Chapter 53 - Imagine Being Captured by a Fish (1)

I woke up to a feeling of soft cushioning beneath me, warm blankets, and warm sunlight shining down onto me through the curtains of the "window." 

It was the most comfortable I'd ever felt, even better than the bed I slept in during my time in Verity Palace in the Ender Empire. Except for one thing, the person next to me hugging me like I was a giant teddy bear.

Opening my eyes and turning my head to stare blankly at the person next to me, I quickly figured out what happened to me and figured I was in the Island palace in Alkmene, no thanks to my novel knowledge.

But unfortunately, the person hugging me like some stuffed animal was none other than our dearest fish king, Llyr. I peeled his hand off of me and tried to get up, but he suddenly woke up and grabbed me from behind.

"Mmmm!" He groaned, still asleep, and yanked me back into bed. I tried to get free, but I couldn't without risking waking him up, so my only solution was to wait till he awoke and persuade him to let me go.

'Haaaa, gods damn it! This sucks! I feel so stupid, I should've known he was going to try something!'

I felt quite silly, especially at the fact that I fell for a classic trick in sea folk tales and novels. But there wasn't much I could do about it other than lay here and wait for him to either wake up or loosen his grip for me to slip out.

***

"Sir Victor," Brielle announced, knocking on his bedroom door, "Someone has sent a letter for you, it has His Lordship's stamp on it too."

"Ugh, give it here," He said, opening the door sluggishly and taking the letter from her, "Let's see what our troublesome Lord has to say to us this time."

Victor opened the door, still in his PJs and a robe. It was late at night when the city's messenger company sent out the letter, but of course, they also didn't receive it till five minutes ago. Talk about fast postmen!

"..." Victor read the letter for a few moments, but crumpled it up before even bothering to finish it, "HA! Foolish man, always walking straight into trouble!"

"Um, is something the matter sir?" Brielle asked, nervous seeing Victor's spout of anger.

"Haaa, nothing you need to worry about Miss. Brielle. Just go get Avery ready to leave the estate, I'll confront His Grace about what is going on," Victor replied, running his fingers through his hand.

"Alright, shall I take Avery away from the estate for a while?" She asked in response, knowing that it would get messy considering the Duke's possessiveness.

"Yes, take her all the way to Lady Sakamotos if you have to. I don't want her to be anywhere near the estate or estate town while that maniac is here, for all we know he could try to kill one of us for failing in our jobs." Victor exclaimed, warry of the rumors surrounding the petty emperor's "odd" cousin.

"Understood. But do be careful, if anything happens we servants can't do much to refute," Brielle commented before closing the door and heading to Avery's quarters.

"Haaaaaa, why did Lev make that mistake that night, and the deal the other day…? I just do not understand," He mumbled to himself before finishing going over to his desk to write to a "certain someone."

***

A few hours later, Llyr had finally woken up but Lev had also fallen back asleep. He was now being woken up by someone, his voice sounded a tad familiar, but he wasn't sure when he heard it.

"Your Lordship, you need to get up! If you don't our foolish King is going to have my poor head!" The attendant shouted. It was a rough man's voice, it also held weariness from the night before.

"Urgh, five more minutes!" I groaned, still half asleep and not yet aware of my new circumstance.

"Haaa, please don't hit me for this!" The attendant mumbled before splashing some water onto me, but not enough to get the bed wet.

"Eeek! That's cold!" I shouted, sitting up, now reminded of what went on last night and this mourning, "Tell me, could I perhaps be in the Terra Palace? And who exactly are you?"

"Hrm, I thought you might ask that when you woke up," The man answered, then put his hand to his heart and bowed, "My name is Lancelot Viatrix, both the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs. And yes, you are indeed in the Terra Palace."

'Wow. Way to get creative with names, author.'

"Heh, I feel like I've heard a similar name before," I jested, standing up, my hair soaking and dripping with water.

"Lance is quite the popular name these days, however, I was born before these times, so I was fortunate enough to not be given a popular name from back then, otherwise I would've been named Bartholomew," he joked, before continuing, "And to answer you're other question, you are indeed in the island Palace."

"Yay, just where I wanted to be!" I joked sarcastically, then moved my hair out of my face to get a better look at Lancelot and my surroundings.

'Huh, despite the fish details, he is quite handsome!'

Lancelot had silky, savvy black hair that went down to the nape of his neck paired with sea-green eyes and blueish-grayish-tinted skin. His ear lobes were reminiscent of fish fins and he had three "scars" each on both sides of his neck, perhaps where his gills would be in his fish-like form. He looked to be about 6'6.

He was also currently wearing a long white tunic-like robe with blue lining the edges, a blue fabric that went along his shoulder to his side, and another piece acting as a belt for his robe. The outfit was tied together with sandals and golden necklaces and bracelets.

"Yes, and my apologies for this whole fiasco. I tried to tell his majesty to return you to your home but he refused to listen, he is acting like such a child as always," Lancelot said, mumbling the last part under his breath.

"Let me guess. He came in carrying me and refused to let go of me until you lot bathed me and put me in bed. Am I correct?" I summarized, recalling when I let him hug me while we were listening to Adonis play in the square.

"My, your accuracy is quite impressive. I presume this is not your first Rhodio," he asked, tilting his head slightly and smiling.

"Not exactly, but I've heard of something happening to others, quite the unfortunate thing," I admitted, referencing the kidnapping trope often in BL novels.

"I see…Well, sadly, we will have to cut our conversation short. His Majesty would like to have breakfast with you, so please get ready and come down as soon as you're done," Lancelot added before he left the room, and a small maid came in.

The girl had long light gray hair pulled into two pigtails, paired with teal eyes and light-blue tinted skin. She wore a long dark blue maid's dress with a white apron and bonnet. She looked a bit on the younger side compared to all of the Alkmenians I'd seen so far, and on the shorter side as well, being about 5'6.

The young maid came in carrying a box, one with a familiar box at that. One I recognized all too well, which made me know that those were "those" clothes.

"Good morning your Lordship, I hope you had a good rest," She expressed, putting the box on the dresser and bowing briefly, "As Minister Viatrix said earlier, his majesty expressed his desire to eat with you this morning, so if you could please get ready…"

"Those clothes," I said, cutting her off and pointing at the box, "Did it perhaps come from a place called, Anatole Boutique?"

"Hm? Oh yes, according to His Majesty, he bought that for you! If you would like, I could bring you something else, but his majesty specifically asked for me to bring you that one," She explained.

"I see…" I said solemnly, walking over to the box and taking the outfit out, just to see that it really was the exact same one he picked out, "...What was your name again?"

"Oh! My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Araluen Oriana! I will be the maid that is in charge of serving to from now on," She said with a curtsy, clearly the daughter of a noble family.

'She should be easy enough.'

"Well then, I suppose I'll be in your care," I replied, then walked over to her as she stood back up. Grabbing her chin and wearing a flirtatious smile, I said, "I'll be counting on you from now on, so don't let me down. Alright?"

"Y-Yes! I promise to fulfill your requests to the best of my abilities!" Araleun exclaimed, jumping a tad and blush spreading across her face.

"Good, now run along," I took my hand away and put my hand on her shoulder before leaning down to whisper in her ear, "Unless you wish to watch me change."

"M-My apologies! I will wait outside, that way I can escort you to the dining hall!" She announced, her face still full of blush, then scurried off to wait outside my door.

'How naive, she'll be easy to manipulate…let's just hope she's unloyal enough to that fish, as of to help me escape this damned place.'

***

"That damned fish!" 

"Your Grace, please calm down!"

"Calm down? Calm down?!" The man slammed on the table, "How the hell am I supposed to remain calm? Especially after that oblivious fish king kidnapped the Viscount!"

"Duke Casilda, with all due respect, you are acting out of line. And watch what you say, you could get executed for straightforwardly insulting royalty, even if you are the cousin to the king."

"HA! Victor Gwyneira, as his personal butler for the past 17 or how many years, how could you not march right over to Alkmene and demand your master back? And Sir Arwan, you can't talk. Don't think that I couldn't smell your scent all over him!" Oryn lectured the two, furious that they hadn't gone to Alkmene.

Earlier in the morning, Oryn had come to see Lev to discuss what their form of a "date" would be. Only to find out that his precious Viscount was not there, and had instead been forced to elope to some foreign kingdom with some man he didn't even love…Or at least that was how the Duke saw it.

"You think I didn't send a letter requesting him back or to visit to have a meeting? Because I did, I have sent numerous letters since last night, requesting and demanding that he returns his lordship or to at least have a chat with him at the palace," Victor explained.

"Ho? Then why aren't you there? If you really were worried, you and that dragon would've gone over there and landed on their front doorstep to take him back!" Oryn argued back, unyielding in his stance.

In that way, Oryn was truly caring for Lev. But we all know it was his possessiveness speaking. Oryn Casilda was someone who has had multiple lovers in the past, he was notorious for being possessive of all of them, but still quite caring.

"If I did, neither of us would be standing here. Terra palace is one of the most heavily guarded places in the world, only second to the Temple to the Goddess Anastacia, if we had gone there we would have been smighted!" Victor reminded, pointing out that it would've been for nothing if they did.

"You could have asked for an invitation, I'm sure that knowing of the relation you two had, King Vellamo would have approved of it," The Duke shot back, not backing down one bit.

"We did, but we were denied! Sir Victor has stayed up for the past two days, communicating with His Majesty and subordinates via letter, it was only today that we realized his lordship was asleep and only just woke up!" Arwan interjected, his anger getting the best of him.

"Shut it you stupid lizard, if you hadn't stuck your fucking dic-" Oryn started to say before being punched by Arwan and fell to the ground. Showing that dragons are still stronger, even if they are dumber than a mere battle mage.

"Shut you're fucking mouth, just because you're a duke, it doesn't mean you have the right to say whatever the hell you want! Now if you excuse me, I'm actually going to go do something about this whole ordeal and inform Crown Prince Emeric. At least he'll do more than the two of you dickheads have been doing for the last 20 minutes!" Arwan yelled, before opening the window and flying out of it towards Arisu Palace.