The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

MARIUS

The three boys seemed impossible to catch. It was one thing to hunt in the woods, but another thing to hunt kids in the city. Instead of getting closer, it seemed they were gaining distance on us. Every corner we turned, we just about managed to catch a sight of them disappearing into another street, until we no longer saw them at all.

After that, it was all just guesswork. Running into random streets, quickly scanning, passing through and turning into yet another street. No purpose, no plan, an utter failure.

At one point, embarrassingly, Beatrice and I ran into Isabelle, almost having a head-on collision as we turned a corner.

"Why are you alone?" I asked, noticing that Dorian was missing.

"I... don’t know. I ran after the boys first and only realized later that Dorian didn’t follow me, sorry," she said.

"We are not going to find them now. For all we know, they could have gone inside a building somewhere," Beatrice said, with a hint of anger in her voice—anger directed at herself. I could understand. I felt angry at my own incompetence as well.

"But we can’t give up," I said, trying to motivate the group.

"Let’s look for them some more," Isabelle said with a nod.

Then, it was on the third street we entered that we saw Dorian and Skylark—what was he doing here now?—standing with Skylark holding a bag of stuff in his hands.

"What happened?" I ran up to them and asked.

"We almost had them," Dorian said.

"And?" I asked him this time.

"They threw away the stolen goods and ran away. Probably trying to get rid of the evidence," he said calmly.

I looked at Skylark. He avoided my gaze, turning his head away from me.

Did he also feel that he had failed...?

We all did.

"At least we got the goods now. We can return them to the seller," Beatrice said, joining the discussion.

I looked at Dorian closely again. Somehow, I couldn’t quite believe that he failed after ’almost catching them.’

"How did they escape?" I asked.

"Leo actually managed to catch one of them. I saw it just as I turned the corner into this street," Dorian said.

Skylark looked a little startled.

"Do go on," I urged.

"It was three against one until I got here. They pushed him to the ground and he fell awkwardly. I thought he banged his head. When I got to them**,** they threw away the goods and ran off. I felt I needed to check Leo for a concussion first," Dorian explained—his voice smooth.

"Oh my—are you okay, Leo?" Beatrice asked him.

I saw no dirt or creases on Skylark’s clothes.

Something didn’t hold up.

"I... I’m okay now," he said.

"Is it true?" I asked, looking straight into his eyes.

"Ye-yes," he said.

You are a terrible liar, Skylark.

A concerned Beatrice was checking Skylark’s head. I looked at Isabelle. She saw me, then sympathetically patted him on the back.

I couldn’t buy this story, but everyone did.

"Let’s go and report to Sergeant Becker about what happened," Dorian said.

"Wait—I’m not sure if that’s the best thing to do now," Isabelle said.

"It probably won’t reflect well on Leo. But we can’t hide something like this. Too bad, Skylark," Dorian said with a scoff.

Then Isabelle and Beatrice looked at me with cautious eyes. Dorian was grinning. Skylark was looking at the ground.

I couldn’t tell what was going on anymore.

It was a lie. Pure and simple.

But as things stood, Dorian was going to report that Skylark failed against three young boys. That certainly wouldn’t help his standing in the Academy. It was rare, but there had been cases where students who didn’t perform to minimum standards got expelled.

"I’m sorry, Mario...," Skylark finally spoke, still unable to look at me.

I couldn’t fathom why he was lying, but his apology was genuine.

Everyone waited expectantly for me to answer.

The final decision fell on me.

I took a deep breath and said,

"We will return the goods. We shall not report."

Beatrice let out a sigh of relief. Isabelle put her hand on Skylark’s shoulder. Dorian was smiling.

’Whatever game you are playing, Dorian... I won’t forget this,’ I thought to myself, biting my lip.

We then walked back to the city square, dejected.

The sweets seller was happy to receive his goods back, and even offered to give us some free gifts as a token of gratitude. I refused, as it would be inappropriate for a knight to receive private gifts from civilians, even if they were offered with good intentions.

We then completed the rest of our patrol course without much incident. When we arrived at the checkpoint, Sergeant Becker demanded,

"You guys are very late. Explain what happened."

As I was thinking about what to say—for I, too, was a terrible liar, actually—Isabelle quickly said,

"There were two guys at the festival square who looked suspicious, loitering. We thought we’d stop and observe them for a while."

"And?" the Sergeant requested a further report.

"It turned out to be nothing. Another man came to join them and then they went away. It seems the two men were just waiting for the third one," Isabelle said quickly.

"I see," the Sergeant said, looking carefully at each one of us before saying,

"Keep your eyes open. Stay vigilant. You can have a five-minute rest and start your second patrol round."

"Yes, Sir," we all responded together.

During our break, I took Skylark aside, desperate to hear the truth from him.

"What really happened, Skylark?"

"It was as Dorian said," he said in a quiet voice.

Something snapped inside me.

I burst out,

"What are you hiding with that guy? Why are you lying to me?!"

Skylark’s shoulders trembled a little and his face looked gloomy in a way I hadn’t seen before.

"Because... you don’t understand, Mario..."

"What don’t I understand? Try me. Tell me and we will see."

"I can’t. Because...," his voice dropped even quieter, and he said in almost a whisper,

"I don’t understand myself either."

Something wasn’t right with him.

And it hurt that he didn’t trust me to help him.

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