Chapter Text
It was the great banquet, in the centre of Yggdrasil, the interior glittered gold and white as guests and bystanders filled the venue with their mumbles, whispers and excited laughs. But their eyes weren't on their partners but on a special someone that even outperformed the glitter and glamour of the other sovereign families in their land.
"Oh my, Isn't it the blue prince?"
"Isn't he too young?"
"He resembles you, Roussel!"
Praises and smiles from the other family heads were rewarded to that boy with golden eyes.The Blue Prince of Pedelian. And according to his father, he was as arrogant and snobby as the Head Pedelian.
"Pleased to meet you, I am Cassis Pedelian."
Father never liked Roussel Pedelian, simply because they were two contradictions meant to hate one another, one was a saint of justice with hair as silver as the clouds of heaven and blue eyes a dark blue like the sky itself while the other one was the prince of the underworld with blood red eyes and hair as dark as the night. Dion stared at the hard-looking man and his son from the terrace, his half-brother Fontaine was mumbling something he did not care to listen to.
Unlike the other four...or three houses (since the Young Vertium Head didn't care), the Agreces were never the centre of light, they were always the shadows hidden from it.
It was nothing sad, meaning, who would want to publicly get acquainted with the fraud of a great house.
'Make friends with the Pedelian Heir, Dion.' Aunt Estelle, Deon's stepmother had told him.
She with her bright flowing hair and red lipped smile requested him.
The thing he knew she never even knew the word for.
"Hey, brat! Aren't you bored?" Aunt Estelle's spawn Katarina yawned beside him.
"Why don't we do something fun?" Katarina said with a smile which encapsulated her status as the craziest Agrece girl alive, a ranking that Deon made in his head.
Deon decided to ignore her and her mother, he was always bored but he wasn't at all desperate. Katarina was his first "friend" and she already made his life a living hell.
But when he felt continuous pokes at his back, Deon wanted to take out his hand knife and—
"How do you like my new look? Let's dress you up as well!"
Katarina shed her Estelle-like features and had instead turned into a young boy with brown hair and eyes with a getup so hideous that Deon laughed.
"You liked it!" Katarina clapped her hands and when Deon blinked, she had turned into a ginger haired old woman.
Well, an old woman with the body of a child.
Deon blinked five times.
From a clown to their father to a male snake beastkin to a five year old girl to a white haired pretty boy with cute-childlike features and violet eyes.
He stopped blinking when Katarina's disguise finally looked decent.
It wasn't creative but it wasn't burning Deon's eyes.
"Yeppie! Let's go!!!" She grabbed his hand and took him to.....who knows where.
It was a garden.
It resided beside the castle. But, it was also like a maze, large and never ending with subtle yet few magic circles hidden among the shadowy areas.
"You are going to dress me up as a girl?" Deon laughed loudly.
"Yes! I am a minor noble family's heir Orion and you are going to be Delilah, my cousin who came from faraway to visit me! We came to sightsee but had gotten bored and as a result we started—wait!!!! don't kill me!! Please Deon, only for once!"
Deon sighed.
And then in the next moment, he was a girl named Delilah. A cold looking young girl in a red dress and red shoes filled with black ribbons that matched his undisguised red eyes while his hair was enclosed by a black wig that was fashioned into high pigtails tied with red ribbons.
Deon looked at the mirror, he looked like the female version of himself.
Damn it, he knew what Katarina was planning!
"This is so exciting! What should we do now?"
Deon did not speak.
"Ahh! Please speak, that potion I made you drink will give you a more cutesy voice! Delilah!"
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
Katarina sprinted from tree to tree in a speed so fast, other attendees did not notice them.
Yes, them.
Delilah, uh, no, Deon was following her with a knife embellished with rubies. He was careful enough to avoid the magic circles and not to spread hostile emotions that would alert authorities.
After fifteen minutes of chasing and Deon almost slashing a bit of her face they were separated.
It was too deep in the neverending garden that sat beside the castle.
Deon was still strolling in his getup, with his knife hidden inside his pocket.
"Uhmmm..."
Deon's eyes flashed red as he turned around, it was a boy with golden eyes and silver hair standing in front of him.
Cassis Pedelian!
Why didn't he notice him sooner?!
Deon narrowed his eyes, and Cassis stared at him with a gaze that unnerved him. Something about that state that veiled with pure innocence and proprietary hid something else Deon wanted to dig deeper into.
"Uhhh, Young Miss?"
Deon wanted to kill Katarina and then himself.
He didn't know if he should answer Cassis, it would be better to pretend to be a girl rather than admit he was playing around.
Or maybe he should just run away?
Cassis was still waiting....is he lost?
"Get lost." Deon's voice had changed.
Cassis looked surprised, a little wary of the older girl.
"Uhmm, do I know you? Ahh..black hair and red eyes..Are you perhaps an Agrece?"
"Delilah."
"Huh?"
"My name is Delilah and I am here with my cousin, Orion Felice who is the heir of a small noble family. We are here to sightsee.”
"I see..." The Blue Prince did not believe him.
It was a pain to look almost like the exact replica of Father.
Deon didn’t care if his cover got blown but it was still bothersome.
"Where are you here for Blue Prince? Did you get lost...or?" Deon looked at Cassis who was surprised at her for knowing him.
"Uhmm no.." He looked sheepish.
"Or lemme guess, you had a fight with Daddy?" Deon let out a mocking smirk.
But surprisingly Cassis did not get angry.
"Sometimes he's too much." Cassis mumbled.
Deon sighed, he really didn't want to do this but he had to distract Cassis so he wouldn't notice Katarina lurking around. And knowing Katarina, she would do something drastic that Father will punish her later for and Katarina hated punishments.
"Let's go somewhere that will make you feel better, I know a spot." Deon rolled his eyes.
"No I can't—"
"Come on Cassis! Don't be such a wimp, boys like that aren't my type."
Cassis turned red.
Deon sighed and pulled Cassis' wrist, he wanted to kill the Blue Prince and watch his golden eyes that always shone brighter than the sun become lifeless and dull and his smile… he wanted to destroy it.
The place was a lake surrounded by hundreds of blooming flowers that came in various shades. Deon had found this place while he chased Katarina around. The most surprising thing about this place was the lack of protective magic circles that was spreaded even in the most elusive corners of Yggdrasil.
He looked at Cassis and almost burst into laughter.
He had a silly expression of wonder on his face as his golden eyes radiated the sun-like warmth that made the flowers shine brighter with its light while the stars in his sparkled and danced in delight.
Wait, stars?
"Delilah, w—what's wrong?" Cassis felt his cheeks redden as Delilah walked closer to him. She was too close, much closer than necessary as her blood red eyes stared at his own with her lips just a distance away.
"Your eyes have stars in them…?"
If Cassis was blushing before, his body was on fire at how much burning red he was.
"For a guy, you are not that bad. I see the appeal." Deon smirked and finally distanced the closeness between them.
"Uhm…uhh..you are pretty too Delilah."
Deon's eyes twitched.
"Ouchhh!" Deon pinched Cassis' cheek as he dragged him away at the corner of the lake to sit.
The bright sun encapsulated the flowers that were swaying by the wind, creating a comfortable and mesmerising atmosphere, but the most admirable scenery was the sparkling lake that shone a clear blue.
"Like my father's eyes..." Cassis frowned.
"I thought Master Pedelian's eye colour resembled the evening blue sky more." Deon wondered.
"I guess so…Delilah…you are here permanently?”
Deon blinked.
“No, I came to visit Orion and his parents with my mother and older sister and we will stay here for a month.”
They both ignored how “Delilah” did not mention her father.
“You have an older sister, that’s great! I have a younger one.” Cassis smiled.
“There is nothing great about having an older sister, she just likes to nag at me all the time and is a control freak” Deon sighed heavily.
“My younger sister is a lovely girl.”
“Not everybody is as lucky as you, my prince.” Deon yawned.
“But the way you talked about your older sister, it seems like you really really love her, princess.” Cassis smiled too much.
“Love? Ew? No--” Just as Deon was about to say something, he came to a sudden realisation.
“I am not a princess!” Deon stood up and grabbed Cassis’ collar.
And Cassis laughed. He laughed with full body, his eyes turning into crescent moons with pink tinging his cheeks as his lips curved up splendidly and when he was done laughing, he looked at Delilah with another open smile.
“Why did you suddenly turn so red? My Princess?” Cassis gently prodded.
“SHUT UP!!! I AM NOT YOUR PRINCESS!” Deon pushed Cassis into the lake.
He hated this boy.
Liar.
The story had finally begun on the pages of a black mansion, standing between the black earth and the black sky, a boy was restrained and trapped as he was hauled inside, his eyes were sunlike-golden. While his wide smile and pink blush were long gone, the confident and prideful gaze from his eyes had not still subsided.
“This is that egotistical bastard’s son.” Lante lit up a cigarette as he looked at the Blue Prince with a stare full of disgust and resentment.
“This brat needs to be taught a lesson.” He continued.
He was the star of the story, the ultimate villain who can never be whitewashed or recycled. For a man that lived in the heart of the lawless world, there was no redemption for him.
And behind him were his children, who were forged by him, like one could forge a sword, not a child.
"This toy seems so pretty!" One voice echoed while the guards pulled the chained that tangled the Blue Prince into submission, he was gagged and injured, blood was dripping from nowhere and everywhere from him
“Father, this toy seems very rebellious.” Roxana, the girl whose beauty was unparalleled and unheard of, spoke out with a hum.
"I promise I will play with him nicely, can you give him to me?" Roxana requested.
"No! No! No! I want him!!" A little girl yelled loudly.
"Please father! give him to me instead!" Another one spoke.
Cassis Pedelian. When his dubiously hazy senses had subsided for a moment, he already knew he was kidnapped and jailed by the disgusting Lante Agrece and when he had first gazed upwards, he was met with a pair of eyes.
Red eyes, but it wasn’t the hue of the blood moon chanting on the night and calling for slaughter but the colour of the dawn.
It wasn’t her .
"Katarina, did Deon return? I visited Maria a while back, but I am sure she doesn't know either." Estelle sighed, her gaze unnoticeable like her demeanour.
She was a delicate beauty hidden and modest, with a tilt of her head, her magenta coloured hair flowed from her shoulder to her waist, giving her the atmosphere of a delicate woman and her light brown eyes sparkled brightly under the light of the morning sun, she sipped her tea in nimble frequency.
A girl stood in front of her but she did not face her. Unlike Estelle, the girl was not a simple, delicate beauty hidden from the eyes of those who exclusively appreciated luxurious and glamorous men and women, she had the unbridled wildness of a tigress jumping in the wild with sharpened cat-like eyes and straight-needle-like hair.
"Father had summoned him earlier to lead an expedition, ahh, interesting…"
"What?"
Katarina smirked.
"It looks like my dearest brother finally has something to look forward to." She clapped her hands.
"Mother, did you know father had captured the Blue Prince, Cassis Pedelian?"