TRT Chapter 112: Pair of Puppies (Patreon)

(Edited by Radriel7)

When Paladin Charles finished healing Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn, their bodies at least, he exited the guest room. After he left, I sat in a nearby chair in order to keep a watch over my unwanted guests. Annabelle, who already occupied her own chair, stood up and walked over to me. Without a word, she plopped herself on my lap and I pulled her into my arms.

“Sorry about this,” I said as she leaned her head against my shoulder. “This was not what I had in mind when I invited you over today.”

My plan had been to enjoy trading pointers and socializing with the others, before spending the rest of the day with Annabelle. Over the past few weeks, the two of us had been too busy to spend as much time with each other as we wanted, and I had hated it. We were supposed to rectify that today.

Instead, my beloved ended up sitting off to the side while I examined the twins, before having Paladin Charles heal their bodies. Not exactly the most romantic of settings.

“It’s alright,” Annabelle said, trailing her fingers along my cheek.

“No, it’s not alright,” I said. “This time was supposed to be for us. Instead, we have to deal with this bullshit.”

Annabelle kissed me on the cheek.

“Let me rephrase that,” she said. “It’s not your fault. I don’t blame you for any of this.” She kissed me on the cheek again. “Besides, once we send Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn away, we have the rest of the day to ourselves.”

I nodded at that.

“However, it would help if you explained what was going on,” Annabelle said. “Why were you and Paladin Charles acting so serious earlier?”

For a brief moment, I debated on whether or not to tell her about what I saw. In the end, I decided to trust her. She knew how to keep a secret, and she was a scion of House Thorne. If the situation went belly up, then having their support would be an immense help. House Sturm did not have the power to fend off House Solaria. If a conflict broke out, they would destroy us.

I gave her a brief summary of what I saw during my examination of the twins. I also told her about their eyes, and what the twins were capable of.

“How does that work?” Annabelle asked in an incredulous tone. “Their wizardry isn’t that great, and their cultivation is even worse. Besides, unlike with you, I never gave them a chance to examine me with their spirit sense.”

“Some people have special abilities that break the rules, allowing them to perform feats that no one else can,” I explained. “Or, at the very least, these special abilities give them a head start over everyone else. These abilities are called divine gifts. Sometimes, divine gifts can be inherited and are called divine bloodline gifts. Divine gifts are rare, and divine bloodline gifts even more so. Back on Spirit Earth, I had only met a handful of people with divine gifts, and none with a divine bloodline gift.” I nodded to Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn. “Their divine gift allows them to see the souls of others when they look directly into their eyes. You know how people say that the eyes are the windows to the soul? For them, that’s not just a saying.”

Annabelle didn’t respond right away.

“So they know what I am?” she asked, sounding solemn. “More importantly, they know what you are?”

I nodded.

“Yes and yes,” I said. “Or at least, they know more than most.”

Annabelle frowned.

“Is that why they became obsessed with me?” she asked.

“I suspect so.” I grinned at her. “In their defense, you do have a beautiful soul.”

She blushed at that and gave my shoulder a playful slap.

“Flatterer,” she said with a giggle, before frowning. “Isn’t this dangerous for you? What if they tell others about your soul?”

“That’s something we’ll have to deal with before we let them leave,” I said. “I assume their divine gift provides them with some form of protection. Otherwise, catching a glimpse of my soul would have killed them outright. Instead, they just fainted.”

The soul of an Immortal was not for mortal eyes to behold. It was like being in close proximity to the sun. Only those at the Immortal Ascension stage, or the Path Seeking stage after some preparation, could glimpse an Immortal’s soul and survive the experience. Everyone else would have their entire being burned away.

“We could kill them,” Annabelle said in a cold voice. “The dead tell no tales, after all.”

I let out a mock shiver.

“So bloodthirsty,” I said. “Is killing your go-to solution for everything?

Annabelle pulled away so she could look me in the eyes. She wore a serious expression on her face. A possessive kind of madness filled her eyes.

“When it comes to you, yes,” she said. “I would fight the rest of the world for your sake.” She shook her head. “No. I would defy the heavens themselves for you. Nothing and no one will keep us apart.”

I studied her face for a moment.

“Is that why you did it?” I asked in a quiet voice.

Annabelle tilted her head in confusion.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

I wondered if she was faking her ignorance, or if she really didn’t know what I was getting at. The latter was entirely possible. After all, I hadn’t known who I truly was until I regained the memories of my past life. I believed that to be the case with Annabelle. However, given some of the things she had let slip, some part of her knew, deep down.

For example, she mentioned earlier that Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn had fainted when they first met her. If they fainted back then for the same reason they fainted earlier, when they caught a glimpse of my Immortal soul, then that implied that Annabelle also had the soul of an Immortal.

And I had only met one Immortal Ghost Phoenix Lily during my life as Celestial Thunder.

I thought about pushing the issue and confronting her now, but held back. That was a conversation neither of us were ready for. If nothing else, I figured it was better to wait until Annabelle regained the memories of her past life; if she ever regained them. If not, then we could avoid this conversation for the rest of this lifetime. I wasn’t sure if I preferred that or not. Cowardly of me, yes, but I was happy with how things were right now. I didn’t want to lose that happiness.

Yet, the part of me that was Celestial Thunder couldn’t let it go. If Annabelle was who I thought she was, and she had done what I thought she had done, then we needed to deal with that particular knot of fate sooner or later. Otherwise, we would never be happy together, not truly. It was like a thorn that needed to be removed so that the wound could heal.

“I know who you are,” I said, speaking in Spirit Tongue. “You can’t hide from me forever.”

Annabelle’s grip on me tightened, so much so that her knuckles turned white. She closed her eyes.

“I don’t know what you just said, but don’t ever say that again,” she whispered. “I feel like something is trying to claw its way out of my throat, but I’m afraid of what will happen if it does.”

I pulled Annabelle against me. She buried her face in my shoulder. I stroked her back as I hummed a soothing tune, comforting her as best I could even as my own heart remained in turmoil.

We spent the next several minutes like that, until the twins started to stir awake. Annabelle composed herself. Her expression became as calm as a placid lake, as if nothing had happened at all. Unlike most lakes, dark secrets lurked within her hidden depths.

The twins opened their eyes and sat up, rubbing their foreheads as they did so.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” I called out to them.

The twins’ heads snapped towards me. Like with Annabelle earlier, the two of them squeaked and scrambled to avoid my gaze. They hid behind the bed this time, using it as makeshift cover. I found it equal parts adorable and annoying when their heads popped out, watching me with those golden eyes of theirs.

“It seems that Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn have found a new target,” Annabelle said, her voice suffused with amusement.

I clicked my tongue in displeasure. I suspected something like this might happen.

Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn glanced over at Annabelle and their eyes widened. They ducked behind the bed again.

“What do we do?” Prince Everard whispered. “There are two of them!”

“Why are you asking me?” Princess Evelynn whispered back. “There was only supposed to be one!”

I frowned at their words. Annabelle and I glanced at each other. What did Princess Evelynn mean by that?

“Why don’t we take one each?” Prince Everard asked. “One for me, one for you.”

There was a pause.

“Are you sure?” Princess Evelynn asked. “I’m scared.”

“Have heart, Evie. We are descendants of the Sun Emperor! Together, there’s nothing we can’t handle.”

“But Everard, we won’t be together.”

There was another pause.

“You’re right, Evie. In that case, we’ll just pick one.”

“Which one? The dragon or the phoenix?”

There was another long pause.

“Why don’t we ask Father?” Princess Evelynn asked. “He’ll know what to do.”

“You’re right, Evie! You’re so smart.”

Annabelle covered her mouth as she desperately tried to hold in her laughter. There were many words I could use to describe Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn. Smart was not one of them. Otherwise they wouldn’t have had their clandestine conversation within earshot of Annabelle and I. To be fair, perhaps they were superb actors and this was all part of their attempt to throw us off.

The twins stood up and faced the two of us.

“Lord Gabriel,” Prince Everard said, attempting to sound and act like a dignified House scion. It would have been more effective if he hadn’t gazed at me like a puppy gazing up as his master. As before, he avoided direct eye contact. “My sister and I discussed the matter. In exchange for letting us go, we will issue you an apology and compensate you for our behavior.”

I pretended to mull it over.

“What about Lady Annabelle?” I asked. “I’m not the only one who you inconvenienced with your actions. In fact, given what you put Lady Annabelle through, I’d say that ‘inconvenienced’ is a rather mild word.”

The twins blanched at this, before glancing at each other.

“We will compensate you as well, Lady Annabelle,” Princess Evelynn said, gazing at my beloved the same way Prince Everard gazed at me. Like her brother, she avoided looking Annabelle in the eyes.

My beloved gave the princess a polite smile.

“You know,” she said. “I’ve known you both for more than two years at this point, but I believe this is the first time either of you have spoken to me directly.”

The twins lowered their heads and their shoulders drooped. They looked like a pair of puppies being scolded by their owner.

“I apologize, Lady Annabelle,” Princess Evelynn said. “My brother and I felt like it would be impudent of us to speak with you, given how radiant your soul is. We had to settle for watching you from afar.”

“But it’s all right for you to speak to me now?”

“Sometimes impudence is necessary.”

I narrowed my eyes at the twins. There was something strange going on with them. Given how they planned on asking their father, Prince Eugene, for advice I assumed that it had something to do with House Solaria; their branch of it at least. Were they tasked with finding “radiant souls”, whatever that meant? What if all of their previous favorites had all been “radiant souls”? That would explain a lot of their previous behavior. If so, why? What were they after? What was House Solaria up to?

It just so happened that I had two sources of information standing right in front of me.

‘I have an idea,’ I said, speaking to Annabelle through my divine sense. ‘Follow my lead.’

Annabelle glanced at me, one eyebrow raised, before nodding. I gestured for her to stand up. I stood up as well and walked over to the twins, focusing my attention on Prince Everard. The two of them slumped even more, and…Were they whining? It was faint, but yes, they were. Now I really felt bad. It was like I was dealing with a pair of puppies rather than two House scions. Given their heritage, that wasn’t too far from the truth.

“Very well, Prince Everard,” I said. “I accept. In exchange for an apology and compensation, I will forgive you and your sister.”

The twins’ faces lit up.

“Really?” they said, speaking at the same time.

“However,” I continued. “I don’t want any money or mana stones or magical resources as compensation. Instead, I want three favors of my choosing from you.” I nodded to Annabelle. “Princess Evelynn will owe Lady Annabelle three favors in order to compensate her.”

“Deal!” the twins said as soon as I finished speaking.

I gave them both a smile filled with sympathy. They really were puppies. It was like dealing with a pair of golden retrievers. Cheerful, but not too bright. I almost felt bad for what I was about to do to them. Almost.

“Aw!,” I said, reaching over to pat Prince Everard on the head. “Aren’t you a good boy?”

The prince wore an expression of pure bliss as I ran my fingers through his hair. He looked like he was in heaven. If he had a tail, it would have been wagging right now. Princess Evelynn stared at us, looking both horrified and envious. I made eye contact with Annabelle and nodded towards the princess. Understanding lit up her eyes.

“Everard!” Princess Evelynn said. “What are you-…?”

Annabelle reached over and started patting her head, interrupting her. The princess tried to resist, but soon succumbed to Annabelle's ministrations.

“Oh, this feels so good,” she said, sounding a little drowsy.

“Good girl,” Annabelle purred. “Just give in to the pleasure.”

We spent the next few moments lavishing the twins with attention.

“It’s a little awkward to do this while you’re in this form,” I said. “Why don’t you two transform?”

The twins nodded and with a poof, they transformed into a pair of dog magic beasts that looked like someone combined German Shepherds with Huskies. As part of their transformation, the twins' clothes disappeared. Convenient that.

At first I thought they were Light Hounds, but their coloration was wrong. They had the golden fur typical of Light Hounds, but they each had a red mark resembling a sun on their backs. Also, unlike regular Light Hounds, these two had an affinity for Sun magic rather than Holy magic. Interesting. Sun Hounds? The name fit, though I made it up on the spot.

I crouched down and started scratching Prince Everard behind the ears and under his chin. His tail wagged so hard, I thought he might sprain it. I hated dogs because of Celestial Hound’s betrayal, but even I had to admit that Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn were cute.

“Who’s a good boy?” I asked, speaking in the childish voice people often used with dogs.

“I am!” Prince Everard said, a human voice coming from his canine mouth. “I’m a good boy!”

“Hey, I’m good too!” Princess Evelynn whined.

Annabelle reached down and mimicked my actions.

“Yes, you are,” she said, gazing down at the Sun Hound with adoration in her eyes.

Princess Evelynn just about melted under my beloved’s attention.

“Yes, you both are good,” I said, giving Prince Everard an evil grin. “So good in fact, that the both of you are going to tell us why you stalked Lady Annabelle and the other radiant souls.”

The twins froze in place and their eyes widened as they realized that I had duped them.

“You tricked us!” Prince Everard exclaimed, sounding betrayed.

He pulled away from me and growled. Princess Evelynn did the same with Annabelle.

“No!” I said, snapping my fingers at Prince Everard and pointing at him. “Bad dog!”

“How dare you treat my sister and I like mere do-…”

“Keep this up and there will be no more head scritches for you,” I warned him. “No treats either.”

The twins gave me looks of absolute horror.

“No scritches?” Princess Evelynn said. “But-…but-…You can’t do that!”

“And what’s this about treats?” Prince Everard said.

I crossed my arms and gave them both stern looks.

“Head scritches are for good boys and girls,” I said, speaking in a firm tone. “Not disobedient little pups.”

The twins started whining at me. It sounded even more pronounced in their dog forms.

“One of Lord Gabriel’s retainers is studying to become a spirit chef,” Annabelle said, smiling at the both of them. “I’m sure she would be more than willing to cook some tasty treats for the both of you.”

The twins’ whining became even louder. Prince Everard poked my leg with his nose.

“Please, can we get head scritches and treats?” he begged, letting out another whine.

“We promise to be good,” Princess Evelynn said.

“Then tell us why you stalked Lady Annabelle and the others,” I said.

The twins’ stared at me with big sorrowful eyes, their tails between their legs.

“We can’t,” Princess Evelynn said. “Even if it means being bad.”

“We can’t betray our House,” Prince Everard said. “We promised not to tell.”

I think they were telling the truth. They looked miserable, and sounded even more so. If they were acting, then I foresaw long and illustrious careers on the stage for the both of them. Pushing them further wouldn’t do any good.

Besides, seeing the two of them like this stabbed me in the heart. The way they acted reminded me of Celestial Hound whenever he did something bad. It was his way of trying to soften the blow and earn my forgiveness. The worst part was that it worked every single time, softhearted fool that I was. No matter how angry I was at him, no matter how much I steeled my resolve, none of that mattered when I saw him acting all sad and miserable.

That was how our friendship started, back when we first met, and it never failed to work. At least Celestial Hound never abused this trick, and only used it when necessary.

“Fine,” I said, letting out a deep sigh. “You don’t have to tell us.”

The twins perked up at my words. Annabelle looked at me in disbelief.

“You’re giving up just like that?” she asked, sounding incredulous.

“I can’t be mean to them,” I explained. “Not when they look at me like that.”

Annabelle’s expression turned reproachful.

“Gabe,” she said in an admonishing tone.

“You do the same thing!” I said, sounding defensive. “How many times have you given me a puppy eyed look?”

Annabelle continued to stare at me, before letting out a sigh.

“You disappoint me, Gabe,” she said. “Yet, somehow, I feel like I should have expected this from you.”

Was that Annabelle speaking, or her previous incarnation? I didn’t know, and wasn’t sure if I wanted to know.

“Does this mean we get head scritches and treats?” Prince Everard asked me.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Yay!” the twins said.

Prince Everard tried to jump up and lick my face, but I fended him off.

“No,” I said. “I draw the line at licking. Dog magic beast or not, you’re still a scion of House Solaria. Act like it.”

Princess Evelynn tried to do the same with Annabelle, but my beloved also fended her off. The twins acted disappointed by this, but soon forgot their disappointment when my beloved and I started giving them scritches again.

“At least tell us if House Solaria had or has nefarious intentions for any of these radiant souls of yours,” I asked as I scratched Prince Everard’s head.

The twins both looked offended by my question.

“Of course not!” Princess Evelynn said, sounding affronted.

“Nothing bad ever happened to any of our favorites,” Prince Everard said. “We can’t tell you why our House is interested in radiant souls, but it’s nothing bad or evil.”

It didn’t sound like they were lying, but it was possible that they didn’t know for sure. After all, Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn weren’t all that important to House Solaria in the grand scheme of things. Being scions of House Solaria put them above almost everyone else, but that was all they had going for them.

Or so I once assumed. Given their divine gift, it was possible that they were more important to House Solaria than I previously thought.

Regardless, if House Solaria did have nefarious intentions towards the twins’ favorites, it was possible that the twins themselves were kept out of the loop. That said, I hadn’t heard of anything bad happening to any of their favorites. I didn’t know about the regular mortals, but the House scions continued to remain active in House society.

In fact, now that I thought about it, after the twins lost interest in them, said favorites ended up gaining more status and influence afterwards. I hadn’t noticed it before, since House Solaria had nothing to do with their rise, but now I wasn’t so sure.

“Maybe they can ask Aunt Josie,” Princess Evelynn said, looking at her brother. “She knows the truth.”

“Evie! We’re not supposed to tell outsiders that!” Prince Everard snapped.

“But Lady Annabelle isn’t an outsider. She’s Aunt Josie’s daughter.”

I blinked at them.

“Are you talking about Lady Thorne?” I asked.

“Wait, you mean Mom?” Annabelle asked, almost at the same time.

The twins glanced at each other. I found this sight funny, since they were both dogs.

“Yes,” they said at the same time.

Annabelle hugged herself.

“So, Mom knows about me?” she asked in a quiet voice. “About my soul?”

The twins nodded.

“Yes,” Princess Evelynn said grinning. “She said not to tell you about it until you were ready.” She glanced at me. “However, since you’re with this one, I think it’s okay to let you know now.”

“No, you idiot,” Prince Everard said in a derisive tone. “Aunt Josie said she would tell Lady Annabelle when she was ready.”

“Oh.” Princess Evelynn’s ears and tail drooped “I’m sorry.”

Annabelle, wearing a sad smile on her face, reached over and patted the princess’ head.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “Thank you for telling me.”

Princess Evelynn perked up again and continued to enjoy Annabelle’s attention. I kept a close eye on my beloved. Despite her attempt to appear unaffected by the news that her mother knew about her soul, I saw that it bothered her a great deal.

“Now that we have that settled,” I said. “We just have a few things to discuss and the both of you can be on your way.”

“What?!” the twins asked. “You want us to leave?”

I gave them both a baffled look.

“Yes?” I said, sounding unsure of myself. “I thought you were eager to leave earlier.”

“That was then, this is now,” Prince Everard said in a haughty voice. “You owe us head scritches and treats.”

“Yeah!” Prince Evelynn said. “We’re staying here.”

I stared at the two of them, my mouth agape. Things took a turn I hadn’t expected.

“No!” I said. “You can’t stay here. This is Sturm Manor. You’re not members of House Sturm, so you can’t stay.”

“Please?” Princess Evelynn said. “Can we stay?”

“Yes! Can we?”

The twins crowded around my legs, whining and pushing me with their noses. Annabelle smirked at my predicament. I gave her a withering look, before turning my attention back to the twins.

“No,” I told them. “You can’t stay, and that’s final.”

The twins paused at this, before glancing at each other. Then, as if they had practiced it beforehand, they tucked their tails between their legs and gazed up at me with sorrowful expressions on their faces.

“Please?” Prince Everard said, sounding heartbroken.

“We’ll be good,” Princess Evelynn said, sounding just as heartbroken. “We won’t cause any trouble.”

Now that was a bold-faced lie. Yet, I didn’t have the heart to call them out on it. Just like with Celestial Hound, I found my resolve weakening. I gave Annabelle a pleading look, asking her for help.

“Oh, don’t look at me,” she said with a smirk. “I’m not a scion of House Sturm. This is your decision to make.”

Et tu, Annabelle?

I looked back at the twins. Somehow, their eyes seemed even more tearful than before. Given their performance right now, maybe they had been acting this entire time. I dismissed the thought earlier, but now I wasn’t so sure.

An idea popped into my head.

“You can stay here,” I said. The twins started to look excited, but my next words put a damper on things. “However, not only do you need to receive permission from your father, Prince Eugene, you also have to receive permission from my father, Lord Sturm. After all, as the Patriarch of House Sturm, he has the final say on this matter.”

As the acting Patriarch of Clan Sturm in my mother’s absence, I could probably get away with inviting Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn to stay at Sturm Manor since this was more of a cultivator matter than a wizard one. However, I wasn’t going to let them know that.

I doubted Prince Eugene would let his children stay here at Sturm Manor. Even if he did, there was no way in hell Father would allow it. The very idea was absurd. We had no close ties with House Solaria, nor with Prince Eugene’s family. Yes, he attended my debut into House society and showed up to the Icefall Region to secure the rights to the mythril deposit, but that was it. Neither of those things was enough to justify letting Prince Everard and Princess Evelynn stay at Sturm Manor.

However, given the way they reacted to my words, I doubted either of them had realized this yet.

“Yes!” Prince Everard said. “We’ll go home right away and ask Father for permission.”

“We’ll also send a letter to Lord Sturm,” Princess Evelynn said. “Thank you Lord Gabriel! You won’t regret this.”

There were two poofs, and the twins returned to their human forms. They hugged me at the same time, catching me off guard. After they pulled away, the twins started to run out of the room, but I caught them by their arms.

“Hold on,” I said. “There are a few things we need to clarify before you leave.”