Vil was rather confused as to why his phone rang. He had been having a bad feeling all day, so he answered it the second he had a break.
His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach when he finally read the text saying Cater was kidnapped. Rook knew he had precious little time, so he had kept the text short and simple.
The shoot was pretty much over, and honestly there was no way he could concentrate when Cater was missing. There was one thing he had to do before he returned to the school early. He had dropped off his special crown to be polished as it was looking a bit dirty from regular use.
Vil went in, picked up his grown and without a second thought stalked to the nearest travel point to reach the school. His agent was beside herself, as he had ditched the shoot early without any explanation to the client.
The entire thing was a publicity stunt for some bank anyway, not something Vil particularly cared about.
He walked through the mirror, not giving a damn about what his agent had to say.
The second Rook saw him, Vil could already tell this was going to be a headache.
"What. Happened."
He was pissed.
Fifteen minutes later...
"You mean to tell me that this entire mess is because that stupid ghost bride Crowley couldn't be bothered to kick out thought Cater was her 'perfect husband'?" said Vil irate.
Everyone in Night Raven knew of the ghost princess. But since she usually just took over the Ramshackle dorm for a few weeks before moving on, most tended to ignore her.
Vil was beyond irate, and from the sound of things Cater was in very real danger because if she took him as her husband he'd end up as a ghost.
"What is Crowley doing about this matter?" asked Vil.
"He's sent in a number of people...there were quite a few volunteers to help out," said Rook.
A surprising number of them, actually. Considering the number of proud, arrogant individuals that inhabited the dorms it had surprised him that more than a dozen people had volunteered to try and forcibly remove the princess or otherwise rescue Cater.
Vil did not look amused. To be fair, this was his boyfriend they were talking about.
Since outright force didn't work, it was time to try another direction.
"Rook, attend to me. We're going to make an entrance and deal with her properly, without this flim-flam attempt at courting her."
"Oui, Roi du Poison!" said Rook.
It took him thirty minutes to prepare, and what walked out was not a regular student...but royalty.
Inside the cafeteria...
Cater was in a utterly foul mood and wondering what the hell was going on. He had done his best to avoid being touched by that princess, because he damn well remembered the mess she had caused last time after kidnapping Ignihyde's housewarden.
He had not forgotten her paralyzing ability.
Unfortunately the ghost she had ended up with managed to pin him long enough for her to get him. He had been so close to outright jumping out of that damn window too...
Nearby he could see the paralyzed forms of Leona, Azul, Lilia, Jamil, and the Leech twins, among others. He had been surprised they had volunteered for this mess, because he remembered rather well how swiftly they had mocked Idia for being captured. It had taken Ortho and Crowley blackmailing them to get any cooperation at all.
"How exactly did you end up getting captured?" said Azul. He was mostly trying to kill time until they figured out their next move.
"It's so stupid. I was doing some extra studying and went to make some food only to find out all of my stuff had been wiped out the day before. Even the snacks were all gone. So I went to visit Sam's shop and she ran into me and started babbling about me being her 'perfect prince'," complained Cater. "I was so close to jumping out of that window if that stupid ghost hadn't grabbed my ankle the last second..."
Puffy, the ghost in question, looked indignant at that.
"How rude! You should be honored the princess chose you!"
"And you idiots need to stop enabling her bad behavior!" Cater snapped back. "I bet this is part of the reason your kingdom fell in the first place, because you lot didn't discipline her properly in regards to her duty as a royal!"
Before the ghosts could say anything, another ghost entered.
"Princess! A king has arrived and is demanding an audience with you! He claims you've taken his retainer under false pretenses!"
Cater shared a look with the rest. There was only one person (save for Malleus) who could possibly pull off the aura of a king enough to fool a ghost.
"Wasn't Vil supposed to be back tomorrow morning?" said Jamil.
"Rook must have called him," said Lilia. "I can't imagine he's very happy about his vice housewarden being kidnapped like this..."
The doors opened, with Vil leading the way in. Rook was to his left, and both were dressed to the nines. Vil gave off a royal aura, which explained why the ghosts hadn't attempted to stop him.
Vil took note at the stiff way Cater held himself, and the way the others were standing. He looked to Cater who mouthed 'paralyzed' and he understood. Cater flicked his eyes twice at the princess, warning Vil of the culprit behind it.
"Who are you to interrupt my special day?" said Princess Eliza.
Vil narrowed his eyes at her.
"You took my loyal retainer without following any of the proper protocols. Of course I came to get him back," Vil countered, glaring at her. "And unlike these idiots, I'm not going to bother trying to ask for your hand."
That surprised Eliza and annoyed the others who had gotten trapped with Cater.
"What's that supposed to mean, you damn prima donna?" snarled Leona.
Vil smirked at him.
"For a prince, you're not very bright Leona. Then again what can I expect from someone who got held back a year for not doing his homework. This girl's ideal husband is so arbitrary she's been looking for him for the past 500 years."
"To be fair, her retainers keep playing into the fantasy she has about what an ideal husband is, rather than actually do their job and lay down reality for her. Maybe if they had quit pandering to her ego, she could have been happily married to her actual prince centuries ago," deadpanned Cater.
Vil turned to Eliza, who was very unhappy about the fact that he had interrupted her big day.
Which was why he was going to happily lay down the law on her, as Cater wasn't the only person who had studied up on proper etiquette. He was just one of the rare few who knew how to properly teach it to others.
"First you absconded with my vice housewarden without even asking whether or not he was even interested in the proposal. A wedding must have both parties amenable to the idea, not just one. It's no different from a brigand kidnapping a princess and forcing her to marry him," lectured Vil.
That got the princess to look abashed at least, as she clearly hadn't thought of it that way.
"And let's not get into the fact that you haven't even asked his family for permission to marry him. Princess or not, there are protocols that must be followed, if only to observe the proper procedures," said Vil. "And I know for a fact his uncle and guardian happens to work here, so you have no excuse."
"His guardian?" said Azul quietly to Lilia.
"Professor Trein," said Lilia.
Cater's father had acknowledged that he was unable to properly help his son. Especially since his relationship with Cater was heavily fractured at best. To that end, he had signed over all legal rights to his son to his brother-in-law Trein, since Cater did have a relationship with him.
Cater was aware of this, but was still quietly shocked whenever Trein showed actual support for his problems and made it clear he expected Cater to at least cooperate in therapy rather than fake it like he had been doing.
Watching Vil rip into the princess was extremely gratifying, in more than one way.
Considering he wasn't trying to appeal to her as a suitor, but as a royal, it didn't take much to force the princess to back off.
Cater was many things, but he had never been a romantic at heart. So when he felt Vil's lips kiss him on the forehead to let him know he would be alright, he was the most shocked of all of them when it caused the spell the princess had used to paralyze her victims to suddenly drop.
He would have stumbled if Vil hadn't caught him immediately.
Cater's face was flushed, mostly from the shock that Vil had broken that stupid spell with True Love's kiss of all things.
Any thoughts Princess Eliza had of taking Cater died in that instant.
"How am I supposed to find my prince now?"
Cater had had enough, and he was honestly sick of her simpering. It was time for the girl to grow up and stop living in her twisted fantasies.
"Are you kidding me?" he snapped, glaring at her. He drew himself up to his full height and gave her the stare down.
She flinched back, as his glare was rather piercing and intimidating.
"Now see here..." started one of the ghosts, but his glare silenced him as well.
"You have to be the most blind and foolish girl I've ever met. That guy over there has been following you around for five hundred years and you were absolutely oblivious to the way he looks at you. It's obvious to anyone who actually looks he'd give you the moon if you but asked, and yet you've ignored him like a piece of furniture for centuries now rather than see what you already have," said
Cater icily.
Eliza's gaze turned to the ghost guard who had caught Cater before he could escape.
"Puffy?" she said confused.
"Why don't you ask yourself once and for all what you really want... some fantasy prince who only looks good on paper and in fiction, or the one who's been by your side for years pining after you despite the fact you've never given him the time of day?" said Cater, arms crossed. "He'd likely do anything for you, even risk his own life, and how do you repay him? By ignoring his affections for you. Grow the hell up."
Lilia chuckled, but to be fair Cater's ignorance of Vil's interest was mostly due to his upbringing and the fact he had assumed Vil already had someone.
"Is this something you know from your past experience or an actual observation?" asked Lilia.
"Last time Idia was the one caught and everyone had to be blackmailed into bothering to rescue him," said Cater absently. "Then he went postal and took on five hundred years of negative energy and almost vanished before she realized her actual feelings for him."
Vil stared at him.
"We are going to have a very long, detailed talk after this is over," said Vil.
Cater was still starving, but at least this mess wouldn't be repeated next year. That had been a headache and a half.
"Just out of curiosity, What would you have done if Vil hadn't managed to convince her out of this?" asked Rook.
"I would have had Umbra appear and wreck the cafeteria, before removing me from the equation," said Cater honestly.
"And you didn't do it sooner because..." asked Azul, annoyed at the wasted effort.
"I really don't feel like paying the cleaning bill or hearing the headmage bitch about the inevitable damage Umbra would cause?" said Cater.
"...That's fair," said Azul.
Umbra had shown every sign of almost being ready to evolve into a Tempest Star Wolf. The sort of damage he could create when provoked was not to be taken lightly. He could easily wreck the school if angered.
"What did you mean by 'last time'?" said Vil. He wasn't the only one in the room, as Rook was highly curious as well.
"Well...it's like this..." started Cater slowly. At least they were nice enough to feed him first, after learning why he had been captured in the first place.
Several hours later...
"Time travel?" said Vil.
"...I believe you," said Rook. "Your knowledge of Heartsabyl is a bit too detailed to be that of anything but a former member, and your dislike of Trey seemed odd from the beginning since you two barely spend any time together."
"Last time Trey abused the hell out of my signature spell to the point I was almost held back because of it. All because he didn't want to bother dealing with Riddle's issues or actually getting him into therapy," said Cater shaking his head. "Worse, he made it clear he could care less about what happened to me personally so long as Riddle was kept pacified. The idiot was so busy with the little brushfires he completely ignored the wildfire growing out of control beneath him until it broke free and everything almost ended in disaster."
"Do I want to know?" asked Vil.
"A pair of Heartsabyl students caused an untold amount of trouble...almost to the point Crowley nearly expelled them for it...in their first week. Then one of the idiots ate a tart meant for the Unbirthday and was entirely unapologetic about the whole thing to the point Riddle's stress levels couldn't take it. He went into Overblot because Trey overlooked a rule and had them make the wrong replacement," said Cater.
"How much trouble could two freshmen create to cause that?" said Vil incredulous.
Cater laughed.
"Do you want a list?"
"...That bad?" asked Vil.
"Let's see...the idiot snuck out during the sorting ceremony with Epel. He provoked an untrained familiar into accidentally burning the Queen of Heart's statue. He tried to skip out on his punishment duty and ended up causing a major accident which resulted in the chandelier in the cafeteria being broken and had to get a replacement stone to avoid being expelled. He then ate a tart meant for the first Unbirthday party of the school year, and thanks to Trey not bothering to check brought one that was explicitly banned per the Queen's rules for an Unbirthday party as a replacement. And to top it all off, the idiot thought it was a brilliant idea to challenge Riddle for his place as Housewarden, despite the fact it was his own damn fault he was being punished in the first place," said Cater, listing all this with his fingers. He had a sardonic grin on his face. "And all of that happened in the span of the first week."
Vil and Rook stared at him. It made perfect sense for Riddle to snap considering his usual stress levels of having to maintain the rules and keep his own grades high.
