The Serpent's Enigma

29 | The Five Muses

Match the Cals with their drinks! ☕️ 🍵

Is it Sr. = coffee, Jr. = tea OR Sr. = tea, Jr. = coffee?

(Italics are for dialogues spoken in Prajan language.)

.·。.·゜·༺♥༻ ·゜·。.

CAL VELIUS LEROY

If there was a person whom Cal Junior hated the most in the world, it was Gigi's brother.

He asked Cal to marry him, the audacity!

The fact that he was Gigi's brother infuriated him even more. It gave him a form of security in which Junior could not touch him or punish him for misbehaving.

But could he at least just ask the boy to leave him alone?

Ever since their first meeting in the library, the boy had followed—no, stalked him all day. To the library, the drawing-room, even the kitchen when he was looking for sweets. He was always somewhere around the corner, ogling at him with that stupid stare, and that stupid smile!

But no, Cal didn't want to end up marrying such a goofy boy. He wanted a life full of magic, dragons, adventures; everything that the fairy tales could offer.

And one day, when he was all grown up, it could be nice to have someone who understood him. Someone who saw him as he was.

"Junior, I'm off to sleep. Please don't forget to turn the light off when you're done reading, dear," Senior reminded him as he slipped into the blankets by his side.

Junior lazily responded with a hum and a nod, keeping his focus on the books beneath his nose, still neglecting to give him good night kisses.

"...Are you still upset at me for Gigi?" Senior sighed, leaning back into the cushions. "Even though Gigi forgave me a long time ago? Don't you think I deserve redemption?"

"It hasn't been a month. When I say it's for a month, it is for a month," replied Junior, pursing his lips.

"Are the extra late-night hours not enough to pay for it?" Blinking his eyes, he showed a pitiful expression as an attempt to earn his sympathy.

Junior groaned. "Argh, fine! I'll make it half a month, but no less. You need to learn your lesson, Father."

"Sometimes I forget who's the father between the two of us," Senior muttered sleepily into his pillows. Soon Junior could hear his soft breathing as he drifted off to sleep.

His own eyelids were getting heavier but reminded himself how he planned to pull an all-nighter in which he would not sleep until he learned about the strange girl that had mysteriously appeared in his garden.

Since the day he met 'Fate', he had been looking into books and lore to see if he could find something that would explain who she was, where she came from and how she arrived here.

But the clues were scattered, and most of his attempts had been unsuccessful. His father had even started to notice that he'd been sneaking out to the garden to seek her.

The more time passed, the more his brain started to tell him it was a mere illusion. But he knew she wasn't. She was too real to be an illusion. If his talents and abilities were real, then Fate should be too.

Heading to his father's study to get more books, he pushed the door open. It was locked during the night, but he had figured out how to open it using his powers. As he reached for the shelf, the meowing of a cat broke the dead of night.