Royal Lotus - Chapter 9

After the incident with my mother, she locked herself in her room, allowing only Becca to enter her room. I made sure not to give in to the sense of guilt and kept my distance. As I sat on the floor reading through a book on war tactic, Opal sat next to me with curiosity. There was a knock on my door before it was opened and Draco peered in. I raised an eyebrow.

“Your tutor is here,” he stated, a worried smile on his face.

I nodded, closing the book. Opal walked closely behind me as we made way to the room that Draco set up for the lesson I was to have with the tutor. As I entered the room, I gave a bow before taking in the appearance of my new tutor. I had to admit, she was beautiful – though not as nearly beautiful as Luna would grow to be. Her hair was a soft golden strawberry colour, and her eyes were a shade of soft blue, common traits amongst those from the Hums kingdom.

“Good evening,” She greeted, “Sorry for my delay. There was an accident on the way.”

She extended her hand, “The name’s Shelly.”

My brow twitched at her informal way of speaking. Whether it was because she looked down on me or not was unclear. I took hold of her hand and gave it a quick shake, not wanting my freezing temperature to be noticed by her.

“Ice Juntasa.”

She looked at me awkwardly, slightly scratching the side of her face. “Um, shall we begin?”

I nodded and took a seat at the desk provided. Opal who had stood behind me went to the side but I motioned for her walk over to where I was. Understanding my intention, Opal walked over with a chair she pulled from the side of the room, and the sat down next to me. Our exchange caught Shelly off guard.

“Will she be joining us too?” she asked.

I nodded once again. “She’ll only be here to listen.”

Clearing her throat, she got out two books; one of them was placed in front of me, and the other was kept by her.

“I hope you don’t mind sharing the book,” she said, flipping to the first page of the book.

I followed her action, “I do not mind.”

She smiled.

“We’ll start the lesson with some basic history,” Shelly stated. “There are in total eight existing kingdoms; Hums, Kal, Fae, Su, Pheo, Hural, Sheema, and Teea. The kingdoms are separated by the categories of land, sea, and sky. The sky kingdoms are Sheema, Pheo, and Hural. Sheema is known to have female dominance, and large amounts jewels; thus making jewelleries their biggest trade.

Next up is Pheo. Pheo is a military kingdom, and is known for its independence. Other than that, little is known as those who enter are made to sign a blood contract to not speak of their experience- that is, if they are even lucky enough to enter. The last Sky kingdom is Hural. Hural, like Pheo, is an independent kingdom. However, it is not that they have chosen to be independent but rather because the other kingdoms do not want to deal with their bloody nature.”

I felt uneasy at the mentions of Hural. I was more than aware of the bloody nature of the kingdom. In my last life, not long after I was exiled, the king of Hural was murdered by his own son who later became known as the ‘red king’. I was lucky enough to avoid the war, but millions – perhaps billions – were not. The red king was ruthless; killing even newborns and elders from his own kingdom to satisfy his own pleasure. Even worse, he started a war with Pheo – making the war between the two kingdoms to be passed on as one of the bloodiest war to take place, as well as the longest. How it ended, I would never know, as I died before the war could be put to a stop.

How scary it was to think that there existed kingdoms capable of running wars for such a long duration without caring to have sympathy for their citizens, or ever running out of weapons.

The lesson went on. I didn’t bother to pay close attention as I already had knowledge about the history; I even had knowledge of the future. Opal on the other hand eagerly listened to Shelly’s teachings.

“Well, that’ll be all for today. Any questions?” Shelly asked, closing the book.

I looked at Opal to see if she was curious about anything but since she remained silent, I shook my head no as an answer. Shelly nodded.

“Well then, perhaps you could escort me to my room?”

I looked at her in confusion. Shelly should be more than aware that I have never been to the castle (upon my reawakening) due to my status as an unwanted child. The maids in the castle love to talk after all. So it wouldn’t make sense for me to take her to the castle.

Seeing the look I gave her, she too scrunched up her face and appeared to be confused.

“Am I not to stay at this manor?” she asked. “His Majesty informed me that there was more than enough room for me to stay with you guys.”

I merely stayed silent despite the sparks of rage forming within my heart. Opal who seemed to have sense the change in my mood, looked down at the ground. Without saying anything, I made my way to one of the guest room with Shelly trailing behind me. As for Opal, I could only assume she had gone to see Coco in order to get some more training, and to avoid me because of how I was feeling. I didn’t mind that she would rather distance herself than be near me when I was angry. I know how destructive I can become when my anger takes over. Unlike my old self though, I at least knew not to let myself say and act in a harsh matter when I was angry.

After accompanying Shelly to the room, I didn’t bother to bid goodbye as I walked away and went back to my room. Somehow the sparks of rage cooled down and left nothing more than tiredness. I slid down and leaned against the door. Raising my hands, I covered my face and heaved a sigh.

I have to re-plan everything. With Shelly now residing in the manor, speaking openly about leaving was something I had avoid doing – not that I already presented the ideas yet. Another thing to worry about was how my mother would react to her. I sighed again. To calm the stress building up, I summoned my magic. Cold mist began to slip through my fingers. I peered down with a trace of emotions within me. As I called back the magic, spots of frostbites were left – tracing the palm of my hand, and parts of my fingers. Holding out my other hand to compare, I wasn’t surprised to see that it wasn’t only one hand that was starting to show symptoms but both. I hadn’t expect that my child body would increase the effect of the poison, seeing as Luna didn’t show symptoms until later on. But I should’ve known better. Luna was gifted with light; a magic that is also capable of healing better than most. At this point I was going to die before even escaping.

I got up from my position. Picking up the gloves on the desk and wearing them, I pulled out pen and paper. My other senses dulled as I concentrated fully on writing down ideas as to how I could leave the castle. So far the best idea was to leave alone, or with Opal, if my mother remains the same. I couldn’t risk having her ruin my chance to live a quiet life. I re-considered acting like a villain and allowing myself to be banished again, but there were too many risks that came along with it. And I had already vowed to never be the person I once was.

A pair of warm hands suddenly grabbed my face, forcing me to turn my face to the side. Familiar silver eyes peered deeply at me. With my attention now fully shifted, the warm hands left my face. I huffed and cupped my cheeks in annoyance.

“Is it your hobby to trespass, Sir Jugo?” I asked.

He grinned. “Call me Jiro.”

“You didn’t answer my question, but…fine,” I sighed, knowing it wasn’t going to be easy to get rid of him, “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged, grabbing hold of my hair in the same manner as he did the last time we met. He was truly a strange one. If my personality didn’t drive people away, it was usually the colouring of my hair. Yet he was casually playing with it.

“I was bored,” he answered.

I gave him a deadpanned look. “Why don’t you ask your ‘grandfather’ to assign you more work then? I’m too busy to entertain you.”

“Aww, don’t be that way. I’m pretty much your only friend. Someone like you…isn’t easily liked.”

I felt a shard pierce my heart at his harsh words. It wasn’t like what he said wasn’t true. It was very true in fact. I never had any true friends. I’d count the servants as friends but they aren’t around my age, and majority of the times they were only around me to fulfill their duty. Perhaps I could count Opal, but I barely know her right now, and she isn’t even human. While I could always make friends in the future, I was cold by nature – and I don’t mean just physically. I can’t express any emotions other than anger well; I can’t act cute and innocent like some noble girls; and by all means I hate having to converse with others unless it was necessary. So in other word, I wasn’t someone made to be surrounded by people, nor liked.
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I slapped his hand away and hurried to put everything away. He poked my cheek, much to my annoyance.

“Hey, hey, don’t be upset. I was just joking. You’re a kid, you have plenty of chances to make friends in the future.”

I made an effort to glare, but surprisingly I didn’t maintain it. It’s funny how I got angry at Shelly simply because she was going to stay here, yet I can’t find myself to stay angry with a trespasser. Really, was it because I reverted back to a child that my emotions are all over, or have I not grown enough?

“You aren’t wrong though,” I said honestly, getting off the chair. He followed me as I made way to the book shelves. He was silent for a bit before I felt his arms circle around me and his chin rest on the top of my head, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Sorry…” he murmured, “sorry.”

I huffed, feeling uncomfortable as I was being trapped by him. His words, however, did seem to cool down my irritation a little. It was strange.

“You’re a weird one,” I murmured back, reaching out and grabbing an unread book. He laughed, releasing me. I looked back at him in caution, wondering what he was planning to do next.

He sat down on the carpeted floor and held his arms wide open, a huge grin on his face. I scrunched my eyebrows and shook my head.

“No way.”

He pouted, “Pleaseee, this is what friends do.”

“While I may not have friends, I know well enough that friends of the opposite gender don’t do something like sitting on each other’s laps.”

“Come on! It’s not like I’m going to do anything to you. And I said it before, I’m your friend now. So don’t go saying something like you don’t have friends.”

I stared at him before extending my hand and whacking him on the head with the book I picked out.

“Ow!” he cried out, clutching his head. I smiled slightly.

Perhaps…

Perhaps, trusting him could become a grave mistake later on…but it would be nice to have a friend for once. It didn’t mean I was going to spill all of my secrets to him though. He still had a long way before gaining my full trust. After all, I don’t even know his true identity, or how he managed to find me