POV: Hubert
"What is your dream, Hubert?"
This again. A question uttered since time immemorial. Instead of pondering on the cure for poverty, Ferdinand entertains himself with lace on the moon.
"If I recall correctly, your dream was to fly."
"Does the river of filth ever stop flowing from your mouth?" I say.
Ferdinand performs this face where he sucks in his lips and crumples his brow. If I had a fourth of a heart to care, I would've apologized for hurting his poor feelings. But I didn't, because in all my years of knowing him, this idiot is incapable of holding grudges.
True to my disclaimer, Ferdinand brightens once again.
"You wished to be a Pegasus Knight!"
"Silence."
"That is a very noble dream, Hubert! Please visit the von Aegir estate when you have the chance! I will be more than happy to let you practice with our Pegasi!"
Reluctant as I am to admit the truth, I do not deny that Ferdinand's claims are not those of libel. I do yearn for the skies. Like a black falcon, emblazoned proudly on the crest of the Adrestian Empire, cutting across the heavens, I wish to tread a path out of my father's shadow…
…Is what I'd say if I truly wished for such a delusion. I have important duties to attend to. No time for childish fantasies.
"Hubert, observe!"
Upon unfurling his palm, a shiny Crest materializes into existence.
"Fascinating," I say dryly.
"Are you not at all impressed?"
"Perhaps. If you are not constantly shoving your Crest down my throat."
Ferdinand lowers his gaze, deeply repentant. "Ah, I apologize. I have forgotten that you do not possess a Crest."
If that was anyone else, I would've poisoned their tea. Nobles and Crests. Tumor and cancer. I've heard countless tales of Crestless children being disowned by their noble families. Crest-bearing commoner children were often forced into arranged marriages to preserve their scant family honor.
"My father said that I possess the Crest of Cichol," Ferdinand says cautiously. Testing my patience. When I roll my eyebrows, he continues, "Out of all my siblings, I am the only one with a Crest. Before my fifth birthday, Father had already appointed me as the next Prime Minister."
"How special you are. I suppose you don't feel like you will live up to his expectations," I say flatly.
"No! I will! I, Ferdinand von Aegir, will make my family proud!"
Sickening. If he keeps gushing about his dear family like this, I am liable to set fire to the Airmid River.
Ultimately, Ferdinand extends his hand. I reach for it. We leave our place on the grassy hills for the smoky city of Enbarr.
We mind our business as we stroll down the labyrinthine roads. Of course, people gawk. They point and whisper.
For the unindoctrinated, the von Vestra household carries a… well, let us leave it as an unsanitary reputation. As the Emperor's hidden left hand, my family carries on peripheral duties. Which might or might not involve an ice pick in the ear. A sprinkle of arsenic in the tea. A gift of gold exchanged through long sleeves. In short, the citizens do not trust me, despite my having yet no experience in family matters.
Which brings to the question of Ferdinand von Aegir. My dubious reputation be damned, he treated me like his bosom buddy the moment we first met at the Emperor's 60th birthday celebration.
"Why do you talk to me?" I once asked.
"Is there a reason I shouldn't?" was the shocked answer.
"Do you not know who I am? I am Hubert von Vestra."
"Pleased to meet you, Hubert! I look forward to our friendship!"
Ferdinand von Aegir is the incarnation of a potato with human limbs. His arms are squashes, his legs half a pumpkin wedge. Put him next to this abnormally tall, gangly creep, and you have yourself a messed-up puzzle.
What does he even see in me? This is a child who would befriend a brick.
Must I go as far as to proclaim him as my complimentary counterpart? That he is the sun to my moon? Of course not. I will soon be committed to an asylum before I acknowledge any genuine bonds between us. I merely tolerate him. Nothing more, nothing less.
Suddenly, Ferdinand turns into a salt statue. The reason for his stupefied state is the naked girl prancing around in the water fountain. I mean naked in the sense that the only thing covering her skin are the droplets of water clinging to every miniscule body hair.
Before I can unleash an appropriate observation, Ferdinand clamps a pudgy hand over my mouth.
The girl in the water fountain has her pitiful assets for all to see. By that I mean everything and nothing. Breasts like a deflated watermelon. Hips like the edges of a wagon. Thighs like the twigs of a beaver's dam.
She is singing. By the god of misery, this naked girl has deluded herself in believing that she is on the stage of an opera house. If the Emperor receives one more complaint of commoners vandalizing public property…
Then Ferdinand gasps. Their gazes have met, his and the vulgar girl's. The shock lasts for only a heartbeat in time until the girl screams, causing Ferdinand to scream as well. They both fly off in opposite directions, still screeching their puny brains out.
I find Ferdinand hiding behind a bush of cream-orange tulips. Why, he blends right in, this idiot.
"Did something crawl into your brain and die?" I ask kindly.
Ferdinand races back to the water fountain.
"She is gone!"
"Good riddance."
"I should've offered her my coat! She will contract hypothermia from my negligence! Her blood will be on my hands!"
As dramatic as ever. Fortunately, I grab his collar before he runs off to check inside ever rubbish bin in the city.
"So what manner of travesty unfolded between you and that commoner girl? Did you recognize each other from a previous life?"
"No! Her voice was…" A crimson flower blooms across his freckled cheeks. "O-Oh, look at the position of the sun. Isn't Edelgard expecting you?"
Damn the saints! Have I sunken so low as to forget about Her Eminence? Why, such grievous sins will never be resolved simply by my kissing brimstone!
Stupid stupid Ferdinand von Aegir has the audacity to hold my hand as though he is guiding a lost little star back to its galaxy. I slap his wrist away and march up to the glistening gates.
A girl is peeking into the window of Her Majesty's residence. I prepare a fireball as big as Ferdinand's stomach…
"Hubert, no!"
I am tackled by a cannonball. The impact triggers an infantile earthquake, causing the girl to fall back on her delicate bum. Dressed in periwinkle blue with hair the color of braided straw, she can pass for a porcelain doll from Lady Edelgard's prized possessions.
Shooting me a venomous look, Ferdinand offers his hand to the sniffling girl, who shyly accepts.
"T-Thank you." Her voice is as soft as uncooked dough. A pale imitation of Lady Edelgard's innate confidence.
"My pleasure! 'Tis a minor task for I, Ferdinand von Aegir, the eldest son of House Aegir of the Adrestian Empire!"
The girl giggles. "You are like a knight from a storybook! My name is Di—"
I interrupt this fairy tale.
"What business do you have with the von Hresvelg household? Speak now lest I deploy a midwife to pull the words from your mouth."
Ferdinand grips my shoulder. Hard.
"This is my friend, Hubert."
"Where did you get that preposterous idea?"
"We grew up together!"
"You did not stop pestering me at every waking second of my life! I would compare you to a leech, but leeches have more decency than you!"
"Um."
We turn to the girl, who had been observing our silly banter with doe-like blue eyes.
"Sorry," Ferdinand grunts.
"I was told Edelgard lives here?" she says after an awkward silence.
I bristle. How dare this tea cup address the future Adrestian Emperor so casually?!
"I will be going back to the Kingdom," she continues softly. "I wish to bestow El a parting gift."
EL?! THE! NERVE!
Before I can open her throat with a knife forged from fire, she pulls a dagger on me. A gold-crusted blade with a brilliant blue sheath.
"You plan to give Edelgard this dagger?" Ferdinand wheezes.
"Yes! With this, El can cut her own path!"
"You should get her a toad with its organs turned inside-out," I snap.
"Hubert," Ferdinand chides.
A faint cry rings in the distance.
"Rodrigue!" the girl says. "It has slipped my mind that he was waiting for me…" She bows, one hand casting an azure crescent in the air, the other tucked behind her back. "Let us meet again, Ferdinand von Aegir. And Hubert."
"She added me as an afterthought!" I hiss after the girl leaves.
All petty matters aside, I reach for the door. Which swings open and smashes Ferdinand in the forehead.
"Hubert!"
A divine light shreds through the smoky skies of Enbarr, bringing color and clarity back into my cold, bleak world. Those eyes, the color of a violet lilac in spring, buffers my soul with purpose. White wings unfurl from my blackened heart. In that golden luminesce, Lady Edelgard's brown hair shimmers even brighter than the halo painted on Saint Seiros.
"Welcome home!" she says. "Oh. Ferdie's here too?"