Curse 12: The 'Key' to success

After the rest of the knights had finished their matches, the rest of us who passed were lined up in a row.

The king, the prince, and the other prince were in front of all of us.

"Very good show, everyone! The seven of you who are standing out from the rest have proven your worth! And as such, I am officially making all of you Knights of Credentes!" The prince with the braid proudly announced.

"Ha, no doubt in my mind!" Peri puffed up his chest.

I narrowed my eyes and gently hit my elbow to his stomach.

"Oof!" Peri held on to his stomach.

"The battle you put up for us today showed that you all are willing to fight for your own beliefs! A knight has a code of honor, but also could have a dream behind thy sword!" The prince raised his own sword. "The blade isn't meant to simply kill, but to sharpen yourself, prove to the world what kind of person holds your blade!"

The king stepped forward. "And I also have another announcement to make!"

The king raised both of his hands. "This year was also the year for a personal knight to be my right-hand blade! No. More like the sword to protect my family and the entire kingdom!"

"And the person that we pick will not only be the head of your squad, but also be the teacher and leader from now on!" The prince put away his blade.

The king smiled and looked at me.

"And that person... is you, Tristis Messor!"

"... Eh?" I blinked, dumbfounded.

I heard whispers all around me. They seemed to be a bit confused and concerned about the picking.

More importantly—

"HHHUUHHH??!!!" I panicked.

No. Oh no, no, no!

If I'm a leader, then I couldn't sneak around as I wanted to! There wouldn't be a way to slip through the cracks and research in secret if everyone had to rely on me for help!

"Tristis Messor! Your performance out there was very fascinating!" The king praised. He lifted up his hand and pushed it forward. "What you did out there was shown to be the mastery of controlling your mana."

"The way you move, the way you counter your opponent without even worrying about him trying to take advantage and cheat as well!" The prince folded his arms. "I was going to call him out on it, but your expression remained calm and collected. Almost as if you were in a trance!"

"A t-trance, you say!" I put my hands in front of me.

"That's not all, but you proved to my sons and me that just because you got power doesn't mean you should show it all off." The king praised me. He put his hand behind his back. "Also, you used some kind of unique magic that I haven't seen before in a very long time!"

"R-really?!" Peri and I said in unison.

"Yes. So I want to talk about it later." The king smiled at me gently.

... Oh no.

My palms were sweating like crazy.

Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!

This wasn't good! This wasn't good at all!

"U-um, and what about the rest that came close?! L-like me, of course! Don't I get a chance to play assistant with my snow-haired friend here?!" Peri wrapped his arms around my neck.

Nice, Peri!

I placed my hands on his chest and laughed awkwardly. "R-right, right! A teacher may need an assistant in case something happened!" 

"I see." The king slowly stroked his chin.

He looked back at the braided prince. The prince chuckled and shrugged his shoulders at the king. The king looked back at the other prince, but that prince scoffed and waved his hand.

He then looked at Peri.

"Sure! You'll be assisting Tristis when she starts teaching!" The king confirmed.

"Really?! Hooray!" Peri and I hugged each other to celebrate.

But realizing where we were, we both let go and fixed our clothing.

"A-ahem!... Cool." Peri said with a bored look.

Sweet! Now Peri would be next to me when I started to teach—

... Wait.

Wait, wait, wait.

I STILL NEED TO TEACH?!!!!

I went on my knees and then all fours.

"It's so over..." I whimpered.

"Ah! I forgot to mention that Tristis will need to check out the library of truth every morning and night before doing anything else." I heard the prince say.

I swiftly stood back up and clapped my hands together.

"Right! Starting today, I'll be a teacher for all of my wonderful knights~!"

The prince and King had that smug look on their face for some reason.

The king then looked away, taking out some keys.

"Oh, shoot! It seems like I'll be busy doing work for my kingdom! I need someone to look after the books that may have something VERY important that NO one should look!"

The prince laughed and then coughed on his fist.

"Oh yes, my king! Such tragedy!"

The prince raised his index finger and leaned closer to me. "Hhheeeyyy!!! You're the group leader now, Tristis! Can my father and I trust you to take care of those books that NO one should look at or see?"

Oh?! Is it that easy?!

I beamed!

I coughed on my fist and placed my hands in front of me. "Why, of course! As the teacher, I shall not allow anyone to enter or exit the library! I shall take—"

"A-ahem! 'I shall keep'!" The king coughed loudly.

"I shall keep the books safe from the wrong hand!" I corrected myself.

Wait. Did the king... nah!

The king jiggled the key and then rested it on my palm.

"Good! Good, good. With that in mind, we shall take a short break, and you and Peri can meet me and my son at the entrance of the stadium!"

The prince placed his hands behind his back. "But take your time! We've got all the time in the world!"

"Oh, okay!" I nodded.

I looked at the key.

Hehe! Normal life, here I come! I blew some steam out of my nose!

"..." Peri placed his hand under his chin.

***

And so, the Knights' selection seemed to be over.

I met my friends as I promised. Peri managed to enter as a knight. We both got to the king and the princes' good side. And the best part of all—I was holding the key to my goal in life!

"Hehehe!" I giggled, holding the keys, stomping my foot playfully.

Rocking, turning, my body couldn't stop.

I was currently sitting in the seating area.

Finally.

FINALLY.

All the knowledge from this kingdom was within the palm of my hand! Yay!

"Hehehe!" I kept giggling. Oh man, this was just too good!

"Having fun there, Tristis?" I heard Sedatus from my right side.

"Yup! Lots of it!" Laetus nodded in agreement.

"H-huh? Oh, sorry! What were we talking about?" I put my brown bag in front of me and placed the key in there.

Oh man! I still couldn't believe it!

"We were talking about how you suddenly got the keys to the most knowledgeable library known to the entire kingdom?" Peri said, sounding a bit upset.

"Hmm? Is something wrong, Peri?" I blinked, looking over the bar since Peri was still standing on the field while I was sitting in the seating area.

Peri sighed and leaned back on the bar.

"Don't you think it was a little too easy for you to gain access to the most powerful library in our time?"

"Hmm..." I placed my hand under my chin.

True. It was too easy.

However.

I leaned forward, and our faces were close. "Well, you can always be there to protect me like you always said as kids~!" I giggled.

Peri blushed but then pushed my head away.

"I'm serious, Tristis!"

He hopped in front of me and bent his knees. Meeting eye to eye.

Whoa!

I felt my cheeks burning.

"Those two are up to something! Otherwise, why would they give you the key right away before you show loyalty to them?" Peri questioned.

"Because... I'm cute?" I gave an awkward smile.

"Aren't you the same person who doesn't like herself?" Peri answered coldly.

He got me there...

"Be honest, there's something in there you wanted, right?" Peri looked into my eyes.

Crap! He was on to me!

I would like to tell him, but what if he got killed because of my stupid errors?! I was scared of 'sleeping', but my fear for him was far more important than my life!

So even if I had to go to that dark place in the future, at least he'd be safe.

I chuckled and closed my eyes, tilting my head.

"You're so silly, Peri!"

I opened my eyes. He kept staring at me.

I almost wavered, but I won't let him risk his life for me.

So, I brought my two hands up to squeeze his face. "Come on! Smmmiiileeee~!"

"Stop it! I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you!"

"Ehehe! Smile~!" I teased him with a grin.

Peri grabbed hold of both of my hands. "Enough!... Argh, Tristis. Please, what's going on? Why are you interested in that library?"

"..." I stared at him.

"..." He stared at me.

"Wow, it suddenly became quiet..." Laetus whispered.

... Wow. Did I really have to do this to him?... Fine, then.

I sighed and frowned.

"Fine, I got no choice, do I?" I held on to his hand.

"H-huh?" Peri started to jolt when I held on to him.

"WHHHAAA!!!!" Laetus said in a whisper.

I slowly closed my eyes and sighed once more.

"... I'm sorry. I didn't think I had to tell you this, Peri."

"Tristis?"

"You're one of the people I care about the most. I just felt so bad for keeping this for so long." I slowly let go of one of his hands. "I just... I just hope you won't be angry for saying this to you, Peri."

"What?" Peri whispered. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Tristis, we've been friends for many years now! I'll forgive you!"

"Really?" I whispered to him.

"Really," He nodded.

"Then..." I looked away.

"Tristis? What's wrong? Tell me..."

I slowly looked back at him, my eyes made contact with his.

"Then..." I slowly used my free hand to dig into my bag.

I could feel the air around us tighten. The world around was tuning down. It was as if it was only me and him left. No one would ever interrupt us.

And... I kinda liked it.

Unfortunately, I had to do it.

I had to tell him...

"Peri, I..." I began speaking.

"Y-y-you....!" Peri gulped.

I giggled, in awe of his cute reaction. But now, it was time to unleash it. To him once and for all...

I took out... my mirror and put it in front of me.

"... Huh?" Peri looked dumbfounded.

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance. "I DISLIKE THE FACT THAT YOUR GRAMMAR STILL SUCKS!" I shouted at him.

"... What?!!!" Laetus, Sedatus, and Peri said together.

I opened my mirror and pressed his contact with his message. After that, I showed it to him. "You think that I would forget just because we were trying to get into the Knights' selection?! I'm still thinking about all the errors you left me today!"

"..." Peri froze in place. But then he ground his teeth at me. "... What was that?" he said, sounding annoyed.

I folded my arms. "It's not my fault that your grammar sucks. That's why I'm so excited to get into the library right away! So that I can teach some proper ways to use words and complete sentences!"

"Why, you bookworm! I didn't ask you to do that for me!" Peri barked at me.

"I don't care! You need to start learning the basics from scratch!"

Peri folded his arms and looked away.

"Argh! I just can't deal with you today!" Peri whispered.

"I didn't want to say it, but since you were SO interested, I'll say it!"

"Then I should've never asked! Ugh! I can't believe I almost felt worried that you might have had a mental breakdown!" Peri turned around and leaned on the bar. "Do whatever you want!"

"Hmph, was planning to!" I turned my head away.

But it didn't take long before feeling guilty for making an excuse.

It ached in my heart to do that to him.

But I couldn't help myself. I couldn't tell him about the time-traveling thing.

I still didn't know what those numbers meant on the dark petals.

... Wait. Maybe.

Maybe I could find a way to call that bastard with Peri with me. That way, even if I kicked the bucket, I could at least see the face.

Buuutttt thinking about 'sleeping' really rubbed me the wrong way. Also, I was a bit scared of doing that as well...

I shook my head.

No! I could probably be okay if I found something in the library of truth!

Yeah! So maybe I could stop them from killing me when the time was right! With my new power, there's no way they could sneak up on me!

Great! I got a little plan!

I slowly looked at Peri.

"..."

I hesitantly lifted my palm, but halted. I lowered it back down and hugged myself.

No. I couldn't ask for such selfishness right now.

I wanted to have Peri hug me since I was a little scared, but then I realized that not only did I not deserve it, but for someone to lie to their friend AND still ask for comfort?

Yeah.

I'm no better than the Dark Cloak killing me from behind.

I'm a backstabber...