Chapter 106: The Play

I walked back to the dorm by myself. Lily had stayed behind to help Marisol sew a tail hole into the back of my uniform, so for once I had the room to myself.

I sat down on the edge of my bed and stared at the floor.

The problem was that I didn’t actually remember much about the play. I remembered writing it, and I remembered the gist of the night when it happened, but not the point. If the stage scene had any surprises in it, I wanted to know about them before I put on a mask and stood up in front of four hundred people.

"Status."

The screen opened. I flicked over to the skill page.

MANUSCRIPT — Lv.2Current MP: 100

"Show me the Founder’s Play. Just the part where it’s being performed."

Scene located:

"The Princess of the Fallen Star" (Chapter 71)

Cost: 5 MP.

Proceed?

"Yes."

Current MP: 95

The screen went white, and then the words started to appear on it, line by line.

The great hall was silent as the grave. Every eye was upon the stage, where Lily stood beneath the painted red moon in a gown of silver starlight, her golden hair shining like a halo. The rain machine poured its tears upon her.

"Who are you?" she whispered. "Why does my heart know you, when my mind does not?"

Prince Aldric strode across the stage. Slowly, he removed his mask, revealing the face of a god carved from marble and destiny.

"Because I have loved you since before the stars had names," he said, and he pulled her into his arms, and he kissed her.

The audience GASPED!!! It was no stage kiss. It was REAL. Lily’s eyes fluttered closed as her memories came flooding back, and in that moment, she knew. She had always been his, and he had always been hers.

In the very back of the hall, unnoticed by anyone, Cassian turned away from the stage and slipped out through the side door into the night.

The applause was thunderous. It was the greatest performance the academy had ever seen.

End of scene.

I closed the screen and lay back on my bed.

["A god carved from marble and destiny." Cool. Great. I wrote that.]

So, uh, anyway, that was the canon. Aldric played the knight, he kissed Lily for real under the rain machine, and the whole academy watched them fall in love on stage. It was the moment their romance went public. In the original novel, everything after the festival treated the two of them as a couple.

That part, at least, wasn’t a mystery anymore. Aldric was busy getting engaged to Serena, I had his role, and thirty-one people had voted for me to kiss Lily in front of everyone instead.

What bothered me was the line about Cassian.

I sat back up and pulled my knees to my chest.

On the surface, it made sense. Cassian was the brooding rival, and the girl he liked had just kissed another guy in front of the whole school. Of course he’d want to leave. Any reader would see that line and assume he went off somewhere to sulk in the rain.

But I knew how fifteen-year-old me wrote. She didn’t do subtle. If she wanted Cassian to be sad, she would have written three whole paragraphs about him clenching his fists, with a single tear rolling down his face and the red streak in his hair blowing dramatically in the wind. She never just had a character quietly leave a room and then moved on.

Unless he was going somewhere.

I tried to remember what came after the play. I remembered the maid café, vaguely, and something about a fireworks show on the last night. There was a monster attack somewhere on my list of events, too, but I couldn’t remember when it happened or what started it.

[Did he go meet somebody? Did he see something? Was I setting something up and then forgot about it?]

That last option was honestly the most likely. Teen-me had abandoned plot threads constantly. However, ever since I’d arrived here, every thread I’d forgotten about had come back and smacked me in the face sooner or later.

I opened the Status screen again and looked at the number.

Current MP: 95

Reading what happened after the play would cost more, and I had no idea how much more. The last time I tried reading a whole arc ahead, before the Duel Festival, it had eaten every single point I owned.

I closed the screen.

[Later. I’ll read more later, when I’ve actually figured out what I’m looking for.]

Then, I lay back down and stared at the ceiling, and thought about Cassian walking out into the dark.

---

The summons came during lunch. A first-year runner handed me a folded note with Sabine’s handwriting on it, and the note said only, My office. Now. Bring your manners.

I didn’t own any manners, so I brought a sandwich.

When I opened the office door, Sabine was sitting behind her desk with her hands folded. Serena was sitting in the chair across from her with her arms crossed. Dame Brask was standing exactly three steps behind Serena’s chair, with her notebook already open.

All three of them looked at me. Dame Brask looked at the sandwich and wrote something down.

"Miss Sakana," Sabine said. "Please, come in. Lady Frostfall has made a request regarding you."

"Oh?" I swallowed. "What kind of request?"

"Palace custom allows a princess candidate to bring one attendant from her academy to official functions," Sabine said. "It’s meant to be a companion for dinners, dances, receptions, and so on. Lady Frostfall has asked for you, by name."

Dame Brask stepped forward.

"I must object again. Attendants are traditionally chosen from the Noble Course. The animal is a scholarship student. The animal also brought a sandwich to a formal summons."

"I’m aware," Serena said, without turning around. "I want the animal."

"Your Ladyship, it would be highly irregular..."

"Dame Brask." Serena finally turned her head. Her voice was very calm, which was always the most dangerous version of it. "As a candidate, I have the right to name my own attendant. You told me so yourself, on the first day, when you were reading me the list of my rights and duties for three hours. Write it down."

Dame Brask’s mouth went thin. She wrote it down.

Sabine looked at me for a long moment over her folded hands. She didn’t say anything about foxes, or royalty, or who would get blamed when something went wrong. She didn’t have to, because I could hear it anyway.

"The position comes with a stipend," she said instead. "Do you accept, Miss Sakana?"

"I accept," I said.

Serena waited until we were halfway down the corridor, and Dame Brask had stopped at a window to write a longer note, before she said anything else.

"You agreed fast."

"There’s a stipend." I took a bite of my sandwich. "Also, I’m a little curious. Why me? You could’ve picked anyone from the Noble Course. They’d actually know which fork to use."

Serena kept walking and stared straight ahead.

"Because I’m about to tear off three people’s heads," she said, "and I need somebody next to me who can stop that from happening."

I stopped chewing.

"Three?"

"Dame Brask is one. The palace dance instructor is the second." She counted them off on her fingers like she was reading a list of crimes. "The third is the queen’s private secretary, who keeps telling me how lucky I am. As if I didn’t hear him the first one hundred times."

"What about Aldric?"

"Aldric doesn’t speak to me. He speaks near me, about himself, while I stand there." Her jaw tightened. "He’s not on the list because he’s not worth the effort."

"Okay. But how am I supposed to stop you from killing anybody? You beat me in a match in under two seconds."

"You talk," Serena said. "Constantly. About nothing. It’s so irritating that I forget what I was angry about in the first place."

I stared at her.

[Was that... a compliment? Did Serena Frostfall just say something nice to me?]

Serena seemed to realize what she’d said at the same moment I did, because her ears went red. She turned and scowled at me.

"Or, at least, if I do murder anyone, it can be you instead," she said. "That’s also an option."

"Aww~" I bumped her shoulder with mine. "You’d kill me first? I’m honored. Really, Serena, that’s the most romantic thing anyone’s said to me all week."

"Shut up."

"Lily packed me a lunch this morning, and somehow you still win."

"The first dinner is on Friday," she said. "Wear something that fits."

Then, she straightened up and walked back toward the window, where Dame Brask was still writing.

I blinked.

[I... don’t think I currently own anything that fits.]