The meeting resumed. Benjamin, Harris, and Chiara clenched each other’s hands while waiting for Meredith to declare her verdict.

“While this has been an interesting scene we witnessed, and that does change some things a bit, it also doesn’t change the fact that these two are guilty.”

“Wait, what?” Benjamin thundered. “But why? We proved ‌their intentions weren’t impure, and they didn’t use—”

“Those two still had evil intent on world domination. And, therefore, will be punished.”

“That’s not fair!” Benjamin snapped, slamming his fist on the podium. “You can’t do that!”

“I can easily punish you, too, for disrupting our order!”

“Are you serious? You’re—”

A hand touched Benjamin’s shoulder, stopping him from speaking any further. The magician turned as Eris stepped in to assist.

“Stand down, I got this,” Eris told him, then turned her attention to the Fairy Queen. Listen here. Our traditions at the school grounds involve studying ways to either save or conquer planets.” Eris paced around the room as she detailed the speech to everyone in the room. See, the thing is, we do it for a lot of different reasons: glory, sport, purpose, soul-searching, etc.”

“Huh?” Meredith furrowed her brows as she crinkled her forehead. “That’s unusual.”

“Hey, you got your traditions, and we have ours.”

“Yeah!” Benjamin added with gusto. “Chiara and Harris wanted variety in their everyday lives.”

“The least you can do is respect our decision, and theirs.”

Silence embodied the room as Eris and Benjamin waited for the ruler’s response. They could tell that Meredith’s blood boiled, but she held the rage back to keep her image in front of her people. She eventually exhaled and loosened the grip on her gavel.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“It’s about time for my verdict. I am in charge, after all.” Harris and Chiara gulped and squeezed each other’s hands, trying to repress the urge to flee. “Still, given the circumstances, I could still banish you far away after what you’ve done.”

“Just leave Benjamin and Eris out of this.” They muttered with their heads lowered.

“I didn’t finish.” she pointed out. “However, I’m changing the rules around here. I sentence you to spend a couple of months in community service. And, once you finish that...” Meredith let out a small smile. “You’re both free to ‌do what you want.”

Everyone raised their heads and gasped. Whispers and inquiries echoed throughout the hall.

“Are you serious?” Harris asked. “We can reunite with our—?”

Meredith nodded. “It looks like you learned your lessons. But you still have catching up to do with your duties.” Other fairies in the council gave Benjamin and his friends hard stares and continued to complain. “If anyone has any problems with my choice, you’ll have to answer to me!” she thundered, prompting everyone else to sink into their seats in silence. “Meeting adjourned.” She slammed the podium with her gavel.

As the siblings cheered, Benjamin still processed what he heard as his smile slowly grew.

“Did we win?”

“Yeah, we did!” Chiara exclaimed. “Thank you so much!”

“Don’t mention it.” Meredith waved it off.

“And thank you for the help, and for believing in us,” Chiara and Harris said as they hugged Benjamin again. “We don’t know what we’d do without you.”

“I had to make it up to you,” Benjamin informed them, hugging them back. “Not to mention, I couldn’t have done it without Eris’ help.” He added, glancing at his teacher. “And I look forward to meeting with you again, once your tasks are done.”

“Same here!”

The trio hugged and said goodbye before going their separate ways. But they knew they’d see each other again soon.

.-.-.-.

Once everything had been settled, Benjamin and Eris left to walk around the village. As Eris prepared their leave, Sebastian and Trinity approached the two, with guards by their side.

“Huh? What are you guys doing here?” Eris asked.

“Ah, it’s a long story,” Trinity replied, laughing sheepishly. “I’m surprised you’re here, though. Not that it’s a bad thing.”

“Of course.” Eris rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Well, it looks like you sorted everything out, judging by your expression and the chaos dying down.” Sebastian pointed out, placing his hands on his hips. “Shall we head back?”

Benjamin nodded with gusto. “It’s been a long day, and I’m sure the others are worried about us.”

Especially Isabelle, she won’t hear the end of it. The sprites gave the group some souvenirs as a token of apology, then waved goodbye as they watched them fly off on Christy at a breakneck pace.