Chapter Text
As Rui opens the door, Toya walks out and sees the prince of the white lilies in the middle of the castle's great hall. Behind him is the queen and queen of the black lilies,
“Ah Shiraishi, you’re here! It's nice to meet you for the first time!” said The Queen of White Lilies,
“Hello your majesty”, Toya says as he tries to attempt a high pitched voice,
“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well!”, he then gives a slight bow for them.
“I would like to introduce you to my son, Akito Shinonome”, she then gestures to Akito to walk forwards to Toya, “he will be staying here to get to know you better!”,
“Huh?!” Akito looks back at his mom in disbelief. “You didn’t say that I was staying here…”
“Why do you think half of your belongings are being carried inside to the palace?” Akito then looks behind her and sees a few maids and servants carrying some luggage from outside and a knight guiding them to where the luggage will be staying.
“I’m sure the prince and princess will get along with each other soon!”, said Toya’s mom.
“An, why don't you start off by showing Shinonome around the castle?”
“Oh yes! Please do Shiraishi! He’s got a special interest in seeing the training area for the knights!” the queen.
“Alright then! um … Shinonome follow me”, Toya says as he starts to walk towards the door he entered from. Akito looks back at his mom and she’s already walking towards the other side of the room, he then starts to walk and bumps into someone,
“You need to start looking where you walk Shinonome…” Toya says as he crosses his arms,
“Geez… Give me a break, I just got here…”, Akito says as he walks towards the exit,
“Wrong way Shinonone!” Toya yells at him, Akito then turns back to him and walks forwards to Toya, then the both start to walk straight into the hallway Toya came through. As the both of them started to walk in the hallway, Akito saw something and stopped walking to look up at the picture on the wall. It was The Black Lilies family portrait. The portrait was very hard not to notice since it's big, but in that portrait; the faces of the prince and princess were cut off from the portrait.
“Hey uh Shiraishi right?”, Toya looks back at him and sees that he's standing in front of the portrait,
“Do you know why the portrait looks so destroyed?” Toya walks to where he’s standing and looks up at the portrait,
“I’m not fully sure about that… I haven't paid much attention around this hallway since I rarely walk here…”
“Oh… ok…”
“Is there anyway that i could meet your broth-”
“Aoya- Shiraishi!” Rui yells from across the hallway, he then walks over to the both of them and greets himself to Akito
“Hello there Prince Shinonome! My name is Rui Kamishiro, and I am the head of the knights in this kingdom”, He then bows to Akito and then straightens himself to look at Toya, “Shiraishi, I was told by your majesty to help you show Shinonome around!”
“Thank you so much Kamishiro! I was gonna look for you but you came right towards me!” Toya says as he started to walk, Akito looked at the portrait again and walked away with Toya and Rui. They soon arrive at the training area where all the new recruits are doing their routine exercises, different knights practicing their sword skills, and some even practicing their magical skills to use as combat in battles. Akito was overall impressed by the newer recruits that have perfected some combat attacks that took him over 10 months to perfect,
“Akito, are you alive?”, Toya sarcastically said while standing in front of him,
“Yea, I’m just overall shocked with the new recruiters skills”, he says without taking his eyes off the new recruiters. He then turns his head to look at Toya and says, “Oh right! I wanted to ask you something”
“What is the question?” Toya was now curious but nervous about what he was going to ask.
“I was wondering where your brother is at, what’s his name? Toya, right? Where is he?”, he asked. Toya didn't have an answer to that question, what would happen if he just told him now? Would Akito turn away? Would he even be able to tell him?
“Aoyagi is not really in the castle now!” Rui responded to Akito, “From what he has told me, he’s busy going to different kingdoms to make some trades with them for Shirashi’s birthday!”
“Thank you Kamishiro! It's always hard to find him…” Toya sighs with relief and crosses his arms, “He never tells me where he goes” He then makes a pouty face with Kamishiro slightly laughing before saying,
“Shirashi, I think I just ruined your surprise gift from him…”
“You could’ve just said that Toya is traveling without ruining the surprise for Shiraishi…” Akito said.
“Well now you know where he is, Shinonome!” Rui playfully said. “Aoya- Shiraishi! Uh… Is there any place where you and Shinonome would like to have lunch?”,
“Im not sure…”, Toya responded. “Maybe the outdoor garden?”
“Alright, I’ll send Shizuku a note to start cooking!”He takes out a paper from the inside of his shirt pocket and pulls a pen from a nearby table, “So, Shinonome! Is there anything that you might be allergic to? Or any preferences that you would like to eat?”,
“Just don’t put any carrots in any food… I can taste the carrots even if they're blended…”, Akito said.
“I did not expect the prince of white lilies to not eat his vegetables!”, Rui teased.
“Says the one who refuses to eat any vegetables at all…”, Toya said sarcastically while adding on to Rui.
“Shiraishi… just for that, I’ll tell shizuku to add in pan fried bell peppers to every dish you eat”
“Wait no! I'm sorry Kamishiro!” Toya clinged onto Rui’s arm and started to lightly shake his arm. As Akito looked at Toya, he felt a rock hanging in his chest. Was it jealousy? Why was it hurting him? Did he even feel something? He brushed off his thoughts and refocused on Rui and Toya, they were now whispering to each other,
“How much longer do I have to keep this up?”, Toya whispered to Rui,
“Well, uh, I think for eternity…” Rui's voice was full of pity.
“What do you mean for eternity?!” Toya whispered.
“Um, I may have gotten some information from Shizuku that the knights weren't able to find Shiraishi the other night and the only thing that they found was one of her shoes right before a short river …” Toya wanted to give up on life. He never wanted to be dragged into this mess, “Either they think Shiraishi has someone to help her move along the river or she crossed the river… Sorry Aoyagi, I wish there was something I could do…”
“It's fine Kamishiro… I’ll try to keep up with this lie as much as I can…” Toya whispered.
“Hello? I'm still here y’know…” Akito stated.
“Right! So Shinonome, Shiraishi will be showing you where the open garden is! It's very big actually so please stay by his-her side before you get lost”, Rui said with a crooked smile.
“Well then Shinonome, let’s start heading over there!” Toya nervously said and started to walk towards the other side of the training area. As they are walking over to the open garden, Akito sees more family portraits all that look the same as the first one he saw, the king and queen’s faces were the only ones not affected by all the scratches and cut outs. With every portrait he walks by, he starts to get more and more uncomfortable with seeing the ripped portraits, eventually they make it towards the entrance of the open garden. There were different types of flowers in the sides of the pathway, Akito starts to look around and sees an empty flowerbed with a sign that says, ‘Do not touch’, he thought it was weird for an empty flowerbed to have a sign up. “Shinonome, we’re here”, Toya says. He then looks at Toya, behind him he sees an empty table is seen in a far distance.