The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

MARIUS

I was having my third skewer as we walked around the square checking out various stalls. The skewer was exceptional, especially with the ’sweet and sour spicy barbecue sauce’ that Skylark insisted I put on mine. It was an explosion of taste I had never experienced before. There was no finesse at all, and having chicken, pork, beef, and chillies all together in one go was an experience that couldn’t be described in any other way than ’obscenely extravagant,’ especially with that sauce. But the taste was so addictive that I couldn’t stop eating it. At least not when I was eating it with Skylark, who kept on chirping about how good it was with an infectious smile.

There was still the niggling thought at the back of my mind about what had happened throughout the day. There were so many things that needed explaining.

But for now, ’chilli chicken, pork, and beef skewer with sweet and sour spicy barbecue sauce’ would do.

"Oh, look, Mario—handcrafted ornaments," Skylark suddenly alerted me, and when I came back to my senses from the semi-trance induced by overeating, he was already at the stall with a delighted smile.

Once I went over and stood next to him, I saw what was on display at the stall and was quite impressed myself. There were various necklaces, rings, bracelets, hair ornaments, and other colorful items crafted from a myriad of different materials.

"They are really neat, right?" Skylark asked me, taking the last remaining piece of his skewer into his mouth.

"They are certainly easy on the eye," I said, impressed.

"Aw, come on. They are blindingly beautiful, not ’easy on the eye,’ Mario!"

But it was Skylark who had a blindingly bright smile on his face, I thought.

"Yes... they are," I agreed.

As we looked around, Skylark picked out one necklace made of what appeared to be silver.

"Wow, look at this. This is fantastic," Skylark enthused.

I looked closer, and it was a pendant with a sun, but what was particularly special was that it had a moon, made with a half-translucent gemstone I couldn’t quite name, inside the silver sun that one could rotate. It was a very neat aesthetic and mechanical construction indeed.

"You have a keen eye, young man," the seller said, noticing us.

"This is Yapian-made, right?" Skylark asked, and a few heads turned with surprised looks.

"Psst, not so loud—" the seller quickly shushed Skylark and continued while giving us a wink, "I’m afraid not."

"But I’m sure it—yeek!"

This time, I interrupted Skylark by poking him in the side and whispered to him,

"Yapians are not well liked in the capital—do you remember the history class?"

It was only then that it registered with Skylark.

"Oh, oh—of course not! I am mistaken!"

He was winking a bit too much at the seller.

What a horrible liar he was.

"Twenty Kronen and it’s yours," the seller said.

"T-t-t-twenty?!" Skylark exclaimed, looked at the pendant, made a sad face, and put it down reluctantly.

"Let’s go, Mario..." he said to me, already turning to leave the stall and pulling my sleeve.

I didn’t budge.

I took out the folded wallet from the inside pocket of my uniform jacket and fished out two ten-Kronen notes.

"I will take it," I said.

"Nooo!" Skylark quickly jumped up and said,

"You NEVER pay the full price, Mario!" he whispered—very loudly—into my ear.

"But I have twenty Kronen, though?" I asked him, puzzled.

"Still! And it’s still TOO expensive!" He was adamant.

That made me hesitate.

The seller was holding the pendant in his hand with a grin and said to us,

"Twenty Kronen. You agreed to the deal, young man."

"Let’s go, Mario. This is a ridiculous price..." Skylark said, turning around, but his gaze was still fixed on the pendant.

"It is actually a reasonable price. Look what you can do with it," the seller said, twisting the pendant a little. Then the sun and the moon separated.

"Huh?"

The seller said nothing, still grinning, and put them back together and gave it a spin.

"Neat, right?"

Skylark was biting his lower lip.

"This is a ’friendship pendant,’ actually. Two people can keep one piece each, but each piece belongs to the other. Sharing this pendant together will make sure that the friendship will last forever," the seller said, suddenly lowering his voice and sounding overly serious.

After hearing this, there was no way I could buy it now.

’Sharing a pendant’ with Skylark... ’friends forever.’

Something in me was rejecting it. It all felt like something that ladies would do with their friends, or even worse, something that lovers did.

"Let’s go, Skylark," I said to him this time, my mind set.

"Wait... Mario..." Skylark stopped me, holding firmly onto the sleeve of my jacket.

"Could... we get it and I pay you back half... eventually?"

My heart sank.

Was he serious...?!

"Don’t get me wrong! I will save the expenses we get for future missions and pay you back as soon as I can! I just think—"

He then cast his eyes down, fidgeted, and said,

"It would be really neat if you could keep one and I could keep one..."

I felt like all the blood in my body rushed to my head, flushing out all my reason, making me uncontrollably blurt out to the seller,

"Please take my money."

I handed over the twenty Kronen.

"Thank you for your business! And this is how you separate it," the seller showed us the way we should twist it to disassemble it, "and this is how you put it back together," then he showed us how to assemble it.

Nice mechanical construction that Skylark wanted but couldn’t afford.

That’s all it was, and I was just being nice to a friend in need.

"Why don’t you put them on each other?" the seller said, giving the sun to me and the moon to Skylark.

Before I could even realize what was happening, Skylark was reaching up to put the pendant’s string over my head.

"You are too tall, Mario," he said.

I lowered my head, and Skylark put the pendant on me.

"Tha—thanks," I said.

"Now your turn," Skylark said with a smile and lowered his head too, which he didn’t need to.

I felt like my hands suddenly froze and it was a great struggle to move them, but in the end, I managed to put the pendant on Skylark.

"Hehe, thank you," Skylark said.

I... didn’t know what to think of it all. I just grabbed the sun that was now hanging around my neck. I had never worn such things before in my life, and I didn’t know what others would think if they saw me wearing an ornament all of a sudden.

"Skylark—could... we keep this a secret? As in... wear it so it’s not visible..."

Skylark thought about it for a moment, then nodded, saying,

"Sure. Keeping secrets between friends is important, mm-hm."

With that, we both tucked the pendants below our shirts.

Then Skylark said, oh-so-casually,

"Do you want another skewer?"

"No."

I didn’t think my stomach could take it anymore.

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