Seto strode out into the setting sun across the grass towards the children who had all settled down and were sprawled out across Anja's body, half-asleep, and others absently swirling runes in the ground while they talked.
They all stopped when they saw the two, tall elves approaching them, and scrambled to their feet to behave.
Master Dartz smiled widely and tilted his head at Seto beside him, taking in the thunderstruck looks before them.
"Children," he said with a wink, "This is my friend who I'll be accompanying to a coronation tonight, so I will need you all to behave."
There was a stunned silence, so Seto took this chance to fold his hands into his sleeves and lower his chin slightly to make direct eye contact with Anja who was staring at him, "Hello. Pleased to make everyone's acquaintance," fake elf act, fake elf act, "I am a High Priest Seto, soon-to-be-Crown Prince of the Sky Elves in the Chizao region. Honored to be in the presence of an Ancient…Fairy Dragon." And he bowed.
Anja blinked and did a quiet appraisal on the new elf arrival, confused when the name came up as SETO – HIGH ELF PRIEST, but everything about this man was…elf.
Her Seto was a baby, hugging her moments ago, so this couldn't be him…
It had to be a name similarity, because Yami had named Seto after all…
The children gaped, and only the tiger-eared girl spoke up in the stunned silence.
"Do you know our Seto?" She asked curiously, nearly blinded by the gold beads in the elf man's hair when it swung in the breeze, reflecting the sun prettily. "Demon Lord Seto."
The test! Dartz crowed, and he glanced at Seto beside him, amazed that his act did not crack.
"I happily serve the Demon Lord," Seto said with a smirk, nodding at the tiger-eared girl. "Because before he left for a quest, he bestowed upon me water from the Healing Spring. I am forever in his debt."
Sappy shit but hopefully that would work. He was now solidifying his own status, while using this one to do it. This had to be cheating.
"Oh yeah? What does he look like? Our Demon Lord?" The grasshopper boy challenged, sliding off of Anja's back and landing softly in the grass on two planted feet. "And why is your name the same as his?"
Seto kept the smile on his face and let out a laugh, "I was given this name since my birth," truth, "and your Demon Lord Seto is a handsome creature with the largest horns I have ever seen." Also truth.
There was an awkward silence, so Seto hastily filled it with more storytelling, "he told me to take care of Anja, and to watch over his friends in the safe town. I know all about Mage Atem, and where to find him. In fact, I'm uplifting my status to crown prince to free him."
There.
WAS THAT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THESE LITTLE BRATS?!
"Who's Mage Atem?" The tiger-eared girl wrinkled her nose. "You mean Mage Yami?"
Same person, little one, the dragon answered from behind her, and she stretched her wings cautiously, eyeing the elf with a suspicious stare. Pleasure to meet you, High Elf Seto. Your name appears to be very common this century.
"Must be a trend. I didn't start it," Seto said airily, copying Dartz's careless hand wave. "Please honor me with a ride on your back into the safe town when we return from the coronation."
Anja blinked and lowered her head in a nod, feeling the children shifting around her because they were uncomfortable at how much finery the elf was wearing, but thankfully the two elves turned and walked away, looking extremely similar with their hair almost the same length, and their height similar as well.
Elves, Anja thought nervously, understanding why Yami didn't trust most of them, but if Seto trusted this elf who shared his name, she would trust him too.
After all, she didn't really have a choice…
"Your dragon solidified your identity. Thank her for it later," Dartz said telepathically with a small smile, feeling a twinge of envy. "Having such a powerful creature address you by your name and acknowledge your status has made things easy for you."
"For now," Seto growled as Dartz led him to the school gates and the headmaster pulled out a flat, silver hand mirror from the pocket of his robes, passing it to him with a gentle smile.
"Last part of your disguise before we teleport away," Dartz said cheerfully. "A High Elf as handsome as yourself is never seen without a mirror. Pocket this in your robes at all times."
Seto rolled his eyes and snatched the mirror out of Dartz's hand, not bothering to say thanks.
This was going to suck.
He stood elbow-to-elbow beside Dartz and watched the ground beneath them light up with the familiar markings of a teleportation spell, and the blinding light crept into his vision as they traveled away, appearing in a spacious field marked with neat squares cut in the grass.
Other elves were teleporting into the marked squares beside them, and then walking towards a set of large, stone steps that led up a steep mountainside.
Everyone had arrived in pairs and were dressed so heavily in robes, Seto felt underdressed, so he pointed that out to Dartz under his breath as they began climbing the steps, receiving several admiring looks from a few pairs of women who passed them by.
"…Everyone's in at least 8 layers. I'm wearing 5 and a half," Seto growled, before realizing he could relay this telepathically to Dartz, but…that wouldn't be very elf-like of him.
"You're fine. What's your background again? Run it by me," Dartz said conversationally as they took steadily, even footsteps up the stairs in sync. "The only advice I have is to stick as closely to the truth as you can to avoid your image shattering."
Seto let out a slow hiss and recited his backstory, "I was raised in the branches of Yggdrasil and hated life there, so my parents sent me to study at a temple in the tundras, so I could learn discipline and also deepen my connection with God." He could barely believe the shit coming out of his mouth, but he was already in the part, with his golden staff strapped to his belt along with the sword.
"And how do you know of Mage Atem?" Dartz prompted, quizzing him on a dangerous question, and Seto let out a tense huff, "I…heard about him. I heard that he saves rare and endangered creatures and is wrongly imprisoned for it. I'm an advocate for him because he's the only mage I believe who has a fucking heart."
"Look at you, doing so well," Dartz gushed and gave him a sly smirk, and they passed a few groups of elves resting on the sides of the steps. "We're passing our competition, which is good. This is a physical test which we'll both easily conquer."
I was wondering about that, Seto growled as they began to walk past more and more sets of elves resting gracefully on the steps to catch their breath, some sipping potions and others obviously healing their feet because some had chosen to wear heeled boots.
Glad that's not me, Seto added to himself as he nearly tread on the hem of someone's robe, but he caught himself enough to take a wider step up to avoid it. Fuck…
The top was still a ways to go, but the thought of legitimately earning a fake title spurred him on to push through the light burning in his calves as they continued their hike upwards.
Yami held his hands out shakily to let the guard unlock his collar and take his cuffs.
He ignored the way his ears burned as the other mages stared openly at him as he healed himself and threw the uniformed robes over the prison garbs, quickly running a cleaning spell down his body for good measure, hoping he didn't stink of semen or anything else disgusting from the prison.
He'd grown numb to it.
His sense of boundaries had been blurred, because nothing mattered anymore.
Time didn't matter anymore.
He'd been called upon at the last second because of his level—once again–to work security for the perimeter of a coronation…for elves in the sky region.
Groups of finely dressed elves drifted past, talking quietly while he took his place on the podium and dared to take a deep inhale to taste the night air, which was clear and sharp
What a welcome scent as opposed to the prison stink…
The seating in the cliffside clearing was beautifully arranged, with flowers decorating all the chair backings, and pixies were stationed in each aisle, helping people find their seats.
Yami let out a sigh and felt boredom sink in almost instantly.
His job was to maintain the security barrier so no magical creatures would come crashing in on this ceremony, and then he might be asked to direct lost mounts to the feeding stalls at the foot of the cliff, or give directions to any elf needing help on their way back to the districts. Boring.
He almost wished for questing if this was the alternative….
His position was ideal for watching the ceremony, and he heard another mage grumbling about wanting a change of podium, but he ignored them and floated up anyway. Normally, he'd be kind enough to switch with them, but right now, the entire cliff could burn and crumble off, and he wouldn't care to save anyone.
The side for princess nominees slowly filled up, back row first, with the most beautiful female elves dressed in all their finest, and Yami felt a yawn coming up, so he cast a dark cover over his face briefly so he could yawn. Damn this place….
Seto saw something flicker in the corner of his eye, so he snapped his head around, seeing a mage floating on a security podium with an obscured face, and the hairs on the back of his arms raised. That looked like a very familiar shroud.
"What is it?" Dartz asked plainly, followed Seto's gaze, and his eyes met a mage on the podium with a high-level mask. Oh. Odd. All the other mages were showing their faces…
"Nothing," Seto muttered, and a pixy wearing a pink tunic breathlessly floated in their faces, chirping, "welcome! Name and application?"
Dartz held up a hand and materialized a thin scroll which the pixy picked up and opened, nodding and pointing at the very front row of seats by the heavily decorated stage.
"Pleasure, High Priest Seto and Headmaster Dartz. Seat M13a and M14a. Thank you for your participation."
"You applied too?" Seto blinked in shock, and Dartz gave him a smirk.
"Of course. I'm collecting titles, wouldn't you know," came the reply, and Seto had to roll his eyes. Right. Demon Lord was one he renounced recently, so he needed one to replace it? Yeesh.
They crossed their legs in unison, and Seto felt a laugh climbing up his chest. Haaaa.
The apprentice was quickly surpassing the master.
"Fast learner but…" Dartz reached over his thigh and used two fingers to gently push Seto's knee off of his crossed leg with a delicate nose wrinkle. "Never copy the elf beside you. Stay original, Seto. Look around and see that no two elves are sitting the same way. You must be aesthetic from a distance too. Fix your pose."
Oh my fucking god! Seto raged as he uncrossed his legs furiously and threw his other leg on top. What would happen if he spread his legs out wide the way someone would on a train when they wanted to take up more space? Would he get ejected from the ceremony?
He glanced behind him to see the seats filling up, and sure enough, not one person was sitting the same way, and the women were especially excessive with their posing, with some draping their hair this way and that. Holy….
Out of annoyance for the lack of something else to look at, he glanced up at the mage's podiums again, his heart freezing when he noticed…it was Yami floating in the security barrier, his eyes lined with dark shadows of stress as they scanned the crowd, a permanent frown sitting in the middle of his delicate brow.
It's Yami! Yami is up there—Dartz—
Think quietly! Dartz hissed at him, his two-colored eyes flashing as he nodded politely at the pixie floating by who was waving her fingers flirtily at them. Focus. Don't slip. Get the certificate so you may legally exonerate him and your dragon with this high status, understand? Steps, Seto. Take them.
Yes …Headmaster, Seto thought dryly as he leaned back in his seat and tried to relax and show it in his body language. Yami was here, to see him being fake enough to claim a real crown.
Well, now he had more reason to win it.
The main question now was how…because he hadn't thought about it until now because he'd been so wrapped up with all the other shit he had to deal with. He'd peek at Yami one more time for confidence.
Yami scanned the crowd again, catching the eye of one elf who kept glancing up in his direction.
Their eyes met.
And Yami felt a hot bolt of lightning sear through his chest when the elf winked handsomely at him before turning back around in his seat to face the front. W-What in the gods was that?!
He looked over his shoulder at the empty skies behind him, seeing nothing.
Who was the elf winking at?! His eyes had been a clear, icy blue, and his hair was a wonderful light brown, making his heart wrench as he was reminded of Seto. Now if he saw another elf with blonde hair and violet eyes, he'd break down into tears because he'd think of Mai.
I can't do this. I can't…stand this…! Yami grit his teeth, once again on the brink of tears and was about to step down from the podium to quit and tell the Head Guard he was feeling unwell when the blue-eyed elf turned to look at him over his shoulder again, his expression one of…nervous desperation, before he turned back around and faced the front.
W-What is wrong with him? Is he thinking about breaking out of here? Yami thought blithely, tugging at the glowing thread in the barrier. I'll let it down for him to leave.
The ceremony was starting, where a pretty woman wearing dark red robes stood in the front and projected her voice magically over the crowd. "Thank you all for coming to our decadal coronation ceremony. Please welcome…our King and Queen of Chizao!"
There was a resounding round of applause that lasted until two, glorious elves wearing heavy layers of silky robes waved and sat down at the two flower-adorned thrones set up on the stage.
Seto was tired of clapping, but he had to keep it up and maintain a pleasant expression on his face until the applause died down and the announcement elf spoke up again, "The King and Queen will now allow every elf in the audience to review and add any accomplishments they may have achieved in the recent weeks to their application. Please take this time now to review it."
There was a massive rustle among them, and Seto fell into a mild panic.
He felt woefully unprepared for this…exam it felt like.
Everyone had something to pull out, a scroll, a pen, something, anything, and he was sitting there stupidly with his legs still crossed and his hands still folded on top of them.
Dartz raised his hand gracefully and pulled up two glowing lists for him to look at, and his anxiety eased a bit.
"I've already submitted yours," Dartz said gleefully, sounding way too happy about it. "Might as well add something about your dragon, hm?"
"Not mine," Seto muttered, but Dartz was already poking his finger at the glowing magic screen in front of him, writing it with a slender finger, "saved an Ancient…Fairy…Dragon…"
He's really lying through his teeth for me! Seto thought, terror stricken at being caught out for it. This was not good for his heart. Seriously.
He longed to look over his shoulder at Yami again, but he knew if he peeked any more, it would make him suspicious, and might even shatter his image.
Yami was powerful and high in level.
It would undo any validation Anja had given him.
The scrolls, pens, and magical texts vanished, and everyone settled down into a polite, anticipated silence while the King and Queen began reading the edited scrolls and texts, leaning their heads together and pointing at a scroll when they came across an interesting one.
So we just sit here…and watch them read our shit? Seto thought nervously, and Dartz barely nodded his head.
Yes, it's all boring. Bear through it.
Please let me die, Seto groaned, and he dared to drop his head down and sigh. AGONY.
Yami stared intently at the back of the elf's brown hair, debating on casting an appraisal, but he didn't have a good reason to. Everyone might feel it, and then the Head Guard would question why he did it, and he would say he sensed danger, but from where and who? It was a bad idea, but he ached to appraise the two elves with near-identical matching pony tails.
They looked like brothers from the back. Elves rarely matched with one another, priding themselves on being similar but different.
He was about to obscure his face to yawn again when the king and queen stood up to approach the edge of the state and began speaking. Finally. He was aging into a crystal with how long they were taking.
"Esteemed guests," the king nodded at the sea of beautiful heads wearing all sorts of small crowns made of leaves, flowers, and simple circlets. "We have carefully reviewed each of your scrolls and decided on a few contenders, but with the recent changes made to the application, our decision was made easy."
There was a tense silence, and Seto itched in his skin.
"For our Princess, this decade, we have chosen to crown…" The king was handed a scroll by the queen, and he read the name fluidly, "Kisara, Spirit Elf of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon Clan!"
The whaaaaaaaaaaaat, Seto reeled, his hands automatically coming up to clap with everyone else, but he was numb all over. That was an impressive title.
It was now Princess Kisara, Spirit Elf…of the Blue Eyes White Dragon…Clan.
What a mouthful.
And the lady that walked up on stage made his mouth drop open.
She was…beautiful. Wildly ethereal.
Her hair seemed to float behind her when she walked, and her face was incredible to behold, with large, angular blue eyes set against striking pale skin, and her hair, as white as snow.
She glanced down into the crowd after gracefully dipping down to accept a thin, golden circlet in her hair, and a large bouquet of flowers in her arms. When she turned to face the audience, they made eye contact.
Seto blinked, and she blinked back, waving at him and then raising her head to smile at everyone behind him.
WHOA. WHOA WHOA WHOA HEY.
I-I think she shot me. I can't move! Seto couldn't clap, because his fingers were gripping his knees, his legs no longer crossed. He'd been nailed to his seat with her gaze.
And he thought Yami was pretty. Holy…fuck….
Dartz nudged him, and Seto barely managed to put his hands together twice before the clapping stopped.
I lose. There's no fucking way they'll pick anyone other than another dragon spirit! Seto thought furiously, sneaking a glance at Dartz. This was extremely unfair and he was super unprepared for this.
"For our Prince this decade," the queen said silkily as the new princess moved to stand in center stage, glittering with beauty. "It was a difficult decision, but ultimately we have chosen to crown…."
I'm going home, Seto thought dryly, thinking to take another peek at Yami.
"….High Priest Seto from the Forest of Cane," The queen read fluidly, closing the scroll and stepping back to scan the crowd of male elves over the deafening applause. "Please come up to claim your crown."
Seto blinked and felt Dartz nudge him extremely hard, hissing in his mind, "stand up now! Remember to bow! And if you trip on those stairs, it's all over for you."
Yami nearly fell off his podium at the name. High Priest….SETO?!
And the elf. The elf that had been sneaking peeks at him, the elf with blue eyes…stood up, and walked up to the stage with ultimate grace, his hair billowing behind him in the light wind as he turned to face the audience with a gentle bow, lowering his head to accept the golden circlet from the queen, and a large bouquet was pressed into his hands by the elf wearing red.
I'm…dreaming, Seto thought as he stood beside the glowing princess, seeing her wave, so he briefly lifted his hand to hold it up, seeing it shake visibly, so he put it down to support the giant bundle of flowers because it was fucking heavy.
There were disappointed smiles in the crowd, but everyone looked genuinely happy. He chanced a glance beside him and nearly dropped the bouquet when he realized Princess Kisara was smiling at him, so he weakly curled the corners of his mouth upwards to smile back.
S-She was….f-fucking…pretty….!
What a pretty couple, Yami thought sourly when he noticed them sharing a lovestruck glance, and his heart sank into his feet like a big rock. And this was why elves continued to reign strongly. They made connections like this. They already looked like a nice future king and queen standing there, and apparently, a lot of the crowd seemed to agree because Yami could hear the gossip floating up already.
"Every decade they somehow find the most angelic faces…"
"I wonder what they did to win…"
"My goodness, he's handsome…."
"She's amazingly gorgeous. What do you think she uses for her hair?!"
"Look at his tasteful hair fixings. I must get the name of his goblinsmith."
"The length of his hair! They look so compatible!"
"Imagine if they were to have a child…"
The applause finally died down, and Seto felt his ears ring.
Cool. Now time to leave and get Yami off that security podium.
"Princess Kisara," the king said grandly, bobbing his head politely towards her. "Please regale us of your latest accomplishment which you so kindly told us about in your application scroll."
Escape is not so easy! Seto felt himself break out into a cold sweat as he kept the smile plastered on his face while she talked, sounding like a musical wind.
"I gathered a couple friends to help clean up the River of Arcana," she said clearly, her voice sending goosebumps down Seto's spine. "Then we helped relocate the displaced goblins from the caves into a new settlement, where we stayed for two solar rotations and lent them our magic, our strength, and our expertise on the best way to start a small village. They are now thriving on the outskirts of District 1."
Yuck, Seto thought nervously, and he had to raise the heavy bouquet in his arms to clap when she finished speaking.
Wait. She finished speaking, which meant…
"Lovely! Now, Prince Seto, please regale us with your noble tale," the queen cried, her cheeks pink with joy. "What you wrote in your application really impressed us!"
FUCKING HELP?! I didn't write it! Seto briefly glanced down in the crowd to meet Dartz's gaze, and the elf tossed his hair over his shoulder to give him a wink that said, 'dragon', so Seto kept his face neutral as he stared out over the crowd, finding it in himself to be a presenter again. This was cake. He saw more faces in a crowd at Domino Stadium and lied to them all the time….
"I…" Seto's breath hitched, and he decided to show some emotion, "…came across an injured dragon in the back of a smuggler's cart. She was black and blue from the abuse, and I freed her without hurting anyone. We then traveled to the Healing Spring and further cured her mental ailments. She is now living happily in a safe environment, surrounded by what she loves best—children, and being hand-fed by them."
There was a pause, and several people gasped audibly.
Oops, Seto thought dryly, his arms aching from the weight of the flowers. Was he not supposed to say 'smugglers' and describe the situation or…what? From what the princess had said beside him, it was a humanitarian contest….
"Oh, the dragon, Prince Seto, you did not mentionnnn the species of dragonnnn," the king sang with a playful finger wag. "Do tell!"
Seto blinked and chanced a glance up at Yami on the podium, talking directly to him, "it was an Ancient Fairy Dragon, damaged in her egg but was raised tamely by a kind and noble mage."
There were more audible gasps in the audience, and the applause thundered his eardrums until they ached. The princess beside him leaned in and whispered, "you are so brave! Can I meet her?"
He leaned back and replied, "yes. Anytime." And he received a smile so radiant, he felt like melting on the spot.
And were people deaf? He said he didn't raise it.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to fly it to the spring. Jesus.
Yami almost slipped off the podium and had to keep himself from running down there to shake the handsome elf to make him say more. Like the name of the dragon! And which smugglers cart did he find her in, from which district? And…the healing spring?! It was real?!
Was this elf talking about the same ancient fairy dragon?! ANJA?
Was it possible there could be two fairy dragons nearby being smuggled?
Both dragons, possibly damaged…in their egg-forms?
But the elf had said, 'a kind and noble mage' and who in the gods was that?!
Surely not me?! But he was looking right at me! Yami kept spiraling as the pretty couple walked down the stage, arm-in-arm, and he was dizzy with a mixture of curiosity and relief. Maybe that was why the man kept peeking up at him. He knew who he was because Anja probably told him! Which meant she was safe in the town inn, with Mai.
No.
The elf had said 'hand-fed by children', so…SETO had her?!
Maybe Seto's soul signature is being shielded by her and they're in hiding together! Yami prayed happily as he watched the handsome elf walk the newly crowned princess back to her seat and smile radiantly at her friends who all swooned and waved at him.
Seto smiled back and felt his insides curling. He made it back to his seat with the flowers heavy in his lap as the king stood before them, announcing, "now enjoy the banquet! Please mingle, enjoy the good food, music, and prepare your sons and daughters for next decade's coronation! Our newly crowned Prince and Princess are welcome to explore the chateau to choose a few wings for themselves and their friends. Have a wonderful evening everyone!"
There was more polite applause and people began getting up.
Chateau? Seto thought numbly as he stood and caught a sly smile from Dartz that made him want to kick the headmaster in the shins.
"You planned this? That was way too…convenient!" Seto breathed, weighing the flowers in his arms and receiving another miniscule nod.
"Now mingle and petition to free your mage, Seto," Dartz said with a warm smile, reaching forward to relieve him of the flowers while people began to flock to his sides, their eyes glowing with curiosity. "I have the scroll here…" And he was handed a black scroll with a white seal, earning nervous gasps from the people that had gathered around him to hear him tell tales.
He'd barely moved five inches from his seat, and he was surrounded.
"Are you petitioning for something, Prince? Already?" A woman beside him asked, daring to reach out to touch his arm with her manicured hand. "Tell us! You are so brave and noble for saving such a rare dragon!"
Funny they think I did it, Seto thought nervously as he took a breath and fixed his vocabulary to omit cursing. "You'll want to put your name down for this because this is a petition to free the mage who tamed her," he said, feeling a larger crowd gather around his elbows, and he wondered if it was too pompous of him to take the stage to talk about it instead, because …that would be cool….
The crowd parted respectfully as the princess approached him and hooked her arm through his, tugging him up to the stage and waving her hand in front of his face gracefully, long enough for Seto to see threads of a spell for amplification. Oh shit. And Dartz was hanging out in the far back of the room by the table of food, passing out flowers from his bouquet with a wine glass in his other hand, living it up.
Elves gathered loyally at the base of the stage, not bothering to sit, and crowding excitedly, making Seto feel oddly like he was at one of his own phone releases and everyone was hoping he'd sign the back of their phone or something.
Their eyes were glowing in the same, hopeful way.
Yami watched this scene from above, his heart skipping as the handsome elf took the stage with supreme ease and began speaking like he did this often.
"What I have here, as you'll recognize…" Seto smirked, thinking he couldn't tell scroll colors apart until last week. "Is a petition scroll for a wrongly imprisoned mage who was the one who saved the dragon as an egg and healed her cracks until her hatching."
He let that sink in and saw people's eyes widening. The princess at his side nodded encouragingly, and he could hear her thoughts.
Wow! Incredible! I want to see this dragon! Oh my goshhhhhh an Ancient Fairy Dragon!
He had to shut out her squealing to continue, "I hope to get his sentence lightened or dismissed entirely. He dedicates his time and magic to heal and save endangered creatures while questing, and this type of behavior should be supported and rewarded. Please consider putting your name down for his pardon."
There was a silence, and Seto expected applause but realized people wanted him to keep talking, so he hastily pulled more politician acts out of his ass, adding, "This is my first time…petitioning for someone so relentlessly, so I might come off as rude, but I really believe in what he's doing, because it changes lives. Even the smallest life, he helps by saving one egg, by saving one queen spider, he brings these creatures back from the brink of extinction when we heartlessly continue our daily lives not knowing about these horrors. Thank you for hearing me."
He nodded and broke the seal on the scroll, realizing Dartz had handed him a fresh one on purpose, and everyone clapped…again.
Gritting his teeth, he handed the scroll to the princess beside him, and she took it with an air of grace and materialized a feather pen to sign her name with a flourish at the top, also announcing over the crowd, "I support Prince Seto in his endeavor to free…" she glanced down to check the name again, "Mage Atem, for..." She read it straight from the paper, "...harboring dangerous creatures with levels over… 700 million?!"
Seto blinked and aimed his glare at Dartz who toasted him from across the room.
There was a stony silence, and Seto realized he had to speak again. Fucking A, DARTZ…!
"Incredible, right? Nature is amazing," Seto said flatly, hoping this would suffice, and thankfully, another giant round of applause drowned out the fluent cursing he was doing in his head.
He was now being a real fraud. Making people sign fraudulent paperwork while he was the one parading it around wearing a fake face. It didn't get better than this…! Yami better be appreciating it from his perch up there!
Above in the security stand, Yami felt faint as he watched the finely dressed elves mill around the black scroll and all dutifully add their names to it, unaware that the level recording for Seto and Anja had been switched.
Everyone was signing his and Seto's freedom scroll. Anja wasn't even formally registered as a mount or anything… She was damaged and protected by the safe town's law for damaged creatures… But if she'd healed in the spring, did that mean the law no longer protected her?!
He's got it wrong either way, Yami thought nervously as the handsome elf peeked up at him again, and he decided not to react.
They would meet in close proximity soon, when the scroll filled up and he would be released, because this party was a thousand elves strong, he was definitely getting pardoned somehow. The Head Elf could not refuse a thousand signatures from some of the most accomplished elves who were all contenders to be Crown Princes and Princesses. If anything, this elf was smart for bringing his petition scroll here, right after winning the crown…!
Very suspicious indeed. Almost too…perfect.
Seto's anxiety rose the longer the scroll got, and he realized Dartz was 800 times smarter than him and had planned this from the very start. There was no way that demon-elf was doing this for free. He wanted something in return, for sure.
I've done enough of these to know that I'm just the figurehead…for now, Seto thought uneasily as he realized Dartz pushed him the way his Board of Directors did.
Always 'gently suggesting' stuff that turned out to be mandatory.
He glanced up at Yami, hoping to catch a smile, a wave, anything, a nod in thanks, but all he got was a dark look and spiky bangs covering his eyes.
He looked back down and nearly tripped on his own feet when the princess appeared before him, holding the completed scroll of names in both her hands, having tied it neatly with a ribbon.
"Everyone has signed it, Seto," she giggled and Seto felt his cheeks burn as he accepted it back with both hands and thanked her with a brief smile.
It was dangerous to look at her for too long.
They stood together awkwardly, side-by-side while a few people passed by and addressed them both, and Seto felt himself bow forward at the same time she did, feeling very much like he was at his own meet-and-greet.
When they were finally given a moment to breathe, Seto dared to ask her, "will you be staying at the Chateau later this evening?" Because he would be finding a room to kill Dartz in it later.
"Oh. I…" She looked very surprised and then she flushed dark red.
"I'm s—I think you're very handsome," she said, reaching out to touch his arm quickly before withdrawing with a formal bow. "But I'd like to focus more on helping the neighboring goblin villages…b-before I settle down and even think about a baby. But...m-maybe in a few thousand years! I'll see you…a-around, Seto! Prince!"
She tilted her head over her shoulder, apparently unable to run away fast enough, because she half-stumbled into her friend's arm and then whispered fervently in her ear, both women turning dark red and giving him waves over their shoulders before they dashed away.
Um, what the fuck was that reaction?
Confused and annoyed, Seto walked through the crowds parting to find Dartz leaning drunkenly on a tall pillar, still nursing a glass of wine, and he hissed at the headmaster in his mind.
That princess just blew me off because I asked her if she was checking out the castle, Seto said roughly, grabbing the wine glass from Dartz and looking for a place to set it down. Stop drinking and fix my mistake. Are we going to see the damn Chateau or not?
Dartz let out a laugh and pushed the remnants of the bouquet into his arms with a drunken stumble and replied, "the chateau is for couples in love and ready to settle down. You just asked her to have a child with you without even knowing her. Haha…ha… Try again in a few thousand years as she says…haha…haha…ha!"
"Okay…you are done for the night," Seto growled, giving Dartz a furious shake and feeling elf lean on him and mumble, "good job. I like this wine. I'm stealing some for my…" And he fell asleep.
Furious, Seto heard people chuckling and staring at him as he draped the headmaster's arm over his shoulder and helped the semi-conscious Dartz to the teleportation squares that had been set up in the corner of the clearing. People were leaving, and there was a small line to leave.
Hey, I don't know the way back! Location-wise! Seto gave Dartz a shake. Wake up! Or give me a hint!
"47 degrees east…981 west…" Dartz mumbled, and Seto rolled his eyes. Jeeeeez. That barely made any sense, but he could guess enough based on what he memorized on Bakura's map.
He stepped over the grassy lines and saw people waving at him and smiling. He then lowered his head in a bow because all his hands were occupied, with Dartz sagging beside him, and the bouquet of flowers spilling over his elbow, Seto dug his toe in the grass, mimicking Yami's technique with a spin, and hearing people gasp and praise him just as he was disappearing.
"Stylish!"
"What a prince! Haha his drunk friend…!"
Yami stayed frozen in the podium above, stony-faced and mildly frightened. He'd witnessed some disturbing behavior from the newly crowned prince elf named High Priest Seto.
Having cast a hearing enhancement spell, he eavesdropped on their conversation, hearing the prince brashly ask the princess to stay at the Chateau with him for the night. She kindly rejected him and ran away, and then the prince, visibly upset, stomped over to his drunk friend, who Yami realized with a jolt was Dartz the headmaster of Seto's training facility, drunker than sin, swaying everywhere and dropping flowers from the bouquet on the floor before the prince shook some sense into him, and teleported him out…using a technique only advanced mages used.
The other elves had thought it was Flair. It was not.
It was a firm, targeted, double-teleportation technique he often used to travel with Seto to land specifically in points that he knew already existed. The other landing point had to have been visited before, and pinpointed, especially for that spell to work.
Well, the headmaster was drunk, so maybe that was why…
Something is off about him, that prince, Yami thought furiously as the Head Guard came floating towards him to relieve him of his shift.
He might need to look into this High Priest Seto.
Was it too much to hope that maybe this priest, who also lived in the Forest of Cane, had known some demons from Seto's clan, and that name was popular, and had been bestowed upon the baby demon by that Priest?
Tired and still reeling from shock, Yami floated off the podium and went back to his guard elf to be taken back to his cell, holding his hands out for the cuffs but not feeling them when they got put on…because his mind was filled with High Priest Seto, the new crown prince who had apparently saved Anja from smugglers.
Hopefully we can meet soon, and I can thank him, Yami thought determinedly, his spirits lifting.
Author's note:
Seto wins the crown prince title (ahem fraud)
Then makes everyone sign a petition to free yami (while being handsome)
Then makes a faux pas against kisara (while yami watches)
And has to drag drunk dartz home hahahaaha