Things They Didn't Say Out Loud

Chapter 2: The Day You Were Born

I hope she's not asleep yet.

For some reason, recently his work as the Royal Magician was taking up too much of his time. It seemed like the Emperor Claude himself started a hobby to pile up new troublesome works on top of another, it was almost never ending. The other magicians of the tower also couldn't leave him alone; always asking stupid questions over and over, slow to grasp whatever he taught them, and hardly satisfy his standard; which ended up with him taking matters to his own hands and get the job done quickly. Back in the day when he was still defending the tower, his impatience and bad temper over any scale of mistake were so infamous. But nowadays, in his role as "the Young Magician", he couldn't behave as arbitrarily. He ought to stay low so he could stay longer at the Princess' side.

However, the amount of work he had to do was nearly inhuman at this point. Lucas suspected that the emperor secretly wanted to distance the Princess from him by giving them as little time to spend together as possible.

He's getting all protective now that he realized his daughter is blossoming into a very beautiful flower, he chuckled.

It was quite late when he was finally able to get out of the tower, but he couldn't miss his visit to the Princess that night. No matter how worn out he was from the excessive workload, he had to make time for her. For the past 6 years, he hasn't missed even once.

---

"What are you stressing about?" Lucas tried to make his presence known.

He heard the princess was talking to herself before, a habit that she developed when she's too immersed in her thought and being restless. That was the night of her birthday, and Lucas guessed she had spent another birthday without her father paid any visit neither said a thing to her. From what Lucas learned, that man always missed the day to drown himself in all kinds of poison and mourn.

"Hey, you decided to come! Why is it so late?" the Princess hurriedly arose and get out of her bed. From the eye of a stranger, it might look a little suspicious for a young boy to visit a lady's chamber almost in the middle of the night; but Lucas was her childhood friend. They were just that close. Princess Athanasia never really mind how the black-haired magician appeared and gone away from her room whenever he pleased. Besides, the boy (or should she have called him the man?) still respected her privacy and never barged in when the time wasn't convenient.

"Well I'm a busy person, you see. Your dad is killing me with the amount of work he shoved on my face," Lucas complained as he approached the princess to see her face clearer. It seemed that she was quite fine; it didn't look like she has been crying before. That was relieving for him somehow.

"Hmm you do look very tired. Do you want me to talk to him about it?" Athanasia gave him a concerned look as she also examined his face. Even though he always appeared nonchalant about his responsibility as the Royal Magician, Athanasia knew better that he was indeed never really slacking off. He was just too capable and get things done quickly. Normal amount of work would only leave him with too much spare time. And too much spare time meant more time to hang around Athanasia. And Emperor Claude wasn't really fancy her beautiful daughter to spend too much time with any male acquittance these days.

Nah, these shouldn't be that much of a problem if I get all my mana back. I can't get things done as quick as before because I don't have enough mana.

"It's okay. I can handle it. Anyway, happy birthday, Princess," Lucas smiled and congratulated her. He also handed her a box of rare chocolate, as per usual. It was still a mystery to Athanasia how Lucas managed to find those chocolates every year of her birthday.