(Cael's Pov)
Is it time yet…? Ugh, man, I really wish I could just get out of bed already!
Why did my mind have to be wide awake all of the sudden, when I have no guarantee that I can get up yet?
If I get up now, check, and find out that it's still too early? What then? Will I just be forced to sit around, try to sleep more, fail, then end up tiring myself…?
At this rate, it's much safer to just keep my eyes closed, isn't it? My chances of just falling back asleep are higher too…
Last night, not only did I eat dinner so fast that I choked around 5-7 times through it, but I even burnt myself just as many times, since I wasted no time digging in. Now, you may be asking, why am I so impatient? Why did I rush dinner last night? And to begin with, why the hell does that even matter, right?
The answer is simple.
After all… today, putting aside the banquet tonight since I don't really care too much about it, I have something to be particularly excited about.
So much, that I went to sleep as soon as I hurt myself a little while rushing through dinner. Well, at least I tried to go to sleep right away… I spent around an hour and a half just laying down with my eyes closed, but that didn't work at all. Which is why, as a last ditch attempt, I made a risky but strategic move.
A lot of people say that warm milk helps you sleep easier, no? So, let's see… yeah, right. It was around 8 and something when we had dinner, so by 10 at night or so, I went to the kitchen to make myself some warm milk.
Or at least, that was the intention. After all, surprisingly or not so much, I ended up seeing Maia at the table, completely alone.
"Hm? What's up, my dear little brother? Can't sleep?"
There was a relatively small basket of strawberries to her left, meanwhile she seemed to be working on some papers at the same time as she was munching.
"Yeah. I heard that warm milk helps with that though, so I figured…"
But of course, Maia being my sister, and an authentic Ashford…
"Heee? Going as far as drinking warm milk… rushing dinner… and going straight to bed, but failing? Could it be…"
"S-shut up, you strawberry freak gorilla! I-it's not like that!"
"Hmmm?? Like what though? I didn't say anything, you know???"
"Ugh… so what? Of course I'm excited!"
But to my very pleasant surprise, her teasing grin then mellowed into a smile, as she quickly finished the strawberry she was eating, and got up.
"I see. Then we better get you into bed as soon as possible."
I watched her walk to the kitchen counter, then grab a milk bottle from a raft under it.
"It would take some time if you were to heat it up on your own, no? But don't worry, your big sister got you."
She then poured a glass full of it, and placed a finger beneath it. You could imagine what followed that. A flame came out from her fingertip, which began heating up the milk.
"I can control the heat of the flames with immaculate accuracy after all. Not only that, thanks to my fire spirit king contract, I also just have a very sharp sense of temperature throughout my whole body. I can tell how hot the milk is, from just holding the cup."
"That's… surprisingly convenient, actually."
"Haha, right? Which is also how I can tell that… yep, your milk is about done."
The flame stopped, and the cup began steaming from the top. Instead of handing it directly to me though, she walked back to the table and placed it in front of her seat, before sitting down once again herself. Taking the painfully obvious hint, I also sat down.
"Ah, wait, don't touch that yet."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Cael… do you really have to ask that?"
"Hm?… oh. Right…"
The cup is hot… It's porcelain after all.
"My body is immune to heat so of course I had no issues, but the cup I used to directly heat up the milk in? That's a different story."
"Right…"
"Ah, but don't worry. The residual heat in the cup will be gone pretty soon, and it'll just keep your milk warm in the meanwhile."
"I see. Thanks then."
She nodded, then resumed both the writing and the munching. However, if I were to just sit there silently and wait for the cup to cool down, I felt like it would've been a little too awkward. Plus, I was curious to begin with, so it was killing 2 birds with 1 stone.
"What are you writing there?"
"They're instructions. Though me and Mio are the last ones to write ours."
"Instructions? Are you talking about tomorrow?"
"That's right. The others arrived here yesterday as well, so they already left their own instructions at each of their headquarters. I'll be spending the whole day tomorrow just explaining to the select recruits we chose to manage the place instead of me and Mio, so I'm writing instructions for them now."
"Hmm, seems like a lot of work."
"It is… this is like the 10th sheet I've written already, you know? The rest are in my room though. I still have a few to write, so I figured I'd do it here, in case I get hungry and want some food in the meanwhile."
"Is there really that much that you need to instruct them on though? Won't you two be at the banquet for a few hours at most?"
"Normally, you'd be right. It's not like the whole organization will crumble if one headquarter doesn't rely on their captains or lieutenants for a few hours. The issue however… is that what I said applies to any kingdom, but ours."
And that's when it clicked.
"Right… you guys are at the top of the headquarters… of the headquarters."
"Honestly, if I were to scale the amount of paperwork we have compared to, say, Sylara, she'd have around a deskful, while I'd have at least 5 to 10 that. Daily, that is."
"That much? How do you have so much free time then? I'd expect you to be holed up in your office all day, with all that paperwork."
"Well, thankfully enough, I'm pretty fast to do my work. Mio helps me fairly often too, actually."
"No matter how I think of it, I'm pretty sure that it should be the opposite…"
"Right? But needless today, if I'm efficient with my work, she's efficiency itself. She has way more free time than I do on average, you know?"
I wonder why…
"I feel like I get that way more than I should."
"Is that so? Your cup has cooled down enough, by the way."
"Oh, right. I almost forgot about it."
"Don't forget about the reason you came out of your room, my dear little brother. You should take that in your room with you and go to bed as soon as you chug it down. You wanna be fully rested for your date tomorrow, don't you?"
"I-it's not a d-date!"
"Right, right, whatever helps you sleep, my dear little brother. But for your information, I went together with Luna when she bought the dress she'll wear tomorrow. If I were you, I'd get to bed as fast as possible so I can be fully rested and ogle over it tomorrow."
"…good night, my dear older sister."
"Umu, sleep well, my dear little brother."
I felt a deep sense of gratitude towards her. So much so that we shared a mutual "I got you" "thank you." Glance at each other, before I dramatically turned myself around in a single clean spin, and began slowly walking to my bedroom. (while making sure I wouldn't spill any milk, also.)
And so, back to the morning…
Maia's comment about her dress motivated me so much that I fell asleep a few minutes after I drank that milk yesterday…
But now I'm still just as excited, so I'm kinda stuck.
But just when I was stressing over the matter, a ray of hope began flowing into my ears. The door opened.
"Still asleep, huh?"
And Luna walked in, then closed it.
"Seriously, this sleepyhead…"
Is she thinking outloud? That's pretty rare coming from her.
Curiosity was starting to get the best out of me. Could've I just gotten up now and asked her what time it was? If she's here, then that means it's likely close to 7, so that also solves my dilemma. There's no real benefit in trying to sleep more. But at the same time, as much as I was considering just letting her know I was awake…
I considered, and decided to go through with the other option. Or in other words? Acting like I'm asleep, purely because she began thinking out loud, and I want to hear more of her thoughts! Shit, that actually sounds a lot creepier than I thought… but anyway, that doesn't matter, since I already decided.
Not to mention, there was another benefit of acting asleep.
"Hm? An empty cup? That's pretty rare from him. He usually doesn't drink in his room."
"I guess he was really thirsty last night, huh?"
Unfortunately, I was laying down facing the wall instead of the door, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Although I couldn't spy on her just yet and take a look at her dress, this allowed me to hide my face a lot better.
You know how when you try to act asleep at night while your parents check on you, but you end up smiling unintentionally when you know they're staring at you? Facing the other is an insane advantage against it. You feel your lips curling? Just dig your face deeper into the pillow, people do that all the time when sleeping. It'll look like a completely natural unintentional movement.
"And he's sleeping facing the wall too…"
Her footsteps got closer. Although my mind was spinning in all sorts of directions, the real likely outcome of this situation was pretty clear. She'd likely just get in bed next to me, and hug me as usual. Or at least, that's what I thought. She stopped right in front of my bed.
"You always keep your sword next to your bed, don't you? I guess it must be the instinct of a swordsman or something."
What? What does my sword have to do with waking me up?
I then heard it clearly. She had not only picked it up, but also unsheathed it.
"It's about time I put an end to this then. Sorry, but I'll be borrowing your sword for it, Cael."
Hm??! Wait, wait, wait, isn't this actually kinda really bad???
I was starting to get scared now. Put an end? To what? And why did she say she'll use my sword for it, and why did she actually unsheathe it??? What's going on here?
"3…"
Hold it…! Why are you counting down?? And why are you doing it so slowly??
"2…"
This isn't funny… this really isn't funny, Luna!
"1…"
Is she actually gonna…? Shit, damn it! I don't have a choice!
"0."
I suddenly then turned around, and got up while shouting.
"W-Wait!!"
H-huh?
However, I couldn't see anything once I did so. Was she covering my eyes? Well, clearly yes, but how? These weren't her hands. To begin with, she should've been standing in front… of… me…?
"Pfft… hahahahaahhahaha!"
"What's… going on here?"
"Y-you really got scared… didn't you?? Hahha… I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Cael… pfft…."
"Of course I would get scared!! You suddenly started talking about putting an end to this and borrowing… my sword?"
Could it be?
"And that's exactly what I did, as you can see- I guess you can't see actually. Never mind then, but you should understand what's covering your eyes now."
"But why?"
"That's what you get for faking to be asleep and possibly trying to take a peek at my dress, my dear. Not that I'm wearing it right now though."
She removed the sword, and just she said, she was just wearing a completely casual outfit still.
"Then what was the point… for that matter, how could you even tell I was faking?"
"The second part is a secret. But to answer your first question, the point was… that it was funny?"
"Oi."
"I mean, come on! Did you really believe I'd randomly start thinking outloud? Who even does that in real life, hahaha."
"I'm sure there's plenty of people that do- probably. And you just offended them all! You should apologize to every out-loud thinker in the world."
"Is that so? I guess you have a point. I apologize to whoever genuinely thinks out-loud. There."
"That didn't sound very apologetic whatsoever…"
"It must be your imagination."
"I see…"
"But either way, since you're awake now, get off the bed and start getting ready. I'll be doing the same."
"Shouldn't you have come in already dressed up to begin with?"
"Shouldn't I leave the reveal of my outfit for the last second when we leave instead?"
"Good point."
"Right?"
I got up, and as soon as she sheathed back my blade, she began walking towards the door.
"It's around 6 and a half right now, so you don't need to hurry. Make sure you look decent though, since I have a pretty nice dress that I'm about to change into myself."
"Eye eye mam."
"Great. I'll wait outside once I'm done, since I'll likely be first to get dressed anyway. That way, as soon as you're done you can just open the front door and be hit in the face with my image. Isn't that quite the lovely scene?"
"It sure is. I'll be looking forward to it then."
She opened the door, and walked out the room, not closing the doors back yet however.
"That's good. See ya in a bit then."
And only then, with a smile she closed the doors and I heard her footsteps getting further. I took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself before walking towards my closet. Thankfully enough, I had actually already thought about what I'd wear today in advance, and prepared them yesterday.
I checked to see if they were all there where I left them, just to be sure that a magical disappearance didn't occur, then took them out and left them on my bed. Of course, dressing up was my priority right now, but before that I had other business to tend to, so I went to the bathroom.
With an empty stomach, brushed teeth and a washed face, I was now truly ready.
Recently, the weather has gotten a lot warmer. Not staying outside in just a t-shirt type of warm, but not too far from it either. I wouldn't mind wearing a coat, but in this case I figured I'd go with a slightly different approach than usual.
So after putting on my black pants, I grabbed a red sleeved shirt. Then, after making sure that it wasn't wrinkled or anything, I grabbed the waistcoat, which was black, with golden patterns over the sides. I guess gold is kinda just a signature color for the Ashfords at this point, isn't it? It looks good though, so I'm not gonna complain.
And after closing it up? I was done. Pretty simple, right? But that's the point, since I figured a lighter clothing choice would go better with this occasion. For starters, if I dressed up too much, I'd risk being late. Well, maybe not late since that's not an option in this case, but I'd make her wait too long, which is a no go.
Then, there's also the possibility of Luna simply telling me that there's no need to dress up too formally. Why? If I had to take a guess, something that she'd likely say is "tonight's banquet is also to celebrate your return as nobles, and to announce your new brother joining the family, you know? You shouldn't dress up too nicely now, or later it may seem like you didn't feel it was a special enough occasion." Or something like that.
Basically? "Others may think you always dress the same, and you don't really care about the banquet." Which wouldn't even be that far from the truth to be fair, but I guess the public shouldn't know that… For now at least.
But regardless, after putting on my long boots, more than enough time had passed, with a not so moderate high pace walk, I arrived at the front door. But before opening it, I did of course take a big breath to ready myself up for what I'd see, and only then, opened it.
"Oh? You took a lot less than expected."
My eyes widened in awe. How could they not?
"What's with that face? Are you that mesmerized?"
I nodded.
"I see. But I think both of our eyes are having a feast right now, you know? I didn't expect this style from you."
"I figured you'd tell me to try and make it seem like I care about the banquet, so I went with a lighter style."
"Hmm… good call then. If you came out wearing a full coat as usual, I would've sent you back in to dress lighter."
I didn't reply. Instead, I carefully scanned her appearance. The baseline color was a light blue, almost matching her eyes, patterned white all over it. The skirt's length was just a little below her knees, but her legs weren't bare. She was wearing long white socks, covering up the rest.
On her waist, there was also a cloth tightening everything, with a blue ribbon tied on the front. And lastly, a white, thin shoulder cape, probably to make up for the slightly chilly air.
I couldn't take my eyes off her. Every single little detail about it was a painfully pleasant compliment to features. The general gentle yet elegant vibe that matched her beautiful face, the efficiency beneath the simple design optimized for this kind of weather… everything just enhanced her beauty to a terrifying extent.
"I get that you like my dress, Cael. But if we don't get moving, the day will pass by before we know it, and I have to bring you back home, you know?"
But that would've been an issue. So although it took my best efforts to stop looking at it, I turned around to close the door, then walked next to her.
"Let's go then."
I nodded, as our hands linked together, and our date… officially began.