Chapter 148: Gathering [1]

Alden said nothing. He was still watching the direction Aurelia and Arvendis had disappeared into. Something was sitting in his chest that felt like a missing puzzle piece he couldn’t place.

He knew the Calyndor royal family. He had written them. He knew the major figures and the politics and the history he had built for them.

There was never anything between Leon and Princess Aurelia in any of it.

Which meant this was something the world had grown on its own in the gaps he had left.

He fell into step with the others and filed it away.

"Nicholas! Leon! Alden!"

The sharp cheerful voice came from across the hall and the three of them turned to find Claire and Roselle heading toward them through the crowd.

Roselle wore a pink gown that complemented her pastel hair perfectly and moved like she had worn formal things her entire life.

Claire was in dark blue that made her look remarkably poised and composed and entirely unlike the version of her that could level a training dummy.

Both of them looked completely different from every academy interaction Alden had ever had with either of them.

Roselle crossed her arms immediately. "You three certainly took your time getting here."

Leon adjusted his collar. "We’re barely few minutes late."

"Late is late! Don’t make excuses!" Roselle said with her chin tilted up.

Nicholas’s eyes had already done a quick sweep over her. A smooth easy smile came onto his face. "You look stunning tonight Roselle."

The composed expression Roselle had been wearing crumbled immediately.

A bright flush shot up her cheeks and she looked away fast fidgeting with one of her lace cuffs. "You can’t just throw compliments around like that out of nowhere..."

She recovered herself in about four seconds flat and stepped forward and slipped her arm through his with a thoroughly satisfied look.

Nicholas glanced back at Alden and Leon over Roselle’s head and gave them both a discreet thumbs up.

Leon stared at him.

Alden stared at him.

They looked at each other.

’So that’s how you handle that.’

Before anyone could say another word the noise level around the main archway changed. The ambient chatter softened in that specific way crowds do when something has caught their collective attention.

Click. Click. Click.

Deliberate heels on polished marble, coming through the arch at a pace.

Heads were turning. Conversations were stopping mid-sentence. Several younger nobles forgot what they had been saying entirely.

"Who is that?"

"Good lord she’s captivating..."

Nicholas glanced toward the archway. "Looks like the last one is finally here."

Leon looked over and his jaw moved like he was about to say something and then didn’t.

Claire had a small amused smile. "Fashionably late as usual."

Roselle’s whole face lit up. "Senior Seris!"

Alden had been half listening and turned around to see what everyone was looking at.

Then his brain stopped working for about three full seconds.

Seris stood near the entrance in the warm glow of the chandeliers. With an obsidian gown that fit her silhouette perfectly before it cascaded to the floor in dark fabric woven through with silver threading and tiny jewels that caught the light with every small movement like she was wearing pieces of night sky.

Matching velvet gloves past her elbows. A dark obsidian choker at the base of her throat that made her pale skin look almost luminous against it. Her silver hair fell past her waist and the contrast between all that dark fabric and all that silver and pale skin was almost physically difficult to look away from.

He quickly looked at the wall to his left.

Cleared his throat.

Looked back at her.

’Holy hell.’

The heat arrived in his face before he had time to prepare for it.

From across the hall Seris’s crimson eyes moved through the crowd and found him with zero effort. The cool composed expression she was wearing for the room disappeared and a devastatingly sweet smirk took its place.

"Alden~"

The word was barely above a whisper but the room had gone just quiet enough that it reached him perfectly clearly.

His face got significantly warmer.

She glided toward them through the crowd and nobody moved to stop her because nobody could think of a reason to.

She gathered the sides of her dress slightly as she walked and every movement was completely unhurried and every eye in a twelve meter radius followed her and she didn’t grant a single one of those stares any attention at all. Her eyes stayed on Alden the whole way.

She stopped in front of him and made one slow deliberate half turn that let the silver embellishments on her gown catch the candlelight from a new angle. Then she looked back at him directly.

"Well?"

Alden blinked. His throat was dry. "Well what?"

Seris tilted her head with her crimson eyes bright with amusement. "How do I look?"

Up close the faint scent of night blooming flowers and the warmth of the candlelight catching everything about her was genuinely overwhelming.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "You look... great."

Seris’s eyebrow went up. Her smile turned dangerous as she leaned over him. "Just great?"

Alden immediately course corrected. "I mean beautiful. You look really incredibly beautiful Seris."

The smile that spread across her face was satisfied in a way that said she had been looking forward to that exact response for a while.

"Much better," she said.

Then without any further discussion she stepped into his personal space and slid her arm through his and wrapped both her hands snugly around his elbow like she had always done this and planned to keep doing it.

Alden went rigid immediately. He glanced around the room. Half the hall was looking at them. "Seris..."

"Hmm?"

"You could have maybe waited until we weren’t in the middle of a massive crowd."

She looked completely unbothered. She leaned her head slightly toward his shoulder. "Why should I? You’re my boyfriend. What’s wrong with holding onto what’s mine?"

Alden opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

He had no defense for that. He genuinely had nothing.

He looked at Nicholas and Leon and Roselle and Claire.

All four of them were standing in a perfect frozen row staring at the two of them with completely blank disbelieving expressions. Nobody was moving. Nobody was speaking. They all looked like people who had just watched a door open that they were fairly sure led to a wall.

The silence lasted about four seconds.

Then all four of them exploded at the same time.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"