Finley Cai Aies Hall April 20, 20XX

There were only four of us at the table Esmeralda, the General, Lillian and myself as Corin and Cambridge had been forcefully given a day off by Esmeralda to deal with their responsibilities as generals of the royal family.

At the large table, Esmeralda sat beside me as a chaperone and the general sat across me and Lillian beside her. She would occasionally speak to Lillian but aside from the occasional wary glance, it was like she didn't even register that I was there.

I quietly munched on the food that was put in front of me and wondered what to do. Regardless of whatever happened, we were still going to be married soon, I would rather it wasn’t as awkward between us as it currently was.

I had thought that lessening the influence my presence had on her would allow us to at least become friendly with one another but she had only raised her vigilance around me and would occasionally send me a vigilant glance.

Esmeralda seemed to sense the awkward mood between us but as she had been unconscious for the whole of yesterday and had no idea that I had operated on the general she didn't know why it existed.

I was sure that she would try to investigate either myself or Cambridge later on but I got the feeling that she shouldn't know I was able to use magic to that extent and had convinced both Cambridge and Corin to keep it a secret. And the General disliked Esmeralda so I was sure she wouldn't talk to her for the span of a coin flip never mind a full explanation of how I had suppressed my influence on her.

Esmeralda caught the General’s attention and in an obvious tone began to make conversation to no one in particular.

“ So I heard that-”

Before she could continue The General interrupted her and began to talk to me for the first time since we had taken a seat.

“ Your Highness, My Ruan duchy is putting on an amusement event of sorts at the academy near the palace. As an alumnus as well as a member of the Ruan duchy I am required to go test it out … would you be interested in accompanying me?”

Before I could even respond Esmarelda lit up like a light bug and started to urge me to agree, making it clear that if I didn't she would do it on my behalf.

I had intended to accept either way but the feeling of being forced into it left a bad taste in my mouth.

“ I’d be honored general-”

“ You can call me Mei your highness. If we are to be married it’s better to do away with such formalities.”

She finished off with a small and charming smile that burned away the previous awkward atmosphere that had plagued the room.

The sudden friendliness caught me off guard but didn't stop me from responding in a moderately friendly tone.

“ Likewise then Gen- Mei. You can call me Cai rather than your highness.”

She was slightly taken aback, probably that I responded so well to her attempt to invite me out but I didn't see the problem in doing so.

If I looked at it objectively the General (while she was in her right mind) had yet to do anything rude or disrespectful to me and today was the first time I would actually get to have a conversation with her as she was.

There was no need to be difficult.

Still, I was curious about where we were going because even though I knew it was an amusement event it was hard to imagine what it would hold.

By now we had finished our meals and I quickly left to get dressed for the excursion.

Since neither Corin or Cambridge was here and I had decided to completely ignore Esmeralda's opinions and 'advice' I took advantage of the opportunity to dress in comfortable clothes.

Although wearing there were shorter styles of clothing that were moderately popular in the fairy worlds, Cambridge had always hidden them from me, saying that they were unfitting for my status as a prince. But I wasn’t planning on going out as a prince today.

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The conspicuous crown forlornly glistened to the side as I flew out of my room in my training clothes. Since I was going on with the general I clipped on the ‘travel crown’ with was an exact copy of the crown I usually wore on my head but in the form of a wristband.

By the time I made it to the entrance of the palace the General was already waiting, having switched to combat clothing as well.

The combat clothing was a...well fitted body suit that would have been better suited on an action starlet in a high production movie than a respected general of a queendom. It seemed to be made out of a material similar to leather but instead of being made from animal skin I could tell it was made from plant material instead.

She was deeply involved in a conversation with Lillian and as such didn't notice me flying towards her but once she did she let out a slight cough.

“ Your high- Cai. You’ve arrived.”

I landed a few feet from her and walked the rest of the way towards her as to avoid collision since I still wasn’t as confident in my landing skills.

“ General- Mei. Sorry, it seems it takes some getting used too.”

She nodded and led me outside where both our flutter moths sat side by side. The General’s flutter moth was quite a bit older than Galen and therefore looked over the younger, overexcited beast in an indulgent manner.

The attendants struggled to hold him back from running towards me and had to periodically extend more strength every time he made progress to drag him back.

At the sight, the General and I frowned but for pretty different reasons. She turned to me,

“Your Highness… Are you sure he’s been trained enough to ride? You can accompany me on mine if you wish.”

I shook my head and rushed towards him, worried that he might get hurt in his struggle. As I neared him the attendants slowly loosened their grips and had completely let go by the time I arrived. Galen calmed down a bit and nuzzled into my hand, encouraging me to pet him again.

Seeing the large beast who was now the size of a small bus acting so affectionately was enough to elicit a chuckle out of me and I petted him some more. Galen was a pure blooded beast so being surrounded by others that were not royalty had probably irritated him quite a bit. I quickly purified some of the magic around him and soon he resumed his usual slow and heavy-lidded look but still stuck close to me.

Now that he had calmed down some I quickly went about saddling him and climbed up. As of now, he was only large enough to carry me and maybe a child unlike Mei’s who could probably carry ten or twenty people.

In fact, Galen could only handle a medium sized saddle which required me to sit cross-legged and hold the reins tightly while Mei’s could support a carriage style saddle which was essentially a horse carriage strapped onto its back.

For the outing today she had switched to a similar style saddle as mine but hers could most definitely hold more than a single person and a child.

She led her much larger flutter moth to stand beside Galen and looked down towards me with an odd expression on her face but still indicated that I should follow her.

We only flew for a few minutes not even half an hour before we arrived but as we flew I realized that this was technically the first time I had ever left the palace while in the fairy world. I looked down to the landscape and even saw a few people flying about in the towns.

A few of them pointed up to the sky at the General and me that followed after her but none made to approach us.

Behind me was the large and imposing palace that now that I looked at it from another angle really looked impressive rather than tacky as I had thought.

The General began to descend onto a large plot of land that was filled with multiple wooden obstacles.

Immediately I saw the difference between the amusement parks of the fairy world and the human world. Rather than a circus this would be better compared to a training camp.

She got off her flutter moth and flew toward me once Galen had landed to help me off but before she could I had already gotten off and was looking around.

There were a couple of things I could recognize, such as an obstacle course and what was probably flight agility tests but for some others, I genuinely had no clue how to go about them… But they looked fun.

I quickly took note of each device thinking I could probably create smaller versions to play around with later on.

The first attraction was an obstacle course which had a speed track, followed by a wall that looked kind of pointless considering we could all fly. After that was another speed track but each side was lined with cannons and finally there was the end where a prize would stay on a timer. If the contestant couldn't get to it in time then the prize, whatever it was would drop into a mud pit.

The next was a flying agility test, with a bunch of hoops moving in the air. the contestant would have to agilely fly through each hoop in sequence in the shortest amount of time possible. This was difficult because the hoops moved in a pattern and the contestant would have to discern the sequence before flying through all of them.

The General snapped me out of my analysis and with an odd smile on her face she asked.

“ Would you like to try them out?”

I was taken aback and couldn't help but wonder if I was being that obvious about it or if she was that conscientious of me.

Still, I really was curious about how they would operate and I hadn't been able to train with Theodulus for fear that someone would notice the transporting magic being used and think that I was attempting to run away.

For a whole week, I hadn’t been able to walk more than a few steps since the main mode of movement was flying and the only training I had been able to do was magic based. Even that had to be limited as I couldn't let others know that I could use any more magic than the basics and a few royalties specific spells.

“ I don’t think I could even if I wanted too..”

The General laughed at the nervous tone that I had put on and began to reassure me.

“ Don’t worry Cai, This is a festival and we do have more than a few male students, I’m sure you won’t have a problem with it. I’ll have to go through it first anyway so you can watch me before you decide. Okay?”

I immediately relaxed and nodded at the General's proposal.

“ Then let’s do that.”