GUSION breathed in Guinevere's familiar scent. It was a week ago when he thought he was going to lose her to his brother.
And hearing her talk to him last night at the balcony was painful enough, like he was listening and doing nothing while he was losing her.
He tightened his arm around her, not getting enough of her warmth he had longed to feel.
A week was too long for him not to see her.
"You could not imagine how relieved I was when I saw you rip that dress to shreds."
She pulled away to look up at him, a crease present in her forehead. "You saw that?"
He smirked. "Hell, yes."
She had no idea how much respect and love she had earned from him with that act.
It took him a lot not walk straight out towards her and kiss her right then and there.
He planted a kiss on her forehead instead, trying hard not to lean more for her lips.
"How did you get in?" She asked. "And what happened to your face?"
She reached for his face and carressed the cuts and bruises that were all over the place.
Gusion smiled and took out something from his pocket, getting nervous.
"I was trying to muster this."
Guinevere looked at it.
A glowing box hovering an inch over Gusion's palm.
Seeing her expression, he could say he was getting the exact reaction he was expecting.
Guinevere frowned and backed away the moment she realized what it was.
Her face went from the Guinevere who vould risk her life for him to the Guinevere who wanted to strangle him and throw him to a pack of wolves.
But what did he expect? He loved her for both sides.
Which meant he had to face the storm that was coming.
"Y-you..." She stopped herself from snapping at Gusion.
He knew she was repressing the words she wanted to say.
And Gusion was afraid what those words could be.
Was stealing the cube enough to create a strife between their feelings for each other?
"W-when did you...since when..." She let out a sigh and turned her back on Gusion, who grabbed her too quick and made her face him again.
"I know. I'm sorry. But I just had to."
"What about the others?!" She blurted out. "Do they know? What do you think will happen——they need that, Gusion! Alice is with them at Zen!"
Gusion stood there, gripping the cube and looking helpless. "We wouldn't have gotten out of Zen if I didn't have it, Guin. And right now, it's the only thing helping me to be here. To be right in front of you."
"I know! But still——!" She cut herself off and looked away from Gusion.
"Look, you can yell at me for being so selfish later. We have to get out of here first!"
Gusion held the cube out and a spiraling blue portal appeared out of thin air.
Then he looked at her cautiously and stretched out a hand. "Now will you come with me?"
She stared at him, and he got nervous when she didn't move for a moment.
A piercing glint crossed her eyes as if for a second she considered dumping him.
"Guin." He muttered before she could go further into that thought. She had no idea how desperate he was.
Ever since he watched her be caught by their brothers in that tavern, he had been having this fear of losing her constantly hovering inside his gut and he felt like it was making him crazy.
So when she took his hand, relief washed over him that he trembled and pulled her close.
And he led her towards the portal before anything pr anyone could stop them from being together again.
He took her away from her own prison. Away from his brother, with no intention of ever returning her there.
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Gusion landed on the floor and grunted when Guinevere fell right on top of him.
Only when he regained his breathing did he look around to make sure he did not teleport them in the middle of the Paxley or the Baroque's courtroom.
He felt relieved to see the faces of their former professors, Gord and Eudora, although they looked like they had just seen a ghost.
"What the hell?" Another voice said from the other side of the room.
Guinevere rolled off him and sat up.
"All this time, you were referring to this lady?!"
"Yes, Valir. I told you many times that you know her!" Gusion answered as he got to his feet and helped Guinevere up.
"Paxley..." Gord started, a frown on his face. He was this man with skin the color of blue and magenta, as if magic had seeped through his body and cystallized under his skin.
Despite his appearance, he was the current Headmaster of Ursula Academy and was therefore known to be one of the most ppwerful wizard in the land."...please tell me you did not just take her from a wedding."
Gusion glanced at Guinevere who was still wearing her ruined wedding dress. "If you're refering to an actual wedding, then no. I did not. The wedding is still about...a week away?"
"You said you had to rescue your damsel in distress!" Eudora enunciated angrily.
"She is." Gusion insisted. "My damsel in distress." He added in a low voice as he instinctively reached for Guinevere's hand while keeping his gaze at the professors.
"She certainly is not!" Eudora snapped. "That girl could fight off the entire Baroque Soldiers and come out unscathed."
"Well, Professor, that is if my magic didn't get blocked." Guinevere finally butted in. "It's nice to see you, by the way."
"What do you mean blocked?"
"Alice did something with her." Gusion explained.
"Do you know how to undo such thing?" Guinevere asked.
Gord and Eudora exchanged looks and Gusion caught a glint of anxiety in them before they turned to them again.
"We're going to have to research about that case, considering how we haven't encountered such a thing yet." Gord explained.
"But Professor, didn't someone also do something with the magic inside you?" Valir butted in.
He was this loud young man with hair the color of fire and was also Gord's apprentice.
But that didn't mean he didn't get into the Headmaster's bad side every once in a while.
Gord glared at Valir. "That's the point. Mine was controled, maybe similar to blocking the energy inside. Hers needs to be unblocked."
"Oh. Right."
"That aside," Eudora butted in as she crossed her arms. "You didn't tell us it was Guinevere Baroque you were rescuing."
"And this is exactly why! You wouldn't have helped me learn how to point the portals to the exact location I desire."
"This could cause a feud! You two could cause a feud between the noble families of the Empire!"
"So the rumors were true." Valir blurted out.
"What rumors?" Eudora asked.
"That the Paxleys fourth son eloped with someone from House Baroque." Valir frowned and turned to them. "But didn't you graduate from the academy at the same year?"
"So?" Gusion asked.
"A pity you only got to know each other right after the Academy, right?"
"Right." Guinevere agreed and turned to Gusion. "We would've kicked it off back then and got married before that stupid engagement could take place."
Gusion choked with the nonexistent lump in his throat just because of what Guinevere had said.
"You alright?" Guinevere checked.
"Yeah." He said before a cough. "Y-you mean to say... th-that you would've married me had we begun dating in school?"
Guinevere's eyes were round and unbothered as she shrugged. "I would've loved you the same."
Gusion's ear started heating up at boiling point, and soon it spread right down to his chest and all over his body.
This girl just didn't have any idea how her words affected her so much.
He had to let go of her hand to regain the least composure he could and he tried to breathe normally despite the fact that his heart was literally racing fast.
"Alright. Enough of this young romance. What is your plan now that you got her?" Eudora asked Gusion.
He looked at Guinevere and they both had a silent agreement.
"We'll hear from you about Guinevere's case some other time. But we'll leave at first light tomorrow."
"Alright. Our agreement: nobody will know you came here." Gord said firmly.
"Of course." Guinevere agreed.
"Alright then. You can take the two rooms at the end of this hall for tonight." Eudora said. "And mind you, head straight to bed. A lightning bolt is bound to strike at the student who enters the room of the opposite gender."
"We are heading straight to bed." Gusion said. "Who says anything about doing otherwise..." He added, trying not to look guilty.
"We could not thank you enough for this." Guinevere said.
"You both came from here after all." Gord said, and he could've thought he saw a spark of affection in the Headmaster's usually strict face.
Gusion was about to reach for Guinevere's arm and stopped himself halfway, the unbearable queasy feeling in his gut still present and was constantly stirred even by the slightest whif of Guinevere's scent.
"Well good night." Guinevere said grudgingly as she stood at one of the doors at the end of the Hall.
"Good night." He replied, going to the door right across hers.
She went inside first and slammed the door behind her, making Gusion flinch.
He knew she was still mad at the selfish decision he made.
But he wasn't sure if this was the right time for them to talk, not with him having rendered unstable by Guinevere's words earlier.
So he went inside his room and was about to prepare for bed.
But even when he was sitting at the bed, he was bothered with her being mad for the night.
So he took deep breathes and composed himself and it took a long while to do so.
When he was certain he had calmed down, he went straight out of the room and knocked on Guinevere's door.
"What is it?!" She yelled from inside.
"Guin! Can you open the door please?"
He waited for a bit and even got afraid she might not open the door.
But a moment later, the door swung open, whipping out air that carried Guinevere's faint scent.
His heart skipped a beat and just like that he was back to being this unstable lad who wanted nothing but kiss the girl right in front of him right then and there.
And all the words he planned to say got swept away from his mind so he stood there like an idiot, breathing hard and just staring at Guinevere's expressionless face as if it wasn't making him even more blank.
"What?" She finally asked.
"Uhh..." He muttered. "Are you...about to sleep now?"
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Yes."
He scoffed. "Right after doing this to me?!"
"What did I do?"
He spun around and let out a breath, not knowing what to do.
"Are you alright?"
He flinched and faced her again when she felt her hand at his back, causing her to retrieve her hand and looked at him cautiously.
Then he pinned her against the wall and pressed his forehead against hers as he took deep breaths.
"I...I'm still mad at you." She muttered but remained still in his entrapment.
"Then why did you say that earlier..."
"Say what?"
"That..." He had to pause as he felt his heartbeat worsen. "That you would've married me."
"Oh. That." She said in a little voice.
"Not helping, Guinevere."
"I...merely said what came to mind."
Gusion lifted his head up and rested them with his arm against the wall just right over Guinevere's head. "Not helping."
"I really would've loved you the same."
Gusion let out a sigh and took a couple of steps back. Then he clenched his fist and started hitting his head against the opposite wall. Maybe a little pain could distract him from going insane.
"If you could just tell me what's going on..." Guinevere muttered. "Cause trust me, I'm really confused right now."
Just when Gusion was about to snap, someone cleared his throat in the corridor.
Both of them turned and saw Eudora's strict gaze.
"What are you still doing out here?"
"Uhm..." Guinevere glanced from Gusion to Eudora guiltily.
"It's past school curfew. Get inside!"
"We're not even students anymore!" Gusion complained, only to regret it the moment Eudora's eyes turned lightning white.
Gusion and Guinevere exchanged looks and ran inside their respective rooms without looking back.
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Hey. Just gonna share this here because I have nowhere else to share this.
These past few months had really been the roughest in my entire life.
I used to think of myself as mentally strong, as someone who had a high tolerance of pain.
But this...
This is too much.
I've been in constant alert of when worse might come to worst, so often that I started finding myself in the position where I had to strain myself into calming down cause I had started hyperventilating before I even knew it.
And the more I dwell on it, the more I find myself diving into this unreal world I created.
I let myself lose in these fantasies and the more I stay here the more I lose the desire of facing reality again.
This is me finding out how much of a coward I really am.
Maybe I've been updating at these time of night because it is when the monsters in my head are the strongest and hardest to ignore.
And lately I'm not even sure if this is fighting that I am doing, or just merely hiding from the pain.
Still, whatever it is, I'm taking it. I'm taking this chance of temporarily forgetting the pain.
This is me just blabbering whatever comes to mind.
And maybe hoping such stories I make could help ease others, too. Help you guys fight your own monsters at these times of night.
So even if I'm totally not okay these day, here's me hoping my readers are.
I hope you're having great days.
Love you, guys.
💜,
mongjiii