frightened when he spoke:

"You are going to be my friend.

-What?

-Eschyle wants me to make friends so if he asks we are friends. Nod if you understand."

Alphonse quickly nodded, scared of what Cadmael would do if he took too long to answer. When Eschyle came back, Cadmael returned to smiling innocently and Alphonse was petrified. He knew that he would have nightmares because of this smile for years.

When we finished eating, we saw Alphonse off and went back to the dukedom with Cadmael. We rarely spoke while walking but I felt more and more at ease with him and started talking:

"Alphonse is nice."

For some reason Cadmael didn't seem happy about this.

"He seemed a bit shy. I hope he'll feel more at ease with us soon. I'm not even sure that he enjoys sparring."