The World We Live In

Ch 52: Wedding

Our days in Burningshield finished. Goodbye, hot bath. Goodbye, Mom and Dad. Goodbye, brother. Goodbye, my proudest and kindest kingdom. Goodbye, seeing Olivier's face every day in the same room...

I rubbed my face so hard. It seemed too impossible to recognize that we were staying in Burningshield. Sure, there was nothing like home and my home was already long gone. Now the 'physical' home was ruined, luckily, I found myself a home in the shape of a small lady. Yes, a small lady that kinda drove me insane.

It wasn't like I made it official with her, though.

Again, I rubbed my face so hard. I looked at my room and the ceiling. This was indeed Cowie's Two Pines room and this was my room. I shook my head, trying to kick some senses off. One month was surely a short time, but I was pretty satisfied with the things we shared in that tiny amount of clicky-clicky seconds. Reality hits starting now.

I folded the blanket and put it on the side of my bed. I knew Ludwig always served the best service and he wouldn't mind if I didn't fold my own blanket. But, I appreciated his kindness, and spending some of my time folding my blanket wasn't really a great deal. One small action that didn't hurt anyone, I would still take it.

As I was heading outside of my room, I could see that Aura was standing by the railings, looking at me with her rare shocked face.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??!!" Aura shouted right in my ears.

"Ouch... good morning..." I covered my ears. "I didn't expect you to have this kind of foul mood so early in the morning..."

"ARE YOU IDIOT??!!" Aura kept on yelling and her face even looked fierce.

"You better stay with Mamoru on Burningshield, Aura..." I sighed. "Your mood was way better when Mamoru existed..."

And I still didn't expect that Aura to punch right into my stomach. Ah, I just realized that it didn't deal with a simple matter. She was indeed rampaging.

"Okay, okay, I got it..." I finally had a chance to talk properly after coughing for a bit. "But honestly, I think I don't do anything that deserves your anger, Aura..."

Aura's face turned bright red.

"IT'S OLIVIER, YOU FOOL!" she yelled again, making a fuss between the guests. "WHY DO YOU LET HER GO?!"

I tried to process Aura's words. Me? Letting Olivier go? In what dimension and at what time? What shape? Everyone knew that I had been trying hard and there was no way I could let her go!

"What?! I don't..."

"Olivier's already back in the city with Bruce," Kyo came from his room just to add an explanation. "You took your sweet time sleeping for DAYS."

"You're kidding rig..."

I stopped once I saw Kyo and Aura breathing heavily as if they lost patience in dealing with me. I sprinted away from the Two Pines and went to the beach. A boat! A boat! I needed a boat right now but I could find nothing!

How can I forget about Bruce once we land back in Cowie? I... don't remember a thing about him!

"Reanne, Kaoru, please call Koko and take me to the city!" I rushed to the front table in the clinic. "Please, I really owe you guys a big time!"

"You don't owe us anything..." Reanne replied with her cold shoulders. "Koko is away so there will be no boats, or ships whatsoever."

My jaw dropped. No transportation? If I had to swim, I'm just a human now. I needed to go back to my cow self. At least, I would have more stamina that way.

But how?

I thought asking Aura might be a good choice. She would probably know some dark magic to turn me back to cow but she said that she couldn't. I dashed to the beach again, as that would be the closest place to the city, and hoped for a miracle.

And Mamoru was chilling on the beach.

"Brother, turn me back to cow," I asked.

"What?" he frowned. "I'm a researcher, not some kind of grand magus thing."

"Please... or make me fly, whichever you choose..."

My only brother sighed. He put out some kind of pink liquid in a bottle from his small pocket.

"Drink this. It will do the trick," said Mamoru.

I nodded and drank the liquid. It was strawberry and I could see myself as a cow reflected on the sea water.

I swam as hard as I could from Cowie to the city. I had nothing that I knew about Olivier's village nor any clues but I still had to go. It was hellish. I almost turned into salted beef because of the extreme exhaustion that reeked in my body

I swept trash as I arrived on the beach. Not really a good sight but I believed I didn't do the litter. With these four feet, cleaning up for myself was almost impossible. But at least, there were no children brave enough to approach the filthy me. As I continued on walking, I found a traditional cafe used for a wedding vow.

It was Olivier and Bruce.

"I DECLINE THIS WEDDING!" I yelled my lungs out and dashed to Olivier. "I WILL SAVE YOU, OLIVIER!!"

I knew how nice it was when Olivier embraced my body when she was sleeping. I needed it. Come to me Olivier, come to me!

But instead, she stopped me with her hands.

"Stop pulling my leg!" Olivier yelled back at me. "You had your chance to introduce me to your parents but you lost it You're joking all this time!"

"No, no... Olivier... Let me explain..." I shook my head really hard and it almost fell.

"STOP! YOU STINK!!"

My jaw dropped again. I thought you loved my body scent. Why did you push me again...? Ah... it was because of this trash...

YOU STINK...

YOU STI.....

YOU....

...

OT...

DIOT...

IDIOT...

"WAKE UP, YOU IDIOT PRINCE!"

I wake up from my deep slumber thanks to Elise's slaps. Luckily enough I didn't taste Aura's slaps as she already prepared her hands.

"Huh...?" I looked around with my friends and brother watching for me. "Where's the wedding?"

"You're still asleep?" Aura smirked. "I always want to slap you all this time anyway."

"NO NO NO!" I covered my face with my pillow. "What did I do?"

"You mean, what you didn't do?" Kaoru sighed. "You basically talked in your sleep 'blup blup aaaa I'm drowning blup blup', 'no no no no', you ran on your bed, and cried. Reanne tried to wake you up but Olivier's not here, she didn't know what to do!"

I looked at Reanne who shrugged.

Was it a nightmare? Was it....?

I lay back on my bed and covered my eyes with an arm. What a horrible dream I had... I didn't even know that falling in love could be this hurtful.

"Your princess probably is in the class, now..." Mamoru rolled his eyes. "She's diligent and unlike you who are still on your bed."

"I... " I paused to breathe a bit deeper. "... let me just skip this one class today... please..."

I perhaps overreacted but whatever. I needed time on my own for now. As I saw that my friends were starting their class, I walked into the palace garden, a garden that connected right away with our class window. I took a shade on one of the biggest trees and looked at Olivier from afar.

She's still here... she's... still here.