Infinite Finity - Volume 1 Chapter 25 Obliterated By Cuteness

A Queen approached Chao in earnest while the King beside her scowled. “Lady Chao, I am Queen Anna from the Kingdom of Rains in the East. You may call me Nana. This is my useless husband Benny. He doesn’t wish for us to associate with you, but I disagree. So I ask if you could assist me in sending him off to bed.”

When King George heard her call him useless, he got ready to cause a ruckus when he was silenced by his wife. Her eyes closed, she smiled at him, daring him to oppose her. Fearful of his wife, he dropped his head.

Watching the two of them, Chao silently giggled before answering. “If that’s what you desire my dear, then it shall be so.” She gently clapped her hands and the maids showed up to guide the King to a guestroom. “If you wish for refreshments or nourishment, you only need to knock twice on the door or your bedside nightstand.” Nodding his head, he followed while making puppy eyes at his wife. ‘Please come to bed soon.’

Nana blushed a bit before trying to clear her throat and turn her attention back to Chao. “I wish to ally our two kingdoms. Based on the fact that you three were so easily able to change the scenery and appearance of this ballroom, it’s to be concluded that you have technology surpassing any of the Kingdoms on this continent.”

‘Smart girl,’ mused Chao. “That’s right. But how would our place benefit from being allied with you?”

“Well to begin, we have cultivated various crops that your common people don’t seem to have. Additionally, we have a great boat crafting empire that could challenge nations based on islands. Not to mention that it would increase your human capital and territory size.”

Chao showed indifference on her face, but internally she was screaming, ‘You’re such a smart, charming girl. Please ditch your husband and live with meeee!’ “I see, and for you all you would gain our technology and protection is that right?”

Nana’s face which had calmed down became blood-red as she stuttered a bit. “Y-yes. Bu-but, I wou-would al-al-also get the ch-chance to see you, Lady Serenus, and Lord Neutrum mor-more of-of-often.” Hearing that, Chao’s face twitched, not that Nana could see it all, but irregardless, her eyes twitched causing her to cover them. She then turned to Neutrum, tagged his arm, pointed to Nana and said, “I need a moment, tag in.”

Nana was confused since the beautiful woman ran away and sent a handsome man. “Oh, no. Is she alright? Did I say something wrong Lord Neutrum?” As soon as she looked up to his eyes and asked, he knew why Darling ran away. Her eyes were wet and shiny with admiration, concern, and shyness at that moment. From what Chao had been transferring earlier as well, this Nana was a dedicated, strong little woman who could do whatever it took to protect her people. ‘Just our favorite.’

Neutrum sighed a little since she seemed to have no idea how charismatic she was. “It’s nothing to worry about. Lady Chao simply wanted to do further research into the distance between our kingdoms.”

She tilted her head to the side in confusion. “But why would she need to do that? It seems out of place considering the time.” The gap between her tone of speech and her actions was intriguing. “You know that we are more technologically advanced, yes?” she nodded her head. “In order to best utilize our power, she needs to know what the distance is between the borders of our kingdoms in order to ascertain which mode of transportation is best to use.”

With that, she opened her mouth into a small “o” shape and twinkled more in admiration. “You all are quite kind and dedicated. I am looking forward to our future interactions.” Nana curtsied and went off to find her little husband. After she left, Neutrum exhaled greatly, covered his mouth with his hand, and looked up at the ceiling. ‘It seems there’s plenty of interesting and worthy people here. Hopefully we won’t get obliterated by cuteness.’

He uncovered his mouth and looked down as he sighed once more. Perking himself back up when he saw another man attempting to flirt with Serenus for the nth time, he strutted across the ballroom floor.

. . .

The tails were currently engaging in a conversation with the princes and princesses of other lands.

“You goat-headed bean sprout! Who do you think you are!”

Inrigo rolled his eyes at this guy. ‘Mad just because I told him his pants were a bit too long for his legs.’ The “him” Inrigo was referring to was the 18 year old prince of Sands, June. His honey skin and light brown wavy hair would make him quite a sight if not for his enraged hazel eyes.

“Ah, uhm, sorry? I didn’t mean to embarrass you.” June could clearly see Noctis giving him signals for what to say. “Please forgive me Prince of the Sands. I was foolish and could not hold my tongue?”

The prince was incredulous as he glared at Inrigo and Noctis. “Do you two think I’m stupid? Bull-headed? Dull? I’m the prince who was allowed to come to this ball for a reason.”

Tellus stepped in, “Excuse us Prince. we really don’t know what to do in events such as these. We’re of lowly birth and were saved by Lady Chao.” No one knew why, but his anger was immediately squashed and he was silent. A princess of an island spoke to dissipate the strange atmosphere. “Well, as future allies and partners, we can all teach you slowly.” The various princes and princesses nodded while June was frozen.

Seeing this, his friend Evan, prince of the Oasis, nudged him. Snapping back into reality, June looked at Inrigo once more before leaving to visit the gardens. Evan gave a helpless smile before jogging after him.

When Inrigo met those eyes, he felt something strange bubbling up. In that pair of hazel eyes be saw an apology, longing, and resignation. They were both for him and someone whom he saw past Inrigo at the same time. He started off feeling smug when he saw the apology, but the other emotions made his heart tight. ‘Pretty hazel eyes like his shouldn’t look so sad. They should be fiery instead.’

Solis and Meteorum saw the complicated emotions fly past his eyes. ‘I wonder what’ll happen.’ While both of the mused and pondered the movement of things, Solis clapped and drew everyone’s attention. “You all probably saw the game we were playing earlier, there are too many people to play one on one, so we can teach you how to play it and do so in teams while the a.d.u.l.ts tussle about.”

Everyone agreed and so they left to go to the fountain some distance away from the gardens by coincidence, or not.

. . .

“Did you get a vision?”

June paused in his admiration of the perennials, and absentmindedly “hmm’d” in confirmation. Evan met June when they were 6 and had been by his side ever since. 12 years of friendship and sometimes they would be stuck as to what to do with the other. Evan could see into the future while June could get glimpses of the past.

Although they were stuck with similar prowesses, they didn’t even have power over themselves much less any power to assist the other.

When June heard Tellus, he got a jumbled mess of images. Boys playing under a bridge in water, girls laughing and shouting. Some kids getting lashes and rocks thrown at them. Toothless smiles and bruised faces. Blood flowing endlessly. Tears dripping sporadically. He could even feel the grief and hatred through the images, the roars towards the heavens and seemingly endless loathing towards the world.

Remembering it all caused tears to fall. Evan panicked as he’d never seen this happen to June before. “What’s wrong with the Prince?” June cringed and Evan jumped as the voice startled them.

Standing behind them, a boy in a seagreen suit with a water mask tapped his foot. Inrigo had shown up while June was in memory lane. Trying to compose himself, he replied, “Nothing is wrong. I’m fine. The foliage here is beautiful.” June still had his back to him so he didn’t see it, but Evan saw the disdain and anger burning in the young boy’s eyes.

“The difference between you and I isn’t just out pant-leg length, height, or age evidently.”

Infuriated, he turned to Inrigo disregarding that he’d just cried. “Are you trying to piss me off goat-headed bean sprout?” June was once again stunned into silence, but not by a vision, but by the boy who was right in front of him. He flinched when he felt that smaller hand touch his cheek bone. “Another difference between the two of us is that you’re a terrible liar, and you look ugly when you cry.”

Inrigo softly sighed as he brought his hand back down. “I won’t ask you why you cried and I won’t ask why you lied either. We aren’t that close. But if you keep crying like that, you’ll worry your friend.” June turned to look at the panicky Evan whose eyes were also slightly glazed with tears. “Are you alright June?”

Inrigo spoke up before he could answer, “You two have 5 minutes to calm down and collect your thoughts before going to the fountain area. We’re teaching you all how to play One. Don’t be late or nosy people will start prodding you for weaknesses.” At that, he walked away with his head tall, shoulders relaxed, and lips whistling a tune.

“He’s amazing.” Evan concluded as such before turning to the infatuated June. Alarmed he tapped his shoulder, “June?”

He slowly turned to his friend and whispered, “He’s so cool. I wanna be cool like that too.”

When he said that, Evan got a vision. Two men standing side by side. One bowing to the other, and several fights. ‘Oh boy. Well, you’re going to get cool alright. But it doesn’t seem you’ll ever reach his level.’

The two talked about what they saw, deliberated on whether they should drown themselves in the fountain to cool off, and walked over to the group.

From a distance one would see a group of youths playing a card game when two men sauntered over and dunked each other’s heads under the water. “Can we borrow some towels to dry off?” The children laughed as they dried each other’s heads off. Some girls whooped, “Look at the power couple!”

The two guys just smiled, and clung to each other. “You’re just jealous you don’t have a best friend like mine.”