The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

MARIUS

Falken’s generosity in letting us have a weekend stay at this place moved me deeply, and seeing Skylark laugh and be chatty with his friends in this lodge strengthened my conviction that Falken was really doing his best to look after the boy who had suffered.

Since arriving here, he hadn’t mentioned Big Sis Sally or Blabber Becky even once. Instead, he was fully immersed in nature. He taught me how to skip stones, which I found fascinating, showed Thomas how to catch a small fish with his bare hands, and was now climbing a tree to pluck some fruits that he guaranteed us tasted sweet—fruits that none of us recognized.

I was concerned that he might slip and fall, but it seemed his physical fitness had been improving very well, and he was remarkably nimble in a way I hadn’t noticed before.

"Skylark, be careful," I said, though, for the fifth time as he climbed higher.

"No worries, Marius! And I’m almost there!" he said cheerfully.

After a few more careful movements upward, picking the right branches to step on and pull himself up, he got close to the fruits that he wanted. They were reddish-orange and looked perfectly ripe—whatever they were.

"Okay, now, I’m going to shake the branches and they should drop. You guys catch them, okay?" he asked us without looking down.

We got under the fruits, ready to grab them as they fell.

"Are you ready?" Skylark asked us again.

"Yeah!" Thomas answered.

"Three, two—"

Then before reaching one, Skylark shook the branch hard, and the fruits rained down on us.

I quickly caught one, but as soon as my hand touched it, it exploded into a thick mushy mess. Dimitri and Thomas were not so lucky, as Dimitri had the fruit land right on his face, and Thomas took one on each shoulder. It was only when the horrendous rotten smell filled the air that we realized we’d been had.

"Oy! Leo, you prankster!" Thomas yelled at Skylark.

"Wooh, what the hell is this?! This is horrible!" Dimitri was desperately wiping the mushy fruit off his face.

I brought my hand, covered in the mush, close to my nose to smell it, and immediately felt my stomach turn.

"Hahahaha! I got you all!"

Skylark laughed with sheer joy that was so pure none of us could really get mad, and eventually, we looked at each other and all burst out laughing too.

"You guys better go and wash yourselves at the lake. The girls are not going to let you into the lodge otherwise, haha!"

Skylark said as he climbed down, at a speed reminiscent of a squirrel running down the trunk—impossibly—and dashed toward the lodge where the ladies were preparing dinner.

Heeding his words, the three of us headed toward the lake, took our tops off to wash them, and cleansed our faces and bodies.

"Man, that brat. This really stinks!" Dimitri said with a grunt and a laugh.

"I’ll have to find a way to get back at him," Thomas said before dipping his face into the clear water.

"But I’m glad... he seems to be feeling better," I said without much thought.

Dimitri nodded in agreement and splashed water onto his face, but Thomas stopped, looked at me for a second, then asked,

"Could you guys now tell me what really happened during the mission, maybe?"

"Argh, just really weird weather, mate," Dimitri said.

"I heard there was a sudden storm, yes," Thomas said, and continued, "but what I heard from Isabelle was... it was more than that."

"It indeed was," Dimitri said, rubbing his face vigorously. "Fire raging in the rain, the turtle rock shifting shape—it was like a hellish nightmare."

"And the ’gentleman’ just happened to show up on time," Thomas said, looking straight into my eyes.

I could sense that he was suspicious.

But suspicious of what?

Suspicious of Falken for rescuing Skylark when he was in a desperate situation?

"Thomas, what are you getting at?" I asked him.

"I can’t, and won’t, speak for how Isabelle sees it, but from hearing about it, my impression is that something smells fishy here," Thomas said.

"And what exactly smells fishy?" I asked, my eyes meeting his.

"And you, Marius, have been avoiding answering, and explaining things too," Thomas said.

There was something about his tone that I felt was challenging Falken’s arrangement for Skylark’s recovery that I could not tolerate.

"He knows best. Look at Skylark and how well he’s recovering now. It is out of order for you to be throwing doubts when things are going so well," I reminded Thomas.

"And who is ’he,’ exactly? Care to tell us his name?" Thomas asked.

"Hey, guys, what are you guys going on about?" Dimitri placed one palm on my shoulder, and another on Thomas’s.

"Do not ask questions that could unsettle Skylark, Thomas. I strongly suggest it," I said firmly.

Thomas’s eyes didn’t waver as he tried to look deeper into me. He was trying to read me. I had nothing to hide, and what I could not speak could not be read. I was confident of it.

Then after a moment, Thomas let out a single chuckle, and jabbed me lightly on my chest.

"If you say so, Marius. I trust you."

With that, the discussion was settled.

After we washed ourselves clean, we headed toward the lodge. Once inside, I saw Skylark chirping around the kitchen as Isabelle, Beatrice, and Janice prepared dinner, laughing, talking, listening, and overall having a jolly good time with the ladies.

I looked at Thomas. He spread his arms and looked at me apologetically, as if to say, ’You are right, this really is the best for Leo.’

The smell of whatever they were cooking was mouthwatering, particularly the soup that was boiling in a big pot over the kitchen fire that the ladies were tending. Then suddenly, in the blink of an eye, I thought of Aunty Joan. The last time I had ever been in a kitchen while dinner was being made was when Aunty Joan was still working at our mansion, when she allowed me to sit and watch how food was prepared and cooked.

Why—why do I feel this sudden heartache again? I asked myself.

Everything was going well. Skylark was recovering, and everyone was having a good time.

And I, too, was happy.

But something inside me was hurting.

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