Chapter Text
Luck and Magna had eventually made their way to Saussy Village, luckily not late into the night, where Seihi was kind enough to offer them a room in an inn. It was nice being home for once after joining the Bulls, Magna figured, but not with company.
“Magna!” Luck whisper yelled from the other bed, in which Magna groaned and faced the other way in response.
“Go the fuck to sleep, Luck.” Magna pulled the blanket over himself and covered his ears with his pillow. From behind him, there was the sound of fabric rustling–Luck was toying with his blanket absentmindedly. Anything to keep his hyperactive brain busy.
“But you're still thinking about that elf guy from earlier today, aren't you? I am.” Luck sat up, the sheets ruffling as he laid his head on the backboard. Magna still refused to turn around.
Luck was left with a beat of silence before Magna responded quietly, almost like he was talking to himself.
“I don't want to talk about it.” he said, eventually letting his pillow fall back on the bed and laying his head flat on top of it. It occurred to him how the bedsheets smelled vaguely floral, almost like that elf’s–
He needed to get out of his own damn head.
Luck remained staring at the ceiling, hand scrunching in the bedsheet as he used his unbandaged hand to cushion his head from the backboard.
“You knew that old guy when we came here. This isn't just any random town to you, isn't it?” Magna shot his gaze to Luck, but he was still staring at the white plaster. His eyes looked distant.
“Why're you bein’ so nosy all of a sudden?” Magna rolled his eyes, a frown beginning to settle but a little too exhausted to manage. He needed sleep. He was tired, but for some reason, he couldn’t seem to close his eyes for long.
“I'm bored. Is it bad that I want to talk a little?” Luck caught Magna's gaze and smiled.
“You talk too much.” Magna scoffed and settled on his side again, no less restless than Luck. After Luck had decided to shut up for a while, Magna’s eyes wandered around the room to keep him from going crazy trying to force himself to sleep.
It was a cozy room: two twin beds separated by a wooden nightstand with a lamp settled on top of it, the floor littered with mysterious stains just as any inn you would find in the Forsaken Realm. The beds were clean, at least. Though, the frames tended to creak at any slight motion. The window at the far end of the room was a bit rattly yet still reliable in terms of keeping the wind out, the moonlight casting the only light in the room.
In other words, it was familiar to Magna. It was about the same conditions he grew up in. Being here almost made him feel… safe. Secure.
“Hey! You didn't fall asleep already, did you?” Luck said, just as Magna's eyes felt a little heavier.
And there went that sense of security. He was with Luck.
It was a long night, but they both eventually fell asleep.
…
“Lumi, these are the worst disguises you’ve had us wear by far.” Tetia said, walking alongside her brother. “Sure, I wanted to get out of that boring-ass meeting, but seriously?”
“I'm not some master of disguise, Tetia. I mean, what did you expect me to do with 5 minutes of preparation? These cloaks were the best I could do.” Lumiere smiled nervously, pulling the hood of his cloak over his head, golden hem shining in the morning sun. Their cloaks were big and hid them well, but that came at the cost of looking like magic drug dealers. They were also made of expensive material, the golden stitches and patterns embroidered on it much too costly for a peasant to buy, so envious eyes still fell on them every now and then. Wary glances and glares as if to say, “Why are we struggling to get by with hours of working while you lift your hand and everything is already done for you?”
“You're lucky Julius came up with a good enough excuse to let us leave early.” Tetia sighed. “We can't keep doing this. Saussy Village–are you absolutely sure there are no Magic Knights on patrol today? They won't recognize us?”
“Well… royals and nobles rarely show their face around the Forsaken Realm, so I doubt anybody in a town like this would immediately recognize us. They probably don't know our faces very well unless they've been to a ton of events in the castle town.” Lumiere’s eyes began to wander to a shop selling magic items, but Tetia waved a hand in front of his face.
“Hey. What about Magic Knights?” Tetia repeated, a bit louder.
Lumiere’s eyes refocused. “Sorry! Haha- anyways, none are on patrol today that I know of. I snuck a glance at the assignment papers that were being sent to the squads today, and none said Saussy Village.” His gaze began to wander again, more thoughtfully this time. Luckily not on any of the shops. “Unless a Magic Knight is here off-duty or… or maybe stranded on a mission? But getting a break is unlikely at this time of year and being stranded on a mission is also implausible, considering there haven't been many difficult, long-term missions we’ve assigned as of late.”
Tetia relaxed a little, taking a steady breath before deciding to trust her brother. Sure, he was reckless, but he was undoubtedly smart and carefully calculated things more often than not, even though he drove her crazy with his antics. She just hoped that if there were Magic Knights in the area–hopefully a slim chance–that they wouldn't report it to their father and be stuck at the castle under hundreds of attendants supervising their every move. She couldn't stand feeling like she was in a cage.
Saussy, although far less lively as Kikka, felt more free; and the air felt a lot cleaner when it wasn't clogging your sinuses with fine fragrances and street food. Smaller villages felt more tightly-knit, more personal, and it felt nice to have a taste of that when your whole life had been meeting with random distant cousins and managing a whole nation, where you could never truly know what everybody wants and who they even are.
And, well, the appeal to Lumiere was the unique magical items and the practical use of commoner's magic. Maybe he was a bit too curious at times.
As if on cue, Lumiere's eyes shone with that look of “Massive opportunity to study magic!”
“Tetia. Tetia. There's a merchant selling magic items.” Lumiere frantically tapped his sister's shoulder, pointing to a small stand near an inn.
“Don’t spend the entire kingdom’ wealth on this.” Tetia brushed her brother's hand off her shoulder, sighing.
“Don't worry, I only brought a couple thousand yul with me. They're selling magic washboards! Isn't that cool?” Lumiere hurried to the merchant, who began raising their prices as soon as they saw they were not only tourists, but had a large bag of yul on them.
“20,000 yul! A small price, really!” The merchant said, holding a small purple crystal said to “boost magic properties beyond the user's capability.” Tetia couldn’t tell whether or not they were about to get scammed.
“I'll take i-!” Lumiere began to reach for his bag of yul, only for his hand to be swatted away by someone they saw coming out from the inn's door a few moments prior.
“Goddammit, Seihi, you have to stop gamblin' and selling these shitty products just to get a quick buck.” Who was this guy? He has funky hair, there's a blond guy at his side, and-
Ohhh shit. They were Black Bulls.
“Lumi. We're fucking dead.” Tetia whispered to Lumiere. She didn't have her hood on, fuck she should have done that earlier, making her noticable as someone of high status to anybody who had eyes. She noted that she should stop caring about how powdered her nose is when they go out to the Forsaken Realm.
“Hey, aren't you Princess Tetia?” The blond one said. He kind of reminded Tetia of Lumiere because of their blue eyes glinting with curiosity and blond hair–even their smiles were similar. They were practically the same height, too, but Lumiere's hair was just a tad bit less unkempt. The way he scanned Lumiere and Tetia with sharp eyes, no doubt incredibly analytical as if he could read them merely at a glance. (Once again just like Lumiere. Scary similarities.)
“Dude. No way that's the Princess. Why'd she be all the way out here in Saussy?” The one with the mohawk said, and sweat began to bead on Tetia’s brow as she held onto the miniscule amount of hope she had that they would brush her and her brother off. Why did Lumiere seem so unbothered?
“Hm, no, I still think it’s the princess. Aren’t the princess and prince known to sneak off sometimes, anyway?” The blond one said, his attention now on Lumiere as if he could see right through his cloak. Lumiere had been awfully quiet, probably preventing himself from making things worse, Tetia thought, but the Bulls were getting more and more suspicious of the both of them.
“Where the hell did you hear that from, Luck?” The other Black Bull said.
“Vanessa knows a lot of stuff, and she rambles when she gets really drunk.” The blond one–”Luck,” Tetia mentally noted again–tapped Lumiere on the shoulder, then pushed him in a way that they’d now been making eye contact, his face only hidden by the shadow of his hood. Lumiere put on an extremely forced smile.
“C-can I help you?” Lumiere stuttered, being of no help at all.
“Yep. This is the prince and princess. I was right, Magna!” Luck beamed, then laughed as he delighted in Magna's dumbfounded expression as he finally registered their high-end attire and neat appearance. He recalled seeing their faces when Yami took him and Luck for a meeting at Kikka shortly after Luck had joined the squad.
“Holy shit. The prince and princess? Shouldn’t we be like, bowing or something?” Magna shifted his feet nervously, looking like he was torn between kneeling and begging for forgiveness. (Or both.)
Lumiere smiled warmly. “Ah, calm down. We're not like that, we just go out for fun. I mean, as long as you don’t report this to Captain Yami, and then he tells Captain Jack, who tells Captain Nozel, and then-” He realized he was rambling, then stopped for a second to compose himself. “Point is, don't tell anybody we were here.”
“Yeah, we got yo-” Magna began, but was cut off by Luck shoving him to the side.
“We won't tell anybody you were here if you assign the Black Bulls a super dangerous mission!” Luck grinned wildly.
“What the fuck?! No! What-” Magna was cut off again, this time by Luck sticking his palm over his mouth. He licked Luck's hand.
“Eugh, what the heck?” Luck wiped his hand on Magna's robe, both of them laughing. “But think about it, the Bulls are at negative stars! This is a good thing!”
“..You're leaving out the part where you like being put into near-death situations. But I guess it is a good thing.” Magna thought about it for a bit longer, looked at Luck and his smile that was definitely bloodthirsty, and nodded. He turned to Lumiere. “Yeah, whatever, give the Black Bulls a mission that'll get us a star and we won’t snitch to the captain. I know you can't just flat out give us a star, so it’s better to give us a mission that'll probably get us one, right?”
“Yes, I suppose we can give you a mission that could potentially get you a star? I trust the Black Bulls. Yami's a good captain… when he does his job.” Lumiere sighed. He couldn’t lie, Yami was definitely amongst the strongest of captains, but his method of conducting his squad was questionable. Negative 31 stars was impressively horrible.
Lumiere noticed the bandage on Luck's hand, lifting his hand from where he was standing.
“Light Magic: Healing Light of Conviction.”
“Consider that a thank you again.” The prince smiled, then he and Tetia decided to get out of the town to not cause any further trouble.
Luck immediately removed the bandage, flexing his fingers; and apparently regaining dexterity meant using his magic to shock Magna.
“W-what the-!” Magna inhaled sharply, hissing air through his teeth. Then he looked at Luck, who was smiling and giggling.
“Actually, I should've known you’d do that."