Chapter 118: It Seemed He Didn’t Like It
LEO
Just as Maria and I—I didn’t know how or why she was with us, but she seemed alright and seemed really up for the festival, so I didn’t mind—finished up our beef patty buns, Dorian (of all people!) approached us and said, or more like announced, somewhat grudgingly,
"I will be with you lot today."
"Eh?"
I was a little confused.
"What are you up to now?" Mario asked.
"Don’t think for a moment I’m doing this because I want to," he said.
"You don’t need to force yourself, Dorian," I said, and he just rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Nice to meet you. I’m Maria."
It was then that the lady extended her hand to Dorian. He looked at her, studying her face carefully, shook his head, and then shook her hand.
"I really don’t get why I have to do this," he said.
"I’m sorry, Ma’am—but could we have a moment with our friend?" Mario asked Maria.
"Sure thing. Go ahead."
With that, Mario pulled Dorian aside. I joined in.
Curious.
"What’s with this attitude? I don’t know why you are doing this, but at least don’t be rude to the lady," Mario said.
"Falken," Dorian said, groaning.
"Mathias?" I asked.
"That’s the man," Dorian confirmed.
"Why would he want you to come with us?"
Mario was now even more confused than before.
I thought—maybe Mathias noticed that the three of us didn’t particularly get along and wanted to give us a chance to be friends?
Mathias was good at reading people and situations like that.
"Beats me. I’m just doing as I was told. Don’t ask me any more questions," Dorian said dismissively. It seemed he really didn’t know.
Mario sighed, then said,
"Fine. If it’s Falken’s decision, I will trust that it’s for the best."
"You trust the man too much," Dorian said.
"I have every reason to," Mario defended Mathias.
Rightly so.
"I’m not interested in anything at this festival. I’m just here to keep an eye on things," Dorian said as if this was the last thing he would say to us for the rest of the day.
"Fine. But remember—you can’t be rude to the lady," Mario reminded him again.
Dorian groaned once and didn’t answer.
We then went back to Maria, and Mario apologized.
"I’m sorry, Ma’am. We just needed to discuss something. It’s all good now."
"No problem, Marius. I’m happy to be shown around with three young, handsome men," Maria joked. I saw Dorian cringe, but she didn’t seem to mind.
"So where would you like to go first?" Mario asked Maria, and it was only then that I realized their names were so confusingly similar.
"Now that I’ve eaten, I’d like to look around and just experience the festival like every other student here," she said, grinning.
"Oh, then do you want to come and see our pictures at the exhibition?"
I suggested it. Even the Second Lady came straight to see our artworks after the opening ceremony. We received loads of praise too.
"Sure!" she said.
With that, we headed to the exhibition hall. When we arrived, Fabian and Liesel were already there, standing by the door.
"Oh, Leo—good morning," Fabian greeted me first.
"Good morning!" I said, happy to see them again.
"We gave you a day off today. Why did you come?" Liesel asked, looking a little puzzled at first, then looking at Maria.
"Maria wanted to see our pictures!" I said.
"Oh, really? Nice to meet you, Maria. I’m Liesel," Liesel said and gave a polite bow.
"And I’m Fabian. Take your time looking at our work—although there are only four pieces on display—and feel free to ask any questions."
"Thank you!"
Maria sounded really up for it. It gave me good vibes, and I felt excited too.
"Do you want to see my picture first?" I asked.
"That would be nice," she said.
Then we walked over to where my picture was. Mario, for some reason, seemed hesitant. He stood a step behind Maria, looking a little stern.
"So what’s this picture about?" Maria asked.
"There was this one time we went to this place called Hoffberg for a festival. And this man here must have done something wrong... he’s being arrested," I said.
"That’s not very pleasant, is it?"
"Not at all."
"Then what made you draw it?"
"Blanche said I should draw something that left an impression on me—it wasn’t a nice thing to see, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it for a long time. So I figured I’d draw this."
"I see. Do you know what this man might have done to deserve this?" Maria asked, looking genuinely curious.
"I really don’t know," I said, shaking my head.
"You know it, Leo," Dorian said with a snigger.
"I really don’t," I told him again.
"It’s—"
But before Dorian could finish, Mario abruptly grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away. Dorian looked at Mario, then me, then grinned and went silent.
"Tell me, Leo—what do you think about this way of treating people?" Maria asked me.
"I suppose... he must have done something really bad. But it’s really not nice to cover someone’s face like this. It must be so hard to breathe. I also saw these guys... Royal Knights... hit him once when he was trying to squirm loose."
I looked over at Mario and felt like I had made a mistake in saying what I just did. He didn’t seem very happy.
"I see. What bothered you most about this scene, then?"
I knew the answer. I wasn’t sure if I could say it here, but I didn’t feel like lying or hiding myself either.
"The fact that... it was the Royal Knights who were doing this..."
And that really was it.
I wanted to be a Royal Knight because I thought—other than the fact that it was a well-paying job—Royal Knights were like heroes. But it was one thing to imagine myself fighting bad guys and doing good things, and another thing to do this to someone.
"Don’t worry. I’m sure you will be a great knight," Maria said.
There was a moment of silence between us all. She then clapped her hands and continued,
"Should we look at the next picture, then?"
Mario was already on his way to Liesel’s picture, leading us along in a hurry.
It seemed he didn’t like my picture after all.