Master of Minds, Master of Me

“Goddammit, Ted! Relax already! I was away for like fifteen minutes. No need to act like that.”

“Your Highness, you were in the middle of a parliament meeting! You can’t just dart off like that without a word. Where did you even go?”

“Take a shit,” I say casually.

Since I’m not going to tell him I literally ran through the Palace yard just to meet my flower, hoping she was looking for a little morning confession. I saw her walking toward the church from the window. At first, I thought I could just let her be. I was in the middle of the meeting, after all. But my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to go see what she was up to. And it was so disappointing to see I was too late.

But she said she’s going to visit the church every morning, so I just need to adjust my schedule a little bit. Since I will be there every morning too. I’m so lucky. I can start every day seeing my pretty little flower.

“Your Highness! You are not a child anymore. I think you should know how to contain yourself in those matters.”

“What can I say, Ted? When a man’s gotta go, a man’s gotta go. I thought it would be better to just leave without an explanation. Or would you rather me announce to everyone that the Crown Prince was planning to take a dump?”

Watching Ted’s face while talking about this subject is way too amusing. People are so easy to tease. Well, not all people. My pretty flower is much, much harder to tease.

“Just make sure you won’t let it happen again. So are we really still just going to be on standby with the problem with Hilver?” Ted says with a worried expression.

I rub my neck with my hand. That neighboring country really is starting to be a problem.

“Well, that’s what the parliament and my father want, so there’s no other option. I know they haven’t done anything that would justify any actions toward them, but I have a really bad feeling about it. Like it’s only a matter of time before something bad happens. And especially since Duke Callum is so convinced that Hilver is not a problem, that makes it even more suspicious. Since he usually is always so eager to wage a war.”

“I guess so.”

“How’s the situation going regarding the orphanages?” I probe.

“Pretty good. We’ve already checked about half of the country's orphanages, and there have been two similar cases to what you found in the capital. But they’re already dealt with, and the children are in good care again.”

“Good to hear.”

“I have to say, Your Highness, you are a rather odd person.”

A smile creeps to my face. “Oh? What did you expect then? A mini version of my father?”

“Maybe. I had only seen you during your official duties before starting to work by your side. And you were very different. I would have never guessed that you were like…”

He falls silent, clearly trying to come up with a word to describe me. I decide to help, since I have many good ideas.

“Like the funniest person ever? Like just purely amazing? Or like super caring? Or just simply outstanding?”

His face drops even lower as I say my suggestions. So hilarious.

“Please stop, Your Highness. I meant… whimsical.”

“Whimsical?” I echo.

That’s not so bad. I thought he was going to say something worse, like accusing me of acting like a child or being scatterbrained.

“Yes. Whimsical.” He answers.

“Oh, so you do like me, don’t you, Ted?” I smile at him brightly.

“It wasn’t a compliment, Your Highness.”

“Well, I definitely take it as one! Okay, now on to more serious matters, Ted!”

He raises his brow at me, clearly not believing I could have any serious matters. I might be a little laid-back from time to time, but I do take this country's business seriously. And I do intend to be a good ruler, even better than my father.

“Even though the parliament and father don’t think Hilver is a threat to us, I’m not buying it. There’s something shady going on. The city of Borel is the nearest city to our country's borders, and if Hilver actually does decide to make any moves, Borel will be the first to suffer from it. I want to be prepared for that. I know the road leading from Borel to the next nearest city is in really bad shape, so we really need to get that fixed. If the worst-case scenario happens, evacuating Borel will be easier if the road is decent.”

I glance at the map on my desk and think for a while before continuing.

“And actually, I’m not sure if we should even evacuate to the nearest city. It might be too predictable. Maybe we could prepare some kind of evacuation hideout somewhere.”

“Hideout? Are you sure it’s necessary? If Hilver really isn’t a threat, it’s just a waste of royal funds.”

“When people’s lives are at risk, I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“Where should we make the hideout then?”

I let my eyes linger on the map, trying to think of every possible scenario. Where the enemies could invade, what actions they could take after it.

“I think next to the mountains is the safest place.”

“Your Highness, that will cost a lot. The mountain site is a rather cold and harsh environment, so we can’t just build any flimsy buildings there. And it would require a huge amount of wood to warm that place so people could actually take refuge there for a longer time.”

“You’re right. But it’s the safest place. No enemy army would go to the mountain site for those exact reasons. We can use manastones for heating. We’ll just store the manastones and food there, ready to be used if needed. And I want it built fast, so it’s ready during next week.”

“Next week? That’s impossible, Your Highness. And if you really are going to do something this expensive, you need the King’s approval.”

“No, I don’t. Not if I use my own funds.”

I know my father won’t approve of it. He’s so convinced there isn’t going to be a war. But I’m sure that the word about my father’s sickness has already travelled too far. So people might think now is the best time to strike. So I’d rather use my own money than try to convince that stubborn man.

“Well, even so, it will take at least a month to be built.”

“I have an inkling that one month is too long. I want it to be made fast, so I can be more at ease.”

“And how are you going to make that happen, Your Highness? Even transporting all the materials there is going to take almost a week.”

I lean back in my chair and smile. “I happen to have a very useful bestie who can teleport rather long distances.”

“So you plan to leech off Master Loneflare? Again?”

“Absolutely!”

“You know no shame, do you, Your Highness?”

“Nope,” I say with a smug face.

“Come in.” Theodore’s voice is blunt and cold as ever.

“Theodore! You miss me?”

“Never.” He doesn’t even lift his gaze to meet mine.

I go sit on the chair closest to his desk. And just as I’m about to open my mouth, he beats me to it.

“What do you want, Felix?”

“Ooooh, you know me so well, don’t you?”

“Unfortunately. Answer my question.”

I guess no complimentary chit chat.

“I need your help to build an evacuation site in the northern mountains.”

“No.”

That was not surprising. I don’t think he has ever said yes to my requests, at least not on the first try. But I can be very persuasive.

“Don’t play hard to get. There must be something you want from me in exchange.”

“No.”

What a stubborn, grumpy man. He’s so cute.

“Come on. The monster campaign hasn’t even started yet. So there’s a perfect opportunity to make this happen.”

“You do realize that you bound me to watch some pathetic, meek, mute mouse every single fucking day. And now you think I have some extra time to build a little holiday house for you?” He finally raises his eyes to look at me. And he looks annoyed as hell.

I guess he really does hate his little babysitting duty. What an angry, annoyed man. Even cuter.

“I do appreciate you watching over Florentia for me. I’m forever indebted to you for it. But surely we can handle this in some way. Of course, the days you would help build the hideout, you would be free from your duties to watch over her. Don’t you think it is more pleasant to handle some teleportations and stuff than watch her?”

“Still a no.”

“I wasn’t finished. And of course, I’ll pay you for it. How much do you want?”

He writes something on a piece of paper and hands it to me. I choke completely when I see what he wrote. I know he’s one greedy bastard, but he already sucked me dry when I got him to agree to spy on Florentia.

“Theodore, your Tower is thriving already. Where would you even be able to spend this much money?”

“Not your concern.”

“Well, I’m paying for the whole evacuation site from my own budget, so I can’t pay that.”

“Then go and stop pestering me.”

I narrow my eyes at him, thinking. I guess I need to pull out the big guns.

“What about this—”

“No.”

“Goddammit, Theodore, listen to me finish first.” He falls silent, so I take that as permission to continue. “How about this: you get free time from babysitting while working on this, and I promise I won’t contact you for a week. Not even once. Total freedom from me.”

“One month.”

I sooooo got him.

“Two weeks.”

“One month.”

“Two and a half weeks.”

“One month.”

“Three weeks.”

“Two months.”

“Okay, okay, one month. But! I can contact you after two weeks if it has something to do with Florentia, something urgent.”

“And each useless contact increases my free time from you for a week.”

“Sure, why not. So we have a deal?”

He nods.

I spring up, my spirit just skyrockets. I have always known that my talent of being annoying would come in handy.

“Perfect! So let’s discuss the details!”

He gathers the papers he was working on during our talk with a heavy sigh, making room on his desk. He looks defeated. Still so cute.

It takes a rather long time to talk everything through. I glance at my watch. I think my pretty flower has already finished her class and is about to have dinner. I really hope I get there in time. I know I told her that I would see her on the weekend, but no way in hell could I not see her today, since the morning church meeting was a failure. I just hope we finish this early enough that she’s still at the greenhouse.

“Felix, are you focusing?”

Theodore’s sharp voice brings me back from my thoughts.

“Sorry, got a little distracted.”

“Distracted by what?”

“By a pretty flower.” I say with a smirk.

His face looks so annoyed once again, and he sinks into writing down the details of our plan.

“What? Not going to ask what I mean by that?” I say, leaning toward him with a smile.

“Not interested.”

Well, I know him too well, so I know there’s no hope of talking about women with him. So I sink back into planning with him, wanting to get this over with so I can get back to the Palace.

And when we are finished at last, I stand up and stretch myself.

“I think that’s all. Thanks Theodore, once again.”

He doesn’t respond, no surprises there. I walk toward the door and startle a little when I hear his voice behind me.

“You understand that your no-contact rule also includes things happening with your mana?”

I turn around to face him. “Yes. Like I said, I’ll contact you only if it has something to do with Florentia.”

“So you think you’re going to be okay for a month?”

My smile brightens so much that I feel like my mouth is about to break.

“Theodore! I so knew you like me and care about me! So cute seeing you worried about me like that.”

His face distorts, he clearly regrets saying anything out loud. Well, it surely was a mistake on his behalf, and I’m going to take full advantage of it.

“Get out.” His voice is dark and cold.

“Don’t worry, bestie. I’m confident that I can handle it. I won’t explode, I promise.”

“Get. Out.”

I can’t help but chuckle at him. He really is the best entertainment a man can get. I really want to tease him more, but I have other things to do. So I open the door and face Theodore one more time.

“Remember, even though I can’t contact you, you’re free to contact me any time you want. I know you’re going to miss me. I’ll surely miss you, bestie!”

His magic flies sharply toward me, and the door closes with force right in front of my nose. I start to head downstairs with a smile. I really am lucky to have a friend like him. He has helped me so much with my mana during these eight years.

I still haven’t found a way to calm myself completely, so I still need him to help me from time to time when the mana starts to get out of my control. But now that I think about it, the mana inside me has been acting rather calmly for a while. Sword fighting sometimes helps to control it. When I focus on that, sometimes the mana within me settles better. But not always. I’m sure I’ll eventually figure out how to control it by myself. I don’t want to rely on Theodore for the rest of my life.

I mostly enjoy having third mana affinity, but it comes with its cons. And the biggest one is absolutely the fact that I can’t use teleportation. The mana is too unstable for it, so I can never trust where I’ll end up. I had no problems teleporting before the dormant affinity woke up, but now it’s just impossible. Well not impossible, but it comes with a high risk. When you get used to teleporting here and there, it feels so bothersome to just walk everywhere or use carriages.

Like now. How much quicker it would be to go meet my flower if I could just teleport there. But I’m luckily on time, so I’m going to make it just nicely.