The Royal Deal

For knights that had been loyal to the Skad family for a long time, like Buer, they were dismissed until being recalled but, for new knights like Barden, they were fully fired. But Barden refused to leave the Skad family, as was his sworn duty to keep his promise to his master.

“I was wondering where you went.” The low voice came from behind Amethyst. She turned around. Alexcent was wearing a white shirt and had his sleeves rolled up, rather than the uniform he used to wear. It was very much the same look as when he had been Gray.

“Greetings, master.” The knights saluted Alexcent, but he ignored them and concentrated his attention on Amethyst.

“Why are you here?” Alexcent asked.

“I want to learn sword techniques,” Amethyst replied. Alexcent looked at Sir Hill, who gulped as the attention turned on him.

“I was telling her that she has to be at least a middle-class knight to learn any techniques.”

Amethyst took her chance and stepped between Alexcent and Sir Hill. “So, Alec, I was wondering if I could become a knight. Not just for temporary defence, but an official knight.”

Alexcent looked down at Amethyst’s twinkling eyes. “Of course, you can.”

Sir Hill’s mouth dropped open as this was not the answer he had expected.

“Really?” Amethyst began jumping in glee, to the amusement of the knights. “Really?”

“But first we need to make sure you’ll be able to keep up with the training.” Amethyst stopped jumping. She should have known. This was the Skad army. The reason they had the best knights was because of the high-quality recruitment and intense training. The only reason Alexcent said yes was because he didn’t believe she would pass, but Amethyst had no intention of backing down.

“Of course! You don’t know how hard I trained when I was learning self-defence. I discovered I have an incredible amount of stamina.” Amethyst looked at Sir Hill, Buer, and Leyrian to support her, but they simply stepped back to avoid the conversation. She had forgotten how frustrating they could be.

“Ok. Then I have to see what your stamina level is like,” Alexcent said. Then he lowered his head to her ear, so only she could hear. “First in bed.” He then surrounded her with his arms and lifted her off the ground. Amethyst tried to kick her way out, but he seemed to have no intention of letting her go. He began walking away from the knights, carrying her.

“Alec! Let me down!”

“No.”

“Alec!”

“I’m going to the perfect place to test your stamina. Stay still.”

“How is this a stamina test!”

Alexcent didn’t care about her yelling. He was laughing as she struggled. “I’m going to hit your butt if you don’t stop.”

“If you do, I won’t be happy!” Amethyst hollered.

Alexcent didn’t stop, even with her shouting. As they walked into the Skad mansion, the maids that passed them lowered their heads, blushing. To Amethyst, they were upside down, as she was now draped over his shoulder.

“I’ll walk! Everyone is looking!” Amethyst protested loudly.

Alexcent lifted her hand and smacked her bottom.  “I told you, I’ll hit your butt if you don’t cooperate.”

“Oh my God! Alec!” Amethyst tried to cover her back side with her hands as she dangled in the air. It hadn’t hurt, but she was beyond embarrassed. She felt it was better to just give up.

Once in her chamber, Alexcent lowered her on to the bed. She stared at him with her arms crossed and her eyes flaming mad.

“If you ever do that again…” Alexcent smiled and silence her with a kiss. Amethyst could not remain angry when he did that. His lips melted the fury right out of her. She closed her eyes and savoured his taste as she put her arms around his neck. When their lips finally separated, Amethyst opened her eyes to look into Alexcent’s beautiful face right in front of hers.

“I don’t know why but I find you even more attractive when you’re angry,” Alexcent said.

“What a terrible fetish.” Amethyst laughed

“I know, right? Even when you first came here, I felt the same.”

“You mean, the day you basically kidnapped me?” Amethyst said in surprise.

“Yes. Those eyes, that looked at me with such anger, were so lovely. You were the first one to look at me like that.”

“Then it was love at first sight?”

“Probably.” Alexcent kissed her lips again. “So don’t go to somebody else when you have me.”

“What is this nonsense?” Amethyst asked.

“I’ll teach you the sword techniques.”

“You?” Amethyst said in shock. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why?”

“You’re not very good at teaching.”

“What? Ash, I’ll personally show you how good of a teacher I am. Right now!” Alexcent grabbed Amethyst’s ankle as she pretended to run from the bed and dragged her in front of him. Then he started kissing her forehead, her eyelids, nose, cheeks and every other inch of her body.

***

After Alexcent left to return to his duties in the palace, Amethyst enjoyed her leisure time. There was a vase of baby’s breath on the table with a short, written message from Gen, welcoming her back. It was a thoughtful gift to receive from him as he always seemed to be as busy as Alexcent. As she admired the flowers, Pon entered, looking for her.

“Ma’am. Master told me to not say anything, but you had bid me to always tell you what I believe you should know.”

Amethyst wondered what it was that Alec was trying to hide from her, yet Pon thought she should know about. “Tell me,” she instructed the man.

“There’s a ball being hosted by the Empress today. The master said that you need to take care of yourself, since you have been gone so long, and he’ll be attending by himself. There are also some rumours going around that are not good.”

“Rumours?” Amethyst asked.

“It’s hard for me to talk about. The rumours involve you becoming a God’s Guardian.”

“Tell me exactly what the rumour is that you heard.” Amethyst needed to know what was being said.

“The exact rumour is that you went to study abroad, and then master went missing. After the master came back to the family, the rumours started. I really don’t want to say…” Pon looked scared to utter the truth.

“Is the rumour saying that Alec killed me.”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. However, it’s necessary to set these rumours straight. If I don’t attend this ball, then these rumours would just grow. Thank you, for having the trust to tell me this.” Alec was looking out for Amethyst, but she couldn’t let rumours spread that he was a murderer.

“All right.” Amethyst had made up her mind on how she was going to proceed. “Let’s plan to attend this event, despite what Alec says. Lunia!” Lunia came in from the outer chamber where she had been standing guard.

“There’s was an invitation to the Empress’ ball today. I’m assuming I must have been included.” There was no way that Belice would have left her out.

“Yes. Of course,” Lunia replied.

“I’ll be attending. But, without Duke Skad knowing about it.”

“Of course.” Lunia understood what Amethyst had in mind and immediately began to help her prepare for the ball.