Pretending To Be Gilead's Prince and Master Wizard

-KRISELLA-

My eyelids felt heavy when I tried to open my eyes. I wonder what happened to me. The last thing I remembered was when we were at the royal gathering, celebrating the king's birthday.

Gathering all the force that I could muster, I forced myself to open it, and soon... sunlight was the first thing to ever greet me from the large window on my right. I moved my head to and fro to examine the whole room which I am in right now, still feeling dazed in my place.

Where am I again?

"We're glad you're awake!" Lancelott's voice was the first thing I heard ever since I woke up.

My head immediately went to my right and there I saw Lancelott, Lucas, and Alex standing near the door. I think they were discussing something but then they immediately stopped upon knowing that I'm awake.

That's when I realized I'm in the prince's master bedroom.

"W-what happened? W-why am I here?" I asked in bewilderment. Forcing myself, I tried to get up and sit up straight on the bed.

"Well, you fainted yesterday." Lancelott was the one to answer my question. That made my forehead creased.

"Ehhh? For real?"

"Yep." Lucas chimed in. "We were all worried to see you suddenly fainted in front of us. Good thing you're awake now."

My brows formed a line as I tried to remember the events that happened yesterday. It suddenly dawned upon me that I was asked suddenly by the king to give my on-the-spot speech which I did.

I don't know if I was successful back there... or not.

"Say..." I opened my mouth to speak when everyone remained silent. "How is my performance at the royal gathering yesterday? Did I do well... or not?"

The three lads remained silent after hearing what I just asked. When I thought none of them would answer it, I heard Lancelott suddenly talked.

"You did great back there, Krisella," he said, which made my face lit up.

"Yes, I agree," Lucas said. "You were really brave in giving your speech to the public Kris, so kudos to that."

I beamed. "Aww, thanks, guys!"

At the back of my head, I was celebrating because of the praises I got from two of my mentors when I realized Alex hasn't said a word ever since we returned from the party. I patiently waited for him to give his opinion as well, but nothing came out from his mouth.

Well, I guess he doesn't want to talk about it huh? Did I do something wrong back there? Gosh, I hate this! I'm too anxious to know what he's going to say. Grrrr !!!

Forget about him, says my inner conscience. You don't have to hear his opinion for you to give yourself a pat on your shoulders for a very brave act you did at the party.

"I thought for a second we're really seeing a glimpse of the prince yesterday," Lucas spoke up for the second time around. "I'm sure he would have said the same things that you mentioned in your speech Kris."

"That's right," Lancelott said in agreement. "He also mentioned on the day of his coronation that he wants to protect his people's happiness. Somehow, your speeches have similarities."

It made my face flush and my heart throbbed in delight. I am so glad to hear these words from them! Somehow, it boosted my inner confidence.

"Thank you, guys---"

*Growwwwwlllll*

I was about to say my thanks to these two who keeps on supporting me when my stomach shamelessly made some weird noises that made all of them looked towards my direction. Oh geez, why do you need to put me in this awkward situation stomach?!

"I guess our Krisella is really hungry now." Lancelott chose to break this awkward silence.

"You haven't eaten anything since you passed out yesterday," Lucas said as matter of fact.

My face was now fully tainted with red. "S-sorry for that."

"No worries," Lancelott sincerely smiled at me. "I'll be off to the kitchen to cook you some food. What would you want to eat?"

"Hmmm... anything's fine, I guess," I replied, quite hesitant to ask from the archbishop.

A few seconds later, Lancelott left us to go to the kitchen. While the archbishop is away, Lucas also excused himself when he mentioned there are a lot of office works he needs to attend to.

That leaves me with no choice but to be stuck here with Alex.

For some reason, this heartless, cold jerk kept his silence all throughout the time. The only time he chose to speak is when he turned to face me now...

"I have to go somewhere else as well..." he said and took several steps away from here.

"Wait..."

Since I was still anxious deep down inside of his opinion about my performance back there in the king's palace, I decided to stop him from leaving in which he followed.

"What?" he said in his cold, serious tone that could send shivers down my spine. He didn't care to face me and only glanced over his shoulder.

"How did I do back there at the palace?" I finally asked. "I haven't heard your opinion earlier."

"Why do you care about my opinion anyway?" he immediately rebutted.

Gosh, this guy! Why is he making this so hard for both of us!

"I care because you're one of my mentors," I responded as quickly as I could. I was tempted to add 'duh" but I stopped myself from doing so.

At last, that made him turn around to face me once again, but his serious expression didn't change one bit since I saw him yesterday.

"Want to know my opinion? Fine." he started and I patiently waited for whatever he's about to say. "I agree with them earlier that you did okay with your speech yesterday... and it makes me pissed, to be honest."

My eyes slightly widened upon hearing his words. Why would he be pissed if I did okay yesterday? This guy sure is weird I must say.

"Why--"

"Because you don't know what you're saying to those people!" he exclaimed, which made me almost jump out of my skin.

"How sure are you that you could protect those people, when you yourself haven't improved your magic skills?! Tell me... what can someone like you do for them huh?"

Silence...

His statement made me pause for a moment, and at that moment, I felt both corners of my eyes started to swell with tears but I tried my best to fight it off.

Why... why does he need to treat me this way?

"But then I couldn't ask you to do that..." His pair of jet black intimidating eyes landed on me which made me looked away as quickly as I could. The more I look at him, the more these tears will trigger.

"...because you're just a mere replica of the prince and master wizard."