Secret (1)

For a while, Alexander had rested his head on Cedar's shoulders while deep in thought.

As silence ensued, Gale felt a little bit awkward so she faked a cough and broke the silence, "Does His Highness--"

"Alex." The Prince interrupted her, as he lifted his head to face her. "Call me that when there's no one's around... like you used to..."

Gale involuntarily gulped as her face flushed red.

Alexander's face was only about an inch away from her own and his aquamarine eyes seem to pierce through her soul, giving her a vague feeling of being bare in front of him.

"...that... my lord, surely you are jesting?" avoiding his stare, she looked sideways. "I had never been too rude as to call out your highness' given name..."

Hearing this, the corners of Alexander's lips slightly hooked up. "Oh... you know?"

"Of course I would know, huh?" she paused as she realized something. "Ah. Your Highness is testing me..."

Alexander chuckled softly and patted Cedar's head. "So? Would you tell me what happened now? You were telling that Cedar had... well,... died?"

"Erm... not exactly died but... how should I say this..." Gale contemplated. "I and Cedar are of the same soul. You see, the gods told me that there are other dimensions apart from here. And in those dimensions, there were people who had the same soul's fragment."

She then stood up and went to get the water container that was on the table and poured some into the wooden cup.

"Like the water in this container, a person has a single soul. And it's fragments was placed in different 'cups' or vessel in each dimension. Like Cedar and me, we were a single soul but was in a different dimension. The same goes for everyone, and those dimensions never get entangled and the vessels don't meet one another. However, something unimaginable happened to me, involving the gods. Then my vessel was shattered, while on the other hand, Cedar's 'cup' was drained when he was poisoned." Gale drank the water in just three big gulps, spilling a bit of water on her mouth but she just wiped it off with the back of her hand before continuing. "As Cedar's container was drained, it gained a few cracks. However, since I wasn't supposed to die, in order to preserve my soul fragment, they decided to make do with the cracked vessel and I was transferred to this body, thus giving a second life to Cedar... while also maintaining my memories. That's why, I can say that I am certainly Cedar... only with additional memories."

"Hmm... A second life... I see..." Alexander crossed his arms on his chest as he slightly frowned. "...but you seem to be on the feminine side. Are you perhaps...?

Alexander didn't mention the words but Gale understood what he's implying.

She shyly nodded her head to confirm his conjecture.

"Amazing..."

Hearing those words, spoken with a hint of mischief, Gale couldn't help but look up at the prince who was walking slowly towards her.

'Gulp... for some reason, I have a bad feeling about this...' Gale instinctively stepped backward as she felt a deja vu.

"What? Running away?" Alexander raised one of his eyebrows as he grinned, showing his perfectly lined teeth. "That was rude... I was only planning to help you."

"H-Help? For what?" still cautious, she asked, still trying to move away from the prince.

However, with a single step, Alexander caught up to her. Gale was surprised by his sudden movement and felt a warm hand on her waist, forcefully pulling her.

As Cedar's body was about a head and a half smaller than Alexander, her face was almost buried on the prince's chest, if not for her hands resting on them in an attempt to push him away.

However, even when Gale pushed the prince with Cedar's physical strength, he didn't budge at all.

'Shit! How strong is this guy?' she cursed inwardly. "Your highness, this is... this isn't appropriate..."

"I said that I would help you, didn't I?" Alexander whispered on her ear and his breath tickled her right ear, making her body stiff.

Gale breathed deeply, trying to shake off her embarrassment and spoke in a soft voice, "Wh-what do you mean?"

"I'll help you decide whether you'd live as a male or not." Alexander, clearly amused by her reactions talked and softly blew on her ear.

"Hiii!" with the prince's sudden attack, Gale felt that every hair on her body stood up.

"I-I don't need to decide... Your Highness, I am a man!" Gale was struggling in his arms, trying to escape with no avail.

"But you have the consciousness of a lady..." then without any warning, the tip of his tongue suddenly assaulted her ear.

"S-stop... that... ah..." Gale shuddered at the unfamiliar feeling and was surprised that such a lewd sound came from her.

"See? Even your moan sounded like a girl's..." Ignoring the strong resisting hands on his chest, he utilized a thin layer of mana in his entire body and continued on licking Cedar's ear, down to his neck as his hands started to move...

.....

The sky was now filled with bright stars and the Prince's convoy had set up their camp for the night.

Roki was in the middle of finishing his reports and was preparing his men to depart as early as possible, while Lato and Yrhan just sat quietly, not minding each other's business. After all, they possess the dark and light energy respectively, thus, it was quite awkward between them, not to mention that elves had prejudice towards necromancers.

Glancing at the carriage embedded with spatial magic, the High Priest couldn't help but frown. More than three hours had already passed since Alexander and Cedar went in yet they're still inside. For this reason, Yrhan was starting to get worried over Cedar, 'This is the worst! If that Crown Prince suddenly decided to kill the knight, I don't think that amulet would be able to save him... ugh... then I would probably end up facing the wrath of those otaku gods... so troublesome.'

Just as he was ranting with himself, the carriage's door was then pushed opened and the Crown Prince went out, still as neat as ever, while the corner of his lips showed a faint smile. In contrast, Cedar slowly walked outside with a dazed expression and his ears are visibly red even though the light coming from the torches around the camp wasn't much.

Both Lato and Yrhan watched the two walk out the carriage but restrained themselves from asking questions, silently bowing their heads when the prince went to their direction.

"Yrhan." The prince called the high priest's name and the latter lightly flinched.

"Yes, Your Highness..." even though he's quite nervous, Yrhan still managed to answer with a calm expression.

"..." For a few seconds, the Crown Prince stared at Yrhan's figure in silence. "You're not allowed to stay in the same room as Cedar... and make sure that he takes his baths alone."

"Excuse m—er, pardon, your Highness?" with a dumbfounded expression, he gawked at the royalty before him.

"I'm sure you know his real identity, am I wrong?"

Yrhan froze for a second before glaring at Cedar who's standing not too far away from the prince's back.

When their eyes met, Cedar, who was somewhat acting strange, awkwardly smiled before nodding his head, confirming that it was ok, and the cat's already out in the bag.

With this, Yrhan composed himself and after taking in a deep breath, he lowered his head again. "Please pardon me, Your Highness... I didn't mean to hide it... But since it was the decree of gods that was given to me I had no choice but to obey."

'Since it came to this, I'd just push the blame on them... It's their fault anyway.' Yrhan thought while answering Alexander.

"So it really was the gods' doing, huh? Interesting." Alexander uttered softly as if he's whispering. "That's fine then..."

"I thank your highness for your benevolence."

"Lato..." Alexander then turned to the necromancer and stared at him for a few seconds without a change in his expression.

Lato blinked a few times as he was quite surprised by Alexander's stare. "Y-Your Highness?"

"Let's head to Timbreford tonight. We'll be counting on you."

"Understood." Lato lowered his head and answered.

"Yrhan, you go on the same carriage as him." Alexander knew about the differences and conflict of the elves and necromancers. However, he ordered the cooperation between the two with nonchalance before leaving, not giving them a chance to complain.

As the Crown Prince left, Yrhan's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

"Ah... he's angry, alright..."