Hi guys! Thank you so much for the reviews (although I think it was for Chapter 1, but it was too late to edit on the other chapters, so I will just type it here).
I will check the paragraphs for shorter length (or construction, if that is what some of you think). Personally I think that length is suitable for the characters though, since mostly what I did was describing their thoughts and feelings. It would not be as consistent if I divided it into smaller pieces.
And also, there were questions about the bold words. I talked about this at the beginning of the fic, but I guess you all skipped it huh =)) (Yeah I know if it was me I would also skip it, who cares about author's note lol). But the bold words are for me to learn vocabulary for the SAT upcoming. Those are really complex words (for me at least), and I need to remember all of them by the end of this May. So I'm trying out this new method for the vocabulary learning, and I post the fic here so that everyone might throw out advices about how bad my writing is (SAT also has writing). Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you guys can put up with me throughout this fic.
Joseph would not admit that his machinations were flawless and clever, for that would be too unctuous that makes even he can feel the carping and maladroit. He did not even do anything, the victim fell herself. She was not drugged with the coffee he handed to her, but acted impecuniously without even thinking twice, as if she had lost all her hopes in the other offices of the kingdom. What an amorphous princess, if only she knew how to realize on people more instead of taking it all on herself, she would not have been lying unconsciously behind the cells like this.
That's right. After escaping from the real Brandon, Joseph has brought Stella back to Countess Cassandra's place, and received ordain to keep her in this annex built under the castle that resembles a prison so much. He is ordered not to unfetter her in any circumstances. However, judging the pallid expression of the prisoner, it is unequivocal that there is no strength left in her to even oppose, leave alone freeing herself under his guard. The palisade is quite unnecessary.
A few minutes later, she wakes up, probably having her strength revived already.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." Joseph smiles radiantly, with such an innocuous tone that it sounds almost incongruous to the current predicament.
"Who are you?" Stella raises her eyes, staring at the silver-haired. The expression looks so familiar to her, yet she swears this is the first time she sees this face.
"Just an unknown." He shrugs, refusing to reveal his real identification, as well as what he did to her. "Ignorant will be more palpable for you."
Judging the labyrinthine eyes of hers, Joseph figures such a sage would not leave a matter alone without any exposition. Therefore, he tries to digress.
"I cannot tell you more than this, but there is certitude that you are now annexed here, princess." He looks around as to prove the obvious truth.
"Do you have any animosity against me?" Questioned Stella, still persistently sticks to the core.
"Princess, if you are so presumptuous, it will bring you away from the truth. You should not extrapolate that I am the one who kidnapped you and brought you here. Just because I am standing here guarding you as I were told, doesn't mean I am the malefactor. That is not a very nice paradigm, princess."
"You can stop prevaricating already. Even if you were the culprit, I do not give a damn."
Stella stands up as she finished speaking. It is not because her magnanimity is too replete, but she just does not have enough mind to censure anyone at the moment. She has already known that Countess Cassandra is the one behind this. Based on the look of surrounding, this seems to be a new annex that she has yet set her foot on. When the Countess built this, she did not know.
"Hey you, paradox." She calls out to the guy.
"My name is not paradox. I don't even oppose anything." Argued Joseph, irritated at the new nickname he is given.
"I don't care. Where is this place?"
"That I cannot tell you."
"Fine, I will get out of here myself."
Stella huffs, then closes her eyes to get ready for another transformation. However, as she starts to focus, she realizes the diffidence in her saying that it will not success.
"What's wrong with this place? I cannot transform!" She clings on the cells, yells out to Joseph. She feels somewhat a fallacious atmosphere, though inconspicuous, but she knows.
"It is not only me who guards you, princess." Joseph answers, as placidly as he could. "There is a malediction as well."
Stella rolls her eyes. "Dark magic, great."
The silver-haired looks at the princess behind the palisade, curious at how fast she changes her personality. One moment ago, he thought she was just a zombie, a puppet doing the work fanatically, but now all he sees is an overwrought imperious blonde who probably could kick him anytime if the cells were not here. Will she oust him out of the country if she knew who he is?
But from the look of it, being an expatriate to him is still way too lucky then. There goes the pristine princess of his dream.
"What are you looking at?" She upbraids, chary towards him. "I am not in a good mood right now. Don't make me unfetter myself and tear you into pieces. I can do that."
Joseph almost feels the need to rub his eyes carefully to believe that what's happening in front of him is not any chicanery. What's with this choleric and fastidious princess? He has checked meticulously her personalities before approaching her, and yet, what is this girl he's talking with? Is this really the quiet princess who has sequestered herself after her father's malady? He finds himself too dilatory to catch up with these chimerical changes.
"I said, STOP STARING!"
Stella yells, and lifts up her leg. The kick is wonderful.
"How insolent, you dare ignore the paramount of the kingdom? You're death!" She curses unwittingly. The cells have awaken her, telling her what kind of situation she is in. And she figures – or believes – that the only thing she could do now is to get the kidnapper – whom she knows for sure is this man – to be sick of her and let her out eventually.
Looking down at Joseph hugging his stomach in pain, she feels a bit of guilt, but soon casts it aside.
"Oh, tired already? What's with this indolence? Are you just an inductee then? Judging at the fact that you dare put me behind this cells, you are quite profane, don't you think? If you believe you can avoid being chastised, then think again!"
Joseph looks up at the arrogant princess. Chicanery or not, he does not give a damn anymore. This diligent princess in front of him seems to be trying so hard to provoke him, then shouldn't he also give some feedback?
"Why must you be so uproarious, sweetie? It's just cells. Just a row of simple palisade, not much, right? In fact, I think it is pretty prodigious for you in there. So why don't you just enjoy your peace quietly? I volunteer to be your sentinel for the night."
"How can this marred place keep me away?" She moans. "Don't you have any aesthetic eye? Look at the ceiling, spiders have already started their work!"
"What a serendipity!" He claps his hands ironically, considers himself indulgent enough to be replying her like this. "Is this the first time you see spiders making their webs? You probably should learn how hard-working and quietthey are."
Stella keeps quiet. Not because she succumbs to the guy, but because she realizes it is pointless to keep it like this, for both him and her.
"Servile bastard." She murmurs, not even bothered to keep the urbane image of a princess.
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At that time, Brandon shuts himself in his room filled with darkness. No light is at presence, for he has blown off every single candle. Along with inebriation, the flashback of the kidnapping scene in his mind never stops. He sits still, staring into void, until a knock interrupts.
Frowned at the opened door, he looks unhappy and displeased, as if there is no more place for any fervor in him for anything in this world.
"What are you doing, buddy?!" Sky asks, hurries to his friend's side. "What's with this sorrowful aura? Turn on a dirge, and people would have thought someone died here!"
"My inner soul." Brandon replies, doesn't even bother to look up.
"Then get it back, you parochial head! What do you gain from sitting around like this? I know that you get upset for not being able to protect her, but this situation is feasible! You shouldn't even have been there!"
"And so should she!" He speaks up, circuitously expresses how inept he was. "What was I even thinking? And do you know what's worse? It was another ME holding her! I was the last person she thought she was with before fainting!"
Sky keeps silent. He cannot find any words to comfort his bro right now.
"Just when we got some light and hope back in our relationship! I should have known! I should have known that a proletarian like me, could never manage the responsibilities of staying by her side! Our love is felicitous to wither, in one way or another without parity from both sides…"
Before he could continue the whining, Sky lands a good punch on his face, shouting. "What's with this inertia? So unlike of you! If you are so fickle, no wonder why you do not deserve her! Know how to discern what is your fault and what is not, Brandon. You are not responsible for every single damn thing."
Brandon, unable to parry the surprise attack, lifts up his hand to touch the swollen cheek. He does not censure his best friend, because he knows he deserved to be hit. The he right now is flagrant, and he knows that if he does not start to solicit any plans, he will regret it for the rest of his life.
"You're right, Sky. Sorry for being so vapid, my face must look so dull right now."
"Not trying to solace you or anything, but I glad you have come to your right mind." Replied his friend, circuitously as a "you're welcome".
"I'm glad to have you by my side. It would be so miserable if I were to be a maverick. Just thinking about how prosaic I could have been makes me grimace." Brandon lets out a sigh of relief, and stands up to get some ice. "I just wish you had used a softer method."
"My duty is to proscribe you from going off track." His friend shrugs innocently. "You should have been more circumspect, that's all. It's not like I'm waiting for a thousand-year opportunity of hitting your face, you know."
Brandon glares at Sky, acknowledges the finesse in his words. However, he really hopes his friend is just joking. Sky is a great proponent, for which he is very grateful, but an appeasing one would still be better than a violent one.
"Now that we have cleared the pathos. Do you have any strategy in your mind to save your precious princess waiting in the cage that we have absolutely no idea where it is, Mr. Clairvoyant?" Asked Sky, half joking half serious.
The squire meanders back and forth in the parlor, trying to come up with something. He has set out the resolution not to lose her right now, not in this moment, not today. He must win this skirmish.
"Don't circumscribe anything, Brandon. I'm ready to embrace your craziest ideas." Sky abets his friend. Not that it will help anything.
"I am trying! Nothing arable comes to my mind!" Stated Brandon, massaging his temples. This is going to be hardcore. "We must act carefully. The Countess is surely inexorable right now, and she should be able to spot any discrepancy in our moves. We must not alert the adversary."
"Pardon me, my friend. Note that I have no intention of making you abdicate, but do you have any idea about Stella's current location?"
"Should not be somewhere tangible in the palace. Not the prison. That is inexpedient for sure. Nor the Countess' parlor, I checked."
"Do you think she is brought away from the palace then?"
Brandon stops pacing for a few seconds to consider the possibilities. It would not be wise to repudiate something that can happen even if it is only for 5%, but they must narrow the scale as much as possible.
"Let's put that in abeyance." He suggests. "We should search if there is any underground base or the like. I am not a zenith in this kingdom, so I don't know if we can somehow get the map."
"Want me to call Bloom and the girls?" Sky looks at his friend, already holding up the cellphone.
"Calling reinforcements?" Brandon smirks, acidulous but with an obvious excitement. "We are so notplaying fair."