After Grand duke and King got a plan, the king arrived in front of Alicia and Alex.
"Alicia, didn't you said. You got a bit disheartened?" Asked the king
"Ah..... no....." And that earns her a glared from her uncle. "Hii..... Yes" Alicia immediately correct herself
"So, who is it? I will flatten him now" King continued with a nasty smile
Alicia can only looking down and pointed at Alex. Alex froze.
"So... you are the one who makes my niece sad..." King throw an angry looked at Alex
"Let me.... explain...." Alex fl.u.s.tered.
"What explain.. since you make my niece sad, I don't care about your explanation." King continued
"This.... this..." He glanced at Alicia still looking down and he glanced at Grand duke.
"Brother, please calm down a bit" Grand duke broke his silence.
The king looked like he calms down a bit.
"Fine, but since he made my niece sad, he must take responsibility" the king put out a condition.
"Responsibility?" Alicia shocked.
"What responsibility" Alex scared.
"You must marry Alicia!" The king said his condition
"Marry?" Alicia and Alex shocked with the condition
"Uncle, what are you saying!" Alicia's face immediately becomes red.
"Yes, you marry him. What? You don't want to marry him?" The king said with a little scary face.
"I...I..." She can only look at her father for help. But even her father betrayed her.
"You don't need to marry him now. How about becoming engaged first." Her father said
"Engaged?" True, She interested in Alex and liking him a bit. This feeling was forged from 4 months traveling with Alex. But her feeling still not at the point of love and marriage.
"Engaged? Fine.. you two can be engaged first. What you don't want to engage with him, Alicia? If you don't really like him a bit and don't want to engage with him, it's fine. I will ask your sister after this" King said
"Uncle... you... You two bullied me. Hwaa!" She immediately runs away from the room.
After Alicia left. The king glanced at Alex
"What? You don't want to marry her?" King throw a scary glare at him
"This...this... we still small and can't talk about marriage, besides I'm just a commoner" Alex explained his reasoning.
"So.. You just want to play my niece? You courting death boy"
"This... no" He shook his head and thought 'Played your niece? Played your ass! When I played her...' he can only scream about this in his mind, but can't say them aloud.
"Then you engaged with her. Alright, that's it, I don't want to have any complaint later. You are dismissed" King said
"This..." He can only look down and got out of the room
Just after he left, he hears the grand duke and the king laughed happily. And he knew he was played by them.
If there's an Oscar, then the king would win.
If he knew the plan was from Grand duke. He will be speechless, since their first conversation with grand duke at the dining room, he thought the grand duke was someone who not sacrificed his daughter just to make her married.
At night,
'knock knock'
"Who is it?" Alex said
"It's me" Alicia's voice heard.
Alex slowly got up from his bed and opened the door. He saw Alicia with a super red face wearing a nightgown.
"Alicia... What are you doing here?" Alex startled
"Can.. we talk?" Said Alicia with a low voice
"Plea..se.. com in" Alicia got in and sit on the sofa.
"What do you want to talk about?" Alex asked
"What.. do you think about our engagement?" Alicia carefully asked Alex
"This..." Alex doesn't know how to explain.
"I will be honest here. I think I'd like you a bit... but it's not to the point of love." A bit embarrassed with her statement, she looked down.
"I...I.."
"I know uncle and father want to marry me to you, especially because of you as a pure element master" She explained
"This..." Alex sigh.
"Let me tell you a story. There's a boy. The boy was your average child, his parents love him. Many may think they are a joyous family. But it stops after his younger sister shows her talents, at twelve her sister already enroll at high school, many said she a genius that comes every 100 years. Not long after that. In his home, his parents started looking at him like looking at trash, and his previous loving sister only coldly glared at him. But even with that, he still thinking 'if my sister was a genius in academics, then I will learn otherwise.' The boy started learning about agriculture, husbandry, business, etc. But, what he got was the scorn of everyone around him. Even his parents said 'why are you such useless trash. We are regret to give birth to you'. Then the boy started to regret being born himself." Alex told his story while looking at the window
Before continuing his story. He sighed and glanced at Alicia. He saw Alicia crying so hard
"Al..icia.." He startled
"Hiks..hiks... then? What... hiks... happened to the boy?" She asked while crying
"Why are you crying... I can't be bothered with the story anymore. If the king knows about this, he will butcher me on the spot. So please stop crying" Alex sit beside her, wiping her tears
Hearing him, she giggled a bit while her tears still streaming down
"Alex... we can be engaged first. If after we graduated from the academy, and don't want to be married. We will call our marriage. If we agreed to marry, then after we graduated we will hold our marriage. It's mean three years agreement for us. How do you say?" Wiping her tears, she leans her head to his shoulder
"This... Ok, let's do as you say" he agreed. But he realized Alicia was sleeping on his shoulder. He froze.
He started to recall his childhood. He has a happy family. Caring parents and lovely younger sister. He doesn't know why everything changed. His parents started looking at him like trash. His lovely sister started giving him a cold shoulder.
Without him knowing, his own tears started to fall down on his face. After crying a bit, he too started to become sleepy and eventually fall asleep.
Comments