The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

MARIUS

As soon as I entered my room, I sensed the danger—a hostility in the air.

Dorian was half lying on his bed, reading a book—he was an avid reader, surprisingly—while Thomas sat on the upper bunk, juggling small rubber balls, which he immediately stopped when he saw me.

Thomas then threw a ball at me and blurted out,

"Catch."

It flew directly toward my face, but of course, I was able to catch it.

"How are you, Thomas?" I asked cordially. I glanced at Dorian first, but he seemed harmless. The inexplicable hostility was coming from Thomas, who had just tried to prank me.

Odd.

Then Thomas threw another ball at me without saying a word this time, which I, again, caught without a problem. But as soon as I caught the ball, another one followed, this time thrown with vicious power. I caught it very close to my face.

"So nothing gets through to you, huh?" Thomas said.

The disdain in his voice was undisguised.

"We can chat outside, Thomas, if there is something you’d like to talk about," I offered, attempting reconciliation first without knowing what he held against me.

"We can talk right here, Mario."

The elongated O of Mario grated against my skin.

"It’s Marius," I said.

"But you let Leo call you that," Thomas said with a pointed tone.

"That’s different."

"So Leo is different to you. Right."

As Thomas said this, I quickly checked Dorian. He was still keeping the same posture, his eyes fixed on the book.

"What are you getting at?" I asked. My patience wasn’t infinite.

"What do you know about the so-called ’gentleman,’ Marius?" Thomas asked.

"Who are you talking about?"

"How can you ’pretend’ so well to your ’friend’?"

"Let’s talk it over outside, Thomas. I’m sure there is some misunderstanding," I said, as Dorian’s presence here bothered me.

"No. We stay here. We will talk, or more like, YOU will talk."

"If there is something you’d like to ask, ask me."

"The ’gentleman’ that ’takes care’ of Leo. Who is he?"

I threw another glance at Dorian. Still no movement.

"He looks after students of the Academy. As you have seen yourself," I said.

This was no lie.

"And he can command an entire company while wearing civilian clothes, casually walking around the festival with his arm around Leo. That explains everything now, thank you."

"He seems to hold some kind of position. What that is—I honestly do not know. But he’s been nothing but kind to Leo. You saw it during Leo’s recovery," I retorted. This much I could say with real conviction.

Thomas then jumped down from his bed and approached me with intent. I thought about it for a heartbeat and decided not to budge.

"You know what I think?" Thomas asked, stopping less than a step away from me. There was fire in his eyes.

"Feel free to tell me," I said.

"Leo is being used. For what, I don’t know. But you are in it together, Marius." With that, he jabbed me in the chest with his finger.

"I’d stop doing that if I were you," I said without moving an inch.

"What are you going to do? Report me?"

Did he know that I had been reporting to Falken?

He could have inferred it. That was not a surprise. We went to Falken’s office together to pick up the canary he told us to bring to Skylark’s recovery room. He knew where Falken stayed on campus, and he would have seen me coming and going from that direction. He was most likely just putting forward a conjecture and trying to confirm it through provocation.

"Have you done anything that warrants being reported?" I asked.

"You are a rat," Thomas said, and just before he could reach my chest as he tried to shove me, I grabbed his wrists and pushed him away.

"Don’t meddle with things you don’t know about, Thomas, my good man."

I really didn’t want any escalation. There was no need for it.

"Take it outside, ladies. I’m trying to read here," Dorian finally spoke.

"Stay out of it, Dorian," Thomas said to him, almost growling.

"The gentleman you speak of, Thomas," Dorian said without looking up from his book, "is who you will take orders from once you become a Royal Knight. Isn’t that just dandy?"

"I’m taking no orders from a creep with no badge!" Thomas yelled.

"The badge, hah!" Dorian sneered.

"Guys, stop it," I tried to intervene, but Thomas shot back at me immediately.

"Listen, Marius—I don’t like that creep hovering around Leo. He says something to Leo during magic class, Leo collapses and needs to go to the infirmary. I heard something happened during the survival mission, and he just turns up right on time to take Leo away and keeps him—locked away! Don’t you remember how Leo was acting back then? Something was SERIOUSLY wrong with him, and you say that ’gentleman’ was taking good care of him? Hah! Laughable!"

"You don’t know anything, Thomas," I said, exasperated now.

"THEN TELL ME!" Thomas yelled, almost throwing himself at me and pushing me in the chest—and as he did so, he touched the pendant under my clothes.

I felt a surge of rage through my body.

I quickly grabbed Thomas’s wrist and twisted it around his back, pushing him against the wall.

"Don’t touch me," I said.

"You and Leo. Something’s gotten into your heads. I can feel it," Thomas said without trying to escape.

"You are making up things that don’t exist. Seriously, let it go and calm down," I said, letting go of his wrist and stepping back.

"Something just hit a nerve, didn’t it?" Dorian said with a whistle.

"Stay out of it, Dorian," I warned him.

"I think I will, actually. I’ll just go and read in the common room while you ladies quibble," Dorian said and got up to leave the room.

"You know something as well, don’t you?" Thomas stepped between Dorian and the door.

Dorian stopped, smiled, and said,

"I will tell you the truth, then."

"Spit it out," Thomas growled.

"The truth is that Marius is right. You don’t know anything. But neither does he. And to be honest with you, I don’t know anything either. None of us know anything. So let me just go and enjoy my book," Dorian said with a sprinkle of amusement in his voice.

Thomas stepped aside, and Dorian left.

"Marius," Thomas called me, his voice noticeably calmer.

"Yes."

"I won’t forgive you if Leo is harmed in any way."

That surprised me a little, but it was something I could agree on.

"I will be the first one to punish anyone who does," I said.

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