Chapter 164 - 163: The Lunch Trap!

That night, with Adena’s laughter still echoing faintly from somewhere down the hall and half the mansion in some state of post-arrival chaos, Eleanore found herself, against every previous protest, standing in the doorway of Caelestis’s room with a pillow tucked under one arm.

"Don’t," she said, before he could even open his mouth, "say a single word about this being your room. It’s temporary. Adena’s occupying the guest room closest to mine and I am not spending the whole summer listening to her talk in her sleep through the wall."

"I wasn’t going to say anything," Caelestis said, entirely too pleased with himself for someone who was, in fact, saying something.

"You were thinking it very loudly."

"I have an expressive face. It’s not my fault."

She ignored him, walking further into the room. The room was dim, exactly as dark as she remembered, curtains drawn despite the late hour and dropped her pillow squarely in the middle of the bed. Then, with the calm efficiency of someone executing a well-thought-out military strategy, she began arranging three more pillows in a neat, deliberate line beside it.

Caelestis watched this unfold with visible confusion. "What is that?"

"A wall."

"A wall."

"A pillow wall," she clarified, patting the last one into place with satisfaction. "For boundaries. This side is mine, that side is yours, and the pillows are the border. Very simple system."

"You built a border. Out of pillows. In my bed."

"I did."

He stared at the line of pillows for a long moment, something flickering across his face that he tried, not entirely successfully, to smooth back into his usual easy composure. "Right," he said, quieter than before, and there was an edge to it now, something almost hurt hiding beneath the joke. "Wouldn’t want to cross any borders."

Eleanore paused, catching the shift in his tone, the way his shoulders had drawn in just slightly. "Caelestis—"

"It’s fine." He turned, pulling back the blanket on his side with more focus than the action required. "I get it. I just thought, given everything lately, maybe—" he stopped himself, shaking his head. "Never mind. It’s fine. Goodnight, Eleanore."

She hesitated, the retort she’d been ready to make dying somewhere in her throat. He wasn’t wrong, exactly. She knew the pillows were about more than just personal space, knew he probably understood that too but there was something in the quiet, careful way he’d said fine that told her this small, silly wall of pillows had landed somewhere far more real than she’d intended.

"Goodnight," she said finally, softer than she meant to, and turned off the light before either of them could say anything else about it.

The first knock came at seven in the morning, far too early for anyone reasonable to be awake, let alone cheerful about it.

"Eleanore! Breakfast!" Adena’s voice carried through the door with the subtlety of a foghorn. "Would you care to join me!"

Adena was being weirdly nosy and Eleanore did not like that very much.

"I’m working," Eleanore called back, not looking up from the papers spread across her desk. "Eat without me."

"That’s not the spirit of family breakfast!"

"We are not a family that does breakfast."

There was a beat of silence, followed by the distinct sound of Adena sliding down against the door to sit on the floor outside it, apparently unwilling to accept defeat gracefully. "Fine. I’ll just sit here then. Very sad. All alone."

"Why are you acting like this?"

"Like what?"

"Like you like me or anything."

"But I do."

"You don’t."

Eleanore didn’t dignify that with a response, and eventually, after several more minutes of theatrical sighing from the hallway, Adena gave up and wandered off, presumably to eat the breakfast by herself.

It happened again at lunch. And then again the next morning. And the morning after that, until it became something of a routine. Adena knocking, Eleanore refusing, some new increasingly dramatic plea lobbed through the door before she finally retreated. By the fourth day, Eleanore had almost started finding a strange, begrudging rhythm in it, the way a person got used to a persistent, irritating little bird that kept returning to the same windowsill.

It was the fifth day when Adena switched tactics.

"Caelestis is eating lunch alone downstairs," she said through the door, voice deliberately casual in a way that immediately put Eleanore on alert. "All by himself. No one to talk to. Very tragic, really."

Eleanore set her pen down slowly.

"He looked really sad about it too," Adena continued, clearly sensing the shift. "Practically pathetic. You should see his face."

"You should join him."

"He needs his wife."

Eleanore looked up. "Since when—" She remembered Adena harbouring feelings for Caelestis. "Didn’t you like Caelestis?"

"That was long ago. He is my cousin. Come one. I was just a bit immature."

Strange, truly. Adena isn’t this kind of person. It was as if her personality had completely shifted. Where is her proud, evil, vile personality? Why is she so friendly and kind?

Eleanore couldn’t understand but she also couldn’t find any scope of argument in this. So she give sin

"Fine," she said, standing and straightening her blouse. "One lunch. That’s it."

Adena’s triumphant cheer through the door was answer enough.

|| Mission 1, Phase 1: Change Caelestis Destiny. Has been successfully completed.

Phase 2: The Rebels

The Kingdom of Seraphine has been plagued by this organisation called Rebel. They are after the crown and want to kill the royal family, so that they can attain a complete dictatorship. These rebel groups also involve some of the nobles of the empire, who harbour hatred against the royal family of Seraphine.

In their madness for the throne, many innocents die, including you. Your death triggers Caelestis’ fate falling into darkness again and Hael turning against his dear friend again.

Chapter 1: The Woman Named Barbra

Barbra was known to be a very gentle and kind woman of the kingdom. She was always quiet and had no enemy. Until she fell for the wrong person and tried to win him over only to be trampled on completely by the queen of the social circle, Eleanore Sinclair (You)

Quest 1: Death Case Of Lady Barbra Fein

Task 1: Collect information on the relationship between Eleanore Sinclair (you) and Lady Barbra Fein

Do you accept the task?

Yes/No

Note: Reward: + 100,000 reputation

Penalty: -200,000 coins

Total Reputation: -100,000

Total Coins: +90,100||