Draconia Offline vol. 1

29.1. Celestial Inside Out - Part 1

"Is this how you're going to treat us?" I whisper menacingly and my voice is ice.

The air in the room gets to the almost freezing temperature but I'm surprisingly fine. It's actually not so hard to envelop myself in a protective bubble of warm air and I do so automatically out of pure Celestial instinct. Of course, I don't forget to protect my boyfriend.

"R-Ryuu," Erik clutches my hand desperately but I close my mind to him.

I don't need him to calm me down because I don't want to calm down. My Celestial nature is fully awake and it feels good. I finally feel at peace with myself and I don't want to suppress it because nothing is clashing within me anymore. I'm still me but at the same time I'm different. And for the first time ever I know it's okay.

"N-no, I m-mean...," Bodin gasps for breath and starts shivering from both the cold and my intimidating leaking mana. He drops his plate and the sound of breaking chinaware resonates through the room. Tensed and frightened, people present almost forget to breathe and all eyes are on me but for once I just don't care.

"You don't really want to cooperate with us, do you?" I hiss and all glasses in the room start to tremble with my telekinesis. "You're here to make sure we're under control. Manageable."

"Aefener, don't—!" Liana finally reaches me and tries to calm me down because it's evident that Erik's efforts aren't working.

But it's no use. Instead, I send her a full dosage of my irritation and convey to her how Bodin feels about Draconians and what he said to me. Liana's eyes widen and she instantly understands. But in order to keep my telepathy secret, she asks Bodin for an explanation.

"So, what exactly did you say to our Emperor?" she also expresses her anger openly but much more controllably than me.

"C-cold... I...," Bodin's shivering worsens and he falls onto his knees. "H-help!"

I don't have to turn around to be able to tell that his bodyguards are pulling out their guns. And I don't have to turn around either to know that they will find their holsters empty. My Celestial guards performed splendidly and are proud of themselves. I'm proud of them. And for a second I think of them as my loyal subjects.

"Your Majesty, please!" the Prime Minister shouts, all panicky, and uses my official title. Probably in order not to antagonise us even more. "Don't let it become an international incident that would ruin our diplomatic efforts!"

I face her and consciously calm down a bit. For a second, I felt angry at humans in general—like Emi does. I guess now I at least know what it feels like. I was furious that a person such as Bodin, who is clearly looking down on us, represents the EU. But Bauerova is honest. And she doesn't feel any disgust when she looks at me. She's not even really scared of me which is really brave and admirable. She's just afraid of what this incident might entail. There're humans on our side. I should never forget that.

"I don't want him here, escort him out!" I order my guards who pull shivering Bodin up and are obviously happy to do so. "But gently, he's still our guest," I add to make sure he won't be treated roughly. Bauerova is right, we can't turn it into an incident that would jeopardise our work.

"What about her, Your Majesty?" Vermiel points towards Ortega.

I pierce my golden eyes into her. She looks away immediately, also shivering and scared, but she doesn't despise us the way her colleague does. It even seems she managed to open up to Fefnir a bit which is quite hopeful.

"She can stay, we still need someone to represent the EU," I allow and turn back to face Bodin. "Tell your superiors that we're more than willing to cooperate but only on an equal footing. And now out!"