The Kingmaker System-Chapter 135 - 134. Scene At The Banquet (1)

"Lady Aurelius?"

"Prince Davian?"

We both almost gasped as Davian entered the balcony and I subconsciously brushed my fingers over the stone on my bracelet.

"I-I didn’t know you were here." He said hesitantly and I smiled.

"It’s fine, I wanted some fresh air so, I came here." I said and he cleared his throat shifting his weight from foot to foot.

"You can join me if you want." I offered.

"I can? Thank you, Lady Aurelius." He said before he walked in and stood beside me.

"You don’t seem to like being surrounded by too many people," I commented and he smiled.

"To be honest, I was feeling a bit suffocated because... the people kept approaching me with their daughters and I couldn’t handle it."

I almost chuckled as he admitted that.

"They are trying to secure their future through you, Your Grace."

"I know that." He sighed.

We were quiet for a moment before I looked at him, he was looking at the sky with a small smile on his face and his body relaxed, as if noticing my gaze he turned his head and his amethyst eyes met mine.

"You seem happier than when I saw you last time." I said.

"Pardon?"

"The last time when we met at the banquet, you seemed really upset but now you’re happy and I guess the reason is the presence of your parents, right?"

The twinkle caught his eyes as he smiled and I chuckled.

"And, you seem to have grown stronger as well."

"You can tell?"

"You waged a war on the one who threatened your parents and brought them back. If that isn’t growing strong then I wonder what it would be called?" I asked and he chuckled.

It was good to see him being so relaxed, he would usually have this tortured look in his eyes and stoic expression on his face that made him look older than his age.

But now that he was relieved and had what he was longing for he seemed like he had reverted back to his age.

I smiled as I looked back at the full moon in the sky.

Just like him, I would have to try to be strong enough to make sure that like him the other ones who would be in the similar state would be relieved.

"But, it wasn’t exactly me who saved them..." Davian said as he looked down at his hands.

"It was the benefactor who came in our lives and gave me hope."

"Your benefactor? Who was it?"

I looked at him as he looked slightly guilty, "He... is like a friend to me and he did so much for me but... because of a foolish misunderstanding from my side, I... I hurt him and now, he’s probably never going to see me again."

His smile disappeared and I saw him sigh as he twiddled his fingers.

"I don’t think he’s angry with you." I started and Davian looked at me.

"He might just be thinking that it’s best for him to stay out of your life now."

"Why would he do that?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "Probably because he thinks his work is done."

"B-But even after he saved my parents he-he never stayed back to see me... I-I wanted to apologise and thank him but he was gone... And he wouldn’t even respond to my letters."

I smiled as he admitted his thoughts and I was almost tempted to ruffle his hair.

"Your Grace," I started, "every person has a purpose while entering someone’s life. His purpose would be to bring what you yearned for back to you. He did that and then he left. It can be as simple as that."

Davian looked at me and then shook his head, "I still won’t feel at ease unless I hear back from him."

Stubborn as ever.

"Besides, I apologise for last time." He said and I tilted my head to one side as he suddenly apologised.

"Apologise, for what, Your Grace?" I asked.

"The last time that we met, you offered me friendship but I couldn’t answer you back then." He said and I recalled of the time when I’d asked him if he wanted to be friends and because of his inferiority complex he denied.

"Are you still willing to be my friend?" He asked hesitantly and I looked at him as the blowing wind made his bangs dance over his eyes.

I smiled as I reached my hand out to him, "I’d love to."

His smile almost blinded me as he grasped my hand making me feel rather relieved.

Suddenly there was a loud sound which made us both turn before we exchanged a glance and made our way towards the source.

There was a crowd of children gathered and everyone was gasping and the murmuring, before I could ask someone what was going on I heard the familiar voice.

"Is that all you’ve got?"

I gently pushed away the kids blocking my way as I realised that I didn’t even notice when the parties had separated into the adults section and kids section.

I broke past the gathered crowd and saw a kid dressed nicely but drenched in juice kneeling on the floor with two teams in front of me.

One team comprised of Prince Carlos and his minions and other not so surprisingly, was of Prince Eric but alongside him stood my beloved brother and his friends.

"What are they up to?" I mumbled.

"It seems like even your friends are the same, Prince Carlos. Relying on someone else’s strength." Eric commented.

"Shut your trap, you are not even worthy of calling yourself a prince!" Carlos shouted.

"And you are?" Eric shot back.

I almost turned around to leave as this was giving me secondhand embarrassment. It was a good thing that the adults weren’t around or this thing would have become headlines for tomorrow’s news articles.

"Just because you are supported by Marquis doesn’t make you invincible, imbecile!" Carlos shouted making the waves of gasps rush through the crowd.

Eric snorted, "You have no idea who’s supporting me. The likes of you don’t even stand a chance before his magnificence."

Okay, I liked the fact that he was bragging about me but I guess it was slightly risky to let him do that.

"Hah? Does such kind of person even exist?" Carlos laughed, "and if he did, would he choose you of all people?"

I could see Eric smirking and I sighed before I looked at Rune and used telekinesis to tug at his sword lightly making him jerk a little before he started looking around until his eyes fell on me.

I gestured for him to stop Eric and he gave me a nod before he cleared his throat.

"I suppose we’ve done enough here, Your Highness." Rune spoke up gently touching Eric’s arm.

"No, I haven’t!" Eric shouted as he glared at Carlos.

"Whoever in their sane mind would choose a shadow prince who has no potential? Unlike me, who is born to be the King."

"You can’t even create smoke and call yourself King already." Eric rebuked making Carlos grit his teeth.

"As if you can."

Eric’s smirk turned dark as he brought his hand up and a fire ball appeared making everyone gasp and stumble back.

"Oh, my!"

"Tha-That-That’s fire!"

"It’s fire!"

"First Prince Eric has manifested his magic already!"

Carlos’s face was a sight to see when he saw the fire ball hovering over Eric’s palm.

"Th-That isn’t real." He retorted and Eric smirked before he shot it at the wall behind Carlos setting the flowers that were in the vase on fire.

This would be a historic fight if I didn’t stop it from escalating.

Watching as the flames licked over the flowers made the children cry out and I sighed gesturing Rune to do something.

"Your Highness!" Rune tugged at Eric’s arm before he went on to do more.

"Master wants you to stop right now! He will be mad if you do more." I heard Rune hissing into Eric’s ear making sure nobody else heard him.

Eric’s shoulders relaxed and he looked at the frantic kids. Rune sighed and shot the frost spell from his hand taking out the fire and turning the remnants of the flowers into frozen pieces.

"Whoa! E-Even Little Duke Rune has manifested his magic!"

"That was a Frost spell!"

"First it was Prince Eric and now even Little Duke!"

The kids were having a field day with the incident that just took place and I shook my head feeling my temples aching.

I saw Rune dragging Eric away from the scene with his friends following. I would decide their punishments later but for now, I needed to make sure to make the best out of this situation.

Usually the kids of nobles had a hard time manifesting their magic. In normal cases, the magic manifested between the age of 15 to 18 but some even after growing past their coming-of-age couldn’t manifest it. Manifesting them before the age of 14 was the sign that the noble blood in their veins was purer.

Eric and Rune did show off but it would help setting fire under the Queen’s seat.

"He manifested his magic... and even has made new friends..." I heard Davian mutter under his breath.

"Pardon?" I asked and Davian looked down at me.

"Um... Nothing. I was just..."

Come to think of it, weren’t Davian and Eric friends?

He could have gone forth to join but he didn’t, was he feeling bad that Eric had other friends now?

I was about to ask him when I felt hands over my shoulders.

"Reina?" I turned to see Rune who looked apologetic.

"I-I’m sorry, I-"

I smiled at him and he gulped before he noticed Davian.

"Prince Davian?" He looked at him and then at me as if wondering why we were together.

"I guess, you have a lot to say to me, right brother?" I asked with a sickly sweet smile and he looked at me with a nervous chuckle.

"Uh... yes, I do. Let’s head back now, father must be looking for us." He turned me around and I looked at Davian with a smile.

"Let’s meet again, Your Grace."

"Yes, Miss Reina." He replied with a smile.

Rune dragged me away and as soon as we were out of earshot I spoke up.

"Be ready for your punishment, both of you."

"Me too?!" Rune gasped.

"Of course, you were supposed to stop him. We can’t afford attention on Eric at this point."

"B-But I couldn’t stop him when Prince Carlos started badmouthing him... At first, Prince Eric didn’t have any strength but now he has so, he isn’t going to be quiet when someone bullies him."

I sighed, "I can understand that but... I guess, I’ll have to have a talk with him myself."

"Then, I won’t be punished, right?" He asked with an expectant smile and I looked back at him with a smile of my own.

"You both will be punished."