Chapter 20: The Day Before

4 years passed by like an instant. It was the day before my 14th birthday. Tomorrow, it will be my debutant ball; the day after, my engagement party and the day after that, my coronation as Crown Princess. It was going to be a busy week.

Regarding my studies, they've all progressed nicely. I've officially graduated all my educational and artistic classes. All that's left is my 'Queen's Training' and directly learning from father about governing a whole country. My training is over as well. I've mastered the sword, bow and axe on top of the spear, staff and rapier that I mastered in the first few years.

I was walking through the halls, thinking of what I should do today. Since it is my debutante ball tomorrow, I got the day free to myself.

"Lili. Good morning."

My thoughts were interrupted as a familiar voice rang behind me accompanied with a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh, Ren. Good to see you again."

I said with a smile, and gave him a kiss as well.

"You're in a good mood today. Did something amazing happen lately?"

I pondered for a while.

"Maybe."

As Ren looked confused, I wandered my eyes over him closely.

...

Yup. Dangerous. This is really unfair. I know he's supposed to be a capture target, but he's growing more and more handsome every time I meet him! He's getting bolder too. On my twelfth birthday, he kissed me on the cheek for the first time with a tomato red face. It was really cute. Now, he kisses me on the cheek every time I meet him with no embarrassment at all! I guess that's better than getting embarrassed all the time, but part of me still wants that super bashful cute prince back!!! Sometimes I kiss him back on the cheek when I'm in a good mood, but he doesn't waver at all!

"Lili?"

"Huh? Oh. Right. What bring you here?"

"Well, is it weird for me to come congratulate my fiancé for her birthday?"

I glare at him. He chuckles.

"I know that already. You always do this every year! I meant, why are you here a day early? You always come a few hours before my birthday party. Which I'm sure you know, is tomorrow."

"Oh I don't know, maybe I just wanted to see you."

He closed in, pulling my chin up closer to his face. Curses those boy genes. He's only 14 and he's already taller than me. I thought for sure that we'd be at least the same height for another year or so.

...

"Wai..."

Why is he closing in?! Wait! Wait! Time out! I quickly put my hands on his chest, trying resist. I can't. My arms and legs are going weak.

...he's laughing. Wha-!?

"Why are you laughing!?"

"I can't help it! You're just too easy to tease!"

"?!"

I felt by face going red. I quickly turned away before he could see.

"I saw that."

"Saw what?"

"You blushing like a tomato. Really refreshing. I haven't seen you blush in a while."

"I didn't. You probably saw an illusion or something. You should get your eyes checked."

I said that while still turning my back.

"I did see you."

"No you didn't."

"I did."

"You didn't."

"I did."

"You didn't!"

...

"I did."

...

"You didn't. So, why are you still here?"

"You should know already." "Happy early birthday, Liliane."

As I turned around, still pouting, he handed me a small white box wrapped with a light pink ribbon.

I accepted it and unwrapped the gift. Inside, was a beautiful gold pocket watch with a flower design. It was really pretty.

I guess I'll forgive him this time...

"Thank you. It's beautiful."

I said, smiling at him. He turned slightly pink around the cheeks. He attempted to hide it by facing the other way and covering his mouth with his wrist.

Ohhhhhhh?

"I saw that."

"What?"

"You blushed."

"Wh- no I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"No. I didn't."

"You did."

"I didn't."

"You did."

"I didn't."

For the next five minutes, we kept going back and forth about that. I was intending that he would suffer for what he tried to do to me.

"Anyway, how is your magic progressing?"

"Pretty good. I just progressed to a B I rank few weeks ago."

"B I!? What the? I guess I can't beat you, Lili."

"What rank are you right now?"

"I'm still at the D X rank. I've been stuck there for a while."

"That's still amazing, you know. On average, 14 year olds are supposed to be at F-E rank until they turn 16. D rank is usually for 17 and up."

Now that I think about it, I guess Ms. Krayla being a A III rank mage at age 18 is a pretty amazing thing.

"And B ranks?"

"What? They're on average 30-40 year olds."

Whoops.

"See?"

He's glaring at me. I guess that was my fault there.

We talked for a while about our magic and it came to the topic of my Unique magic. I've unlocked about 3 spells of each. Two of the fire-earth spells seemed fine, so I got to test them out, but I haven't done the very first red tulip one.

Ren suggested that we test it out right now, since both of us were high level enough to probably hold down the rank 1 spell. We could always ask Ms. Krayla if we need any assistance.

We headed to the garden, and I put up a barrier around us. I made an earth pit in the middle of the barrier, and put the summoned tulip there. I sent magic like last time, and it flowed out red opaque liquid. I stopped it's flow, and approached the flower.

"Nothings happening."

"Yea. Lili, do you know what the spell could be possible of doing?"

I thought back to the story of the Turkish prince.

"Oh! Wait a minute."

I rushed to Emma, and asked her to get a sewing needle.

When she came back, I took the needle and pricked my finger with it. I let my blood drip over I pool of red liquid.

"Lili!? What are you-"

Ren was interrupted when there were flashes of light in the red liquid. Red tulips began to bloom.

I wondered what they were, so I picked one up and placed it on the ground, a bit farther away from the pit.

I sent it a tiny bit of magic, then it set ablaze. Ren quickly extinguished it with his magic.

I wondered if the liquid would act as something like a highly flammable oil and the flowers would act as something like a bomb.

"Ren, I think I'm going to do something stupid, so make sure you extinguish it, okay?"

"Okay."

He really is too nice. But I guess that's what I love about him.

I concentrated a small amount of magic and sent it towards the pit.

The reaction was close to what I thought. The liquid was set ablaze, but the flowers did not explode, but only turned into a stronger source of fire. Nonetheless, Ren was able to extinguish it easily.

"I guess it wasn't charm magic..."

I mumbled.

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself."

"Okay."

The rest of the day was spent in peace in the rose garden with Ren. It was a pretty great early birthday present.

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A/N: Arggggggggggggghh! This took so long!!! My phone was glitching when I was writing this and deleted my progress so I had to rewrite the whole thing. I really hope I didn't forget to add anything too important...

I'm really sorry this took over a week to post!

Here's a picture of the pocket watch Ren gave Liliane:

It's pretty, right? I found it on Pinterest.

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!

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