Queen Viola is very well aware that her identity as the Kingdom of Sun's Queen and King Ray's identity as Kingdom of Sun's King is only respected and rejoiced by the commoners. For the aristocrats who live in the Capital, King Ray and Queen Viola are a pair of fake Rulers. After all, even though King Ray is the King chosen by the Sun, none of them thinks King Ray is fit to rule this Kingdom.
There are better candidates who they support; the 1st being themselves, the 2nd being Duke Wolfberry. Naturally, it is because Duke Wolfberry will listen to their requests instead of labelling them as greedy and ignorant fools right on their faces.
At 1st, Queen Viola would repeatedly advise King Ray to be more patient and be a benevolent Ruler. Whenever King Ray did as she said, his relatives would surely act up and then they would have to work on cleaning up the messes. When they rejected the relatives' requests, they would also be troubled by the messes the relatives purposefully did to bother them.
Because of these bloodsucker relatives, King Ray has lost a lot of prestige in the eyes of other Nobles in Capital City. Queen Viola always has a fear: if Ray is pushed too far, disaster would befall their beloved Kingdom of Sun. After all, Ray can be quite headstrong and merciless.
Regarding King Ray's plan-
"Your Majesty," a familiar voice calls out to her, so Queen Viola raises her head to look at that person: Doctor Aver, a relative of King Ray's, "May I take a moment of your time?"
"Average," Queen Viola calls out the name of that man, standing up from her seat to greet the incoming relative amiably. Turning to the guests from the countryside, Queen Viola introduces King Ray's younger cousin, 1 of the few that is on good terms with His Majesty the King, to them, "This is Average, also known as Doctor Aver,"
Queen Viola does not introduce the man with a surname because Average has abandoned, thus excluded from using, his family name. Besides the fact that Average personally does not want that surname, nor will he reclaim that surname in the future, Average is content with living as a commoner without a surname. Without a family tie.
As the few sane members of the bloodline, Average smiles generously at the people he has just been introduced to, "Nice to meet you, I'm Average," and towards the person he knows who is in the group, Average greets him joyfully, "Hey, Scale,"
"Aver!" Scale raises a hand in greeting, smiling brightly at a friend that he has not met in a long time. No matter the occasion, it is always a delight to meet again.
Flos stares at Scale very pointedly. This man has a friend who is a doctor! A real certified doctor!
Noticing Flos's stare, Scale just grins in return, raising a hand, holding up 2 fingers, in the gesture of the peace sign. Aver is outside the Castle, and Scale doesn't exactly have the time to go out of the Castle for personal reasons. Besides, he will need to queue to see the doctor, which he doesn't have the time for.
"How have you been?" Average asks Queen Viola, always has been worrying about the Queen's state after knowing about her poisoning incident
"I'm fine now," Queen Viola tells the man who is concerned for her well-being, "I have been treated,"
"Treated..." Average widens his eyes in surprise, also a little excited, "Does Your Majesty know another doctor who could treat Your Majesty?"
Queen Viola hesitates briefly in answering. Flos has said she is not a doctor, and the treatment uses variant plants... Can that be let known?
Flos is still staring at Scale, so she can't give Queen Viola a hint about the answer. Scale smiles and asks for Queen Viola's permission to answer Doctor Aver's question, surprising his friend into asking, "You know that person too, Scale?"
"Let me introduce you," Scale laughs as he stands up and walks to stand behind Flos, who is still attempting to stare down at him, "Here is Miss Flos, a Gardener hired by Her Majesty who, incidentally, is also a Herbalist that is proficient with plants," at Average's stare, Scale adds, "The person who treated Her Majesty,"
The matter of Queen Viola holding a competition to hire Gardeners to tend to the gardens in the Capital is also known by Average. He just didn't expect the simple Gardener to be not so simple, after all. Nevertheless, Average is truly grateful to this person who has cured Aunt Viola, "Thank you,"
As usual, Flos accepts the gratitude openly, "You are welcome," then turns back to stare at Scale
Average glances at Queen Viola, silently questioning this young miss's non-stop staring at Scale. Queen Viola doesn't know how to answer this, but Rhythm has no qualm in running his mouth, "They are just flirting, ignore them,"
"Flirt-" Average chokes on his own saliva, because he can't believe it!
Scale! This man, Scale! This man, is named Scale! This man called Scale is actually flirting with a woman?!
"Is it really surprising?" Rhythm actually finds Doctor Aver's reaction more surprising than the fact that these 2 people are going to date
"I mean," Average fumbles in his words, "Scale, he, he was really popular at Academy back then,"
Oh, a classmate of Scale's when he was studying. Flos glances at the certified Doctor as Scale talks behind her, "What I said back then still stands true though,"
Average looks at his friend in incredulity, of his words back in the day versus today's reality, "You said you weren't interested in women!"
"And men," Scale adds before people process Average's deceptive words, "And humans in general," smiling as he recalls the past, Scale also says, "I even made a short poem out of it,"
"Why don't you read it out now?" Flos wants to hear
Scale chuckles at Flos's interest in the poem, nodding as he agrees, "Okay,"
History my beloved, Geography my dear
Biology my treasure, Chemistry my mate
Mathematics my sweetheart, Philosophy my love
In my list of darlings, You are not included
It is really just nonsensical words strung together by Scale. After reading out the short poem, Scale laughs so much that he ends up laying on the floor from breathlessness.
Rhythm turns to look at the 2 educated people blankly.
"It became a trend to make a door plate with that poem to be put on the dorm room's door for the people who want to focus on their study rather than relationships," Average supplies some additional news
"It's another way to say: I am not interested," Queen Viola explains helpfully
"You were popular?" Flos asks her love interest who is on the floor, "Are you still popular?"
Scale coughs and calms himself down from laughing to answer Flos, "I don't know about that, haven't been going out to see people from the Academy... But, yes. I was pretty popular, I guess,"
"You guess?" Average is here to drill the fact back into Scale, "You were super popular back then! A lot of people confessed to you too,"
Rhythm gasps as he stares widely at Flos after hearing Average's words. Flos looks pretty calm about it, as she notices Rhythm's gasp in her direction and raises an eyebrow at her childhood friend, "What?"
Rhythm blinks innocently and responds, "Nothing," he didn't say anything, he just thought: Flos, a recluse, in a relationship with Scale, a popular guy. How long will they last?
It's not like Rhythm is being pessimistic about his childhood friend's relationship. Rhythm knows how much Flos will choose to be with the plants than be with the people... Eh, now that he thinks about it, Rhythm can sort of figure out why Scale is interested in Flos. After all, Scale is not interested in humans, and Flos is...
Alright, he will stop right there.
"You are being rude again, aren't you," Flos is sometimes rendered helpless by this childhood friend of hers that is always being impudent towards her thoughtlessly
"No way," Rhythm does not dare to look at Flos anymore, in case she figures out his thoughts
Average looks at his friend oddly as Scale picks himself up from the ground and wipes off the dust from his damp clothes. After all, those who were soaked by rain do not want to change clothes anymore. It's pointless since they might get wet by rain again.
Seeing as Scale is ready for conversation again, Average can't stop himself from asking, "Are you finally interested in humans now?"
Scale just smiles and says, "You don't need to take my words literally, Aver,"
"Huh?" this reply dumbfounds Average. So, which is it?
Flos rolls her eyes at the confounded look on Doctor Aver's face. Thus she says, "No, he is still not interested in humans,"
Average furrows his eyebrows in bewilderment, "But, I-" after glancing at Rhythm, Average clears his throat and repeats, "I heard this Mister said you 2 were flirting..." thinking about it, Average then asks unsurely, "Was it a joke?"
Which is the joke Average means? Now, the rest are rendered confused by Average, who is confused by Scale and Flos's ambiguity and Rhythm's words.
In the end, Scale walks to stand by Average's side and pats his friend's back with a smile, "Don't worry about it,"
"I'm not worried," Average tells his friend seriously, "I just don't get it,"
"Don't worry about it," Scale repeats, now patting his friend's shoulder with a smile, "No need to confuse yourself with things you don't understand,"
"It's because I don't understand so I want to understand," Average can't help but sigh in defeat, "Why do you people always say or do things I don't understand?"
"You don't understand those things, but you do understand the subject of your study, don't you? Isn't that very good?" Scale keeps patting his friend's shoulder to cheer him up
Average purses his lips as he whispers, "I feel left out sometimes," in loneliness
Scale is really powerless about it. As Average's friend for so many years, it's not like Scale hadn't tried to explain idioms and jokes to this friend of his. It's just that, this guy's brain simply can not process these things without going haywire.
Anyway, "Just know that I am interested in Miss Flos," Scale assures his friend to cease his confusion and just accepts this fact, "Also, yes, I am interested in humans. After all, you are my friend, aren't you?"
Average is Scale's friend. Average is a human. A human is Scale's friend. From Average to Scale, "Just because we are friends it doesn't mean you have to be interested in humans,"
"True," Scale smiles patiently at this friend that is always half a step from boarding the 100,000 whys train, "But I already have said I am interested in humans, clearing your confusion regarding something I said in the past. Thus, you don't need to worry about it anymore, do you?"
Average exhales, "Okay," even though he has other questions, just forget them for now
Average will have the chance to ask those questions in the future, he figures so. After all, something which confused him in the past is now cleared up by Scale himself. Although it takes several years, at least, he has the answers now.
Queen Viola looks at the Scale and Average with a warm gaze. Rhythm is holding his head for the headache induced by Average's confusion. Flos looks at the 2 men standing there, understanding something.
It is all Scale's fault.
Perceiving Flos's private accusation, Scale is also powerless. How would he know the teenager who was very good at studying would be so... Like this. Scale and Average didn't even know each other at 1st, where could they be friends? It was after Scale released that particular poem and it got trendy that Average came knocking on the door asking about the meaning of his poem which got them acquainted with each other and then became friends.
After knowing about Average's background, Scale became more understanding of this friend and swore to always support this friend that could not get along with his family since childhood. After knowing about the Royal bloodline in general, Scale was really glad this friend of his took a different path from his relatives.