AN: Oh man, I'm sorry for such a long wait >< It definitely wasn't on purpose!

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  “Then… If we can’t talk about it now, then could you tell me why the Crown Prince caused all of that instead?”

  Ritt wasn’t dumb enough not to have noticed that the Prince was behind the entire fiasco; After all, hadn’t he been the one to both lead Ritt to the noble-infested room in the first pce, away from where he was supposed to be, and also the one who goaded the nobles into treating Sien in such a way? Although he hadn’t spent much time in aristocratic society, Ritt had already been exposed to how such noble cliques functioned during his time as a Padin, and he’d thoroughly learned that they always had a leader at the top of them. It was obvious that the Prince was the one pulling the strings behind this particur group.

  “Ah… You mean Reece?”

  Sien’s raised shoulders slumped, and his hands dropped away from Ritt with a sigh as he crossed his arms in consternation.

  “That guy’s always been like that, ever since he finally grew taller than me. Guess he must have some kinda fetish for trying to look superior to me in whatever way he can figure out to.”

  “Oh… Yes, it did kind of feel like that.”

  “Yeah. It’s best to just ignore idiots like Reece and those stupid nobles when I’m not around. They’re just trying to use you to get to me.”

  Ritt had expected as much when he realized that every question he was being asked was singurly about Sien. But still, he tilted his head in confusion, not quite understanding their motives. Some of the questions had been repeated too many times for them to have simply been asked for the purpose of harassment, after all.

  “Why do they want to know about you so badly?”

  “Hah, well… Let’s just say that I’ve made quite a few enemies over the years. I’m sure they’d love to get whatever little bits of information that they could use to get back at me.”

  Sien smirked mischievously, looking a bit like a wicked child who’d been proudly picking fights. But soon his pompous smile defted, and was repced with an annoyed look, a shrug, and a sigh.

  “Aaaand if they’re not doing it because they hate me for whatever reason, then they’re probably just doing it because they’re genuinely curious about me. I mean it’s not every day that someone gets to meet a Fae up close, even if I’m only a half. I’m sure their bored little minds can’t wait to eat up eeevery single factoid about me that they can find.”

  “Huh…”

  Ritt simply couldn’t understand such a way of thinking from the nobles. Sure, he’d been burningly curious plenty of times in his life, but he couldn’t fathom getting on the nerves of such an obscenely strong person just out of curiosity alone. Still, out of everyone that Ritt had ever known, Sien was indeed the most interesting one, so he could at least understand them wanting to know more about him; He, too, would love to learn more about Sien. He already knew a lot about Sien’s eating habits, and he’d heard a lot about Sien’s family, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the things that he knew, even though they would be dozens of times more intimate information than what the average person would have known, weren’t quite enough. There was still so much that Ritt would like to know about Sien, his thoughts, his past, and his likes…

  Perhaps if he just asked about them, then Sien would tell him; After all, Sien had been quite accommodating so far, and had been kind enough to answer and expin many different things to Ritt. But some things… Some things it didn’t feel right to ask Sien, who’d already been tormented about them so many times already, about.

  Like for instance, any information about his Fae roots.

  Despite how challenged he was at social things, Ritt was still able to tell how much people bringing up his Fae side hurt Sien, and he didn’t want to force him to speak about it. Yes, perhaps he could find out everything else that he wanted to know straight from the horse’s mouth, but as for this particur part of Sien, he would have to seek out the truth elsewhere.

  One particur man immediately sprung to mind.

  Ritt wouldn’t be especially pleased to have to go to him… But the situation called for what it called for.

  He was willing to accept the risk.

  “...Hey, Ritt? What are you thinking so hard about? If that stuff from earlier is still bothering you, then-”

  “Ah no, it’s nothing like that, Sien.”

  Ritt smiled softly and took Sien’s hand, hoping to alleviate his fears.

  “I just thought of something that I need to do, is all.”

  ~~~

  Ritt gnced worriedly between the indignant looking Sien and the nonchant yet curious looking Duke many times, feeling gravely uncomfortable. Although Ritt had tried to gently dissuade him from coming along, Sien still followed him closely, not willing to leave him alone in the viper’s nest that was the pace for a single minute if he could help it. Eventually, knowing how stubborn Sien could be and remembering the incident that had just occurred, Ritt realized that there was no way for him to possibly convince Sien to let him go alone, and so he resigned himself towards the awkwardness of the inevitable conversation.

  The Duke, too, gnced back and forth between Ritt and Sien, noticing quickly from the look on his nephew’s face that this visit must not have been Sien’s idea.

  “What a surprise for the two of you to visit. I thought you’d be too busy holed up in this foolish d’s room for me to ever see your faces here.”

  Sien narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth, just about to retort to the Duke’s words, but Ritt quickly cut him off, not wanting to let a fight begin when he’d come there seeking answers.

  “I hope it’s alright that we came, My Lord. I had a few questions, and I was hoping that I would be able to get a few answers for them from you.”

  “Hmm, how interesting. And is there any reason that you believed I would tell you whatever knowledge that it was you were seeking?”

  The Duke was well aware that although Sien acted like an unruly miscreant much of the time and seemed disinterested in everything, he actually kept his eyes and ears open more often than people would think. And being as old as Sien already was, though still young in the lifespan of the Fae, it was unlikely that he wouldn’t know the answer to whatever it was that Ritt was going to ask the Duke. Knowing that Sien seemed to have been reluctant to come in the first pce, the Duke was actually quite intrigued to find out what questions would be asked of him.

  But any shrewd nobleman knew better than to simply give away something of value for free.

  “My belief was that you would answer my questions because they are on a topic that you like to speak about.”

  Ritt did his best to keep his voice even as he spoke, but he couldn’t help but internally flinch a bit at how possibly rude his words might have sounded. The way that Sien slightly smirked and the Duke’s eyes almost imperceptibly narrowed when they heard him all but confirmed to Ritt that he might have chosen his words a bit too poorly there.

  “Oho… And what, pray tell, might this topic you’re speaking of be, exactly?”

  “...I was… I was hoping that you would tell me more about the Fae, My Lord. I don’t know much about them, and since I hope to be with Sien from now on, I thought that it might be for the best if I…”

  Both Sien and the Duke looked surprised, the former more comically so than the tter. Sien had had absolutely no idea what Ritt had come to his uncle to speak about, but this was certainly the farthest from any of his possible guesses. Even as his heart throbbed for a moment over Ritt saying that he wanted to be with him from now on, Sien’s face could only show nothing but incredulity over what he’d heard.

  “Ritt, what in the heck are you-?!”

  “Sien, please.”

  Ritt summoned up all of his willpower and determination to speak back to Sien, convincing himself that he was doing this so that he could live a better life with his family. As he quickly spoke, he grabbed onto Sien’s hand that was resting on the couch, and tightly squeezed it inside of his own, hoping it would convey at least some of his feelings to the man next to him.

  Sien’s eyes repeatedly shot up and down between Ritt’s resolved face and his hand that was squeezing his own, and eventually he gave up and let out a long sigh, letting himself colpse back into the couch as he covered his eyes with his free hand.

  If Ritt wanted it so badly, then he could shut himself up for a short while and suffer through his discomfort with what was about to be said.

  Only if it was for Ritt, though.