oneirataxia

1.13 - Rude little sh-

"I'm Henry Dragonia, who're you?" the boy asked with a condescending tone, making Blake's eyebrow twitch with annoyance.

"I'm Blake Acker. Kid, you can't be here," Blake said and held out his hand for the boy named Henry to grab.

Henry only stared at Blake's hand without moving, tilting his head with curiosity. He stood up and slapped the hand away only to walk towards the opposite direction of the banquet. Blake chuckled before walking over and tapping his shoulder.

"Ther banquet is over there, Henry," Blake said with a smile.

A small growl could be heard from the white-haired boy as his small face turned into a scowl. With a laugh, Blake turned away and walked towards the banquet. The boy stood there, watching as Blake left him there.

"How dare you not wait for me!" Henry exclaimed loudly, his mouth turning into a small pout as he stomped towards Blake. "Do you even know who I am?"

"Nope, and not interested," Blake smiled, his small chubby hands resting on his back as he looked up at the beautiful night sky.

"Well, let me tell you! I am the heir of the Dragonia archduchy!" Henry boasted, his chest puffed up a little as he had a smug grin on his face.

"Oh really?" Blake asked, uninterest clear in his tone and on his face.

Henry's smug grin slowly dissipated as he saw Blake's uninterest. Usually, everyone would swarm him and flood him with compliments, whether it was genuine or not. They buttered up to Henry and fed his ego, making him grow into the boy he is now. A boy with a superiority complex and an inferiority complex. A boy who thought he'd never achieve what all those people wanted, though he always felt as if he was better than all his peers. When in actuality, he was only slightly over average.

"Oh, look, we're already here. Try and get to your parents safely, okay Henry? I'll be going now," Blake smiled softly and waved goodbye to the boy before walking over to Flora who had a giant piece of cake on her plate.

Henry watched Blake from afar before one of his attendants found him and brought the white-haired boy back to the archduke and archduchess who were mingling with other nobles. The archduke only took one glance toward his son before looking away. His mother on the other hand excused herself from the crowd of nobles that surrounded her and walked to her son, Henry.

"I told you to mingle with the other children. What were you doing?" she asked with a threatening tone. Henry trembled as he kept his head low. The archduchess crouched and whispered softly in Henry's ear, "Smile~ we don't want anyone to think anything is wrong, now do we?"

"Yes, mother," Henry said as he showed a natural-looking smile. His hands trembled as he walked away with the instructions from his mother to make political friends.

***

Blake noticed how Henry only stood in the middle of a crowd of children, he was like a statue, standing there with a stone-cold face.

Blake stared at the small figure of a boy before walking up to said boy with Flora. Standing infront of Henry, under the light, he can see the beautiful snow white hair much clearer than before, when they were outside.

"Hello, are you a friend of brother Blake's?" Flora asked, grabbing onto Henry's sleeve.

Henry's cold stare toward Flora made Blake pull on Flora's dress softly. "Excuse my sister's rudeness, your highness. This is Flora Acker, my sister." Blake turned to Flora as she bowed, "Flora, this is Henry Dragonia, the heir to the Dragonia archduchy."

"Oooh...." Flora exclaimed, interested before she stopped and pondered for a second, in which he asked, "what's the Dragonia Archduchy?"

Blake smiled and started, "Well, they were a hou-"

"My ancestors produced many famous and powerful mages and warriors. A household tied to the Imperial family for decades under an oath. My ancestor was the first emperor's spouse, thus making us an arch duchy for decades," Henry boasted, hitting his chest lightly while he cut off what Blake was going to say.

Blake: dang, this kid knows his stuff

"Yeah.... impressive," Blake chuckled

Suddenly, a stream of memories flooded Blake's thoughts, it was neither his nor was it something the original could have experienced during his childhood.

As he stared at Henry's smug face, a flash of a grown up version of him, blood painted his face as he held a sword in front of him. There, in his vision, he saw Blake right next to Henry, looking dazed as his eyes dilated.

'This wasn't in the novel....' Blake thought.

Henry and Flora looked at Blake with a worried gaze as Flora held her brother's hand softly.

"Brother... blood," Flora said as she pointed to his nose.

Blake, surprised, he held up his hand and wiped his nose, there, crimson red liquid was seen on his hand. Immediately, he held up his head as Flora rushed to find their parents.