Professional Pretender

III

Third person's pov

Yves finally stepped inside his bedroom and, with a confused forehead, headed towards his work table.

Without prolonging, he puts down the books he just took from the library.

"That is new," he uttered, proceeding to sit on the chair. He shakes his head as if he is physically shrugging off the thought.

"Now, let's see what we can find." He swiftly swings his hands, firmly grabbing a book from the pile. It is a thick book.

"Oh, Vers le voyage...might be a map or a traveling journal," finally flipping the cover, his hand grazes the surface of the paper "A.S. IVYSIA," which he read aloud.

He flipped through pages only to see short phrases about the places in Ivysia; it's like describing it with a hand-drawn map beside it. "This is a travel journal; I am right," his lips went up a little, and he lifted the book away from his face.

A piece of paper fell from the inside, slowly landing on the table. Yves, without hesitating, let his hand satisfy its curiosity; the paper turned out to be big like a table map, like the one his father has in his workroom.

The map shows the city of Avalon and the neighboring country, as well as the status of their ties to each other.

"Now we are onto something," he said to himself. He wandered his eyes on the map, feasting on it. "Oh, we are surely onto something."

Several hours later, a loud band can be heard playing from the hallway and dining. Murmurs of people, laughter, and overwhelming big, bulky, hand-made dresses.

It is indeed an event.

Yves grabbed the doorknob, and his feet moved forward to the terrace of the stairs. Finally exposing himself to the crowd, the music stopped, and so did everybody.

All eyes of the visitors are on the Prince. Yves started walking down the stairs very gentlemanly. Like he's on the run to charm all the ladies in the room.

"Is that the prince?"

"As I've heard, it seems like it."

"Well, I must say that what you heard is from a very good messenger."

Yves scoffed in his thoughts as he paraded through the crowd, clearly not meeting their eyes glued on him.

As he looked ahead, his eyes finally met a familiar face. "Glad you're finally here; come, come; we must introduce you to the visitors," Catherine ushers Yves onto the podium, where his father is currently conversing with men who look like they are from another city.

"Oh look, here goes my good son," George announced, making people look in their way again.

The men simultaneously nodded and raised their drinks to greet him; Yves nodded in reply.

"What a wonderful evening, everyone! Here I introduce my son, the prince in the flesh." He pauses and clears his throat. "I formally introduce you, Prince Yves Achlys Kanemoto."

The crowd stares at his mouth, waiting for him to say something, or more like longing to finally hear his voice. This isn't so bad; thoughts filled his head as he recollected himself.

He then took a step forward, facing the pool of people. What a strange sight for him, he felt knew.

"It is indeed a good evening," he paused. "I'm glad that you had time to celebrate this day with us. As we honor those who devote themselves to our country. So, let us all enjoy the night. FOR OUR COUNTRY." Yves ended his speech with a smile and a glass of champagne raised up, nodding and wandering his blackish-brown stares onto the crowd who are applauding. Truly remarkble.