Chapter Text
"Hello?"
"Here. An invitation to the festival. All in the kingdom shall be going if able." Hunter thanked the palace guard, and took the letter inside. An invitation, huh. Doubt my uncle would let me go. He moved the paper around in his hands, reading through it carefully. But he knew that 'all in the kingdom' still wouldn't include him. He'd be stuck in the house, as always.
At every waking hour, Hunter would be handling any of Lord Belos' busy work. Be it chores, fetching mail, or going to the market, at no time would he ever be allowed to go to the festival. Much less meet anyone of importance there.
Yet still, he wanted to go. He'd heard news of the festival before, and that the prince would be there. The prince...
"You're telling me we're doing an entire festival, just so I can find a date?"
"Yes, that's exactly what's going on, Edric. Emira is now with Viney, a very good business woman and noble. Amity has a girlfriend by the name of Luz, an extremely well known inhabitant of this kingdom. When will you catch up?" Odalia seemed to be more impatient than usual.
An entire festival, though? Now this was just excessive. Edric groaned, but was slightly excited about the festival. Mostly for the food.
Deep down he knew, though, he probably wouldn't find anyone of interest. And Odalia would just get more upset.
Yet another trip to the market. Hunter hated the recent uptick in busywork, but luckily, that meant Belos would be back later in the night then usual. Maybe I could sneak out to the festival, just for awhile? Hunter shook off the thought, he still had chores to do after all. And where would he even get a nice outfit to go in, either? It was out of the question. While his mind was taken up by his thoughts, he bumped into someone.
"Agh! Oh, uhm, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to I swear!" Hunter tripped over his words, and quickly ran off.
The person he'd bumped into was just glad Hunter hadn't met his eyes. Otherwise, Edric totally would've been recognized.
There were only a few days left until the festival. Edric was sitting around talking with Luz, Amity and Emira.
"Do you even know anyone in the kingdom? All you do is stay inside all day." Edric knew Emira was right about that. The only person he'd seen recently aside from his family was that boy he'd run into.
"I've seen one person recently, actually! A pretty blonde boy. He looked interesting, he had magenta eyes and a scar on his face."
"No way." Luz seemed taken aback. "Hunter? That blonde boy? You've gotta be kidding me."
"Hunter?"
"Yeah. He works for that horrid noble Belos, they might be related. But I doubt he's going to the festival, he's always working."
"You know him? Do you think you could convince him to go to the festival, maybe?" Edric seemed slightly desperate. Amity tried hard not to laugh at him, but it was difficult.
"Ok! I'll ask him then." Luz quickly wrote down to ask Hunter so that she wouldn't forget.
The festival would start tomorrow, and end next week. Hunter had managed to catch a quick break, so he went to his living quarters to look around for anything nice of his to wear. He found his only decent pair of shoes, some slip ons with a bit of embroidery near the heel. As he was checking to see if they still fit, Hunter heard tapping on his window. At first he ignored it, but it grew louder. Hunter opened the window to find Edalyn Clawthorne, a popular witch, and Luz Noceda, an acquaintance of his.
"Huh? What're you doing here?"
"I figured you'd wanna go to the festival tomorrow, so me and Eda thought we'd gift you some outfits!" Hunter was confused, but Eda handed him a stack of folded clothes and flew away. He was about to look through them when an all too familiar voice called him.
"Hunter!" It was Belos. And the work had begun again, as always.