Chapter 19: The Rivalry (Part 2)
Anne becomes nervous. She tried to calm down by slurping her berry-berry juice, while two pairs of blue eyes looking at her. She cleared her throat and open a conversation.
“So, you have a sister, Henry?”
“Yes, yesterday I was going to tell you about her. This is Heirim. Sorry I don’t have time to explain back then.” Said Henry to Anne.
Heirim looks directly at Henry, “So, the two of you really know each other, how? And when? Care to explain, brother?”
Henry rolled his eyes. “None of your business, Heirim.”
“Oh, why the secrecy? Just like when you came home, and your friends were the ones who informed us about your wound!”
“I’m fine, Heirim!”
.....
“Then, tell me, how do you know this peasant girl?”
“Heirim! Quit your condescending manner. It was infuriating!”
Henry glared at his sister while apologizing to Anne. She couldn’t agree more, not because she was the subject of Heirim’s toxic tongue, but because she hate every kind of discrimination. She knew, deep down there were always people like Heirim, but also, there were people like Henry. He is nothing like his sister.
Henry always smiles at every civilian, noble or not. Even the server at this café was already familiar with him. He greeted everyone politely and respectfully. Unlike his dear sister, who looks like someone drags a very stinky poo in front of her all the time. Too bad, thoughts Anne, she is actually an exquisite girl, if she could manage a smile.
“Fine, but whatever this... friendship means to you, I don’t like it. She is not one of us.”
Anne almost choke on her tea, not because she felt insulted, she just wanted to laugh. A girl like Heirim always felt that her status means anything. The higher her status, the more content her life can be.
“One of us? Oh, Heirim... This is why our father doesn’t want you to latch on to your former governess. She truly poisoned your mind.”
“Miss Claudine taught me everything that is essential as a noble. You and father just couldn’t see eye to eye with her.”
Henry took a deep sigh, and unexpectedly asked Anne to go away from the café, “I know an excellent place to buy catnip flowers for you, come on.” Said Henry while he gave a large tip to the server.
While she actually feels it is rude to leave right away and leave Heirim, Anne also feels glad that Henry tried to keep her away from his sister. Heirim looks like she was ready to splash her with her berry-berry juice anytime Henry scolded her. The two of them are back in the middle of the marketplace. Henry grinned at her, and feel apologetic.
“Sorry about my sister, she is a bit...”
Anne scoffed at him. “A bit? Henry, she looks like she could stab me anytime you mentioned how wrong she was.”
“I know, ugh... if only my mother was around her, she was a very kind lady who knew a value of humble than pride.”
“What happened to your mother?”
“She died not long after she gave birth to my sister.”
Anne felt his heartbreak, she held his hand and murmur at him, “I am so sorry, it was rude of me to...”
“No, it’s okay. She’s in a good place already. The problem lies when my father hired her governess, one sneaky snake she is,” Henry talks about Heirim’s former governess, with a very bitter taste in his mouth, he then tried to hide it from Anne, and pulls her to another corner of the marketplace, “Enough about me, let us find my favorite place to buy familiar’s treat.”
“Wait, you have a pe... I mean a familiar?”
“Of course, most of us have them. They are not visible at all times like when they were babies.”
“Oh, so they will not hang on my shoulder like this one?” Asked Anne while pointing at Chikara, who’s in the middle of purring at her nape.
Henry smiles and then shakes his head, “No, don’t worry, though I must admit, yours is clingy. Sabrina wasn’t that clingy as yours.”
“Sabrina? What a cute name.”
“Yes, her attitude needed some change, though. I’ll introduce you to her. Another time, she’s going around to do some mischief right now.”
“Promise?”
Chuckles at her teased, he nodded his head, “I promise, now, that’s the stall. Let’s go buy your kitten some catnip flower.”
After two hours, Anne is back in her dorm with two potted plants of catnip flowers. She puts them on her window and squishes some of the liquid that came from the plant. She gave a bowl of the liquid to Chikara, who was drinking it happily, although she felt there was something missing.
“Hmm... it seems there’s something more on your diet. Looks like I forgot about it.” Anne mumbles while Chikara meowed at her.
Sometimes later, Chikara is sleeping in the corner inside his basket, while Anne writes a letter to her parents. She knows how worried they are and she promised to always write them a letter once a week. Not long after, a sudden knock on her door made her jumpy. She fell asleep when she was in the middle of writing the letter.
Fixing her looks in a hurry, Anne opens her door and sees missus Del in front of her.
“Good afternoon. Dinner will be ready in an hour.”
“Oh, that’s so kind of you, missus Del, but you don’t have to come all this way to remind me about dinner.”
“Oh, I insisted miss, I’ve heard from my husband that you were missing dinner last night. No, that’s not good. You need nutrients.” Said missus Del, with a warm smile.
Anne feels the wonderful atmosphere around missus Del. She knows she could feel at home, here, “I’m sorry about last night, fell asleep, and thank you so much, missus Del.” Said Anne to her.
Missus Del excuses herself, but not before she tells her about two other silver pass recipients that came today. Anne was so curious to see them, but feel it would be rude or impolite to go to their room immediately. She decided to introduce herself at dinner time. Closing her door, Anne looked around the room trying to find Chikara.
“Chikara? Where are you, my boy?”
She heard nothing, feel there was something wrong. Anne tried to look around her room, but to no avail. Feels desperate already, Anne took her coat and go outside, in a hurry to look for her cat. She failed to hear a person call her until a hand patted her shoulder.
Screaming, she turned around to see a man wearing glasses smiling at her. “Hello, neighbor, nice to meet... Hey, what happened?”
“I’m sorry. Nice to meet you, but I’m in a hurry. My kitten is missing.”
The man looked at her pale face, and feel sorry for her, “Let me grab my coat, I’ll help you search for your kitten.”
She feels grateful to the stranger, and together they go down to the lobby and go outside of Icarus Dorm. Outside the fences of the dorm, there’s a girl, suddenly following the two of them from behind, and the two of them failed to notice.
Dawn is coming. Anne and the new silver pass recipient might be in danger, with a mysterious girl on their tail, watching them closely.
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