Day 48 Deal
To say she's speechless would be an understatement.
Even when the guards have stabbed their weapons to her throat, locking her in place, Leda's overwhelmed with trepidation. She's not in sound condition to accept the situation this has spiralled into, but her animosity hasn't wavered the slightest.
"You're the prince of Edaps?" She grasps at the dull weapon.
Taking her action as one of rebuttal, the guards shove her back with considerable force.
She bites her lip, though her glare hasn't fallen.
His earlier actions are clear in her mind.
"And yet you're fine with treating your citizens the way you did? "
"I should be asking you why you care so much," Ronan III replies. "The way I've decided to behave towards my citizens, their deaths and sufferings—it shouldn't concern an outsider like you."
Her nails dig into her fisted palms hard enough to draw blood. "Where's the king?"
"And why must I allow you outsiders the right to step foot anywhere near my father?" Ronan's voice has escalated to a condescending snort. "You've both ruined my swell mood and refused my kindness. Halt your pointless pleas and leave my sight at once."
He twists on his boots, beckoning to the guards.
"Escort them out of the capital."
Leda can only produce a wry laugh as a guard wrenches her wrist, propelling her backward. Some seize an apprehensive Orian as well. Ronan spins around at that and treads onwards with the arrogant flutter of his cape.
So this man is a member of the royal family—someone with the ability to aid all those wailing citizens outside. And yet he's refused, and continues to refuse to do so? Not to mention his detached manner of speech—as if this all has nothing to do with him.
"And you call yourself a prince?" Leda spits.
Ronan halts in his tracks, his countenance crinkling as he faces her for the second time.
"Your attitude towards His Highness is completely unacceptable!" a guard bellows in her ear.
He rams her body to the ground. Her chin knocks painfully against the asphalt, rocks scratching her bare skin.
A blade is positioned expertly at her neck, the sharp edge prickling and producing a thin line of blood.
"We will slit your throat if you dare keep it up!" another warns.
A third oozes menace as well. "An outsider like you has no idea how hard the third prince works for the kingdom of Edaps! How tirelessly he dedicates himself to lessen the hardships of the citizens—"
"Enough!" Ronan's shout quiets the riled up sentinels at once. "I am exhausted from my journey," he says again, softer this time. "As I'd like to spend the rest of tonight peacefully in my headquarters, I will be leaving here."
"No way! It's a Mond!"
"Wow, he has wolf ears! It's a wolf-Mond! That's so cool!"
The childish giggles that rip into the air ease the tension as swiftly as a zap of lightning.
All eyes befall Orian who, amidst being detained by two guards, is currently having his tail tugged at by two toddlers.
Both have matching grins painting their faces, but unlike everyone else Leda has seen, these children are not wearing any means of cloaks or long sleeves.
They're entirely exposed.
Their grotesque, scratched up arms and legs; jagged and flaky skin carving into their cheeks to the point of revealing pink flesh. The black dots she's spotted on every citizen outside are ten times more concentrated on these kids. Not to mention a multitude more painful.
Leda's mouth plummets to the ground, eyes shrinking back in shock.
"Naka, Nara!" Ronan surprises her by hurrying to and whisking them from Orian at once. He crouches onto one knee to lessen the substantial height difference. "Why are you out here? It's sundown. No citizens are supposed to be outside."
The two kids merely grin brighter.
"Prince Ronan III, you're back," the boy, Naka, weakly cheers.
"You went to check on the other towns and villages didn't you?" Nara, the girl, goes on, clasping the fabric of his cape. "Did you come back with a cure for us?"
Despite not cracking to everything else he was faced with, Ronan wavers. His lips meet, tense.
He knows Leda can hear this all but without paying her the slightest mind, his mouth stretches into a frail smile.
"Of course I have," he whispers. "I have to tell the doctors to prepare the medicine at once. And for that I need you two to head back into your beds and rest, all right?"
"But... but..." Naka pouts. "I-I'm too scared to sleep."
Nara is equally as frightened. Her tiny hand trembles. "Yesterday, Grandma Ophelia went to sleep with us like every other day. But when we woke up she already went bye-bye like all the others..."
Tears spill down their cheeks. They stare up at Ronan with big, watery eyes.
"W-will Naka and Nara go bye-bye too?" Naka whimpers.
"We don't want to go bye-bye yet," Nara snuffles.
Ronan suddenly can't produce the words. His expression is stuck in place, and he can't seem to move. Leda is unable to stop the frown that spreads across her face. Orian is silent also, sorrow downturning his gaze.
It's the guards who end up intervening, guiding the children from Ronan's side. After getting them to agree to bid farewell, they lead them back the way they'd come—in the direction of their home.
Leda watches Ronan from where she is. He punches his clenched fist into the dirt, stifling unwarranted frustration.
It's obvious he'd wanted to shout all along—have a tantrum like those kids and all the others outside. He'd wanted to vent, scream from the rooftops. But it just so happened he found it easier to be cruel in a moment where the damage had already been dealt.
It isn't that the royal family hasn't been doing anything for their kingdom.
Maybe the fact is, they just can't.
There's evidently more to this situation than Leda expected. The guilt from that realization rattles her insides, tormenting her for screaming the things she did at him.
"They may have their own side to the story."
Orian was right.
Leda hoists herself onto her shins, but the two guards above her slam her back to the ground, holding her down.
"Master!" Orian exclaims, struggling again in his own confines.
Before he can break free, Ronan grumbles, "Human. Mond."
Quiet flits into the air.
The prince rises from his knee then faces them with newfound aggression sifting against his frown.
"There is no way you travelled all the way from Meisyr to defile the royal family." He bunches his fists, stilling his exasperation the best he can. "Why did you come to Depree?"
Leda stares directly at his piercing eyes, but not a squat of her determination wavers. "We came to see you."
"This is delicious!" Leda blurts, munching on the juicy steak she's pushed into her mouth. She turns to Ronan at once. "I've never had anything like it. What's it called?"
Ronan on the opposite end of the large table they're seated at hasn't removed the sour scowl he's worn since he led them into this grand palace last night.
Shrugging his silence aside, Leda cranes her attention towards Orian who's frankly too afraid to eat, especially with Ronan's animosity oozing into the very air they're inhaling.
His plate is covered with various sliced up fruit and leaves. Leda squints at his healthy request then down to her plate of protein. "Are you sure you don't want any meat?" she muffles between bites.
Orian raises his hands and waves it vigorously. "I-I am fine." He drops his attention to his plate. "I do not eat meat."
"You don't?" The gnawed meat almost spills from her mouth, but she quickly shuts it to chew some more. "Is that even possible? Aren't you half-wolf?"
"Are all humans that dense?"
Ronan's interjection swerves her focus towards him.
"That's precisely why he's unable to consume meat," he continues, chin jutted high. "Everyone is aware that Monds are hybrids of all the creatures around Annadia. You asking him to eat meat is synonymous to you telling him to eat his fellow brethren."
The way he says it so snootily fills Leda with discontent. Nonetheless, his explanation causes her to suck in a tentative breath.
"Oh, guess that makes sense." She glides her plate out of sight and bobs her head at Orian. "Sorry for being insensitive."
"N-no! You do not need to apologize, Master." His head tilts over from guilt. "I'm the one who should have explained things ahead of time."
She gestures for him to drop it. "A wolf vegetarian, huh?" she muses. "That's pretty neat."
Although she knows for a fact Orian isn't one hundred percent sure of what she's implied, she assumes calling him 'neat' is enough because within seconds, his ears perk, and he's giddily beaming from ear to ear.
Leda can't help but crack a similar expression as well.
"Human," Ronan calls.
"I told you it's Leda," she replies.
"Human," he reiterates without a care. "Last night you told you me you came here to Depree to see me."
Well, really, any member of the royal family would've worked. Knowing confessing to that would only incur his anger, however, Leda merely nods.
"You then told me you would expand as to why if I've fed you, clothed you, allowed you a proper way to cleanse yourselves and bestowed upon you a good night's rest." He beckons to the refined garments he's provided them.
"And yet you still haven't given me answers.
I would like to remind you that I have only succumbed to your requests due to the kindness of my heart.
This all does not mean I have permitted your stay in Depree either—"
"Then," Leda says, ignoring the wordless knights posted by the exit, "I don't think I should tell you."
Ronan, as well as the men in armour, teeter from disbelief.
"H-how absurd!" Ronan shouts, slamming his palms onto the table as he lurches to his feet. "Do you realize who exactly you are speaking to?"
"I can say the same to you," Leda responds, dabbing her face with a napkin before rising as well.
She takes strides towards Ronan. Upon entering his vicinity, he retreats.
She presses closer anyway. "I feel guilty for eating and requesting those things from you, knowing how scarce these rations are, but to be able to be of help to you Spades, I understand I can't go and starve myself.
I can't do anything for them if I neglect my own health. And you should know that, too."
Ronan dons a flustered scowl as he adjusts his outfit to shield his thin arms and neck.
So she's right...
She gazes into his eyes. "Now tell me the truth. Where's the king and queen, and the rest of your princely brothers?"
"I am not obligated to answer that."
"Hmm," she drawls. "Then, what's the situation right now in Edaps? And that bizarre illness? Have you actually found a cure for it?"
Ronan gawks, evidently unaccustomed to people speaking out to him so nonchalantly. Even the knights are trying to remain level-headed from where they are. Then there's Orian who's sprouting invisible stars from his head.
"S-so amazing!" He's brimming with awe. "Master Leda is so bold...!"
She has to withhold the urge to 'aww.' He's like her very own fanboy.
Ronan, not wanting to succumb further, tapers his eyelids.
He leans towards her with renewed conviction, wisps of his blue hair falling after him.
From their close distance she catches a glimpse of his collarbone and the spots peppering it and his chest. It takes all she has to swallow but her extremities are already caressing the markings before she can come to terms with her actions.
Simultaneous gasps explode from the knights, and Orian leans over the edge of his seat, agape.
Ronan himself has stiffened like a board at the contact, too appalled to even move. "Y-you are touching m-me—"
"So you have it, too," she murmurs, lips caving inwards. Removing her touch, she cups his cheek. It's warm, like anyone else's, and smooth as porcelain. Frowning, she tilts her head so she's holding his gaze. "Say, can you really not answer my questions?"
As if she's pulled some kind of trigger, red shoots across Ronan's pale cheeks until he's a ripe tomato. Roughly jerking her palm off of him, he fumbles backwards, almost tripping over his feet until he's at the furthest corner of the room, grasping at his clothing above his chest in disbelief.
"D-do you humans not have a single shred of decency?" he stammers profusely. "I-I am royalty!"
Her mouth parts. "And you're telling me I made royalty blush?"
"I-I am not b-blushing!" Ronan snaps. "I am colouring in the face by my own free will! Th-this is being done on purpose, you dense human!"
The more he stutters, the more embarrassed he becomes. He's unlike the steel-hearted male she'd initially encountered.
A tiny laugh pushes past her lips.
"Aww, you're pretty cute, Ronan." Leda smiles from ear to ear. "I'm sorry. I've totally mistaken you."
If it's even possible, Ronan grows redder, and this time he's tongue-tied on a whole new level.
"I've never seen the third prince get so red!"
The knights are in disarray at the doorway.
"What kind of spell is she casting?"
"Humans are scary!"
"Yeah, yeah. We're evil." Leda sets her hand at her hip. "Ronan, how about we settle this?"
It seems her offer is enough to wake him from his trance. He prims his mouth as he drops his arms by his sides.
"It is Ronan III."
Her eyelashes flutter. "Huh?"
"My title is Ronan III." The colour in his cheeks begin to fade. "If you address me as 'Ronan' it is almost as if you are calling for my elder brother."
Leda can't help the surge of confusion that overwhelms her. "Your older brother is also named Ronan?"
"Brothers," he corrects. "We are a total of three princes. Ronan, Ronan II, and I, Ronan III."
She has to turn to Orian. "He's shitting me, right?"
Ronan's brows have scrunched together. "'Shitting?'" he inquires. "Is that supposed to be an edible delicacy in Htrae?"
Her lips clamp together. Thankfully Orian breaks the news to him, translating her curse word into something more Annadia-n. Needless to say, Ronan once again flushes like a beet.
He coughs to clear his throat. "For your information 'Ronan' is an honourable title that has been passed down for generations within the Oeh family. All sons and predecessors have received this name—"
"Ro."
He cocks a brow. "I beg your pardon?"
"Ro," she replies. "I'll call you Ro."
He's been stunned into silence.
"It'll be confusing if I have to address the rest of your brothers the same way. Plus, 'Ronan III' is such a mouthful." His jaw plummets as she flashes him a smirk. "So from this moment onward I'm calling you 'Ro.'"
Stillness once again sweeps over the hall.
"Is she serious?" a knight hisses.
"Addressing a prince by such a frivolous title..."
"A human's audacity is so...!"
A rain of chuckles originate from Orian and a gawping Ro makes Leda laugh all the same.
"Ro," she tries again. "Let's drop all pretences. If you honestly tell me about the situation in Edaps, I'll stop asking questions. I'll leave this capital. You can even arrest me for knowing too much if that poses a problem."
Ro perks quite a bit, but his caution hasn't dropped. "What is it you stand to gain from that kind of deal?"
"Do I need to gain anything in order for it to be considered a deal? If so, then I guess the satisfaction of getting to know you more intimately is sufficient."
Ro recoils against the wall once more. Leda imagines steam pouring out of his ears similarly to smoke from a train's chimney. A smirk curves her lips high from amusement.
"So? Do we have a deal?"