Chapter 34

Joshua was smart enough to know what the emperor was playing at. And so he smiled, mischievously.

"I see. Then let me refresh your memory with Miss Mage", that did it.

"No!- ahem, we needn't get dirt involved in this", Alastair replied, forcing himself to calm down and not get caught in Joshua's game.

"Are you sure? If she's here you might remember".

"No, no,no" he looked outside the window and caught Hectors gaze while he cursed, "I remember now..." he sullenly spoke.

"I'm sure you do" Joshua gave a triumphed smile while Alastair just scowled back at him.

"And you want to know if anything's changed?" Alastair asked in dread.

Joshua didn't speak and instead waited for Alastair to continue while wearing his most expectant smile.

Alastair sighed.

"It's the same answer" it was a lie, he knew that, but did Joshua know?

"I thought it might be." Joshua replied with a joyful smile, "I've messaged my friend in Dai and she says she's up for a date".

Alastair stared at him with knit brows, 'a date? With an elf?' His mind wandered at it, but eventually he shook his head.

"I'll stick to humans Enflada" he replied with another frown. He knew which human he wanted.

'Except.. I can't have her... No!- what am I thinking!?' He shook his head at his strange thoughts.

"But what if you never feel attracted to them? You'll never learn to fall in love, i can't say much for it since I'm not yet engaged, but I've never felt anything for someone I'm not attracted to" Despite his annoying words, Alastair understood that he was worried about him. At that he gave in.

"Fine, but postpone it for a month" he sighed.

"Great!" Joshua chirped.

During their talk they didn't realise that way beneath them, in the farthest garden where Alexis and Hector studied, something interesting was happening.

"That's impossible!" Hector argued back to an equally enraged Alexis.

"Then how did that happen?" She roared back, pissed that he so easily wrote her words off as a lie.

"It couldn't have. There's no way that would happen! This is shadow magic we're speaking about. It's rare Alexis. The Empire only sees three users every year" Hector was basing it off facts. It was how he usually did things and it seemed like the only sensible way. But, he had to admit, Alexis had a crazy amount of mana which seemed to turn to just about any shade that would bounce of a prism.

"But it did. I'll do it again!" Alexis spoke as she lifted her hands to release that black mist, but she was quickly stopped by Hector.

"Don't! Shadow magic is dangerous, it can easily kill and do so much gruesome stuff, it's used for things like possession and manipulation. I will not and have not been instructed to teach you that, so please keep it to yourself", his expression was serious, so Alexis nodded. She trusted Hector when it came to such things and with his words realised something very disturbing.

"Then, this whole time, has that Daron guy been manipulating Alastair?" Alexis was almost too afraid to hear the answer as she spoke.

Hector also looked grim at the thought.

"Yes".

A solemn air, heavy and dark hung between them as they both sympathised with the Emperor. Hector looked up to where his office was and got his eye for a mere second before he stood up at the sound of approaching footsteps.

Alexis on the other hand didn't react to the visitor until he sat down next to her while gazing curiously at her face. She already knew he was, but felt too depressed to say anything.

'Poor Alastair' she frowned as she realised he would be angry if he found out she was pitying him and turned to her blonde haired, violet eyed visitor.

"Prince Dwayne". Her voice had enough salt in it to poison an army.

"Miss Mage". Dwaynes voice was just as welcoming as her own.

"Can I help you?" She coldly asked.

"No, I'm just here to see how your lessons go. That is, if you actually learn anything", Alexis narrowed her eyes at his words and turned to Hector.

"Well my next class was learning how to burn a prince to ashes, would you like to help me?" To her dismay, he just laughed back at her.

"You jest Miss Mage".

"I'm afraid I don't". He didn't seem to get the message.

"Please continue, I would just like to watch and observe", Alexis wanted to throw a rock at him, but held back as she opted to finish her lessons.

"Why not partake your highness?" Hector proposed, but he was met with a stiff face.

"I'm afraid I'm not able to use mana" his voice was much less arrogant when he said this and Alexis just snorted.

She smirked at him and received the fakest smile she had ever seen.

"Oh well, let's begin" she shrugged and the lesson started.

Today's lesson would focus on healing, something Alexis was supposed to learn.

"When people begin to learn how to heal, they usually start with broken stems, dried leaves and eventually withered flowers. After that they move to healing on animals and then humans", Hector explained while he proceeded to break the stem of a flower.

"Knowing what you're about to heal is also important, so understanding the structure of a plant is requirement".

"Oh, well that's simple enough then", Alexis said, silently she thanked her high school biology teacher.

"Oh? But understanding the structure of a plant is quite difficult, If you don't know it you can completely deform"-

"So how do I pour mana into it?" She said, rudely interrupting Hector without a second thought and he just sighed as he taught her.

To his surprise the flower sat back, straight as a needle, and in top shape.

"H-how?" Hector gasped.

"What can I say? I'm a natural" Alexis boasted.

They didn't notice the prince who also stared in wonder at the work so easily done by her and became even more serious at the thought of recruiting her.

'She must be some sort of genius...' he mused.