Pretending To Be Gilead's Prince and Master Wizard

I awoke to these soft sheets covering my entire body, and the morning light trickled in through the blinds.

Shedding myself of the remaining glimpses of a dream, my eyes were still shut as I soaked in the warmth of my covers before letting my crimson eyes see the sun's rays that penetrate through the large window on my right.

Compared to yesterday, I am feeling a lot better now

Yawning, I reluctantly sit in my bed, stretched my arms above me, and yawned even louder. I was just about to drag my feet off the bed and fix it when I heard a faint snore somewhere here in the room.

My forehead puckered as I moved my head to look where that sound was coming from…

Holy mackerel! What in the world am I seeing right now?!

I took a closer look and without a doubt, I am currently seeing a sleeping Alex at my bedside. His body is sitting on a bedroom chair while his head is laying soundly on my bed's edge, slightly snoring in the process. My eyes widened as I remembered all the events that happened yesterday.

What is the meaning of this? Did he somehow… took care of me all night?

Well, I suddenly remembered in my dream wherein I heard this heartless, cold jerk's voice out of nowhere, whispering "I'm so sorry Krisella." right in my ears.

I mean, pfft… I thought Alex is not the type of person who says sorry to people so maybe it is just merely a dream after all.

Plastering a sincere smile on my face, I ducked my head a little and faintly whispered, "Thank you, Alex."

The moment I said those words, I saw Alex's jet black eyes slowly opened and I was somewhat stunned by the sight of it that it made me paused for a moment to look at it for a bit more this close.

When he was able to open it completely and his senses are slowly getting back on him, his brows snapped together upon seeing our faces which were only a few inches apart.

"What do you think you're doing, dummy?" was the first thing he said upon waking up.

That made my forehead furrowed in confusion, for I was not able to understand what he means at first.

"Huh?"

"Get away from me, you slowpoke!"

As soon as Alex's voice started to rise, I immediately moved away from him as quickly as I can, letting the lad get off from his place and stood up from his seat.

"Were you staring at me for too long?" he asked in a pissed tone. "I didn't know you could be perverted like that."

That statement of his immediately triggered me, making me furious all of a sudden and shouted right at him, "How dare you to call me a pervert when it is you who slept in here without my consent!" with my right index finger angrily pointing at him.

"What if you…" he said, but stopped himself from doing so and turned his back on me while one hand is raised. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Get out of here, will 'you? I need to prepare to go to school!" I snarled and was about to throw some pillow at him when he started to walk away.

"Fine, whatever." he blurted out. "I guess you're okay now."

And with that, he finally left the room, closing the door with him. Darn, that jerk! How dare he accuses me of being a pervert?!

I forced myself to forget what happened just now and quickly got up from bed to prepare for today's class.

---

After today's last period, me and my friends are back to the usual set up with them, planning to eat together after classes, while me, saying my excuse to decline their invitation.

Oh geez, perks of having some rich friends!

Once we reached the school gates, we bid our goodbyes to one another before we separate ways.

Heaving out a frustrated sigh, I turned my back and started walking away from here. Since I skipped several days of training sessions, I have to make sure I will make it up to them for my sudden absence. After all, I already made a commitment to be their temporary replacement for the prince.

"Yehey! It's Lucas!"

Huh?

Upon hearing some children mentioned the name Lucas, that made me lift my head and to look in the direction where I think I heard those adorable, little voices. Somehow, it also reminds me of that orphanage that I discovered the other day. I wonder how they are doing right now?

My eyes widened when I indeed saw Lucas standing in front of a large house made of bricks that are standing on the other side of the street. In front of him were a bunch of little children jumping up and down upon seeing this lad visiting them.

Looking at him from here, I think he is visiting these children often or during his free time.

I was about to walk past them to continue dashing off my way towards the castle when I heard Lucas shouted, "Hey there Krisella!" that almost made me jump out of my skin. Good thing none of my classmates is seeing this.

Quite hesitantly, I slowly moved my head to look at the lad once again. I saw his hand motioning me to come, making my feet obey his request. As soon as I made sure that the road is clear, I immediately crossed this road and went towards him.

"Hey there Lucas. I didn't see you immediately. " I lied, which I bet Lucas already see it through since he chuckled to that.

"Oh yeah? I saw you staring at me for quite too long," He continued to chuckle at his statement, which made my face flushed all of a sudden.

Geez, and here I thought Alex is the only one I know who likes to assume here!

"I did not!"

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, care to join me right now? It is my day off and I chose to visit these adorable children here at the orphanage."

He now stops laughing and looked at me with that radiating smile he has all across his face.

I lift a hand and scratched the back of my neck before saying, "Well, I am on my way to the castle though. You know I have training sessions today, right?"

"Of course I know." Then I saw him wink at me while doing an okay hand sign. "Don't worry, I will explain everything both to Lancelot and Alex later when we get home. After all, you deserve to take some break even just for a while."

His words astonished me for a bit. Unlike that heartless, cold jerk Alex, Lucas is quite the opposite.

He is kind, friendly, and most importantly, he is quite the understanding type of person who considers the feelings of others. Well, I was only with them for a few weeks now, but I am sure that he is like those that I have mentioned earlier.

"O-okay… if you say so." I finally agreed.

Later on, I found myself enjoying while playing some fun games with Lucas and with these children. We did a lot of activities for the day that made me see their beautiful smiles and heartfelt laughter that is music to my ears. Like, wow, I have never been this happy throughout my stay here.

Lucas and I are currently watching these children draw on their mini tables with the art materials provided by the lad earlier. We asked them to draw what they want to be like when they grow up.

I've seen some of them like to be a doctor, some of them like to be a wizard as well, and some of them like to be a teacher someday. Seeing their colorful drawings makes my heart swell with joy.

I bet if the prince is also here with us today, I'm sure he would be happy for these children also… and would do anything that it takes to safeguard their smiles and their dreams.

"Lucas, sir…"

My companion was suddenly interrupted by two women dressed in all black, from their tunic, belt, scapular, and up to their veils covering their heads. I suppose they are the ones taking care of these children in this orphanage.

"A family is already here to adopt Sheena." said the one standing to the right.

"Oh. Alright then. Let them in.' replied the lad politely,

After that, he went towards a kid with silky blonde hair worn in a ponytail whom I saw drawing a picture of a family on her paper. I guess, her dream of having a family would finally come true.

"Sheena, your new family is here to pick you up," says Lucas gently to the girl, which made her face lit up all of a sudden.

Quite excited, the kid who was called Sheena stood up from her seat and picked up her small backpack placed beside her and wore it. The other kids stopped from what they are doing and sadly looked at their friend who's about to leave them.

"Goodbye, Sheena. We will miss you." a cute little boy with snowy white hair and a pair of blue eyes said while looking sadly at the girl.

"I will never forget you all." Sheena's eyes were now glistening with tears as all of them surrounded her with tight hugs. Aww, what an adorable scene to look at.

The kid is now walking towards her new family when she stopped midway and looked in our direction once more, with her eyes now swelled with tears.

"I don't want to leave here!"

Somehow, that made the sisters and Lucas panic. I only tap the lad's shoulder and said, "I got this." before removing something from my backpack's zipper, and went near to the kid.

"Hey Sheena, don't cry. You will finally have a family of your own, isn't that great?" I said to lighten up the mood. That made the child looked at me.

"But I don't want to leave my friends," she says with full of innocence.

"Who says you will be leaving them?"

Then that's the time I showed her a small dream catcher that I removed from my zipper earlier.

"See this? This is a dream catcher. When you have this, it catches all your bad dreams and makes them disappear. Plus, it can also make your sadness go away and will remind you that wherever you might be, you will still have your friends with you…" I genuinely smiled at her while pointing near her to her chest.

"There, in your heart."

After that brief conversation, that made the kid finally convinced of going with her new family with a happy smile plastered on her face as she waves us goodbye.

Then a few moments later, Lucas and I said our goodbyes to the children as well and started walking back to the castle.

There was a moment of silence between us while walking next to each other until that silence was interrupted by Lucas as he asked this question, "Say, where did you get the idea of dream catcher earlier? Have you heard from someone else, maybe?"

"I made it up myself, hehe." I shyly replied.

Yep, I made it all up.

"Oh… I thought you have heard that from someone."

An awkward silence began to prevail once again, but Lucas' last words kept on bugging me, hence making me turn my head to look at him once more.

"Who is that someone you're referring to?" I curiously asked.

The lad, in turn, looks quite hesitant at first to answer my question. I was about to drop the matter when I finally heard him saying,

"Well, a long time ago... the prince had also told me about the same story of the dream catcher as well."