Coming towards them through the crowd was a kid, who seemed to be around 10-11 years old. He has a handsome face with blond hair and green eyes with a pride look in them, unfortunately, an arrogant expression was on his face, twisting his looks.

Behind him, there was a group of noble kids from different families, who were following him, like dogs follow their master. Obviously, they only wanted to get on the good side of the arrogant child, to gain some favor, even if they had to sacrifice their own dignity.

For Ariel, the green eyed boy was very familiar, maybe too familiar. He would give anything to never have to meet him again, like he had to for the past few years, day after day. And as you have already guessed, that person is Ariel’s brother, James.

Coming near them, he once again let out that annoying, haughty, laugh. It rang in Ariel’s ears, which made him feel like he had an irritating bug, buzzing inside his head. After Ariel failed to block out that sound, he looked over his brother’s clothes, his brother today wore even more ridiculous clothes than he usually does, they had mixed colors of red, blue, green, yellow and several others. If his brother’s clothes continue increasing in colors like that as he grows, Ariel wasn’t so sure if he will be able to hold himself, from always thinking about James as a rooster.

Not even paying mind to Ariel’s scrutinizing gaze, that looking over his clothes, James spoke his first words after coming here. “Lord Brendon and Lady Sarah, greetings, it is an honor to meet you two. You should have looked for me sooner. I would have made sure to entertain you.” He might have been saying polite words, but in the mean time, his eyes were looking over Sarah’s entire body, which had undisguised lust, burning inside them.

Brendon felt a little ticked off at how James was ogling his sister as if she was his, so he decided to speak up. “Mr. James, we came here just as the representatives of the royal family. However we didn’t really have any interest in meeting you, I am very sorry about that.” Hearing Brendon speak James retracted his gaze from Sarah’s body and looked back at him.

Brendon’s words might have appeared polite, but in reality they were a straight forward insult, that James easily managed to pick up. “Mr. Brendon, did I mishear you? Or are saying I have less worth in meeting than this waste?” Only now, did James finally take look at Ariel standing at the side of the twins, while giving him a furious look at him.

Seeing James becoming angry, a small smile of satisfaction appeared on Brendon’s face, as he continued to talk. “That is correct, I find Ariel to be, a much more interesting person to talk to, rather than one like you.” The first sentence only irritated him a little, but the second one was already pushing James buttons.

“Fine have fun talking to this waste. I hope you won’t regret paying attention to this worthless person.” James spat out these words in angry tone, that he was unable to hide, the people behind him glared at the three as if making a point.

Turning to face Sarah, James continued to speak, but in a much lighter tone. “Mrs. Sarah, mind joining me for a dance, I think someone as refined as you should waste you’re time with speaking to trash.” Hearing these words made Brandon clearly annoyed, but he already knew his sister better than anyone else.

“Mr. James, haven’t you heard my brother? We have no interest in speaking with arrogant people like you, please keep you’re eyes to yourself and leave.” Unlike how she looked, Sarah spoke in blunt words that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. James face turned crimson from anger, but it was still possible for him to endure it and hold in his anger, as these two children were royalty and were untouchable.

However, when he saw Sarah sneaking glance at Ariel, he couldn’t hold his anger anymore. James had fallen in love with Erna, but later found out that she was Ariel’s fiancée and no matter how he tried he couldn’t break off the engagement. Now he lost himself when first saw Sarah, but once again it seemed like Ariel took away her attention, which made him burn in unbearable jealousy.

He lost all of his reason and all his caution left his mind. When he was about to step over to Sarah to take an unknown action, Ariel spoke for the first time, in this entire exchange. “James, you never know what is good for you, think before doing anything, or you will regret it.”

Hearing his threat, James felt a chill go down his back. Others might think he wouldn’t dare to do anything to James and did not know Ariel’s true nature, but he did know. It might be fine to insult sometimes, however, James tried to never go past the line of no return that he learned of through these years, ending in making Ariel angry.

Because several time he did, unfortunate accidents would occur, which caused him unspeakable amount of pain, yet no one could explain them, but all of them happened, after he angered Ariel, and James wasn’t a stupid person to not understand his involvement in the accidents.

Remembering all of this, James stepped back, trying to stop himself from shaking. Then he casted the last look of anger towards Ariel, as if in defiance to his statement, even tough he wasn’t brave enough to speak it out loud. After that, he took another look at Sarah, before turning around and leaving.

This caused quite a bit of shock to the siblings. Not many could see James face at the time, but they clearly saw a slight expression of fear for that single moment, when Ariel spoke. Of course this made them question why were his circumstances so unique, however they both gave it a rest, not wanting to pry into other people’s business.

After a moment of silence, Brendon once again started to speak in a joyful mood. “Finally that annoyance is gone, now that I have time to speak I would like to ask you, if you are planning on going to The Blue Sky Academy?” From his face it was clear to see that he was expecting something, but Ariel didn’t really know what. However, for this question Ariel didn’t have to think long and gave a quick nod to confirm.

Before Brendon could continue, his sister Sarah chimed in. “What classes are you planning to go to?” Her voice was monotone as she was asking, but her eyes betrayed her excitement.

“I don’t really know, but I am planning on taking the officer exam, since I am not proficient in sword or magic.” These words made the two siblings let out a chuckle with amused expressions, before Brandon explained it to him. “No matter which exam you take, you can pick any of the classes, even if you want to take ones about magic or fighting.”

This instantly made Ariel interested. He wanted to learn about magic, but didn’t want to reveal that he was a variation too soon, so he was planning on learning from the library. However, this changes everything.

After a slight amount of thinking, he gave them his answer. “If it is like that, I could probably take same lessons one of you two will be taking, I have already learned most of the stuff needed for officials to know, and I am quite interested in magic.” Even tough he didn’t know them too well, but Ariel knew that these two excelled in magic, so most likely, they will pick lesson that he would want to go to.

Without a pause for thinking, Sarah has already held up her hand. “Please come to my classes I am sure you will love them. They are all about different kinds of magic.” The excitement in her voice was impossible to hide, which soon turned to embarrassment after she noticed Ariel and her brother staring at her, soon she turned red till the ears, while casting her gaze downwards as if trying to hide he thoughts.

“Well if you say so, I am sure I won’t be disappointed.” With a helpless look he could only agree to Sarah, because he felt like she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Also he couldn’t make himself ruin her happiness, it is possible the she didn’t have many friends growing up and was excited to befriend Ariel.

Mean while, Brendon watched from the side, not saying anything on the matter at hand, before continuing their conversation about other things after Sarah calmed down a bit. This talk continued all the way to the end of the party, until they had to say their good byes.

When everything ended, and Ariel was finally in his cozy bed, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about his emotions when he was with the twins. It was not an unfamiliar emotion. He felt it before, in his previous life, the feeling of friendship. With those thoughts sleep slowly crept over him, sending him to the land of dreams.

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If you want to read further, visit https://verathragna.wordpress.com/ I will always have an extra chapter there