44 The Young Man and The Noble Princess (1/2)
Colorful songbirds crooned as they sat perched upon the ever-blossoming tree en masse like a devoted congregation of acolytes. Their leader, a resplendent nightingale, commanded the flock with a single chirp. Her melodious voice pierced through her flock's chorus with relative ease as she sang to the boy who slept beneath the tree.
It was a song that few knew about, and even fewer would ever be blessed enough to hear. Tears of Nightingale was composed by a certain Mulian sovereign long before anyone present in the room had been born, many completed revolutions ago.
———
Back then he was anything but a ruler, much to the dismay of his family. He was a rambunctious, free-spirited individual with a penchant for mischief — unbefitting behavior for the son of a renowned sculptor and painter — something that caused great grief for his parents. They worried about him every day of the week.
”He made his mom and dad worry? He sounds like a bad person...”
”H-He just liked playing around a bit, little sun, th-that's all.”
”Shush Daddy, don't interrupt Mommy or I'll hate you...”
Like a young, unbroken stallion, he was untameable at heart; neither the pleas of an angel nor the threats of the devil could dissuade him from doing what he wanted. He sought to break free from the rules even if it meant skirting the fine line of the law.
One day during the brave man's usual 'patrols' as he called them, he caught sight of the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was the Noble Princess, firstborn daughter of the High Priestess, and future consort of the kingdom's Crown Prince. The intrepid young man, in all his sagacious wisdom, did as he always did — he followed his heart — and fell in love with the princess at first sight.
Everything went as well as you would expect for someone like him...
He.... snuck into the Noble Princess's private chambers when the sun had set over the horizon and boldly introduced himself as her future husband. She did not take to this revelation all too well, as you might have already guessed. She called her guards on the scoundrel, but none could ever catch the insolent rapscallion, for he rode upon the wind like no other in the realm.
”So he is a bad guy! Good guys don't sneak into a princess's room!”
”No, little sun! It's not like that! Da- I mean, the brave man just liked the princess a whooole lot!”
”Daaaaad.....”
”O-Oh, I'm sorry, little star. Daddy will be quiet from now on...”
The rouge was without comparison in terms of his ability in fleeing as the Noble Princess would soon find out...
Every night without exception, the rogue would break into her private chambers and annoy the Noble Princess with his chitter-chatter. Every night her guards would fail to catch him, much to her dismay. This cycle continued for many nights until the princess realized the futility of her actions.
One night she finally gave up on chasing him away and let him stay — she decided she would ignore him until he gave up. That was her biggest mistake...
They eventually got to know one another a little better over many long nights after this... gracious concession of sorts, a-ahem. The young man, although full of hot air, was quite the smooth talker and a skilled raconteur. He often entertained the Noble Princess with stories of his endless exploits and encounters with adversity. Some of them sounded a little too far-fetched for her to believe though, not that she ever admitted it, out of pity for the poor man...
”So he's a liar, too... I don't like this story at all. Can you tell us a different story?”
”He was just trying to impress the princess a little bit! There's nothing wrong with lying just a tiiiiny bit as long as no one gets hurt, o-okay?!”
”But Daddy, you said that all liars are bad people.”
”..........”
But against the princess's better judgment, she inevitably fell in love with that bad man who told awful stories. She liked him much, much more than the cold prince who only thought of her as a tool for his bidding. The young man was a rude, noisy, annoying, scheming, terrible liar... but he really loved the princess, unlike the prince.
And so she...
———
Reed awoke in an unfamiliar place. A large, soft bed made of clouds and petals. An enormous tree loomed over the bed, acting as a peculiar canopy of sorts. Birds sang their songs outside. The rising sun peeked over the horizon and gentle rays of sunlight entered the room and illuminated his surroundings.
He checked himself out, but nothing had changed. What should have been there, wasn't.
What was there was something he didn't want. She looked all too comfortable as she slept beside him. He mused that for once, she actually looked sort cute. But he knew it to be nothing more than an apparition of something that appeared like that. What existed beneath the drooling face of this elegant girl was something that devil himself likely feared...
Reed peeled Lu'um off of himself as if she was a hibernating bear, afraid of waking her up. The last thing he wanted was an early death. He'd accidentally woken her up once before, a month ago during one of their 'extended missions' (touring Northern Mulia) of his. If looks could kill, he was sure he would have died back then.
It took the whole day and half of my savings to win her favor back after that... Reed shuddered in fright as he tiptoed away from the bed.
He had no intention of setting off the living bomb, so he carefully wormed his way out of the bed and left the bedroom as quietly as he could.
The bedroom led towards a room he'd already seen before: Lu'um's private chamber or rather, the main living of her quarters. It was quite the sight to behold, but he didn't care too much about it. Everything looked expensive and was, therefore, stuff that Reed knew nothing about. A street rat could never see the worth of shiny baubles, after all.
In any case, only one thing in the room interested him. He stood in front of it and peered inside, but nothing happened. The mirror simply reflected his image for all to see within the empty room. A closer inspection amounted to nothing; it was as if it truly was just a plain old mirror.