Ryle 4

My dad slaps me right across the face. He lays my notebooks all over the table.

“None of the academic subjects here has managed to earn a single good score. Usually to make up with that, one has to be good at magic or sword fighting. And here you are, being good at none of them!”

His slap almost lands on my face again, my mom looks at me from afar with horrified eyes.

“Please stop it.” Regina stands right before me, his hand almost hits her face but stops short. Her face still looks calm, from my view behind her.

“What a masterpiece you have managed to bear,” he glares at my mom as he leaves the room. The atmosphere is unbearable. Mom eventually leaves as well.

It’s hard to sleep in my own room. I face the wall on my side, not that I have any issue with Regina, I just don’t want her to see my face, whatever the facial expression I’m making. “Say…” I can sense her from right by my bed, “want to come with me?”

It’s easy to see all the stars tonight.

Swish. Swish. My (wooden) sword slashes through the ice bodies left and right.

“Are you sure you can handle them?” Regina asks.

“I’m fine.”

It’s already hard for me to fight against them one at a time, however.

Their attack speed is slow. But I still have a problem with them.

Their bodies and swords are easy to smash to pieces.

I let out a battlecry, but trip over something, fall flat.

Regina groans. “Come on, stand up,” she holds her hand toward me.

“At this rate, I’m not gonna be able to make it.”

“You are not even the worst of the class.” She rests her cheek on her palm.

“In the first place, why do I have to do my best anyway.”

“…”

“Say,” I ask, “what do you want to become, in the future.”

I have never asked Regina.

“Me? The best magician of the entire kingdom, perhaps.”

“…well, you sure are more capable than anybody I have ever seen.”

She giggles.

“You say that, but you have yet to come to the other regions, to see how many capable people exist over there.”

“You have been there.”

“Erm- yeah, that was before I came to your family.”

“Oh… sorry.”

Shouldn’t have pried her too much.

Her coming to my family was a blessing. My parents seem to be proud of her more than they do toward me. A perfect flower in every single respect.

I don’t have an issue with that, she’s just way too precious, even to me.

“Maybe he’s gonna apologize to you tomorrow, you know.”

“…yeah.”

My dad is unpredictable, but I’m sure he didn’t mean bad.

“Let’s go,” Regina holds her hand toward me.

I nod, and take that hand.

“The Tower was destroyed 3 times by the end of that war.” She taps my nose.

“Yeah right… sorry sorry…”

“Also your diagram of the magical circle got wrong this spot and that spot.”

Well, I can’t memorize it well when I have barely mastered the basic magic, no? Although that sounds very alarming when the graduation exam is so near now.

And I barely passed it.

“You did it.” She holds me tight.

“Hey, we are not children anymore.” I blush

“Sorry.”

“Why aren’t you with the class now?”

The voice doesn’t belong to Regina, it’s Roselyn.

“The same can be said about you.”

“Mm… I just don’t blend in well with the class… actually I do, to the point they don’t notice that I was with them… But at least I was there.”

“You say that but I doubt we are much different.”

She proceeds to sit by my side, “Perhaps. So, where is your girlfriend now?”

“She’s not my girlfriend!” “No need to overreact. You are so easy to tease.”

“Urgh… if you are asking about Regina…”

“She’s with her class, right?”

“Yeah… Not that it’s an issue. I mean I can’t just barge in there all because she happens to be my family member, right?”

“Yep, they would kick you out.”

As Roselyn said, the crowds of giggling students coming out of their classroom, Regina surrounded by them, confetti showered over her head, her smile so bright with her eyes closed. Like she’s with my parents.

Nudges, “There is your girl, come on go get her. Maybe confess to her as well.”

“Why do I have to confess to her?!”

Although, maybe I should come over there to say something to Regina as well, maybe to congratulate her. Well, kinda redundant it feels like, somehow… maybe…

God dang it. Why do those people have to surround her for way too long though?

“Good evening, Regina.”

It’s Paul.

“Wow, the top swordsman of the grade meets the top magician of the grade. I wonder what will happen from here on.”

What Roselyn said, even if teasingly, makes me feel even more uncomfortable.

“Great to see you, I thought you were already on your way to the Military Office already?”

“Well,” he scratches his cheek, “I would, I definitely would. Still, I have got something I want to tell you, in private.”

The aweing noises are deafening, “Come on people, we are having a conversation here,” Regina reacts. “So well, let’s get to somewhere there’s no people.”

…

“What are you gonna do about it?”

“Nothing. What she does with her life is none of my business.”

“Nice choice of expression, but if you say so then I will follow them by myself.”

“Come on, leave them be.” I try to stop Roselyn, other students seem to be tactful enough to keep their distance without following the pair.

“Did I say I was gonna follow them? I’m just… erm… passing by some classes to see if my friend was in any of them.”

Can you at least put some more effort into your nonsense?

“Who is that friend?”

“Erm, a guy called Ryle.”

“…”

“Okay okay, I know I’m nobody to stick my nose over there. But what about you? Your anxiety is written so clearly on your own face, people may even ask if you are having a stomachache.”

“…”

“So let’s go? I’m sure my friend Ryle is waiting over there, and I just happened to come to pick him up. Although this is really a bad excuse given that your girl- I mean family member knows you and your class.”

Even as Roselyn realizes the issue in the flimsy excuse she tried to make up, I go toward the pair. Roselyn follows suit. They come into an empty classroom, students of that class seem to have finished the celebration of their own and gone home. We stand by the window, trying to not get caught.

“It took me a lot of years, to get to what I can do this very day.”

That’s Paul’s voice.

“I know what you are trying to say. People tend to talk about talents as if they are something people possess since birth. But even if that was true, we all have to grow them through lots of effort.”
“What is your magic learning journey like?”
Regina giggles.

“It’s a long story. You think you are one to pry about it?”

She lets out a teasing chuckle.

“I am.”

“…”
“Not just that, but everything about you as well.”

“That’s saying a lot.”

“You know what I am trying to say.”

Regina closes her eyes.

“I do.”

“What do you think about me?”

Paul’s voice is so gentle, you can’t believe it belongs to him.

“I think you are a spectacular guy. Always barge yourself into troubles. Always get so aggressive and never yield when it’s about matters of principles. But well…” she giggles, “that’s actually your charm. Very endearing charms even.”

“Regina…”

Paul puts his hands on her shoulders. His face leans forward.

“…!”

“You are home already? Where’s Regina?” My dad asks.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, we are throwing a party tonight to celebrate her graduation.” My mom has a smug smile on her face. “She will love tonight’s dinner for sure.”

“I won’t have dinner tonight.”

“Oh well, is there any problem?”

“I… ate a lot this evening already.”

“Oh well… I assume that was from your own class’ party. Do you think Regina already ate a lot as well?”

“No, she hasn’t…”

I respond curtly, then come back to my own bedroom.

“It’s great to have you here. You have taken care of our son a lot, Regina.”

“It’s not much, Mrs. Diana, it’s just my obligation.”

The ruckus wakes me up.

Regina is home. I guess she is having dinner now with my parents.

But to my own surprise, she and my parents aren’t the only ones who are present there.

“Our family motto has always been that ‘if you can press through one challenge, you can pretty much overcome any of them’, that’s my daughter.”

That’s an unfamiliar male voice.

I stand behind the wall, but if I peek my head over they sure will notice me. I don’t know why, but I just don’t want to see them right now.

“Where is your son now by the way?” An unfamiliar female voice chimes in.

“Must be sleeping now,” my dad responds, “he’s a difficult brat to take care of. Your daughter surely is a precious gem, if not for her I can’t in any way tell him to study or do anything at all.”

Regina giggles.

“So well, you are gonna go back and inherit your family’s legacy huh?”

“Indeed.”

“How much longer are you gonna be here?”

“A week.”

“Very well. Enjoy your time while you are still here. Sorry for having asked you to come here,” my dad tells her, “but well… Mission accomplished.”

“Was it hard to make him study and practice magic?” The female voice asks.

“It’s kind of. He is an obstinate head himself, always refusing to obey people’s words. I have to act all amicably toward him.” Regina sighs. “Most girls in real life don’t have that much patience for a guy as half-hearted and lazy as he is.”

“To act saintly is to know the life of the commoner.. You have done your job very well, if what our man Richard here complimenting you is true.” Says the unfamiliar male voice.

“It was really frustrating at times. If not for the mission, I might even push him off the cliff.”

The entire dining room laughs.

…

..

.

The next few days are excruciating. I sleep a lot these days. There are days when I wake up in the evening. Some days I sleep from the afternoon until night. I hardly feel the presence of Regina. The number of objects in the room becomes fewer and fewer. Her favorite plushie. Her clothes. Her stack of books.

But she’s still here. Standing right before me one day, as I wake up at night.

“Long time no see.”

“Yeah.”

Her face doesn’t even wear a smile. A very neutral face. First time ever I have seen such a face.

“I didn’t know your parents were still alive.”

“Sorry for… lying to you.”

“It’s okay. How did it come to… I mean you coming here.”

“Your dad told my parents about you. He said he wanted somebody to be there with you.” Regina makes a faint smile. “Great dad isn’t he?”

But why even need to lie?

I want to ask, but I suspect I already have the answer.

I’m just an obstinate child who wouldn’t behave any better, if there wasn’t some angel by my side to take care of me.

And so, she put a lot of effort into her role. To be somebody she usually isn’t.

“Today is my last day here. Farewell.”

“Farewell.”

I try to make a smiling face. Wonder if it seems like a painful smile to her.

It’s been a while.

The mist isn’t thick, but still enough to make it hard to see everything in this capital.

I’m still a clueless guy, finding my way in the capital, literally and figuratively. Finding something to do.

The headlines of some newspapers make my eyes widen – it’s the official announcement from the royal court to the subjects of the kingdom.

“It’s none of my business anyway.”