Locked Legacies

Chapter XXIX: The day after tomorrow

Meanwhile, on the green field that lay among the palace grounds, Augustus was thinking about her too. The pain her comment had caused was still very real; he had always appreciated how small the gap between their two worlds seemed when he was around her, how he was humanized and not just idolized or seen as an economic arrangement so, when she cracked the floor between the two, highlighting their differences and getting into a topic she knew too well that was hurtful, his heart shattered.

Luckily, he wasn't the only one to arrive early to the training session; Lucas interrupted his time alone with his thoughts, which the prince appreciated greatly. Letting himself fall onto his seat next to him on a fallen trunk, he sighed. "I had a long night," he informed, stretching his every muscle to get them ready for the physical exercise that the practice involved.

"That makes two of us," the other added, scribbling on the bare soil with his sword.

The knight cocked an eyebrow at his agreement, "I was obliging, reading the notebooks, and doing research at the library; what kept you awake?"

With an unintended sigh, he barely explained; "Fay..."

"I assume, by your expression, that it wasn't because you are so in love with her..." Lucas nudged him with his elbow, "But, please, develop a little bit."

"We had an argument the night of the ball."

He blinked exaggeratedly, expecting the royal to talk further. Yet, there he stopped; it took five seconds of silence for the eldest to exclaim: "Come on, Little Prince! You are terrible at storytelling. What did you have an argument over?!"

A half-hearted chuckle escaped his lips before he continued. "We were in another room, dancing the steps I was taught back in the town's tavern..."

Lucas sucked some air through his teeth; "After seeing your miserable second attempt, she decided you could not be friends anymore, huh?"

"I wish," he chuckled, erasing the random scribbles on the ground with his foot, "We ended up in a compromising situation; we almost kissed for what must have been the third time." Even though it wouldn't thrill him to know his best friend was doing such a thing with a lower-class worker, his downheartedness made him feel bad; he thought he would be over the roof once the two stopped talking to each other. "But she stopped me, saying we couldn't do it. It got a bit heated and she let out a comment that... I would have preferred not to hear."

"I don't know about her comment but...You know that I believe she has a point. Heartbreaking but valid point. Whatever you have is against the rules."

Augustus nodded; he had left it clear from the first time he had found out about them being barely friends. "Anyway, I insisted that we could do it; I am going to be king, I can change the rules... She didn't agree with me, nor did she like my insistence."

He received an encouraging pat on the back from his best friend. "I am no one to judge who you fall in love with," Lucas admitted, "After all, I am a clear example of an illicit relationship. Yet I have to agree with Faylinn. I don't think it will be easy; You can both end up hurt."

"You and Ray did it anyway."

"We did," he nodded, "And if I hadn't got hurt because of his death, we would have got hurt another way."

The prince understood his point but didn't seem to agree; "But you don't regret it, do you?"

"No way," a smile was drawn on his face at his mere thought, "He was the greatest thing that ever happened to me... But you have to measure the risk and, most importantly, you have to be willing to take it; both of you." Augustus shrugged instead of replying with meaningless words, allowing Lucas to add a final question: "So, about the note I left in your room..."