Tbate: Starting Anew

Chapter 41: The Other Side

Cecilia POV

The past few days have been hectic ever since the royal family announced the princess's passing. The masses were in grief and some rightfully blamed the council for losing Tessia. The Eraliths have closed off the castle grounds and only announced a public funeral two days ago. The funeral was being held at the royal crypt tomorrow. For this reason, all elven vendors and merchants ceased operations so everyone could grieve along with the royal family.

As a result, despite the Academy restarting, a large number of students were missing as the elven students attended the funeral. The student council insisted on attending, but the elven nation closed Its borders to humans. Even the Leywins left Elenoir despite the Eraliths insisting they were exempted from the ban. I still believe both families would've had an easier time if they grieved together. Although losing a child is never easy.

It was tempting to tell them the truth, but I knew that risked our plan being discovered and causing the intended impact to be far less.

Thanks to my transformation, my identity wasn't revealed during the attack, but I was still questioned thanks to my connection to Nico. Even though the fact that we're engaged is not yet public, with even my parents have yet to learn of it, most knew that we were together. Understandably, my parents forbid me from attempting to contact him since he was considered a criminal and they didn't want me to end up like Arthur.

Regis was doing a good job of keeping the Leywins from a complete breakdown. He assured them that Arthur had survived worse, hinting at his survival without revealing it. I knew he wanted to tell them as well, but we both knew about the consequences of doing something like that.

The day school restarted, we all went together. My sister was barely able to keep herself together. It was understandable. Arthur was like a brother to us and she had grown incredibly close to Tessia as well.

When we arrived, all council and committee members were called into a joined meeting. Deciding on the new temporary president was on the agenda until a new election could be held. When we arrived, everyone realized that the meeting was taking a different turn from the plan. As soon as everyone was there, we immediately began recounting the events of the attack. I quickly made up an excuse for my absence in the form of an emergency family trip to a major business partner.

Everyone was asking Theo and Doradrea about what happened to them. They explained it as just suddenly waking up from a dream. Theo was merely passed out after being majorly injured so it was not surprising, but Doradrea was brought back from the dead. It was weird hearing how she experienced it, despite me having also been brought back from the dead before. She was still a bit confused, not understanding that she was actually brought back from the dead. She had a hard time believing the fact that she was decapitated.

It was understandable as most people wouldn't have to understand how their head was cut off. Most of them would never live to understand.

After the discussion finished we helped the students move into their dorms again. It was an awful feeling,a guilt and grief-filled atmosphere. There were very few students who weren't affected by the recent events on at least some level. Though from some of them I heard words that made my blood boil.

Some were saying they deserved to die since they were 'Traitorous' or 'Unpure scum'. Some were even discussing how Tessia's death was a shame only because they wouldn't have a chance at her now. I am going to enjoy watching their expressions when they realize Arthur is alive.

Regis was doing an outstanding job as the DC leader. This wasn't that surprising seeing as he had experience pretending to be Arthur before. He was supervising the entire move-in process along with Clive, who had temporarily taken the seat of the Student Council President. The day was quite uneventful after the meeting and it came to a quick end. Living so close, Regis, Lilia and I decided to spend one more night at home, knowing that the Leywins needed us.

Arriving at home, I heard faint crying from the dining room, immediately knowing it was Aunt Alice. All three of us rushed to the room trying to calm her down. It was easier said than done. She has been holding herself together before, but this seemed to be the moment she completely broke down. Everyone in the building was trying to help her, but trying to calm down a mother who just lost her son is a task I found harder than killing asuras.

After hours of crying, Aunt Alice fell asleep from exhaustion and was taken to her room. Uncle Rey decided to sleep in a separate room, not being able to look his wife in the eyes since he blamed himself for Arthur's death. He believed he was the reason Arthur felt the need to protect everyone and get himself into trouble.

Not wanting to leave the grieving mother alone, we decided that someone should be monitoring her at all times. There was a high chance that she would try to harm herself, so everyone agreed to a schedule. Regis volunteered to be there at all times, but even he felt that it was a better idea to have someone else there in case he took his eyes off her for a few moments.

After Mom and Dad both finished their scheduled shifts, it was my turn to be the 'night guard', but this was a perfect opportunity to talk with Regis. We began talking about how things were turning out and Regis brought up the upcoming wedding and how nervous Arthur was about it. He was unable to suppress his emotions for the first time since we came back.

"It's understandable that Arthur would be nervous. He may be a godlike figure, but getting married while a whole continent is watching would obviously be nerve-racking. Not to mention how Tess must feel. She has never been to Alacrya before and now she's becoming the empress. Nico told me she has been doing nothing but emptying all the juices on the estate."

"Cecil, dear... what are you talking about?"

I turned towards the bed in a panic, only to see Aunt Alice wide awake. Surprise was written on her face and hopefulness lingered in her eyes once again.

"Did you hear that, Rey? OUR SON IS ALIVE!" she basically shouted towards the door.

Turning towards where her eyes were directed, I spotted Arthur's stunned father standing in the door.

Oh shit... I messed up.

___________________________________________

Well, hello there!

I know it has been a week since the last update, but some things came up. I am going to try and stick to the every other day releases, but if the chapter I want to release is deemed not releasable by my beta readers(or even me) than it's going to be postponed until I can fix it.

I want to thank @GodkillerGrey and @An_Old_Friend001 for becoming my beta readers and helping this fic get better!

This has been Salty and see you all Saturday!