Welfare and Warfare

Chapter 33

Henry replied, "great, thank you. My ninth lesson," and said slowly as he sighed what words he could.

Alfreda looked between him and Sumit, who was still silent and avoiding the conversation entirely. "We haven't had a proper chat, have we?" her voice purred. "I am Alfreda, vice-captain of the guards of the city."

"Pleasure to meet you," Henry smiled. "I'm Henry Best."

"Oh, I know," Alfreda returned a smile. "Miss Warren's dear second cousin, from the same staunch royalist family that has served the crown for so many years."

Henry paused, wondering why she was mentioning that when it clicked; her name... "P-princess Alfreda?"

"That's right, pet." Alfreda smirked. "You can bow if you like."

Henry didn't know what to do in the moment, too stunned that she would be down here in the first place, thought a part of him did not feel as surprised for some reason. "Why are you-"

"Oh, it is a long story," Alfreda sighed. "I can tell you another time, but you are busy with your lesson and as am I." With a snap of her fingers, the imps got in line and followed her through the door. "We can have a little chat another time, dear Henry, ideally when you haven't already got company." She glanced at Sumit, then smiled again at Henry before shutting the door behind her.

Henry turned back to Sumit who's body was completely stiff, his hands clenched into fists.

"Hey, are you okay?" Henry asked softly.

"Yeah, yeah." Sumit cleared his throat. "Sorry, just annoying when there are interruptions. Now where were we?"

Henry didn't press on it but he could easily tell that something had occurred between Sumit and Princess Alfreda as Sumit clearly did not like her presence. So they continued their lesson, though Sumit was a bit distracted at times, especially when they could hear the slight mumble of piano coming from the sound-proof music room. Henry offered again to have dinner afterwards but Sumit declined politely, wanting to spend the night to himself.

*

After the private lesson, Sumit headed to the food hall to get takeout, splitting off from Henry who waited in the dine-in queue. Sumit saw him talk to Oscar, and then sit with some friends he had made from the sanitation unit when he first arrived. Sumit felt a slight pang, reflecting on who else he had to sit with for food at the moment; Rin and Kai were two options though both at the moment were opting to just eat at their house, Rin because she prefers being alone most of the time, and Kai because he was too tired after work to socialise. Calixte always made the offer, but he would of course be dining with Alfreda.

Alfreda...

Sumit dragged himself through the streets, trying desperately to not think about her and her meddling with his love life to cause himself to be in this maudlin state. All she did was say a few words to Oscar and then Sumit's life came crumbling down; it wasn't completely all of her fault, Sumit himself was mostly to blame with how he reacted to things, but he wondered what would have happened if she had never said anything. Would he still have been with Oscar? Or would they have eventually broken up regardless?

No stop thinking about that. Stop or...

Sumit froze as he reached his house seeing that familiar creature waiting nearby; the black hound, its fur still messy and scraggly. And yes, it was larger than before. It had grown.

Sumit looked around, seeing people just walk past it, one person even went straight through it as if it wasn't there. Was it even there? Was this all just a hallucination of his again?