A Grim Conversationalist

As time slowly thawed out and the pain (once again) subsided, Xeran stood up and brushed off some of the dirt on his clothes. He figured it would be better to not wallow in misery for the rest of his short human life and perhaps adjust to this new life with the peanut gallery, er, the Council watching his every move through a small, blue box.

Looking around, he noticed that he was, in fact, not in a random empty field full of flowers and animals and was, instead, in the palace garden. Surrounded by the palace workers who looked to be quite frightened by his recent actions of sabotage. Noticing that their beloved Prince Adrian was looking their way, they bowed down, still, with that somewhat horrified look on their faces.

Good, Xeran thought, sticking his nose up in the air a bit, if they thought they could walk all over me like I was some pathetic goody-two shoes human like the Council assumed Adrian was, they were sorely mistaken.

He strutted over to the humans, his head still upturned and his eyes narrowed. It took a second for him to notice something off about them, but once he realized they have words displayed above their heads, it was hard to unsee it.

What the hell is this about?

Leaning forward, he squinted to see what exactly was written above their heads (if he was abnormally close to the people in the garden, no one pointed it out). Some of the words read out “Gardener: Sara” or “Scrivener: Elysia” or “Traitor: Rafael”. It seemed like the Council added some more game-like features to this experiment, like having name tags for people and their job description…or, going by that last one, something that they will do in the future. Xeran genuinely couldn't be bothered to worry about that last one, anyway—sometimes, these humans needed to get what they deserved, and he wasn't told he had to worry about these kinds of things in the experiment (nor did he feel any pain), so it wasn't his problem.

Shrugging, he made his way past them and came face to face with the front of the palace gates. The gates were tall and quite intricately detailed as metal curled around each other and the concrete walls, though they were quite plain compared to the gates that the Council implemented in the Afterlife in front of the “Deceased Human Art Pieces that Never Saw the Light of Day and Never Will”. He never checked the installation out, of course, but he could appreciate fancy architecture when it called for it, especially when done by his fellow reapers.

“Your Highness!” someone called out, “Your Highness!”

Xeran studied the gates with an inquisitive eye—reaping the souls of quite a few architects tended to make him keener on judging the ridiculous structures they died trying to build.

“Your Highness, are you deaf?! Can you not hear me anymore?!” the person exclaimed in a shocked tone of voice as she ran up to him.

Xeran turned to the source of the noise, pointing his finger at himself. “Are you trying to get my attention?”

The human, dressed in all black with a puffy, white undershirt (why couldn't I get that kind of outfit?), huffed in exasperation as she ran through the gates. “Obviously! Who else would I be calling?”

Until today, it would not have been me…

Xeran sighed and crossed his arms. “Well? Spit it out, we haven't got all day. What could you possibly want from me?”

The human cleared her throat and bowed down, her face twisting in an unusual manner. “Um, your presence is required in the dining room right away, courtesy of Her Majesty, Queen Astrid.”

Xeran's eyebrow raised. “Who?”

The human's face twisted even more, this time, with confusion. “Queen Astrid…” The blank look on Xeran's face caused her to look directly into his eyes for the first time. “You know…your mother…Queen Astrid…”

“OH! Right right, her, I remember seeing her name in the file. I didn't realize she was my mother, though I suppose that should have been obvious since I'm the 'prince'…but who can blame me for forgetting something I only had a few minutes to read, those damn Council members and their damn experiment…” Xeran rapidly mumbled under his breath as the human continued looking directly at him with a face that somehow found a way to look both extremely confused and somewhat scared at the same time.

The kind and benevolent prince cursing people out with a snarl on his face? Who could have ever expected this strange turn of events?!

Seeing the prince's face contort as he suddenly doubled over in pain shook her out of her stupor as she grabbed hold of the prince's shoulders before he fell over. “Your Highness! Are you not feeling well? I will bring one of the nurses over immediately and inform the queen of this unfortunate turn of events!”

Xeran grabbed out to the human's arm and held her in place. “Don't…bother…I don't want…one of those…” despicable “nurses…to help me…right now…I'll be fine…” Xeran had no faith in those that preached how much they help people while secretly hurting and murdering those they were supposed to protect and heal. It's a good thing grim reapers never got hurt—he would have rather been obliterated than have a nurse or doctor “heal” him in the Afterlife. And even as a human now, he would rather not take any chances.

The human nodded reluctantly. “As you wish, Your Highness.”

“Good, now, leave me alone or piss off or whatever, I don't really fancy speaking to you anymore.” Xeran turned around and stormed off…not before an alarm started blaring in his ears, his hands automatically reaching up to cover them. What now?!

[Warning: {Adrian's} relationship with {Aurora} will become tampered with in the future and will lead to catastrophic events if {Adrian} does not remedy this situation. Do you wish to proceed?]

Do I even have a fucking choice?

Gritting his teeth against the onslaught of pain from the alarms and the monotonous voice that droned on and on, Xeran turned around to where the human (Aurora, apparently) was still scared stiff. “I'm…I'm sorry.” Xeran's head throbbed and his hands were gripping tight to his shirt as he struggled through his first apology. “I've been having a nasty day so far and I took it out on you, and that was not right of me. I hope you can forgive me.”

How the hell do humans do this all the time, it's torturous.

Thankfully, Aurora seemed to accept the apology with a small smile. “I appreciate the apology, Your Highness, though it was unnecessary.” Pausing to find the right words to say, Aurora stepped forward. “If you are up to it, Her Majesty desperately needs to speak to you right away in the dining room.”

Xeran waved her off as he headed off to where he was going before. “Yes yes, I understand, I'll go see her.”

“Very good, Your Highness, I will be there shortly after you arrive,” Aurora spoke as she bowed at Xeran's back. “Although…”

Xeran stopped but didn't turn around. “Yes?”

“The dining room…the dining room is the other way, Your Highness.”

Xeran coughed, his ears turning slightly pink. “Ahem, right, I knew that. I was just taking the longer way around, but I suppose I'll go the quicker way. Thanks, Aurora.”

Aurora bowed as Xeran speed walked inside the castle towards the dining room, a curious and slightly suspicious look forming on her face as she watched the retreating figure of what she suspected was not the same prince she had known all this time.