Watching over Obelia's Precious Jewel // WMMAP fic

Chapter 29

  "I'm a busy person, don't you know?" Lucas, who had an annoyed expression, scratched his head.

  Athanasia breathed out through her nose. 'This again,' she thought. Her gaze narrowed at the boy. 'He says that, but he has always come to see me for the past six years.'

  "Six years?" Claude did not like the sound of that.

  Lucas smirked. "Whenever I have the free time, Your Majesty," he explained to the emperor. "Oh, and I made it a tradition for myself to always secretly see your daughter late at night on her birthday, considering how lonely she usually feels since a certain someone hasn't been congratulating her on her birthday in those six years."

  ... Now that one hurt.

  "Let's go see Blackie," Athanasia said before she got out of bed.

  Lucas' frown deepened. "You never listen to me, do you? I should really just eat that thing."

  "Whatever. Let's go."

  A vein just popped on Lucas' forehead as he made an annoyed expression after she rudely ignored him.

  Ijekiel smiled. 'It does feel a bit satisfying to see him getting stumped because of the princess,' he thought.

  Lucas teleported himself as well as the princess to the empty palace garden, where Blackie was resting peacefully. Blackie woke up from his sleep when he realised there were people nearby. He barked happily when he saw the princess before he ran towards the girl.

  Athanasia cried out the beast's name happily when she was attacked by Blackie's affectionate licks.

  Everyone except those who couldn't smile properly smiled at the scene. 

  "Aww, did you miss me, Blackie baby?" she cooed. She didn't mind the tamed beast licking her cheek. "Look at you, you giant fluff!"

  "She's spoiling that beast rotten, I swear," Claude mumbled under his breath.

  As her focus was entirely on her favourite beast, the magician who was the one responsible for teleporting her to the garden in order to let her meet him was staring off into the distance, looking pissed for some reason.

  "... Mister Lucas, were you... jealous of Blackie by any chance?" Jennette couldn't help but voice out her curiosity.

  Ijekiel and Anastacius had to stifle their own laughter.

  To say Lucas was mildly offended was an understatement. You could see the pure disgust that was evident on the black-haired boy's face. "W-why on Earth would I be jealous of some stupid mutt?! If there is someone who'd be jealous of Blackie over there it would be Whitey Junior over there!"

  Ijekiel stopped laughing and glanced at him while frowning. "Now, why would I be jealous over something like that? Blackie's the princess' pet... technically. It would be plain ridiculous for me to envy Blackie who's obviously cared more by the princess than you, Sir Lucas."

  Lucas wanted to kill the boy right there, right now. However, he knew it would be best to keep his dark intentions bottled up for now.

  Claude rolled his eyes. "Typical children," he mumbled.

  "What do you think you're doing? It's freezing out there," Lucas said when he noticed Athanasia lying on the grass after being pushed down by Blackie earlier.

  Athanasia glanced up at the boy for a few seconds. "You can cast a spell to warm us up," she responded casually.

  Lucas wanted to flick the princess's forehead but decided against it. He quickly summoned some of his magic to his hand. "Hurry up and go back to bed," he ordered. "You'll lose consciousness again if you're rolling around with that thing."