The Insufferable Prince Invites Inconvenience

Where there should've been a beautiful amethyst flower, there was a wilted stem.

And where the soldier from the royal guard was standing just a moment ago, there was instead an obnoxious-looking man wearing royal attire. To her horror, the man waved off the guard—probably telling him to wait at a distance—and then turned back to her. Due to the distance, the expression on his face was unclear, however, she did recognize the iconic hairstyle; medium-length blond hair tied with that obnoxious brooch she always disliked, draped loosely over his shoulder like some sort of good-luck charm.

Their eyes met, and the Second Prince of Canreia, Raimond Isnard, seemed to stand still for a moment—before raising his hand in an awkward wave.

'Of all times, why did he have to show up today?'

Scoffing, Eleina gave one last look to the now-empty patch of grass, ignoring the sense of loss still welling up inside her chest. The rational and "illustrious" part of her would certainly greet the royal guest, but then again…

"Wh— Eleina!"

Her feet sharply made a turn towards her house.

Why bother. She hated her title anyway.

Behind her, the frantic footsteps scrambled after her. Already feeling her patience running thin, Eleina picked up the pace, her fingers swishing in a swift motion as soon as her house came into view.

A swirl of magic, subtle but dense with weight, fled from her fingers and lunged forward, throwing the front door open with sheer force. Soon enough, she had reached the house with tired legs, wasting no time to get on the porch.

"Wait!"

Yeah, right, like she'll wait just because he said so. He'd always been the bossy type, wasn't he? Looks like he didn't change one bit, after all, contrary to her expectations.

"Don't you dare shut the door in my face—" his voice, was now saying, seeming awfully closer.

But what could the prince even do if she just shut the door in his face? Brute force it open?? What, with her immense magic surrounding the entire area? As far as she recalled, the guy was never compatible with the Jewel Flowers, so much so that their very essence fell deaf on his senses.

However—

"Gotcha."

But even if he couldn't use magic… he still held the title of the best swordsman in all of Canreia. Because the moment she crossed the threshold, a hand had grabbed her shoulder and firmly twisted her around. The sudden force almost made her trip, but the prince took no notice of it.

Rather, with a triumphic look, he was more focused on the fact that he had succeeded in gaining Eleina's full attention.

"…"

"…?"

Her hand reflexively moved to swat his hand away.

"Whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it, so just…" Her voice, which started out sharp, soon trailed off as the mage turned to fully glare at him.

Up close, the prince looked less like royalty and more like a bedridden patient who just woke up and escaped the infirmary; his face—which usually sparkled with the charming smile usually found in the frontpage of newspapers—was gaunt and seemed paler than normal. The bags beneath his weary green eyes were deep, and untamed strands of loose hair emerged from almost every angle, making even the decorated hair-tie look lopsided… and ridiculous.

"Tell me, Eleina," The prince said, oblivious to the confused look slowly building upon her face, "Why in the world didn't you reply?"

Eleina stared at him, blank. "I never reply, you know as much. What's so wrong now, all of a sudden, that you had to personally shove your face here?"

If Raimond's forehead gained an extra wrinkle or his frown deepened, Eleina didn't show that she noticed.

"I meant the letter I sent a week ago," He said, his hand still on her shoulder, its grip tightening, "To let you know that I'll be visiting you. Tell me you saw that one, at least."

But Eleina's attention was still fixated on his appearance.

'Hey, doesn't it look like he didn't even comb his hair? Wooow…'

Unfortunately Raimond took that as her being disinterested and continued, "You're such an idiot, you know that? Acting like you can ditch all your royal duties—"

The sheer audacity of this guy to show up just to lecture her…

"I do my royal duties just fine. Besides," Eleina said, making sure to finally shake his hand off and gain some distance between them, "Don't you think you're the one who looks like an idiot?"

"Hah?? Me? Me???" He pointed to himself, as if not believing that she accused him. "How can you call me an idiot when you're the one ignoring all the letters?"

Eleina folded her arms. "I told you. It's all a bunch of pointless paperwork stuff anyways."

"You…! What—" His hands making all sorts of frantic movements, Raimond effectively spluttered before finding his words, "Those are your royally-decreed duties you're ignoring!"

She looked away. "I know."

"Wow, really?" he scoffed. "Brilliant. Absolutely delightful. But that's not all; because since the past two months, father's been personally sending you court summons!"

"I know that too."

This time Raimond actually stopped. His face carried a look of incredulousness.

"You knew? Then why…?"

"Hah…" A sigh left Eleina as she lightly massaged her closed eyes; it was clear that Raimond didn't intend to leave anytime soon. So she should be a good host, placate him with a decent explanation, and try to satisfy him enough so even the king can forget summoning her to his court, right?

Right??

"Prince Raimond… leave before I make you."

WRONG. With every passing second, Eleina's temper rose to an unfathomable degree, and rather than inviting him in, she prefered to throw all caution to the wind.

'I still have a large portion of the field left to tend to, damn it! Just let me do my actual work!'

Raimond's eyes, when she glanced back at him, looked almost as angry as hers. But after debating with himself for a second, he lightly pushed her aside, and stepped inside as though he didn't hear her threat at all. With a grimace, Eleina noticed his eyes immediately locking on the mess on her workdesk, or more likely, the unopened letter with the royal seal.

"I'm not leaving," he said looking around, his back turned to her. "Not after all the trouble I went through to personally come here."

His words carried something else in them, but Eleina was quick to shove the thought aside as she focused more on suppressing her anger.

'I didn't want to do this, especially when I should be having my tea instead…'

Oh, that's right! God. She forgot all about her tea, too!

With the essence of the flowers waking up inside her, she slowly raised her arm, the green streaks of magic following her hand's movement—and aimed it at his back.

'Just grab him and toss his royal highness out. Easy. Not what I want to do, but what must be done.'

"In the end," Raimond was still saying, "I even tried contacting you myself, but you never replied and I got worried and…"

"Worried?" The words tumbled out before she could stop them, the green streak flickering near the prince's cloak. "We never talked for years—heck, you didn't even care whether I replied or not—and now suddenly, you got worried? You? The ever famous 'Lion of Canreia'?"

Raimond's shoulders winced at the nickname; the Canreian people (or rather, the over-excited king more likely) were seldom good with names. As one 'Illustrious Mage of Canreia' herself, she understood the sentiment well enough… as well as the embarassment that came with acknowledging the title.

"I'm not… Ha. Eli, I thought you would have changed by now—"

SWISH

"…!"

He didn't even get to finish the sentence as the green streak lunged from her hand and grabbed the scruff of his neck in an iron grip, pulling him along as it went towards the door.

"No—you don't!" He glared daggers at her, but not before managing to grab her arm as he passed by. The mage tried to pry him off with her free hand, still refusing to undo the magic surging through her fingertips.

"Seriously, your highness—stop being such a pain!" Her legs grounded herself so she wouldn't end up tumbling out with him, while her other hand started to glow a mighty orange, aiming for his hand crumpling the sleeve of her favorite dress.

But the idiotic prince kept on clinging to her, and was looking at her hand with a fierce gaze.

"The Time Flower—"

Her eyes couldn't help but narrow at an even alarming speed. "Don't you dare bring that up—"

"Eleina, the Time Flower is dying—"

BOOM.

A loud explosion overtook the rest of his words, the tremor felt beneath their feet, and all around them, and Eleina's furious myriad of colors, emanating from both of her hands, faded as if they weren't even there in the first place.

Again, the explosions reverberated outside, most importantly, from below the floating island. And Eleina could swear she heard cries and yells in the aftermath that followed.

Raimond looked at her in horror, his eyes reflecting back her blatant distress; an expression Eleina never imagined her face could ever make.

The town was under attack. Right under her nose.