WHO MADE ME A PRINCE
chapter nineteen - secret.

A RED HEAD!

'WHA-FELIX.'  Arius's stutter on his thoughts.

The red-head came out of the bushes and he had a grim expression on his face. He looked Arius straight in the eye and asked in an extremely serious tone.

"Your Highness, Where were you?"

Felix, someone who would usually be beaming and smiling for the first time showed Arius his dark side as the knight of the emperor. He looked serious, worried and cold.

Arius subconsciously began to tremble slightly.

Felix was a grown man and although he was merely concerned for Arius's wellbeing, in the viewpoint of Arius , he seemed as If he was boiling with anger and seconds away from hitting him. He began to have flashes of his past life.

Felix noticed Arius trembling. He raised his hand and brought it close to Arius's shoulder.

"Your Highness–"

Arius, out of reflex, flinched and slapped Felix's hand away and shouted.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Felix was surprised. He became quite worried from this and slowly reverted back to his usual self. He kneeled down to Arius and apologized

"Forgive me for my impolite behaviour. I will not touch you without your permission...So please your highness... Please stop trembling."

Arius flinched again; he looked at Felix and saw no ill will in his eyes. He felt stupid for thinking Felix would actually raise his hand against him.

He recomposed himself , took a few deep breaths and then said

"No , It's my fault for overreacting. Anyhow, Felix I'm aware you have many questions regarding my absence, but I'm afraid I have classes so I'll have to go now." Arius said as he began walking past Felix.

"Your Highness, with all due respect, your safety is more important than your classes. If you were somewhere dangerous, then I will have to report it to His Majesty and your classes should be the least of your concerns right now." Felix replied without turning back.

"Did Dad ask you to keep an eye on me?"

Felix nodded. Arius ran back up to Felix and made his puppy eyes.

"FELIX! PLEASE KEEP THIS A SECRET FROM DAD!"

"Eh!? Your Highness, You know I can't do that, I'll be executed for treason , if I lied to His Majesty. And... I'm also worried about your recent activities."

Arius took a moment to think whether he could trust Felix or not.

"....Okay. So I've only been teleporting to the capital city during the evening. I just wanted to explore the city a bit."

"Your Highness.. you shouldn't go outside without a guard..Lately slave traders have been kidnapping children , what if you ever got caught up in that mess...?" Felix kneeled to Arius and looked at him with concerned eyes.

"But I'm safe right now. Next time I'll take you with me. "

Felix gave a big smile to Arius.

"But Felix , you know how overprotective Dad is. If he finds out about this then he'll forbid me from even leaving Ruby Palace. I promise nothing bad will happen to me during this... so please keep this a secret."

"....But then what should I say to His Majesty? "

"I won't be going out tomorrow so..... Oh I know ! "

The two discussed the plan for a while before Arius left for his lectures.

During Dinner

The imperial family was having their dessert after dinner. Claude was looking at his children, Athanasia was munching on her cake and surprisingly even Arius was eating sweets today.

"Brother, it's a surprise seeing you eat cookies and cakes."

"I just felt like eating it today."

'I've eaten the cakes and chocolate cookies from the imperial chef but I still can't forget the taste of those cookies from Linda's Bakery. Those were simply heavenly. I wanna eat them!! And I'm not even going tomorrow.... I have to wait for a whole day to eat it.'

Sigh!

After dinner , Claude picked up Athy and told Felix to carry Arius. Athanasia was shocked by the sudden change. She looked back at Arius who didn't seem too shocked by this.

'He's making it so obvious. The wall. He's angry with me FOR ABSOLUTELY NO LOGICAL REASON.'

When they got back to Ruby Palace, Felix brought Arius to his room and they chatted for a bit.

"I even made friends outside." Arius told him.

"That's wonderful , Your Highness, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself." Felix smiled at him. Arius smiled back.

"...So.. did you tell Dad everything as I told you..?"

"Yes."

"Okay Thank You."

The night ended without Claude coming to Arius's room. He went back after taking Athanasia to her room.

The next day

Claude didn't talk much during breakfast. He simply drank his tea and looked at his children. Surprisingly Arius had once again been eating cakes and cookies.

"Brother... Didn't you say you didn't like eating sweets as the first meal of the day?" Athanasia asked as she saw her brother stuffing his mouth with cookies.

'He looks cute though.'  Athanasia thoughts. Claude didn't seem concerned, he kept sipping on his tea.

"...I just felt like eating in the morning today... Why are you worried I'm gonna eat all of them and there won't be any left for you?" Arius smirked.

Athanasia's face became red both with anger and embarrassment.

Smack!

"OUCH!"

"HOW RUDE! I was asking out of curiosity!"

"Just admit it Athy. You were worried about your precious sweets." Arius smirked.

Athansia's face once again became red and she was about to hit him.

"No need to fight over some sweets. The chef can make as many sweets as you want, and learn to share among each other." Claude lectured with a blank face.

"He started it." Athanasia stated.

"No I didn't. You're the one who hit me after I simply stated the truth." Arius replied.

"That wasn't true, it was your own opinion." Athanasia argued

"And my opinion was the truth , otherwise you wouldn't have reacted in such a way." Arius smirked.

"Wha- Jeez why are you being so rude!? Are you mad at me because of yesterday–" Athanasia suddenly covered her mouth. Arius turned to face her.

"Yesterday? What happened yesterday?" he innocently asked and proceeded to cut his cake slice.

'Is she talking about how dad picked her up instead of me? Why would I be mad ? I was just joking with her. Jeez..'

"Yes, I too am curious as to what happened yesterday." Claude said with a blank face.

Arius stopped eating his cake and looked at Claude.

'HE DID NOT JUST- CALM DOWN ME. Calm down , Calm down , calm down... phew.. okay so this jerk here really doesn't know... or is he just trying to provoke me again like last time... AND THEN HE ASKS FOR MY FORGIVENESS!?'

Claude made eye contact with Arius and the whole dining room was filled with an icy atmosphere as the males glared at each other.

Claude then looked at Athanasia for the answer to his question. Arius also looked at Athanasia. Athanasia was mentally crying over them.

'I'M SORRY IT WAS A SLIP OF TONGUE.' Athanasia mentally screamed.

"Hehehe" She put her hand on her mouth and acted all cutesy.

"It's no biggie! Brother and I got into a fight while playing. I said Lily is better than Via and brother said Via was better than Lily. In the end I won the argument so brother must've gotten angry."

Arius's face was completely red now. He mentally cried.

'Athy out of ALL THE THINGS YOU could've said WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE SO CHILDISH.'

Athanasia proudly ate her cake as she looked at Arius with her eyes saying 'FEEL MY PAIN.'

Claude was a bit surprised that his mature son actually argued over something this trivial. He looked at Arius and asked with a smirk.

"Is that true?"

'Ugh I REALLY DON'T WANNA SAY YES.'

"No. If I remember correctly I was the one who won the argument. Athy you started crying so much after that. How could you forget?" Arius smiled innocently.

Athanasia's face once again became red with embarrassment.

"BROTHER–"

"Arius. You shouldn't tease your sister." Claude said as he finished his tea and stood up. He left the dining room leaving nothing but silence.

Athanasia looked at Arius worried since Claude had never said something like that and he knew they were joking. Arius just stood up quietly and said.

"Welp Athy time for my lessons. I should go now. Say, do you wanna play later in the evening?"

"Uh.. sure!" Athanasia looked worriedly as her brother left the room.

'I was going to spend this evening with Claude... But to hell with that.'