Ryan got down off the chair then turned around to look at his former date. The crowd was more than curious how Ryan was going to deal with this complete and total social humiliation. He held out his hands about a foot apart, then brought them together for a single clap.

 

Then another.

 

And then another.

 

His clapping was slow, loud, and directed at Lucinda and Lily, who both stood next to their dates looking as smug as ever. A few more hearty claps and Ryan came to a halt, "Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I mean, wow. How much time and effort you must have put into this mind fuckery. Amazing. Ten out of ten. Would be mind fucked by you again."

Lily kept up her smirk, "Why thank you, but if you are trying to convince people this doesn't bother you-"

 

Ryan cut her off, "Convince people that this didn't hurt??? Oh no no NO!" Ryan turned to the crowd, "Let me be perfectly clear, I am beyond hurt. I have been gutted here. She took that blade, slid it right into my heart, and Broke. It. OFF." Ryan put his fingertips to his lips and kissed them, "Perfection! This is some true agony here, Folks!" He turned back to his sister, "The way you fooled me into having hope! Into... actually letting down my guard and TRUSTING someone!" Ryan laughed and threw his head back, "HA!" Ryan took a deep breath then looked at Lucinda, "And you? Oh. Quite the actress." He gave her two thumbs up, "You should join a Theater group! You, Milady, are a natural!"

 

Lily looked about. The whole room was quiet and it was difficult to read. If he had just burst into tears or ran out, this would have been something funny to joke about. Everyone would laugh behind his back, but it seemed the longer this went on, the more uncomfortable everyone was getting, "That is all-"

 

"BUT YOU KNOW..." Ryan interrupted her, "There's something I need to tell you."

Lily tensed up and smiled even more, ~Here it comes.~

 

"Thank you."

 

Lily blinked in confusion.

 

"I had a conversation with the headmaster and he told me, 'People aren't so bad. The students here are better than you think. You need to go make friends. Open up to people.'" Ryan grinned, "And lookie-lookie here!" Ryan slowly panned around to gesture to all the other students standing around, watching, "Not a single one has protested. Not a single person came to my defense. They all just stood by. They stood there and enjoyed my pain and suffering. Nay..." He turned to look at Lily, "They are FEASTING upon it."

 

Lily started to open her mouth when Ryan closed the gap with superhuman speed. His sudden movement caused her to take a step back. Her date moved forward protectively, but Ryan just kept talking in that cheerful tone, "So thank you, my dear SISTER. Because after this, I never have to waste one moment, not one single second on anything as useless as trying to make friends with anyone in this school."

He turned and started walking out, "And if the King, or the headmaster or anyone else EVER gets on my case saying, 'Why Are You SOOOOOoooo Antisocial'?" Ryan paused at the door and looked back, "All I have to do is say, 'Freshman Year, School Dance'."

 

He walked out.

 

---

 

Ryan was walking out the main entrance just as it started to rain.

 

He was reaching for a cigarette and sighed when he saw the first few drops come slamming down, "Perfect." He pulled up his collar and started to head out when Aldelmo called out behind him.

"Hey! Wait up!"

Monique was following right behind him, both looked concerned. Ryan stopped at the edge of the rain, but did not look back.

 

Aldelmo stood there looking sympathetic, "Wow that... that was... I..." He frowned, "Honestly, I didn't even know what to do."

Monique tilted her head, "I told him not to interfere. It would only have made things worse. Unfortunately you needed to win or lose on your own."

Ryan waggled his head back and forth, "Understandable."

Aldelmo looked distraught, "I don't know what to say."

Ryan shrugged, "How about, 'please forgive me for betraying you to the first prince'."

 

Aldelmo froze. Sweat started to appear on his forehead, "What?"

 

Ryan stepped back closer to the building and pulled out a cigarette. He lit it with a flick of his zippo then took a long drag before blowing the smoke out into the drizzling rain, "I figured it out. What you did, I mean. So what did the frst prince offer you? A place in his administration?"

 

Aldelmo paused as his mind raced furiously in an attempt to figure a way out this. In the end, his shoulders dropped as he realized the jig was up. He softly answered, "Yes." And said nothing else.

 

Monique looked from one to the other, "Uh... I do not-"

Ryan stabbed his cigarette at Monique, "Can it. I'm not buying what you are selling, either." He looked at Aldelmo, "As for you... I'm just... Don't talk to me for a few days. Maybe never. I just... I was going to let it go, but right now, I have no tolerance for bullshit and you pretending to be my friend hurts more than anything they did in there."

 

Aldelmo started to say something when Ryan stabbed the cigarette at him, "NOTHING... You say can make things better." Ryan took another long drag on his cigarette then dropped it to the ground before crushing it beneath his boot. He turned and started walking away into the night.

 

Aldelmo just watched Ryan walk away until the darkness and the sounds of rain swallowed up any trace that he was ever there.

 

From one of the windows, the crown prince watched and smiled.

 

---

 

The headmaster drummed his fingers and glared at Monique, "I put up with this nonsense because you said you'd get in close to him. You would keep an EYE on him. INSTEAD you date his best friend, who you are telling me tried to poison Reed as a practical joke in order to suck up to the Crown Prince. At the same time, two ladies who were part of Lilith's group, thus indirectly a part of the Crown prince's political allies, set up Reed to be humiliated at the Freshman dance and YOU DID NOTHING ABOUT IT?"

 

Monique rubbed one of her eyebrows like she was getting a migraine as she rolled her eyes, "I GET IT. I screwed up! I tried to become Reed's girlfriend but he... I dunno. He's got a sixth sense. He knows I'm a fake. Or maybe he's just so paranoid that he would suspect anyone." She grabbed her boobs and jiggled them as she looked down, "I thought I did a great job with these, but he's got the self control of a monk."

 

The headmaster leveled his gaze at her chest, "Your problem is you have too low of an opinion of men in general. You think we can't tell how little respect you have for us?"

Monique turned away and mumbled into her fist, "Not all men just... most... men." She rubbed her eyes, "Damnit, it's like he can read my mind. I tried bumping into him, riding with him in a carriage and 'accidentally' bouncing into him, falling near him so he could catch me, the broken heel, getting trapped in a room, dropping the handkerchief, hugging his arm, getting caught in the rain... EVERYTHING!" She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, "It was like he could see everything a mile away. He'd either have prepared some counter, use magic to fix it and make sure he never touched me, or yank Aldelmo in at the last second to take the hit!" She looked thoughtful, "You know, I'm starting to believe this whole 'he's actually thirty eight' thing."

 

The headmaster dropped his head into his hands, "Forget all that. I was the one who asked him to make more friends." He looked up, "He mentioned that specifically?"

She nodded.

He let his face fall back into his hands, "Uther is going to be pissed. I told him I could strengthen Reed's ties to this kingdom and now Reed hates this place more than EVER."

 

Monique tried to smile in a reassuring fashion, "Oh c'mon... how bad could it be?"

 

The headmaster looked up at Monique, "When the king is replaced, Reed is gone. His oath is to the King, nobody else. The king WANTS him to build more ties to the kingdom. The King wants him to have more friends. The king would like to retire EARLY!"

Monique winced, "How... soon?" The headmaster sighed, "He was planning on about three years. He figured by then the demon lord issue will be resolved one way or another and he can step down for a smooth transition." He rolled his eyes, "Except NOW Reed has two separate reasons to hate the crown prince!" The headmaster pointed out the window, "I have no idea why the third prince participated in this! So that's two out of three princes that Reed will NEVER swear an oath to!"

 

Monique nodded, "And... the second prince?"

 

The headmaster sighed, "Don't tell anyone, but I have it on good authority that Reed's brother is in debt up to his eyeballs because of some extremely bad financial advice he got from the second prince."

Monique winced, "Oh crap."

The headmaster nodded, "Oh crap, indeed."

Monique started to chew on a thumbnail, "You don't know the half of it."

The headmaster looked up, "What?"

She looked up, "My spy network is reporting that while our neighboring nations are saying they are going to help against a demon invasion, they actually are going to sit back and see who survives then attack the winner."

The headmaster rubbed his temples like he was getting a migraine, "Nobody is coming to our aid?"

Monique shook her head, "Not a one."

The headmaster looked out the window, "And now... Reed has gone missing. Nobody has seen him since the dance. The weekend is over and classes are resuming, and yet..."

Monique nodded as she stood up, "Alright. I'll get my men on it. We'll dig him up."

 

Headmaster stabbed a finger at Monique, "You had better do better than just 'dig him UP'! Do you know what that boy has done since coming here? How much he has discovered? The unsolvable problems he's solved? I'd throw every other student out of here before I got rid of him! He's priceless and the other students are treating him like trash! You're the spymaster! Do whatever you got to do to fix this!" The headmaster started stabbing his desk with a finger for every word he spoke, "I want him back HERE! I want him HAPPY! I want him PRODUCTIVE!"

"UNDERSTOOD?"

 

She took a deep breath and smiled coldly, "I don't work for you, but I'll get the job done all the same."

The headmaster scowled, "It might not be your job, but if we lose Reed to some other country, we're absolutely fucked. We need YEARS to improve our military to the point we could THINK of doing without Reed! His proposals are-" He sighed and let his thoughts trail off. When next spoke, it was the soft tone of a man defeated, "Just... fix this."

 

She turned and walked out, ~Why is this child proving to be so difficult?~ She closed the door behind her, ~I need to get in this kid's head.~

 

The headmaster sighed and turned to stare out his window, his words echoing Monique's thoughts, "Why is this so difficult? I never had these problems when I was in school. He's the strongest student we have, bar none, just like I was." He tilted his chair back, "Well... there's always the second year tournament." He smiled to himself, "Ah. yes. Once everyone sees how strong he is, they'll all start sucking up to him. That's how it always works. Half-dwarf or no half-dwarf..."

 

"Everyone respects power."