“Well, why don’t you be the bigger of the two and write to the Emperor asking to break your engagement. No one is going to want to support Henri after this anyway, no one is going to support a prince who chooses to be some hussy’s harem rather than devoted to the one person who loved him alone.” He suggested, fetching paper from his desk. “Your mother wont disown you when you have the entirety of the kingdom on your side right?” He added.

“What? I mean who are they going to support as the next Emperor? I certainly can’t be it, and the second prince is part of her harem as well.” He said, shocked.

“They have an older sister, she can take over, she is getting married to her Omega mate next summer and I think they would do a fine job.” He told him, reminding him of the runaway princess.

“But he’ll just claim she’s his Omega and soulmate, and it’s my fault because I bullied her.”

“You are an Omega too, I’ve honestly been thinking of doing the same thing, writing to break it off with Marcus but he’s not fucked up like this yet.” He admitted.

“You have?”

He nodded.

“But what do I write?”

“How about this?”

Your Royal Highness Adam Louis Henri Summers Emperor of the Eastern Kingdom, 

I write to you to request the annulment of my engagement to your son His Royal Highness Prince Henri. I am writing to ask you to free him of our engagement as of today it has become clear that he has strong feelings for someone else. I would rather wish him all the happiness with someone he loves rather than to drag out a political loveless marriage. I also wish to salvage what is little left of my reputation that has been broken by his and his chosen one’s actions. It saddens me to inform you of this as you have been the kindest to me in the last few years as we attempted to make this work between us. I am sure as I write this word has already reached your ears of what I speak of. I thank you for your time and consideration as well as leave the final decision in your capable hands.

~Sincerely your loyal subject

Lua’aZaer Del Monique 

Ivan read it over, it was short and to the point, Folding it up and sealing it with his family seal, it didn’t look perfect but that was the point he wanted to get across. A boy who was heartbroken trying his best to be the bigger person to be the one who cared even if it broke him more. He then took it and put it in his pocket, he’d give it to the dorm mother who would send it directly to the royal palace via a wind spell. He then made him change into comfortable night clothes and had him drink some tea to settle his nerves before going to bed. He left the room once he was finally asleep and Sheena had returned from her night errands. He filled her in on what had happened and she had agreed with the idea but she didn’t like it.

In the morning Lua woke up, still heartbroken but he felt better, it wasn’t like the first time. Dressing he decided to face the day no matter what the day brought. Most of the girls he ran into bowed to him and told him he deserved better than this. Even a few of the male nobles seemed to take note of him and agreed. He still sat quietly with everyone at breakfast where he spent most of his time stirring the portage rather than actually eating it. Marissa and her harem were nowhere to be seen. They didn’t even show up for class, this worried him as it was out of character for them.

The next day he finally saw them as they stood together outside the cafeteria, they seemed to be waiting. He paused seeing him, his heart throbbed still but he had to push past this. He walked towards the door ignoring them, his head held high, he would not let her get the best of him.

“Luci- Mr Del Monique! I’m sorry I didn’t think that would happen. Please don’t be angry with me or Henri. I was distressed and he was just trying to calm me down.” Marissa said, running up to his side. She grabbed his hand but he firmly kept it at his side, she still fought to pull it up but even though he was an Omega he was still stronger than her thanks to his training.

“I have nothing to say to you, or any of you right now.” He said as he continued towards the door shaking his arm free. He was going to take the high ground, even though all he wanted to slap them all in their stupid faces.

“Lua, can’t we talk?” Henri asked, taking his hand as he was about to pass him by. He hesitated and then pulled his hand free ignoring that sensation.

“You had the chance the other day to talk but actions speak louder than words, your highness.” He said angrily. He started to walk again but once again he grabbed his arm. “Please let go.”

“I wanted to talk to you, but don’t you think your actions are something that need to be taken into consideration?” 

He looked at him confused. “What actions do I have to take responsibility for?”

“The way you’ve treated Marisa, you and the others are bullying her and throwing her things into the pond the other day, leaving nasty notes in her bag.”

“I’ve done no such thing, nor has any one else and don’t you dare say that you have proof that is more than just Miss De La Cove’s word. As for the other day from the time we started our lesson till the time we ended Lidia and myself were with the teachers the whole time so tell me when did I have time to take her bag and dump it into the pond? We were part of the group that was being graded. Not to mention the pond is frozen and neither Lidia nor I know fire spells to unfreeze it to dump her things into it like some childish prank.” He defended himself standing tall despite his nature telling him to just submit to this Alpha. “Also you know I didn’t write those nasty notes to her, I have better use for my ink and paper and even less time between studying and extra lessons to do so.” He pulled his arm free once more and stormed towards the door, Evan and Martin who had been blocking it suddenly took steps away, even an angry Omega was not someone to mess with. 

He let himself into the cafeteria and ordered the most sugar fueled breakfast he could think of, not caring what it would do to his figure he didn’t care about right now, he just wanted to indulge himself. He took a seat at his regular table and went to town. Lidia came in from a side entrance as he sat down, she had been smart and knew how to avoid the group. She raised an eyebrow at him as she saw him stuff the jam filled French toast drenched in syrup with fresh fruit and cream into his mouth unceremoniously. She didn’t question it, she just got her own breakfast and sat down across from him.

“You know it’s going to take you forever to lose that weight.” She poked at him. He looked at her dead in the eyes as he stuffed his mouth with an oversized bite as if he was challenging her to say more.

“Really don’t care this morning, little miss sneaks in the side door, I got ambushed, they suddenly wanted to talk. I told him he had the option to do so the other day but his actions spoke louder than words, he tried to blame some bullshit on me, saying I was bullying her but other than my polite warning to her in the last few years I’ve not even bothered her.” He pointed out. He stuffed more of the sticky sweet breakfast in his mouth not caring that his table etiquette had gone out the door. “And if you must know I have a special stomach for sweet things that make it so I don’t gain an ounce.” He added.

She chuckled. “That must be an Omega thing because Ivan’s said the same. Oh, I also heard why we didn’t see the harem yesterday, they went to the dungeon in the north.” She said, delicately cutting her breakfast keeping to her etiquette.

“You mean the one known for dropping high quality gems?” He asked, slowing down now and matching her etiquette, the guilt getting to him. “The one that blocks you from leaving till you beat the boss on every tenth floor? The one that is not meant for newbies? The one that we had a full lecture on in class two weeks ago?” He said loud enough as the harem stood in line. “The one that has taken more lives of foolish young people looking to get rich, caused people to get lost in there for months, that changes every day, that there are more people who get killed by other people in, sometimes even just leaving? The one nicknamed the ‘greed dungeon’? Because only greedy people try to run it? Well those people and people contracted to run it for jewelry stores and whatnot.”

“That would be the one.”

“Only idiots would go there after all the warnings, I’m sure they were found out and had all their items taken, if not by the guild then by the teachers.” He pointed out. 

They were all looking a little red, they had their things taken from them when they came back to school in the late afternoon. Marisa had been livid about it, she thought that they were going to be able to keep everything. If this had been a game they would have but this was reality, this is their lives. There were rules to follow, he didn’t understand how stupid the prince had to have been to think it was alright.

“The teacher’s caught them coming in late last night, not only did they break curfew twice but they clearly missed class.”

Lua thought about the Greed Dungeon and how dangerous it was. They had been lucky to make it out of there unharmed and on top of that they hadn’t been attacked on the way back to school. Lua and a group of adventures he had worked with several times before had been asked to go down to level fifty to get gems. None of the sweepers messed with them thankfully. They made it down to level sixty only because one of the members at fifty had miscalculated and they went down to the next floor instead of down to the teleportation room. Even though the party had made a lot of money none of them wanted to go back in there. And Marissa had taken the group there just because she wanted some extra money. Instead everything got confiscated because they had no permission and they were put on a one month ban from the Guild after the school informed them of what happened.

Lua still got bad dreams from it. Marissa had protested with the school over it, after finding out Lua had gone in a couple of times, but he’d had full consent, not to mention he’d done it in his free time never missing school. He had been also allowed to by the guild because he was someone who took caution investigating the dungeon before he was even allowed to attempt it with seasoned veterans. Few people went past level thirty but they had been asked to go down to fifty. There were said to be a hundred levels but some thought by now there had to be more. The punishment stayed though Marissa continued to try and figure a way to get money from Lua but he didn’t wear jewelry, he kept his spendings to a minimum. She had Henri and the others buy her new dresses and jewelry to make her happy. Meanwhile Lua had gotten a response from the Emperor asking him to at least give Henri a chance till the end of the school year, it was only 2 more months away.  

Soon the school year was coming to an end and graduation was rapidly approaching, Lua’s Mother was sending him more and more angry messages and the stress just built up more and more. He didn’t know how he managed to pass all of his classes and end up ranked third. It was Ethan, Marcus, Lua, Henri, and Evan as the top five. This surprised most as Evan had fallen the most grade wise this year. His mothers had not been happy about it but he didn’t seem to care. Marissa ended up improving the most, but still she ranked around the middle of her group even with the others tutoring her. Lidia and Felicia tied for first for their class.