Aligned for You

Chapter 3

They entered the pub which, again, was far cozier than a pub in the capital city of Umina's enemy nation had any right to be. There was a strong, tall woman with dark, weathered skin and gentle eyes setting up tables who seemed surprised to see anyone walk in, though at the front bar there were two men sitting next to each other, grumbling into beers and eating eggs. Other than those three, it was just Jules and Phe.

"Hail, fair mother!" he greeted, getting annoyed looks from the men at the front at his booming declaration, "A table, two ales, and whatever is already hot!"

The woman gave Felix a long, long...long look. Before nodding, pointing to a ready table nearby. "Nothing’s hot yet, still prepping for the noon crowd. Can put on some ham, bacon, and eggs for you though. Ale’ll be out in a second. You'll both pay upfront."

Before Julian could protest, more out of surprise than any actual concern for the request, the tall woman headed back to the bar to get the ale. Julian looked at Phe and shrugged goodnaturedly. "Let's take a seat."

A friend, huh? All they'd done was talk for a little while, and yet, here he was, proclaiming them friends. To be fair, it'd been some damn good talk. A friend… That sounded nice. Too bad Kai was only in town to sell some 'legendary' horses, but...he'd talked about letters before. Maybe he could ask if the stable boy wanted to keep in correspondence. Plenty of people had their mail delivered to the castle anyway, so it wouldn't be that weird.

Felix didn't respond much past a slight scoff at the bombastic phrasing, but mostly because they were entering the pub. He didn't recognize the barkeep, but...there was a damn good chance she recognized him. Keeping eye contact with the woman, he didn't let the casual smile on his face waver, even after she conceded. Hopefully, if Kai even noticed, he'd assume that she was trying to gauge if he was even close to being old enough to have alcohol. He did have that kind of face, unfortunately.

Following Kai's words, Felix sat down, toes just barely touching the ground when he sat all the way back. Bullshit. "Told you it's early. But time doesn't have bearing on words--what sort of grand adventure are you gonna tell me first?"

Hmmm, that was a good question actually. What could Julian tell him about without directly referencing his station in life? Certainly there was plenty to tell! But he just had to...twist it into Kai's point of view.

The woman came back and placed two ales down, for some reason looking directly at Phe as she said, "Three silver pieces."

Three silver pieces seemed a little hefty for just two meals and some ales, but, well, Julian wasn't in the habit of arguing prices with people, not when he had a basically endless amount of coin to spare. Clearing his throat to get the maiden's attention, he declared while reaching into his purse, "I'll be covering the tab, good mother! Three silver, plus another silver for the hospitality!" he said, giving her a wink.

Lily, the barkeep, stared at him in open perplexity, giving a side glance to Prince Felix. When the young prince didn't insist that he could cover the tab, as she had been expecting, she internally rolled her eyes before accepting the silver, giving the stranger a grateful nod for the extra piece. Maybe the stranger was well enough to do to treat the heir apparent. Maybe the fool didn't know who he was treating. Either way, so long as the pub got its due. "Be back with food once it's hot," she said, walking off.

"Right, right," Julian said, taking a deep drink of the swill before wrinkling his nose at the ale. Ha! At least in this his kingdom had an obvious advantage. The ale at home was thick and sat heavy in the stomach. Drink enough of it and it could be a meal in itself. This stuff was more like water. Ah well, it would do. "So, a tale of my travels." What could he tell, what could he tell, without giving it away...

Ah! The incident with the Cow Poppies! Now that was a tale! And it even happened during their brief period stopping in the Ganron Kingdom, so it matched his backstory even. Perfect!

"Okay, so, first of all," Julian said, leaning in towards Phe so as to keep his voice low in the quiet bar. "I'm traveling with a caravan train, right? A long line of four caravans, we travel slowly but safely. Now, when we were getting directions to where we were going, the person who gave us directions through Ganro's western forests didn't realize how big our party was, most people traveling with two caravans at most. So, they failed to mention to us to avoid a certain wooded area at the cusp of last spring, since if we had been anyone else we would have passed it already."

That was what Alan had thought happened, anyway. Alice had theorized that the person who gave them directions was a counter-agent trying to sabotage their journey, or maybe even get them killed. Julian liked to think the best of the person and believe it was just a misunderstanding. He sincerely hoped Alice hadn't sent anyone back to kill him.

"So, we're in the Western Forest of the Ganron Kingdom, also called by the locals The Dead Forest. All the trees are strong and healthy, but the bark always looks black and breaks off like charcoal, as if they had been burned at some point, and their leaves are an unnatural silver color. Very pretty. Kinda scary! Now..."

Julian grinned, putting on his best 'storytelling' voice. "You're well-read, Phe. You ever heard of Cow Poppies?"

The barkeep definitely knew who he was. Welp. As long as she didn't say anything, he could deal with that. Might have to circle back at some point to make sure she wouldn't tell anyone in the future as well. Especially with how well today had gone, he didn't want his trips to town to be indefinitely suspended.

Felix took a sip of the ale, trying not to wrinkle his nose too much at the taste. He'd experimented when he was actually as young as Kai probably thought, and he drank when the town would have feasts or when dignitaries came to visit and it'd be expected of him. But he really didn't care much for booze. But it was a gift--between friends!--so he could deal with it.

Especially with a story as such a sweet distraction! Felix scooted forward in his seat, crossing his arms on the table to listen.

The Dead Forest...what a name for a place! He'd seen the Western Forest in Ganro on maps, of course, but it was just a labeled outline on a piece of paper, sometimes with little patterns to indicate even more that it was a forest, depending on the map. Hearing its colloquial name, getting the image of such odd plants painted in his mind...this was already perfect. He wondered what kind of plant the black and silver trees actually were; if brush fires were particularly beneficial to their growth. Silver wasn't the worst at absorbing light, but it was still peculiar...maybe the trees didn't photosynthesize? Maybe they were actually a type of fungus!

Fully sucked into the story, Felix hummed in thought, a little surprised that Kai would pull him in too. "Cow Poppies... Their seeds are poisonous, right? Compromises victims' immune systems, gives them fever and delirium. Usually, people can recover after a few days, but if you have an underlying condition, it can be fatal, if I remember right..."

"Ha! Thought you might have an inkling of it!" Jules said, laughing jovially as he reached out and gave Phe's shoulder a firm, manly SLAP, grasping the thin bones (really, the kid was skin and bones. Julian hoped the food came out soon and plenty of it. Maybe he'd buy him a second dish if it didn't look like enough) under his hand for just a moment companionably before letting it go, leaning onto his elbows as he continued.

"That's exactly right! Now, thankfully everyone in the caravan was relatively healthy, guards picked for their strength and aides picked for their ability to safely make the journey. We did have a few older men among them who might have been at risk just because of their age, but it all worked out in the end, so," Julian shrugged, taking another deep drink of his ale. "So! We're traveling about halfway through The Dead Forest, and spring has just begun. And throughout the whole journey, we had seen these roots running everywhere along the path and through the trees that we knew were called Checker Root. Didn't know much about them other than we had been warned not to turn the root into a tea. Sure, easy enough!"

Julian put down his glass and put his fingers together, motioning the effect of buds popping up, one after another, as he explained, "But one morning, we notice these little white and black poppies sprouting from various points of the roots. Thousands of them, like little puffballs, and every time we so much as grazed them with a wheel or a horse, they would go POOF and break apart into the wind. Now, nothing happened the first day, so we thought it was weird but fine. Well, turns out, Cow Poppies don't hit everyone right away, if at all, and it hits some people way harder than others. If there was a reason why it affected some of the entourage and not others, I couldn't see a pattern, personally. But the people affected by the poppy started acting strange..."

He pointed to his own eyes, widening them dramatically as an example. "Their eyes got super big, like they were constantly trying to see everything at once, and like you said, they all started picking up fevers. Some of us affected got away with just the fever before it cleared up the next day, but others started to hallucinate or to act entirely unlike themselves. My friend who’s, literally, a stone-cold killer, and has been most of her life, started weeping all the time, spouting nonsense about how spiders needed shoes and she didn't know how to sew. Like, really insistent that spiders needed tiny spider shoes. She was convinced all spiders would die without them and was super upset about it. We eventually got her to sit still by actually finding a spider and letting one of our handmaidens sit down with her and try to sew it some little cloth nubs."

Good thing Felix hadn't gone to take a sip, because all the breath was knocked right out of him as Kai practically assaulted him, but all friendly-like. If he hadn't been braced on the table, he seriously would've been knocked right out of his seat! He still almost was, and Felix had to scramble a little to right himself. Fuckin' hell. The strength of horse rearing, apparently.

Not that he was really a great judge of strength at all.

But, back to the story. It was interesting that the roots would be so wide-spread and interconnected while being visible, especially if the poppies reproduce with pollen, it sounded like. Maybe just covering every base they could to survive...plants were like that sometimes. The poison in them wasn't surprising either, since the much more common kind of poppy had seeds that contained narcotics.

Though, the symptoms were just plain weird. Felix's eyes widened himself as Kai described them...though his expression fell a little when he mentioned his friend. Literally a stone-cold killer? Being a part of the government, Felix was implicit in the deaths the war with Umina caused, but Kai was a stable boy. Not exactly someone involved with politics. Maybe it was more common in Ganro--something the rumors actually did support--but, friends with a killer?

While that tidbit did bother him, the story continued on into something more lighthearted, if at his friend's expense through being sick. Drinking a little more, Felix giggled as Kai described spider shoes and his friend's hysteria. "What bizarre plants! I mean, I've seen people high before, but that kind of delirium is crazy--and super unnerving, I bet, to see people acting totally different from how they usually do."

While he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, probably their food on the way, Felix still leaned in with a teasing smile. "Hey, if it'd been you that got got by the flowers, what do you think it'd do to you? You think you'd be super shy and only speak in whispers or something?"

Lily came up, placing the plates in front of them silently before going back to her duties. Any concern that the food wouldn't be enough was laid to rest at the display in front of them: eggs cooked runny with thick slices of bread put beside them, ham cut thick and wide, accompanied by bacon slices to match, and around all of it was some vegetation that Julian didn't recognize but smelled good.

"Perfect! Thank you, mother!" Julian called out, digging into his own ham immediately, saying between bites almost absentmindedly, "Oh, no, I was paranoid and vengeful, apparently."

Taking a few bites perhaps too quickly, Julian cleared his throat before elaborating. "I don't really remember it, but as they were mixing the antidotes, I ended up getting hit pretty hard on the last day. I woke up the next day effectively entirely tied down, feeling like I had been hit by a wagon. According to my companions, no one even realized anything was wrong with me at first. I just seemed uneasy. But then I started accusing everyone of being spies and betrayers, and apparently at some point took out my sword with the intent of 'getting the truth' out of one of the poor guards who had been posted to watch me. Apparently, I came real close to slicing him through. I feel terrible about it, but he's alright now, so." Julian shrugged.

Taking another couple of bites, he took a breath, feeling incredibly pleased with the meal so far. Noticing Phe had barely touched his drink, Julian decided not to comment on it. Not everyone enjoyed drink. Nothing wrong with that. "How do you think you would have acted? I got the sense that everyone sort of felt compelled to act opposite of themselves, though I don't know how some flower would know how to do that."

Felix smiled up at the woman as she served them before eating at a slower pace than his companion--though, that wasn't difficult to do. He dipped his bread into the eggs, breaking the yolk and letting it soak into the bread. ...maybe he'd be able to get out of dinner today. The procession from Luminary wasn't supposed to show up for a few more days, so maybe Aiichi would take pity on him and not force him to show up. Once his fiance showed up he'd have to say goodbye to quiet meals for a looooong time. Eating together with the prince and his entourage would be a mandatory show of goodwill.

A few more days...

He didn't have to think about that right now.

"Paranoid and vengeful?" he repeated with some amount of mirthful disbelief. Not for thinking that Kai was those things normally, but that, even just in the short while they'd known each other, he couldn't imagine the man acting that way. The power of Cow Poppies, he supposed.

Felix let out a quiet "yikes" as Kai explained what he knew of his time under the poppies' spell, though one point struck him. "You know how to sword fight? I suppose it'd be helpful to know how to defend yourself if you're on the road a lot, even if you have guards too."

It'd suck to be in a real fight, but Felix had always thought sparring at least looked cool. He knew...basically nothing about self-defense, but the expectation for him was that he'd stay in the castle, and any member of the guardforce stationed there would be able to protect him. They hadn't had a break-in since he was really little either, so, according to the boss, there was no reason for him to strain himself to pick up and learn a weapon. People generally didn't like giving him sharp objects either.

Felix took a long drink as he thought over Kai's question, trying to think of something accurate that wouldn't give him away. But first, some fun. "Oh, I'd be super happy all the time! Nothing but smiles over here," he delivered with a joyous grin, outlining the kind of smile he meant. "I'm suuuuper miserable, you know? Maybe my first big adventure would be to go over to the Western Forest and collect as many poppies as I can--a perfect and totally not harmful antidepressant!"

"For an answer that's not a lie, though..." he trailed off, eating a piece of bacon. "I think I'd be complacent. Just okay with anything that went on--like, someone could threaten to cut my head off and I'd just be like, go for it. Or maybe I just wouldn't be a liar anymore."

His grin quirked into a smirk when he looked back at Kai, though it was unclear how much he was joking. "That aside, I'm glad you got better pretty fast. It sounds horrible."

"Oh, sure! Ya gotta be well skilled in self-defense when you're defending Legendary Horses from bandits and stuff," Julian explained, keeping Kai in mind for once as he continued, an idea brightening in his mind, exciting him. "I don't think I can stick around for much longer after this meal. My caravan’s gonna start wondering after me soon, no doubt. But if you want, I'd be willing to meet up with you tomorrow or something to go over some training basics! You don't actually have to be all that strong to use a sword. You just gotta know how to adjust for weight and stuff. I could totally train you!"

Jules was already imagining it, and because his imagination worked fast, in the same way his fantasies had run away from him when thinking about Phe's future in academics, he was now imagining guiding Phe into being a master swordsman (the exact kind of swordsman that Julian himself was, in fact, not), using his small frame to catch larger opponents off-balance, maybe teaching him fancy footwork. Well, maybe he could get Alice to teach him some fancy footwork...

"You know, I don't think that's the first time you've talked about yourself lying today," Julian pointed out, raising an eyebrow at the kid. "I didn't think much of it the first time you said it, assuming it was a joke, but do you lie a lot? About what?"

Ah, right... Kai wasn't there to goof off; well, he sort of was, but just to get an idea of the city before his stock was delivered and then he'd be back to work. Then, when he sold the horses, he'd be gone.

Felix wasn't sure if he'd be able to get away tomorrow. There were so many preparations for the coming procession, not limited to making a rough draft of the treaty they'd all sign once final discussions were settled, making plans for the wedding, cleaning out his room...ugh.

But... He could try, at least. That's what friends did for each other, right? Especially with someone who actually offered to train him, who, though Kai believed he was a kid, didn't look at him like he wasn't able to do anything on his own.

"You'd really do that for me?" Despite himself, Felix's voice had softened, hope alighting within him. "You're here for a job, would you really have time for something like that?" Mentally shaking himself, Felix pulled himself together. "I'll do my best to meet you tomorrow, then! Wanna meet in the market again?"

Pumping himself up, Felix blinked in slight surprise, almost shocked at himself that he didn't lie more so that Kai would come to expect it. Though he was lying about his entire identity, so maybe that was enough. "Oh, I lie all the time about everything. Gotta keep people on their toes, you know? It's fun to see how they react, or if they can catch it--and if they do, if they call you out. It's like a really big game!"

He couldn't clear up his identity, but Felix did consider bringing up his actual age, just to see Kai sputter in shock. Maybe tomorrow, or the last time they'd see each other. It'd be a huuuuge jaw-dropping moment for sure!

Job?

Ah. Right. Horses.

Julian felt a sudden stab of guilt as he remembered that he was currently spinning his own lie around the little self-proclaimed 'liar'. It's not a big deal to maybe fib a few things about yourself to passersby you'll only see for the day, but Julian sincerely wanted to meet up with Phe again, and also, like, he lived here now. So presumably, he could end up seeing a lot of Phe in the future, if he really wanted to.

...Okay, no...that was just Jules lying to himself too. He had no idea how much free time he was going to have in this kingdom, or if coming to town to casually hang out with the common folk was something he'd be allowed to do. Who cared if he was allowed!? He was Julian Momento, Second Heir to the Uminan Kingdom, Legendary Prince of the Stars! He could do whatever he wanted! Who had the right to stop him?

No, no, that was him being childish. He had come to this kingdom with a purpose. A fifteen-year war coming to an end depended on him behaving himself. Hell, even being in town right now was putting countless lives at risk if something went wrong. Julian wanting to distract himself from his hazy and uncertain future by hanging out with a fun teenager with a wonderfully trashy taste in literature was literally the height of irresponsibility. Maybe he should cut his losses and just rescind the invitation entirely...

...just tomorrow. He would fulfill his promise to hang out tomorrow, and then he would go be responsible. Have his cake and eat it too! What could go wrong??

"The market is perfect!" Julian said with a grin. "I gotta pay back that apple-cart salesman anyway, so that works out perfectly. Alright, I've got maybe a few more minutes, and then I’ve got to go," Julian said, the weight of his responsibilities now worrying and guiltily nipping at him. If he was really coming back tomorrow, he should do his best to not create a fuss today. "I gave you a story. Let's hear one from you then! Give me your most heroic tale!"

Felix blinked in surprise but managed to bite his words back. A...story from him? He supposed that was a fair trade and all, but he'd told Kai that he'd never left Usott--what sort of interesting thing would he be expecting?

Luckily, he was the kind of person that didn't need to rely on the truth.

"A story from me? Well..." Giving himself a little longer to think, Felix feigned shyness, like he was embarrassed to say anything after the story Kai had told. "I guess I'll tell you one from spring too."

"So, we have this huge festival every year in the middle of spring to celebrate Hanafleur, you know? People from all over the country come for it--it's a big deal. Just like Harvest and Unity and Zenith and New Years..." Felix rolled his eyes a bit. He liked a good party, don't get him wrong, but the number of celebrations that were considered a 'big deal' was, like, all of them.

...did other countries have them? "Oh, if you don't know, Hanafleur is, like, a flower festival celebrating all the plants blooming again after winter. All the trees around town are in bloom, and the gardens get super busy. Usually, visitors will bring new plants to plant in it, and people who already have their plants will leave an offering of thankfulness. And, to feed all the new people, we usually have a big feast laid out for people to eat as they please."

Taking a pause to sip his ale--he needed some sort of liquid to keep his voice going--Felix considered the next part of his story. "So, lots and lots of new people mingling with everyone who lives here, happy feelings around, ya feel? It's hectic. My favorite is always the sweets since a lot of fruits are in season. So I was makin' my way over there, but in my way was this little girl looking at the spread like it's heaven--smart kid. I'm not heartless, so I ask if she needs any help reaching anything--I don't get a lot of chances to ask that, obviously, so I'll take it where I can get it, even for, like, a 4-year-old. She points to these...like, they're this almost gooey but delicate pastry wrapped around cherries that have been cooked in a cherry syrup--super yummy! I compliment her taste, and get one for both of us."

"And it's not like I have anything better to do, so we both stay there for a little while, eating our fill. Then, like, she's kinda young for being on her own? But I'm not too bothered by it--it's a festival, everyone's super nice and in the mood of cheer, and town is usually safe on a normal day. I ask her if she's with anyone anyway."

Pitching his voice higher and even more child-like, Felix pantomimed every expression the fantasy little girl would've made. "She looks around and then looks kind of freaked out. Kid got separated from her parents, got distracted by the sweets. She'd be fine on her own, or I could take her to one of the guardforce still on duty, but, like, that'd be a shitty memory of what's supposed to be a fun time, right?"

"So I ask if she wants to see some of the cooler plants in the garden, if she wants to play a game, see who can catch the most falling petals from the cherry trees in a certain amount of time. Just play with her as we go around the festival. Eventually, we do run into her parents, and they ask me if I need help finding mine." Felix shook his head with what looked like a fond but exasperated smile. Before curling it up into something impish.

"But, of course, all that never happened. I'm not the heroic type."

Julian watched Phe, enraptured. He could see it in his head. The town bathed in warm lantern lights as people walked from event to event, stall to stall, resting in between to eat sweets with each other. The laughter and the conversation. Dancing and singing. And among all of it, Phe, cheering up a small, nervous child, being the strong and responsible person she needed just then, that warm, cute, pretty smile on his fa-

WHOA!

Julian could have slapped himself, and almost did. Nope. NOPE! What the fuck!? Where did that even come from?? We did NOT think of the 15-year-old that way. That was an obvious no-go. Why had that thought even flitted across his head? He might not even be 15! He could be 12 for all Jules knew!

Also, Julian was ENGAGED. Or, well, would be as soon as he met Prince Felix. Wow. Maybe the ale was stronger than Julian had thought?

Looking suspiciously at his drink, Julian eventually carefully pushed it away. It had probably just been because Phe had described looking after a child. Julian had been really attracted to Alice for a long time because of how well she handled children. He supposed he just...had a thing for people who were good with kids. Watching her be an assassin for a few years had sorta...tempered those feelings. He hadn't wanted it to, but, well...there ya go.

Anyway, Julian was still ashamed of himself. He threw the image away from his mind and focused on the story again.

He gasped in shock at the end of Phe's story. "What? That was a lie? None of that happened? Awwww," Julian said, leaning back into his chair with a certain amount of disappointment. "I was really taken in by that. It didn't even occur to me you were making it up, it sounded so real. But man!" he said, suddenly lighting up excitedly, "That means you're a really good storyteller, Phe! I bet you could give Trisha Faalden a run for her money!"

Honestly, Felix had been expecting some degree of anger or annoyance at the big reveal. That was what usually happened when he spun someone into some big, fantastical narrative then pulled the rug out from under them. Or, what the boss did, and just got used to ignoring what he said. Not disappointment that his story hadn't actually happened, not...c-compliments?!

Not entirely from the ale settling into his system, Felix flushed pink, blinking at Kai in astonishment. It...was just because he didn't know him, not really. They'd just talked about it, but the stable boy hadn't been around Felix enough to hear his constant fabrications. Hadn't heard enough to grow tired of them--that's why he had such an interesting reaction.

Still, Felix felt bummed out that they would only have tomorrow and maybe seeing each other as Kai sold his horses. He'd bring up the letters tomorrow--maybe the novelty of his lies wouldn't wear out as quickly through text.

Laughing sheepishly, Felix twirled a bit of his hair around a finger. "You think so? Most people tune out pretty quickly, but maybe I can fool 'em if I write everything down. I don't think I'll ever reach her level of bizarre pseudo-bodice rippers, though."

Drinking a little more, trying to finish at least one part of the meal, Felix tilted his head from side to side. "I'm glad you enjoyed it? Something like a nice send-off, right? Though! I'll hold you to tomorrow! I'm a busy guy and I'll be pissed if you stand me up!" Pouting in fake anger, his expression eased into a smile as he waved to his new friend. "I think I'm gonna stay here a little longer, so if you need to rush away, go ahead. I'll see ya, Kai-cutie."

"Pffff, you calling me cute is so backwards, I gotta say," Julian said, rolling his eyes as he downed the last of his ale and, quicker than was strictly healthy, engulfed the last few bites of his meal. "I won't miss it. Same time tomorrow morning, same place. I'll bring some swords and show you some stances. Don't you stand me up."

Julian stood up, gave a friendly wave and a wink to the woman running the bar, who gave him a curt nod in return, the men at the bar now on well into what looked like maybe their third cup of ale. Then he looked down at Phe, gave him the same wink and smile, "Til tomorrow, Master Phe!"

Then, with a flourish of his jacket (maybe tomorrow he'd risk wearing a cape), he headed outside of the tavern, into the brightness of the day, and proceeded to be very lost for a very long time. He had been barely paying attention to where Phe had led him on the way here, and it took several times stopping people to ask them for directions before he found himself back in the main market, on his way to the stables his horse was being kept at.

He did eventually figure out how to get back to the caravan, and thankfully there was no fuss. With Alan and Alice covering for him, no one else had noticed his disappearance, though they did note his reappearance when, looking for his friends, Julian entered the main tent and found, to his disappointment, his four official advisers, General Yuu, Mistress Aya, Secretary Ragna, and Head Secretary Ezar (who out of all the advisers was the final word on everything and an extension of his father), all circled around a map, talking earnestly and making strategies in a way that made Julian sigh. You could take the politicians out of the war room, but you couldn't take the war room out of the politicians...

As they saw him, Head Secretary Ezar beckoned him to join them, telling him they were discussing his upcoming proposal. "We've decided this is the exact wording you will use upon meeting the prince. Now, follow along the best you can..."

It was a long night after that.

Felix snorted to himself--he'd sure picked an odd one today, huh. Fun, though. Kai was fun and interesting and stubbornly upbeat. And, while from another country, not the right one.

His smile faded a little once his friend left the pub, picking at the rest of his food though he was far too full to really eat any more. He'd always known he'd have to marry for political benefit--it was pretty much the only thing of stuff like that that was enforced in the Oswell line. The leader marries someone that would complement them to bring greater benefit to the country. What greater benefit, what greater honor could he have than ending a war?

A stupid, petty war between two egos, okay with snuffing out countless lives and promising their heirs' futures away just so neither had to say "I lost". Felix clenched his fist in his lap, staring blankly at the table. No matter how horrible Prince Julian turned out to be, he still felt sorry for him. Being used as a pawn the same as him.

It wasn't as gross as "Into the Depths" like he'd explained to Kai, but the Uminan Prince was still being forced from his home.

...or was infiltrating, as Secretary Hyde had posited in one of their meetings to even agree to the union. Umina wouldn't even have to annex them if they had one of their own leading the country. That's the biggest reason he couldn't run. Even if all the infrastructure would still be in place, Felix couldn’t leave his people to someone who wouldn't understand. Or to a puppet controlled by someone who tried to steal Diceans.

Sighing, Felix put his smile back in place, leaving an extra silver piece under his plate before heading out. He managed to catch Lily's eye, thankfully, and while he waved, he put a finger to his lips. It felt weird bribing her, but it was more...thank you money for not saying anything. ...yeah.

Not feeling like trying to scope out any more people for the day, Felix headed back to the castle, bypassing the front gate and circling around the side to scale the retaining wall back to where he was "supposed" to be.

"Felix, Sir!! I prevented Denji from throwing away anything from your room as directed, Sir! The rest of the mission is in your hands!"

Back to it, then.

Felix turned, grinning at the guard predictably just late enough to miss his re-entry.

"Awwww, dependable as always, Katsu-kitty! I'd definitely call that a mission accomplished; I'll get on my part right away. Please tell Aiichi that I'll be working through dinner, and not to disturb me for anything less than the apocalypse. Thank youuuuuuuu!"