[54.2] It is, in fact, Connected

I leaned against Cyrus's legs as he dried my hair delicately with a towel. He treated each strand of hair as if it was some important treasure.

His blue eyes drifted down to me, "Why did you come visit? Did you miss me?"

"N-No! I came to deliver cookies!"

His lips curled into a smug smile, "Mhm. Sure."

"No! Really! My mother made you cookies!"

"Where are they?"

"Oh… Um…" I thought back and realized something important. I turned away from him in shame, "...I forgot them at home."

His laughter reverberated in my chest, "How convenient."

I jumped up without warning, causing him to lean back in surprise. I got close to his face and spoke defensively, "No really! My mother made you your favorite cookies!"

He chuckled, "Okay. I believe you."

I thought for a moment before my face lit up with a brilliant idea, "You should come to stay with me!"

"Hm?"

"I don't want you to be alone right now and let you starve to death."

His face twitched, "You know I can cook, right? I'm not useless."

I ignored him, "-I can convince my Father to let you stay over. I'm sure he will be more willing considering that Cald-"

His expression darkened.

I immediately changed my words, "-Your situation is what it is."

He let out a sigh and pulled me into a hug from behind, "As long as I can sleep next to you, I will go."

"I'm not opposed, but the Headmaster may not be so easy to convince." Thinking about being pulled into a hug all night next to a hunk made me clear my throat with a smile, "-Although I am willing to try."

He nuzzled into my neck, "If you ask him, he would try to kill me."

I laughed, "That's true, but maybe we can guilt trip him."

Cyrus hummed in disbelief, "The Headmaster is impervious to guilt-tripping."

…Very true.

I tapped his arms gently, "Shall we go?"

He agreed and we quickly grab our things and went to the door to leave. When Cyrus found it in shambles, he gave me an accusatory look.

I flushed and averted my gaze, "I told you I was panicking."

He bent down to pick up a piece of the door that had scorch marks on it, "You completely obliterated it."

"I-I will send someone to fix it."

I quickly created a block of ice to cover the opening and prevent any intruders before leaving with Cyrus. The rain still hadn't stopped so we climbed into a carriage and returned without my ice chunk. When we arrived, Cyrus helped me out of the carriage and held the umbrella over me so I wouldn't get wet. We walked inside where I shouted, "Mummy! Papa! Cyrus is going to stay here with us-"

I froze when I noticed the Headmaster on the chair sitting with his arms crossed and a gloomy expression on his face.

Uh oh. Cyrus is definitely dead.

Chief Gonza was sitting on the couch with a cup of tea in his hands. He turned to me with a bright grin, "Aha! Prince Cyrus! Just the person I wanted to see!"

The Headmaster flashed him a warning glance, "Gonza. I've told you to keep this matter away from my household."

He paid this no attention, "Prince Cyrus isn't your household…. Yet."

"Gonza-"

Chief Gonza grinned brightly, even almost madly, at Cyrus, "I have a huge favor to ask of you."

Cyrus lifted an eyebrow, "Hm?"

"-It is a very important matter and important for the sake of our Kingdom and its future! I need your familiar to-" Chief Gonza suddenly realized something and looked at Cyrus cautiously, "-Um. Where's Caldwell?"

Cyrus clenched his fist which began to tremble. I quickly reached out to it to hold it and soothe him. He muttered, "He's gone."

Chief Gonza dropped his tea which splashed over the ground, but he didn't notice. A look of panic crossed his face as he jumped up, "He died!?!"

I jumped into the conversation quickly, "No, no! He's just on vacation!"

Chief Gonza looked at me incredulously, "...Vacation?"

I nodded, "That's right! So stop asking!"

Chief Gonza clicked his tongue, "That's going to complicate things."

"So what's going on?"

Chief Gonza grabbed Cyrus and me and dragged us over to the table. He slapped down a large map filled with locations, newspaper articles, and illegible writing, and started pointing at it like a madman, "Okay! So the so-called haunted house was where it all began!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Where what began?"

"Um… I'm not sure exactly what-BUT! It began!"

"..."

"Years before you came into the picture, I had a prophecy come to me! A Monster would invade the Kingdom and destroy everything!"

I felt my blood chill.

He's talking about the prophecy I accidentally saw as a child.

I spoke up, "But you don't know that for sure."

He paused then started rambling incessantly, "You're right… BUT! I still saw some large shadow-like creature destroy everything around it. With each step it took, the plants would suddenly age and shrivel, animals would revert back to babies, and no one could reason with the beast. Then I had a prophecy come to me at that house. It was somehow connected to that Monster! I'm certain it's where it originated from. AND BEFORE THAT I've had a prophecy connecting my family to that Monster and my parent's death! Then, recently, I had a prophecy come to me about a catalyst that will set off that Monster. I have no doubt that this catalyst is the most dangerous thing of all! AND! I know where to find it! I have to go to the willow tree at the-"

The Headmaster suddenly shouted, "GONZA! I told you! No conspiracy talk around my family!"

"It's not a conspiracy! It's real! I know it is!" Chief Gonza ran over to us and held my shoulder with an intense and crazy look in his eyes, "You believe me, right Reika?"

"Uhhhhh-"

He was speaking so quickly I didn't catch a thing!

Cyrus took Chief Gonza's hands off of my shoulder looking as if he was punched in the gut, "Did you just see this prophecy or do you have something to back up your suspicions?"

Chief Gonza looked a little embarrassed, "Oh… Um. Well, no. I don't have anything to back this up. BUT! I know I'm right! I'm an astrology attribute!"

Seeing his confident expression, I felt like there was some credence behind his words.

Maybe his prophecies aren't complete crap.

The Headmaster spoke up, "You also had a prophecy that Maria's husband would be murdered by her, but in reality, the husband had merely slipped off the roof and landed on his head! She was in prison when her husband fell and died! She couldn't be by his side and that was because of your so-called infallible prophecy!"

Chief Gonza's face turned red, "T-That was a fluke."

I take it back.

His prophecies are sh*t.

Cyrus gave me a look, "...I'm going to put my things upstairs."

I nodded and he went up the stairs to the spare bedroom.

The Headmaster watched him go while grinding his teeth, "I didn't give him permission to stay."