308 Drunken Chat-2

"Me too," replied Aron as he plopped down on the cold floor of the hall.

"Haha, never would've thought I'd be drinking with you in the middle of the night... sneaking, huh?" Ren chuckled, his voice echoing off the empty walls as he expressed his thoughts. After seeing a lot of things about Aron that were never in the game, he actually never hated Aron...

Like Aron says that he hates Ren, but not that much. For Ren, it was none – he just didn't care enough to think that he should hate Aron.

"Me too, I wouldn't even share a table with the likes of you," Aron added.

"Looks like I do hate him now," Ren made a mental note, not in the mood to ruin his hangover.

"...I didn't mean that one," Aron immediately backtracked.

Ren raised a brow, his expression questioning. "You seem like you say a lot of things that you don't mean."

"Hmm, like?" Aron rolled to one side, only to bump his forehead on one of the table legs. Grunting, he sat cross-legged like Ren.

"Like the times you call Cecilia your slave and how you own her body and soul – things you actually don't mean at all," Ren looked straight ahead, his gaze steady. He had seen it – the shift in Aron's persona around her. Most of the time, he's actually an asshole, but around her, he acts as one. "Acts" is the key word.

"Oh, I mean those!" Aron rebutted.

"Yeah, yeah, I believe you," Ren shrugged groggily.

There was a long silence between the two alcoholics until Aron spoke again.

"Well, at least I'm not the one trying to pretend that I'm weak and gullible. I only do it around her – you do it all the time," Aron pointed out. He's not the only one who has caught onto that, but he might be one of the first few in the Imperial Academy.

"So you did admit that you act around Cecelia," Ren noted, but he wasn't in the mood to talk about himself – he wanted to focus on Aron.

Even in the darkness, Ren could see Aron's flushed face – he wasn't sure if it was from drinking a lot or because of the mention of Cecelia.

"I-i never said that! you son of a bitc-."

"Haha, you are like a kid in love, Aron," Ren said with a knowing smile on his face. He knew because he'd been there.

"That's not true," Aron muttered in a whispering voice.

"Not true? You don't like her at all? Should I try to court—" Ren tried to joke, but he felt a shift in the air and a few grazes of wind past his face made it clear that Aron didn't like that one.

"Don't ever think about that," Aron immediately said through his teeth.

But to him, Ren creepily turned his head towards Aron – in the dark, his eyes glowing like one of those hounds that hunt for fun. Aron gulped a bit but still didn't seem as scared until...

"Then be honest, boy. Do you love her or not? There are no in-betweens. If you do, then do it openly, and if you don't... let her be my plaything. Not like you'd fight me right now," Ren said, disrespectful in every possible way. But it seemed like he didn't even know how menacing he sounded while saying those words.

"I do, so what?" But for some reason, unlike anyone else, Aron stood his ground. Maybe it was drunken confidence, or the fact that this talk involved Cecelia, but he didn't want to be a coward.

The glow from Ren's eyes immediately disappeared, followed by a hysterical laugh as he fell on the floor, clutching his stomach.

"....eh?" Aron blinked at this – from all the past half year of being in the academy, this was the most Ren had laughed in a single day.

Ren sat straight, wiping tears from around his eyes and looked at Aron. "I dO~ pfff dude, you sound like you were going to war," he mocked, repeatedly saying 'I do' until even Aron seemed to know that Ren was too drunk to care about anyone's feelings but his own.

After a moment or so, Ren continued, "Haa, that was good. You like her, huh? That's not bad."

"Not bad? Me liking her is not bad?"

Ren chuckled, his laughter echoing slightly in the empty hall. "Nah, it's not bad at all. I mean, Cecelia's a catch, right?"

Aron frowned, the alcohol-induced haze in his mind making it difficult to follow Ren's train of thought. "Yeah, she is... I guess."

Ren nodded, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "So, when are you going to tell her?"

Aron's expression shifted, his brows furrowing as he tried to process Ren's question. "Tell her what?"

Ren leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Tell her how you feel, man. Confess your undying love and all that stuff."

Aron blinked, his mind struggling to comprehend what Ren was suggesting. "But... I can't just... I mean, it's not that simple. She won't accept it."

Ren chuckled, patting Aron on the back. "Of course she won't. I just want to know how she'd reject you."

"Dude, really?... you're messing with his head," Blaze sent a mental note to Ren.

"Huh?" Aron gave him a half-panicked look.

"A knight like her can't love a rapist prince, I guess. You don't get to be the victim, dude. After what you've been doing all your life, you deserve some punishment," Ren said casually.

".... You don't think before you speak, do you?" Aron said, his voice heavy with emotion.

"Well, not like it ain't true. You are a rapist—?" Ren stopped abruptly as Aron grabbed the collar of his robe.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Aron shouted at the top of his lungs, each word piercing through his heart. He didn't like any of it. Aron had felt like that for decades—people calling him that since his childhood, never being acknowledged as a living being.

But Ren had seen too much to be scared. "Am I supposed to be scared? Am I lying? Aren't you—"

"I am not! I am not! I am not! I AM NOT A RAPIST!!!! YOU THINK I WANTED TO BE LIKE THIS! YOU THINK I WANT THIS CURSE! YOU THINK—"

"Umm, princess... someone is coming, run," Blaze warned. Ren grabbed Aron by the mouth and looked around. The kitchen seemed like their best bet.

Ren ushered Aron into the kitchen, where they found a small exit door meant for chefs. They slipped through it and found themselves halfway down a hallway. They stayed there for a few minutes until Blaze sent a message: "You can come out now. They're gone—it was that Alder dude and some masked lady."

Ren entered the hallway again and dropped Aron down, squatting down to look at him.

"Curse... I am so sorry for what I said to you, Prince Aron, but can you elaborate on this curse of yours?"

Almost as if he had gotten what he wanted, Ren had that half-

greedy smile plastered on his face.

"Hup!" Aron's face went green, and the next thing— "Blughhh!!" Everything that he drank came right back on Ren.

"What the hell?" Ren froze like a statue, vomit on his clothes.

"Pfff," Aron backed off, laughing. "Look at your face!" He swung from one side to the other.

SMACK!

"Ugh," Aron grumbled as his eyes rolled upwards, and he was gone, unconscious.

Ren tried to say something but couldn't. Rubbing his temples, he sighed. "Get this motherfucker back to his room—nah." As if he didn't like his own idea, he stood up, still feeling disgusted.

He turned around to leave.

"Aren't you going to get him to his room? He'll be caught," said Smokeball.

"Let him be. Not like they are going to do anything to the prince... at most, he'll be warned," Ren said, leaving the hallway.

Ren made his way through the quiet corridors of the institute, unable to shake off the lingering smell of vomit clinging to his clothes. It was a stark reminder of the chaotic and unexpected turn the night had taken. Despite his annoyance, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he replayed the events in his mind.

Entering his own room, Ren peeled off his soiled clothes and tossed them into a corner, making a mental note to deal with them later. He quickly washed up, trying to rid himself of the unpleasant odor. "So... curses are everywhere," he mumbled, reminded of his own curse.

Meanwhile, Aron was left behind, peacefully sleeping—unlikely to remember half of what had happened that night. And just like that, the cursed prince never knew that he himself had given away his biggest secret.

Morning came, and the chefs of Nexus Institute were shocked to find the mighty prince lying on the cold floor, hungover and disoriented.

Word spread like wildfire throughout the academy that the prince had been caught stealing bottles from the kitchen the night before and had been taken to speak with Amrose Nexus. Amrose then wrote a heartfelt letter to Adiel Velcrow about Aron, knowing that it would make his life harder when he returned to his father's bedside. But for Aron, it all felt like a dream.

He returned to his team, standing alongside them as Adam lectured them. There was tension between him and Adam, evident in the argument they had. And amidst all this, Ren slept like a log in his room.