WHAT AILS YOU [VAMPIRE] [MXM]

19: FEAR

The next few days are busy. Essentially just the entire empire, not just the castle, getting ready for Alexis' coronation. Alexis himself is stressed, as is Kita, though not to the same extent.

Alexis basically spends this time practicing and touching up everything, and he does actually show Kita how to do a couple things. Mostly some minor financial paperwork, which was really boring, but Alexis said that would probably be most of what Kita will be taking over when they do take the throne.

Kita will be handling the smaller, more tedious things, while Alexis handles the big stuff. He will take care of the press, and the large court decisions, and he will also have more of a say than Kita when it comes to decisions about the empire. That has mostly to do with the fact that Alexis is much more well versed in this sort of thing than Kita is.

Generally speaking, royalty is expected to marry royalty as more of status thing, seeing as it's more socially acceptable. That's not all of it, though, Kita has come to realize. If you don't grow up around royalty or even money at all, then marrying into it and having to actually rule, with no prior experience, can be quite challenging.

So, Kita's at a disadvantage. Alexis will need to help him. A lot.

When Kita wakes up on the day of the coronation, it is to Cordelia nipping at his face. Alexis is not present, which is unsurprising. He's always busy, Kita's hardly seen him during this preparation period.

Kita jumps upon gaining consciousness, giving Cordelia an unimpressed look, not particularly happy with being awoken like that. He decides to cut her some slack when he figures out why she did so, however.

Standing on Kita's chest is another Vanhallam messenger bird. She has a letter in her mouth, packaged the exact same way as the one Cordelia brought, and the same tag on her leg that Cordelia did. It brings Kita down a bit, hoping this bird won't suffer the same fate.

He's relieved of this concern quite fast, since this bird doesn't stick around. She drops the letter on his chest, and immediately flies away. She doesn't wait around for Kita to write back, like Cordelia did, which means a response likely hasn't been requested this time. So, this bird should be okay. Thank god.

If Kita ever sees Evander again, which unfortunately is quite likely, they need to have a conversation about sending living creatures that are Vanhallam branded to Amarath. Kita thought it would be common sense, but evidently it is not.

Kita sighs, grabbing the letter and opening it up. He finds much less writing on this one, the paper instead only reading one simple sentence.

Meet me at the market tonight.

Evander.

Oh. Okay. Guess he's back in town. Wonder what he wants. Actually, Kita's not so sure he wants to know. Should he not go? The idea is quite tempting, but if Evander is putting himself in danger by simply being in the empire's borders again, then it might be serious.

Kita sighs, putting the letter in the trash and sitting up in the bed, stretching and hearing Cordelia behind himself, probably getting comfortable again. She knows he needs to get ready, and she obviously doesn't want to be perched on him for that, so this is a normal routine.

Kita does so, and it takes him a while since there's a few extra things he needs to do to his appearance since it's such a big day. He's really not looking forward to it. Kita has never liked social events, and marrying a prince won't change that.

The same makeup lady from his wedding day comes in to do his makeup, and she pretty much makes him look the same way he did back then. They catch up for a while, and then she's leaving and he heads to help prepare for the coronation.