WHO MADE ME A PRINCE
chapter seventeen - claude is angry.

"WHAT?" ARIUS GULPED. He was currently having breakfast with Athanasia and Claude. Claude raised a brow on his son's rather surprised expression.

"You will have tea with me in the evening. Do you not want to?" Claude inquired as he made eye contact with him. Arius averted his eyes.

'AAAAAA WHY ?! WHY EVENING !? AND TODAY OF ALL DAYS!!! We were gonna Investigate that suspicious bakery from yesterday!! But if I say no he might get suspicious.'

"Athy would love to have tea with Daddy!" Athanasia beamed at Claude and then looked at her brother who was sitting opposite to her.

"Is there something you wanna tell us Dad? We do eat breakfast and dinner together, you can just–" Arius tried to save his evening but was cut off by Claude.

"Is your evening stroll more important than spending time with your father?" Claude grumbled.

"That's not what I said. I simply asked whether there is any specific reason for you to suddenly invite us to tea in the evening." Arius said.

Claude sighed.

"Nevermind. Forget I asked you."

'Huh? Is... he's mad? Over this?'  Arius slightly tilted his head observing Claude's expressions to understand what he meant.

After Breakfast

Felix was escorting the royal siblings out of the Garnet Palace.

"Your Highness , I believe His Majesty has become lonely as you haven't been visiting him much." Felix said

'Eh.' The siblings thought in sync.

'Claude, lonely?....' They both were dumbfounded at the thought of it.

"Your Highness , Before you used to come everyday , everytime you could meet His Majesty. Although His Majesty didn't show it , he would always await your arrival. But lately you haven't been visiting him as much. So I believe he has become lonely." Felix smiled at the siblings.

"....I see.." Arius replied , still a bit doubtful about his words.

"Don't worry, Felix. I will visit him in the afternoon."

Felix beamed. "His Majesty would be most pleased."

The siblings parted ways soon as Arius was heading to the Library for his Lessons and Athanasia was heading back to Ruby Palace for her Liberal Arts Lessons.

'Lonely , huh... Maybe Dad's just suspicious . I stopped asking him to let me leave the Palace ever since that day. And I requested free time in the evening too... he probably realized something was strange.'

Suddenly Claude's face from that day flashed through his head. He remembered the way his Dad had hugged him and apologized to him for his wrongdoings. Arius stopped walking and went into deep thinking.

'Did he really miss me...cause I wasn't visiting... Jeez what a tsundere. Whenever I did come he would act indifferent to it and act as if I was interrupting his paperwork. And he did give me a clear statement that I couldn't leave the Palace grounds. I didn't see any point in continuing to pester him about it. And we do meet for breakfast and dinner. We see each other twice everyday.'

He gave out a long sigh.

'Plus... I feel like Athy's being left out. Claude's attention is too much on me. Athy is also his daughter. Even though she's just trying to gain his favour to survive. She was an orphan in her previous life too , I want her to experience fatherly affection, at least in this life. Claude is the father of us both. His love, care and attention should be equally divided among both of us. I want to give them some father-daughter time so they can build a good relationship.'

Arius gave out another sigh and continued on his way to the Library.

In The Afternoon

Slam!

"Dad! "

Claude had a slightly surprised expression on his face.

Cough! (Claude)

"What is it?"

"What are you doing?" Arius asked as he ran up to his desk.

"Paperwork."

"As usual."

"Did you want something from me?"

"Yes, your company."

"I'm busy right now." Claude replied with absolutely no hesitation and began doing his paperwork.

"..." Arius was surprised to say the least

'Don't tell me he's actually angry at me....'

"But Dad..." Arius used his puppy eyes and held Claude's arm.

Claude put his pen down, looked at Arius with a blank expression and said "Don't you have a Language Lesson right now?"

"I finished early." Arius smirked.

"Go play with your sister then."

"Athy has a Science Lesson right now." Arius pouted.

"I have paperwork." Claude again picked up his pen and started writing.

"...Okay..." Arius mumbled down-heartedly.

"...."

Arius didn't leave Claude's Office but instead stood beside his desk. He first kept looking at Claude and then tried peeking at the papers content on which he was working on. His height was lower than the desk Claude was using even if he stood on the tip of his toes.

He tried changing positions going to all sides of the table trying to peek at the documents.

Claude was obviously distracted by his sons circling all around the table. Arius wasn't making any noise but Claude couldn't help but glance at him every few seconds as he circled around.

In the end he gave up and picked Arius up from the ground and placed him on his lap.

"There? Happy?" Claude asked

Arius nodded.

Claude kept doing his paperwork with Arius sitting on his legs. Arius stayed quiet and simply observed the paperwork on Claude's desk. Some were about taxes , some about state problems, some about economic surveys. There was nothing about slave traders.

Arius looked at Claude who was focusing on the paperwork.

'He's..really ignoring me this time. Maybe what Felix said is true.. But I'm here now aren't I ? And he's working...'  Arius pouted

"...Dad, are you mad at me?"

Claude stopped writing. Arius was scared to turn back and face him.

'What if he is mad? Does he hate me? Is he gonna start ignoring me now? I forgot.. but this is 'Who made me a princess' and Claude's supposed to be a psycho emperor.. What if he changes his mind...? He did seem completely fine in 'Who made me a princess' even after finding out Arius had died. They didn't even mention him. He easily moved on– ' His trail of thoughts stopped as he felt a hand on his head.

He turned back to see Claude patting his head.

'Huh, shoot did he say something?'

"I'm not mad."

"But you–"

"I'm busy. What's wrong with that?" Claude said as he reached a paper on his desk and began to read it.

'Why...is he being like that..? I've never seen him like this. He's not ignoring me... more like distancing me. He's creating a wall between us... But...WHY?!'

"Dad...."

Claude just replied with a 'hmm.' and kept staring at the page in his hand.

"..Then I'll help you with your work!"

"...."

The prince and princess, although young, had already been praised by their tutors several times. They were called geniuses who had no flaws. Both of them had already exceeded their peers in education.

Keeping that in mind, Claude sorted out the paperwork and gave a quarter of it to Arius to complete. He asked Felix to bring a desk and chair for Arius, which he did.

Silence enveloped the room , except the sounds of pen scribbling on the paper. It was a calming sound to the both of them.

After a while Arius put his pen down. He grabbed the papers and was slowly raising his hands towards Claude.

'What if I made a mistake..? It wasn't that complicated or hard but what if Dad doesn't approve of it or gets angry...?'

Claude saw Arius hesitating to give him the papers. He reached his hands out to Arius to take the papers and caressed his head.

Arius shut his eyes tight as he felt the papers leave his hand. He could feel his heartbeat rising.

'What if it's wrong?! What if there's a mistake ?! Ahhhhhh maybe I shouldn't have said I'd do them!!! I'm so dumb!'

"I'm impressed. Well done. "

Arius opened his eyes and looked at Claude with a sparkle in his eyes.

'Did...he just praise..me? '

Arius couldn't help but smile and feel proud at his father's words.

'This is the first time he praised me. Heck this is the first time any of my parents praised me. Before they'd always make me feel not good enough but Claude...GOSH I'M BEING TOO EMOTIONAL.'

Arius shook his head slightly, bringing him back to reality.

"Thank you." His tone was filled with happiness as he tried to maintain a blank face.

The day went on as usual.

Arius soon left Claude's office for his lessons. He had fun, to Arius it was a memorable day since Claude praised him, but Claude still felt a bit different to him.

It really was like Claude was creating a wall between them.

'I want to break that wall... BUT LIKE HE SAID HE CARED ABOUT ME AND NOW HE'S ACTING LIKE THIS! jeez I want to maintain a good relationship with him but he's acting like such a child. And I still don't understand why he's doing this. Lonely ? BUT I CAME TO MEET HIM! UGH this is making my head hurt... '

Arius couldn't stop thinking about what the heck was wrong with Claude. He kept thinking about it the whole day and when the time came, very carefully left the Palace.