Cinderella Story [Wriothesley x Reader]

Page 6 - I

The one he searches

throughout the whole land;

what she needs to do is

wear the shoe beforehand.

╼❅╾

The last two days had flown by like they were nothing. Granted, your schedule was fuller than you had thought, and since you had to free up your Friday afternoon, you had one lesson after another, from dancing to politics to business classes. Internally you were even grateful, because it didn't give you the time to overthink. And at night you just fell into your bed and were asleep in a matter of minutes.

Now you were here, standing in front of Café Lutece in one of your simple dresses, too nervous for your own good. Of course you'd been early this time, so early in fact that you'd already been waiting for quite some time and some people were throwing you glances filled with pity from time to time, thinking your date had stood you up.

Wriothesley arrived a bit early as well. When you saw him coming your heart started to flutter slightly, but you willed yourself to calm down. There were still some bruises and scratches visible on his face, but all in all he looked a lot better already than on Wednesday. After a polite greeting, the two of you entered the café and Wriothesley chose a table for you. Still nervous, you sat down opposite him and rested your hands in your lap. The waiter came immediately (probably being a bit intimidated by Wriothesley) and took your order. While you ordered your favourite coffee, he ordered some tea.

When the waiter was gone, you decided to start the conversation. "So, what was your business in the city, your grace?"

"Just some work-related stuff," he answered. "There's this new drug in circulation and we're trying to get it under control."

"A new drug?" You became alert when you heard that, your mind instantly connecting to what had happened to Jonas.

"They call it 'Liquid', because it's the liquid form of some crystal," Wriothesley said but to your dismay didn't elaborate any further.

"What are the effects?" you continued probing, to get as much information as possible.

"Is this really an appropriate topic?" Wriothesley looked at you with one eyebrow raised, clearly not too happy with where the conversation was going. It was understandable, he was probably confronted with it a lot and had spent the whole day working until now, he surely just wanted to think of something else for now.

"Probably not, sorry..." you said, but added another sentence, just to try again. "I'm just curious."

It worked, because he gave you a small explanation. "Well, apparently it makes people relax and feel incredibly good. It's still a drug, though, highly addictive and destructive."

"I see." You thanked him for the information, but your mind was occupied with Jonas again. Could he have been drugged with this Liquid? If it made people relax, maybe an overdose would make someone relax so much that the bodily functions just shut off at some point?

Your thoughts were interrupted by the waiter who brought your drinks and then by Wriothesley who asked you about your day. What followed was a nice, normal conversation about how you had spent the last two days, about some business-related stuff and about the aftermath of the fight in Meropide. Apparently, all the guys were still in the infirmary and would take some time to recover but had hopefully learned their lessons.