Elaine, Charles, Caden, Ryland, and Prince Philip had gathered in my dorm room where a suspenseful silence hung in the air.
"I was attacked from behind after wining a match during our magical combat class." I stated simply, deciding to just spit it out.
"What?!"
"Who?!"
A chorus of shouts echoed through the room, but quickly died down when they saw that I wasn't planning on answering their questions if they kept shouting.
"Are you finished?" I asked with a raised brow. Caden and Prince Philip, the main perpetrators, looked to the ground and nodded their heads.
"Yes, I was attacked. It was one of Lytton's followers, but I don't know his name. However, that's not why I called you guys here."
Except for Elaine, everyone's head snapped towards me, their eyes wide.
"Did something else happened?" Charles asked calmly while his hand were balled into tight fists.
"I felt the same mana on the guy who had attacked me as the one I felt in the forest. I don't know why or how it got on him, but what I did notice was that he was carrying a knife made up of a strange black metal."
This time the room was silent while everyone creased their brows, taking a moment to process the new information.
"Are you sure it was the same mana?" Ryland asked, his face pale. His voice didn't waver, but I couldn't help but get the feeling that his question was desperate.
"It was the same, I felt it too." Elaine assured, shivering at the memory of it. Caden looked to her with a concerned expression, as if he was asking if she was okay. Elaine nodded to him with a small smile.
Prince Philip, who seemed to be the least shocked out of all the guys to hear the news, had his face in his hands as he rubbed his forehead and temples.
"You okay?" I asked, wondering what he knew that had made him look like that. Prince Philip was normally good at handling the stress of political issues or threats concerning our kingdom, so it was rare to see him looking so anxious.
It took Prince Philip a moment to compose himself, but when he finally sat up to face us, his eyes looked determined rather than afraid. In these types of situations, I was always impressed by Prince Philip and his growth. When the two of us were eleven, Prince Philip had panicked for a moment when I was attacked by a wolf, however that panic didn't last for long. In moments he was bandaging me up, ignoring the large amount of blood and the fact that we had both almost died. Ever since then, he had become even better at handling stress and was someone who could keep his composure in almost every circumstance.
"The strange metal you mentioned, what did it look like?" Prince Philip asked, his eyes focusing on me with a new intensity. I did't know what he had been dealing with at the castle, but I had a feeling that what I said had something to do with it, and it probably had just made everything worse.
"I only caught a glimpse of it, but what I do remember is that the metal was completely black, as if it was made from the night sky." I said, trying to picture the dagger in my mind.
"The blade was also pretty small, even for a dagger. Honestly, it wouldn't have done much damage as long as there wasn't any poison on it."
When I mentioned the word 'poison' my eye's darted to Ryland who was looking at me with an unreadable expression.
"It's worse than we thought," Prince Philip sighed, putting his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward, his eyes glazing over as the wheels started to turn in his head.
"What is?" Caden asked before I could, unconsciously leaning towards the prince with both a curious and uneasy expression.
Prince Philip let out another sigh before answering.
"I'll probably get shit for this, but at this point you guys need to know." Prince Philip began, gaining the undivided attention of everyone in the room.
"Recently, we have gotten strange reports about weapons made out of the ore that was recently discovered in Cynth. The Queen has not yet allowed the oar to be exported from the country, so it must have been obtained illegally."
"Are you saying that the dagger was made of the same oar? But it didn't look like he had imbued any mana into it. Why would someone who can already manipulate mana, use that type of weapon?" I asked, struggling to put the information together so that it made sense.
"If it's like you described it, then I'm positive. I don't know why that bastard tried to attack you with such a rare weapon, but if he's one of Lytton's followers then..." Prince Philip trailed off, hesitant to say anymore.
"All of this is speculation, so I don't want you to jump to conclusions or act on any of the information I'm about to tell you." Prince Philip cautioned, giving me an accusing look. I looked away sheepishly, knowing that his words were most likely directed towards me.
"As I've said, we've discovered multiple weapon's made of Cynth ore in our kingdom, most of them being found in the Ludovic's territory." He said. My fists tightened as I processed the information, hoping that it was just a coincidence. The Ludovic's posed the biggest threat to the safety of our kingdom, strongly opposing the other ducal houses while allegedly holding relations with the Cynth rebel forces, and our past enemy Zemrya.
Zemrya was a country directly south of us, bordering the Ludovic's territory. It was not a powerful country when it came to war, however they had tried to attack us when the past king died. It was normal for other countries to try and invade during power struggles due to the kingdom's weakened state, however instead of growing weaker, the attack only made our kingdom stronger.
When our country was threatened, both the King and General Alexander put a stop to the political disputes over the throne, Alexander volunteering to defend our boarder against Zemrya, while our King took the throne. Now, years later, the two are still praised for their fast acting and ability to work together in the chaos.
The Ludovic's were actually one of the main supporters during the war because their territory was directly involved, making their current intentions regarding their relationship with Zemrya even more ambiguous. Now that illegal weapons were popping up in their territory, it only made everything even more suspicious. There was also the fact that one of Lytton's followers had a weapon made out of Cynth oar. It was widely known that Marquess Lytton had deep ties with the Ludovic's and they had plans for a marriage between Nicholas and Valerie.
"There's also another concern." Prince Philip said, pulling me from my thoughts.
"I sent some of my people to investigate the beast sightings throughout the kingdom, and since then, three more magical beasts attacks have occurred. However this time, all three of them were in the Ludovic's territory."
My mind felt as if it was going to explode as I attempted to process everything I had just heard. Not only had weapons made out of a rare, powerful, and illegal Cynth ore appeared, but there were also more magical beast attacks?
"Did they find anything else? Did they search the magical beasts' territories'?" I asked, my heart sinking.
"Yes, there was one thing in common with each of the magical beast's territories." Prince Philip said, his tone grim.
"Within each territory, there was a noticeably large tree similar to the one we saw, and each one was dying."
My heart dropped into my stomach, my chest tightening. The mana was spreading, and it was causing magical beasts, which hadn't been sighted in years, to rampage and destroy towns. What made everything worse was the fact that we had no way to stop it because we didn't even know what the mana was, nor how it got there.
"And the ore?" I asked.
"What does it have to do with everything going on?"
"We're not sure yet, however, we found something strange when looking at the people who were attacked with the metal oar." Ryland began, catching me off guard. I had forgotten that he had also been called to the castle.
"When examining the victims of the weapon's made from Cynth oar, we noticed something strange. While they looked to have died from blood loss, they also showed other symptoms."
Ryland took a breath before continuing, his tone heavy.
"Symptoms similar to my mother."
We decided to end the talk shortly after Ryland revealed the similarities between the victims of the attacks and his mother. None of us had any solid evidence concerning who was involved, and due to our high status, we couldn't act rashly without worsening the current political tensions. So, we decided to meet back in a week while Prince Philip and Ryland continued to investigate matters using the castle's resources before meeting up again to discuss our next moves.
I didn't see Prince Philip for another three days, and once I could finally see him, I was only able to meet him briefly during lunch.
"Are you going to tell your father about the magical beast attacks?" I asked Prince Philip as we ate our lunch in the old greenhouse. The place had now become a common hangout spot due to the many students who were a bit too interested in our business.
Ryland had been called to the castle that day, so Prince Philip was accompanied by two unfamiliar escorts who stood outside with Lady Atlee while we ate our lunch. I was growing more curious about Lady Atlee's character as I watched the reactions from her fellow royal guards. The two who had been assigned to Prince Philip today looked both awestruck and terrified when they saw her, fumbling over their words when they greeted her.
"I'm not sure yet." Prince Philip said, looking up at the ceiling as he leaned back on his hands. The two of us were sitting on the grown across from each other as if we were having a picnic.
"So far, I've told him about the magical beast attacks, and we have increased the amount of soldiers within each town near the beast's territory. He knows about the oar as well, and that there is something strange about it, however, he doesn't know anything about the mana."
"Shouldn't you tell him then, the mana is most likely the reason behind the magical beasts attacks." I said, wondering why the prince was keeping this information from his father. The King had kept my ability to manipulate life mana a secret for the past three years, so I was struggling to understand why he didn't want to trust him with the information about the foreign mana.
"Do you think I should?" Prince Philip asked, his emerald eyes locking onto mine.
"I mean, if the people are in danger then yeah, we can't figure this out on our own." I answered. If I had learned one thing in both my current and previous life, it was that trying to do everything alone was a dumb idea.
"Do you understand what will happen to you if I tell him?" Prince Philip asked, his eyes still on mine, his expression showing a mixture of fear and guilt. I stared back at him silently, not sure as to what his question meant.
"It's my father's duty to put our country first, no matter what. So, if I tell him about the mana, and that the only people who can sense the mana is you and Elaine-" Prince Philip took a moment to finish his sentence as he looked down with clenched fists.
"He will send both of you to the south, into the Ludovic's territory. You will have to go through the same pain you went through in the forest as many times as it takes until you figure out what is going on, even if, even if it-" Prince Philip stopped talking, hanging is head, his knuckles turning white. I stared at the crown prince for a moment, waiting for him to continue. He didn't.
After a minute or so of silence, I scooted towards Prince Philip so that I was directly in front of him, and raised my fist, bopping him on the head.
"Are you dumb?" I asked, causing the prince to look up at me with wide eyes.
"Wha-"
"Is that really why you haven't told the King?"
"But-"
"Listen, I appreciate the sentiment, but why the hell didn't you talk to Elaine or I about this? Three more magical beast attacks have occurred and the foreign mana is spreading. It's hurting people, your people. Honestly, I thought you had a better reason to keep the information a secret then just being worried for us. How can that be more important than everything going on?"
"I knew you would say that." Prince Philip whispered, his expression hardening.
"Then why didn't you tell the King?" I asked, a little aggravated. What needed to happen next was obvious, so why was Prince Philip hesitating? This wasn't like him.
"Do you really not know?"
The guilt had left Prince Philip's face, his expression turning angry and desperate.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I care about you Callista!" He shouted suddenly, leaving me in shock.
"I-I know, I care about you too," I stuttered, looking down as I avoided eye contact.
"No, not like that you idiot." Prince Philip said, raking a hand through his golden hair.
"Then like what?" I asked, my voice getting louder after he called me an idiot. What was wrong with what I said? I was about to say more when Prince Philip suddenly pulled me towards him, cupping my face with one of his hands.
The prince had been leaning back on his arms, so his legs were spread open with his knees bent while I knelt in front of him, so when he pulled me towards him I fell onto his chest, my body between his legs.
My body froze and I stared up at the prince in shock. He looked back at me for a moment before closing his eyes, leaning towards me. I stopped breathing, my body tensing as he got closer. What should I do?
Honestly, I never hated the idea of kissing Prince Philip, but for so long I hand't been able to see him as someone other than a game character. I was just starting to realize what he meant to me, and while I knew that it wasn't just a friendship, I still had many questions.
My eyes fluttered as Prince Philip moved closer, his lips centimeters from mine. However before they touched Prince Philip stopped, his head dropping onto my shoulder as he pulled me into a tight hug.
"I- I'm sorry." He whispered, his head nuzzling my shoulder. I sat for a moment, trying to process what was going on.
"I should have held it in, I'm sorry. It's just that so much has been happening, I wasn't thinking straight. I know that's not a good excuse, I-"
"It's okay." I said, cutting him off. I wrapped my arms around his back, patting him gently as he leaned on me. Even if he had acted rashly, he sounded so hurt and so strained that I couldn't bring myself to be angry with him.
We stayed there for a while before Prince Philip pulled away, his eyes trained on the ground in embarrassment. I scooted backward, looking at him to make sure he was okay.
"Again, I'm sorry. I won't ever do that again, I promise."
"Wait, no!" I shouted, covering my mouth immediately after. My cheeks turned bright red as I cursed myself for saying something so stupid. I peeked up at Prince Philip who was staring at me incredulously, his ears red.
"What I mean is, um. Saying you won't ever do it, means you won't do it forever, and forever is a really long time, and maybe it's too long, I mean, um-" I struggled to find the right words, my eyes darting around in panic.
"I mean, not now, I don't think I'm ready right now, but you know, maybe later..." My voice trailed off, the memory of when I had tried to convince Prince Philip that I had meant 'shove it up your ass' as a compliment popping into my head. I really needed to learn to stop talking, it always made things worse.
"Shit Callista-" Prince Philip said, leaning back as he put an arm over his eyes.
"You really-, you drive me crazy." He chuckled, though his voice sounded strained.
I looked down in embarrassment, deciding not to talk so that I could preserve the little bit of dignity that remained.
Another period of silence ensued before I felt a small pain in both of my cheeks.
"Hey, that hurts!" I complained as Prince Philip pinched my cheeks. Then, before he could doge, I shot my arms out, pinching his cheeks in retaliation.
"Hey!" He shouted, the two of us now sitting as we held onto each other's cheeks. After a small standoff, Prince Philip couldn't contain himself and started to laugh as we continued to pinch each other. Watching him laugh as his face was stretched out was hilarious, and I couldn't help but burst into a fit of laughter as well. Soon the two of us were rolling on the floor as we clutched our stomachs, unable to stop laughing.
Lady Atlee soon arrived with Prince Philip's guards, checking on us after hearing all of the commotion. The sight of Lady Atlee starring at us with an exasperated look, while the two royal guards stood in shock, unsure of what to do as the crown prince rolled on the ground, sent us both into another fit of laughter.
This is how it was with Philip and I. No matter what happened, no matter how hard it was, or how much we fought, we could always laugh like this. Even when the world was filled with chaos, the two of us could always find joy. We could find it within each other.