CHAPTER 123: I WANT TO KNOW

Amber

The only reason I’m asking this is to make sure Hael stays out of trouble.

I don’t want anything happening to Hael

I stared at him, his face cupped in my hands, "Hmm?" I raised my brows at him, "He’s not here with you when you clearly took him, so where is he?"

"I haven’t done anything yet," He said

Yet?

"Then where did you take him?" I asked

"I dropped him off in the forest." He answered.

"The forest?" I frowned, then my eyes went wide, "Hael! The forest has that monster there!" I panicked, "It’s filled with miasma corrupted beasts!"

"So?" He shrugged

"So?" I looked at him in horror, "What if he dies there?"

"Then he’s dead,"

I stared at him for a second with my mouth open, then removed my hands and stepped back. I scratched my forehead as I looked away and gave myself some time to think about it.

I smacked my lips, then out a deep breath and looked at him again

"If he dies, don’t you think the blame might fall on you?" I asked

"How?"

"Because no one saw him leaving the palace, he does not know teleportation magic, in fact no one in the royal palace knows that and he vanished when you were here. If they find his body in the forest, the blame is definitely coming to you because only you could have done that."

His lips curled up into a smile, "How worried are you about me?"

...

"Hael! I’m serious,"

"So am I," His smile dropped and he kept looking at me, his expressions showing me that he was waiting for an answer from me.

I folded my arms and stared back

...

But he didn’t answer and I knew I had to say something.

"I’ll answer you, if you answer me first." I said.

"Alright," He gave me a shrug, "What’s your question?"

"How are you going to take care of the situation if Lyal dies?"

There was a glint of mischievousness in his eyes, "I already did."

!?!

I was surprised, "How?"

"I created an illusion of him walking out the palace on his own two feet."

My mouth hung open again.

But wait

"As a prince, he can’t go out alone. Didn’t anyone suspect it?"

"Hmm," He took a thinking position, "Well, I did make the illusion make a run for it if someone tries to approach him, so it’ll be fine."

I shook my head at him. This man sure is sly.

"How long will your illusion last?"

"Till the time it reaches the forest."

"Wouldn’t that take up a lot of your mana?"

"Good thing I have a lot." He stepped towards me, "I did good," He bent down a little, "Didn’t I?" Coming to my eye level.

I couldn’t deny it

He really had thought through things.

Hael’s illusions are really well done, so no one will doubt that Lyal went to the forest himself.

But why put him in the forest? Does he want him to suffer? He could have done something else then. Did he want to scare him? There are other options for that too.

"Why did you drop him in the forest of all places?"

"Hmmm," He hummed to look like he was giving it some thought but he was simply looking at me with his lips slightly curled up so I knew he wasn’t thinking.

I looked at him suspiciously, "Hael," I called his name to tell him he better answer.

He stood up straight. "I thought it would be nice for him to go through some ’exercise’ in the same place where he left you and Lady Serena alone to fend for yourselves."

!!!

There, he did it again

Something he did because of me. I know full well, he is not the type of person who would do things with so much effort involved for another person, especially when he’s not getting anything out of it.

If I didn’t ask him, he would have never told me either.

My heart warmed and I felt all bubbly inside.

I like him so much

Out of all the people I told about what happened to me and Serena in the forest, no one cared about us or was mad on our behalf because we came back safely.

But I guess Hael wasn’t happy about it.

I nodded at him, "You did good."

And he’s the only one who wasn’t happy about me being in danger. I could have died if Serena wasn’t there but no one paid that point any heed. To everyone else, it was just something that happened and then went up in smoke

I stared at Hael and I couldn’t stop myself from feeling like I was falling for him all over again.

"I think I should get a reward for my patience and not killing the third prince." He took my hand in his, "Don’t you think so too?"

I couldn’t help but smile at his words, "You want a reward for basic human decency?" Although there was nothing decent about leaving a human in a corrupted beastly territory.

"Why not?" He asked, "You said I did good."

"I said that because you covered your trail up nicely."I stepped closer to him and thought about it as he summoned his magic to teleport us back.

Well,

I did agree to give him a lap dance.

Maybe it’s time I give him that.

***

Night fell and it got darker.

I practiced my powers while Hael read the book from Helena, trying to see if he overlooked any point. He sat on the chair with one leg over the other. Like he had his ankle of right foot, resting on his left thigh. Leaning on the chair’s back, he had his focus on the text written in the book

It was getting late and it was time for him to take me back to the cafe. I sleep there and in the morning after seeing things in the cafe I come here.

I want to give him the dance I promised but I’m also super nervous.

At this point I know he has feelings for me. I mean he has to. How could he not? After the things he keep doing, just for me.

I gulped as I stared at him.

The only problem is that does he realize his feelings? Has he accepted them?

I want us to be something not but how do I ask him?

Gosh!

I wouldn’t have to worry like this if I had to confirm this all from a normal person but Hael. I shook my head. He’s emotionally closed.

I bit my lower lip

But wouldn’t he have realized something by now? Didn’t he ever think about why he wants me? Or why he was looking for me for two years?

I really want to know how he feels. I want to move forward. Staying in this weird situationship isn’t good for my heart or my brain or my soul.

"Why are you staring?" He said with his eyes still on the book

!!!

I panicked and looked away, "I was thinking."

He closed the book, and looked at me, "About what?" He placed the book on the table as he put his leg down, then straightened up.

"About your reward," I’m wondering if I can ask him about this while I’m giving him the dance.

His lips curled up into a sly smile, "What about my reward?" He leaned back on the chair.

"I told you I’d give you a dance," His gaze was about to wander to the book again but as soon as I said those words, it came back to me, "I was thinking of giving it to you today, as a reward." I had his full attention,

"So," He leaned forward, "You’re saying my reward is that I’m getting the dance ahead of time?" I couldn’t tell if he wasn’t pleased by it or not.

"If you don’t want it, fine then," I turned around

"I never said that," He replied immediately and I smirked

"So you want it?" I turned my head around but not my body.

He nodded

"Well, I would have given it to you." I turned my body around to face him, "But the dance can’t happen without music."

"Why is the music necessary?" He got up from the chair.

"It helps in getting the rhythm." I answered and watched him walk in the direction of the door, "But not any kind of music will do, it needs to be a little hardcore." I know that type of music doesn’t exist in this world, but doing a lap dance without any music is going to be very hard

And where the hell is this man going?

He opened the door and stepped into his lab, then closed the door behind him leaving me there all alone.

What the-!?

Does he want this dance or not? He said he wanted it but then he walked away?

I looked at the door

What is he doing?

I looked out the window, at the far view of the forest, then let out a sigh.

Eminent doom is upon us and I’m here thinking about giving him a lap dance. I shook my head at myself then turned to look at the door which opened again.

Hael came back, but this time he had something in his hands.

An orb!?

Its core, a deep, translucent red, shimmered like a captured sunset. Encasing this ruby-like core was an elaborate lattice of gold, intricate and finely wrought. The gold patterns wove and twisted around the orb, forming a delicate filigree of leave like structures.

each leaf etched with veins so fine they seemed real. The whole thing was attached to a gold plate

"Uh, what’s that?" I asked

"This," He held it out, "Is a sound recorder."

!??!?

"A sound recorder?" I was intrigued as well as shocked, "Where did you get that?" I asked because I hadn’t seen a recorder anywhere in this world.

I had heard of it though.

"I found myself a lot of interesting stuff in the past two years I was looking for you." He smirked, his eyes met mine, "Each time I couldn’t find you but I brought back something else I found- ’amusing’"

He set the magic recorder down on the table, "Unfortunately things like these die out fast since they work on mana. So there’s a limited number of times it can be played before the magic stored in it runs out."

"Can’t you put in your own mana?" I asked.

"Once the mana in it runs out, the recording is gone because it was stored in it in the form of magic. Adding mine in it won’t do anything. I can use the device to record my words in it though with the help of my mana."

"Oh," I think I got the gist of it.

He placed his hand under the plate, I saw him pour some of his magic in it and then it turned on.

The gold leaves opened, moving till the point they were laying flat. The orb inside it began to form a mist and I started hearing something.

"I got this one from a demon merchant." He said and I raised my brows at him in surprise.

The solid orb turned to mist and then began rotating and just like that I heard music coming from it.

"Wow," The music was rougher, way more suited for something like a lap dance than music from elves I used last time to dance to.

"Will this do?" He passed me a smirk.

I couldn’t deny, "Yep," I said as I walked to him, "This will do." My heart rate began to rise because of the anticipation.

Guess, I’m doing this.

I went ahead and grabbed the chair, then looked at Hael, "Come," I said and then took the chair to the middle of the room where there was a lot of space to move around.

Hael quietly followed. I set the chair on the floor then looked at him, but before he got the chance to sit on it himself, I pushed him down, surprising him.

As his body hit the chair, it rocked back on impact, the front two legs of the chair buckling back in the air, but came back onto the ground after a second.

I grabbed the handles of the chair, my arms on either side of his body, "Ready?" I asked as I looked into his eyes.