The Trio Odyssey

Part I: Soul to Soul

Chapter 8: The Princess of Mixed Blood IV

Zihro slams his arm onto the table lightly, and curves his head to look straight into Raeké’s eyes, with a smirk in his face and more splash coming out from her sundae glass. 

“You were looking into my eyes earlier, didn't you, little Raeké?”

In stuttering, she gulps her saliva while covering her face with her hands. 

“Y—yes, I-I-I did—Your Highness!!”

“So I take it that you are picking a fight with me? You little—”

The Crown Princess, Kostana, passes by the Dotemian aisle, walking upward quickly, invading and halting them. 

“Your Highness, Zihro, I implore you to leave Her Highness, Raeké, all alone.”

“Oh—Your Highness, Kostana, you don’t mind passing out, do you?”

Zihro’s smug face triggers Kostana’s sharp glare, while they lock their eyes into each other.

In Raeké’s view, they’re clashing with their Occult Energy, visibly emanating around them like two unmixed, tornadoes, with their Chimerics appearing from their backs.

Kostana’s Chimeric appearance takes the shape of an obsidian black, ferocious serpent, with huge antlers, sharp fins, and fish gills.

While Zihro's Chimeric is a giant dark purple furred bear, with its entire skins hiding under thick turquoise shells. 

Raeké’s panicking even further while she’s around them, while shakingly covering her face with her arms, thinking that something bad’s going on.

‘Ha—Ak—k—Why’re they fighting in front of me?! Ahh—Umm—Mom, I’m scared!’

Their clash of presence alone begins to crack the granite of the staircases aisles. 

Raeké glances around, shouting weakly. 

‘Lord Chamberlain!… Lord Chamberlain!… Juvon… Juvon!…’

Yet Lord Chamberlain, Juvon, never appears and heeds the Princess’s call.

From there, she’s wiped out in the middle of the scene; she’s too young to know what she’s even capable of doing and she’s also exhausted.

She’s resigned about it, she moves slightly far away from the two clashing forces, a little closer to Randar. 

The other Royals, Lord Steward, Lord Chamberlains, retinues, and the other staff feign ignorance of the occurrence.  

Instead, Meria steps into their fight, grabbing the arm of Kostana away from their fight.

‘Kostana—, the expensive granite stairs are breaking.’

Kostana’s Chimeric fades from existence and her straight face stays during her break away from the conflict, complaining to Meria.

“Ahh—, Meria. But, Zihro is—”

Meria cuts her sentence while pulling her downstairs back to her table, stating about what will happen.

“—That’s enough, you two are just going to destroy the hall right away if left unsettled. This is not a battlefield! This is a Ceremonial Hall!”

Then, Raeké murmurs about the aftermath of the situation.

‘Huh—that was strange… I didn’t know that Kostana would care so much about me.’

On second thought, she changes her mind.

‘What is that all about? Umm—no way that she does care though.’

Zihro remains quiet for a while, keeping his irritated face with bereft of attention.

His Chimeric returns nonexistent. And he glances straight into Raeké’s eyes for a moment, scaring her. 

“Haaa—agh!”

Zihro fends off her eyes, facing toward the center of the hall with a word.

“You’re free this time.”

He takes away his eyes and bends his arms altogether, stepping down to return to his table.

While that happens, he hears Kostana’s words of carp about his commotion and Meria’s voice to calm Kostana. 

“Ahh—, Kostana—, you’re too heavy.”

“Zihro, you jerk—!”

“This guy loves to hit on his younger siblings! What a bully!”

“Gosh, just let him be!”

Zihro exhales heavily through his nose, sealing his eyes and lips. 

“Hmph.”

Then, the sniggers and blabbermouths are caught into Raeké’s ears just from her side, from Lisole and Randar. She peeks at them for a little while and she inhales deeply into her lungs. 

“Hahahahah—! Can you believe what you just saw, Randar? Your sister would argue over some Cazdaean.”

“Heh, the same goes to your brother too, Lisole.”

Lisole takes the shame, admitting that his brother is no different. 

“Ah—, yeah. You’re right…”

Raeké sighs and stares at her untouched dessert, knowing that the ice on it has already melted a few minutes ago. And so, she whines about it with a little tear burdening her eyelids.

‘Noo—, my ice cream! It’s melted!’

Therefore, she finishes them no matter what has happened, keeping her mouth shut and blaming no one for it 

A few hours have passed, with Raeké’s loneliness engulfing her to yearn back to her room and do something else instead of sitting inside the hall all alone, doing completely nothing.

Her mouth is as though, filled with bubbles from all the wait, murmuring her complaints while leaning at her seat.

‘Ahhh—, I want to go back… I don’t want to stay here anymore… This is too boring…’

A retinue happens to pass by near her banquet table.

So, she beckons with a graceful wave and asks the retinue with something she has in mind. 

“Mm—, excuse me.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“May I inquire as to the hour?”

“It’s fourteen Sol-Togue.”

Raeké’s a little startled afterward, shocked by the information alone and starts to zone out. She mutters too much, blurting out in skepticism.

‘What… 14 Sol-Togue? 14ST? Why does it sound a lot like 14AM? But 14AM doesn’t even exist…’

‘Then…, the total hours in this world, Nulhym, they call it, that I’m living in is… a 30-hour system?!’

‘15 hours Sol-Togue and 15 hours Mor-Togue?! How’d I even know all of this information? This is unfair compared to Earth’s 24-hour system! How—’

The retinue have been waiting there while standing for like 30 seconds in total silence, watching the Princess face in confusion.

And, the wait drags the retinue’s time for executing other tasks. So, the retinue calls for the Princess to signal if her matters are helpable and if attending another matter now is alright.

“Ma’am?”

Raeké escapes from her disengagement when the retinue calls her, thanking the retinue with a sincere smile. 

“Ah, sorry. My thanks to you.”

The retinue curtsies and departs. 

Later, Raeké’s back to her thoughts, with her eyes closed.

‘So…, did I just develop the way of a royal talking?! No it's more like automatic, it just so happens whenever I speak… Right?’

‘No, have I forgotten? This body is actually not mine. It’s the Princess’s! It's proven in the mirror!’

She lifts her eyelid slowly, staring at her palms and the bandaged fingers and whispering.  

‘So, I’m sharing body and information with this Raeké. Huh—, where’s my body, then?’

‘Hmm—, I can’t recall anything that happened before this… All I remember before I reach the coast was…’

‘…I was running throughout the forest all alone. It’s so— dark and cold by that time…’

She tightens the grips of her hands full of frustration. 

‘Huh—, this feels wrong… I’m pretty sure that there is something… something is missing.’

Later on, the disappeared Queen Consort, Raesha, and Lord Chamberlain, Juvon, return to the hall through the Dumajan door.

From afar, Raeké notices that her mother has a heavy look on her face, remaining oblivious about her daughter’s presence unintentionally.

While one thought still lingers about the past, the other finds hope, both in Raeké’s mind, and with faint shines on her face.

‘Uh—, she’s quite gloomy…’

‘Yay—, Mom is here!’

Lord Chamberlain gradually approaches the Princess’s side from afar, informing her about an important matter she has been invited to attend to.

“Your Highness, if you may, the Reigning King of Dumaja the West and the Reigning King of Galaa’ the Isthmus have invited you to attend a conclave.”

“Huh—, a conclave? Hasn’t Her Majesty, Raesha, already attended that?”

Lord Chamberlain clears his throat, approving the Princess’s sentences and relieving her doubts. 

“That’s true. If you may, I repeat for you: His Majesty, Hotavar, and His Majesty, Jaw, have invited you, Ma’am.”

The Princess puts her thumb under her chin, overthinking and doubting things.

‘Is this really okay?…’

‘Maybe, it’s not. But, I’m kind of curious about what’s happening.’

The Princess head pulsates, impulsively putting her hand on her forehead.

Lord Chamberlain notices the Princess’s reaction and jumps into a question of concern. 

“Something the matter, Ma’am?!”

The Princess seals her eyes and shakes her head lightly, murmuring to chill out and erasing her skeptics. 

“No—, uh… I’m overthinking things. That’ll just drain my head.”

The Princess answers Lord Chamberlain in a calm voice.

“My head throbs a bit.”

Lord Chamberlain rushes to pick up a device to contact a physician. 

“I’ll inform Physician Hite posthaste!”

The Princess sharply recites her order to calm down Lord Chamberlain. 

“You need not.”

Lord Chamberlain’s worries do not go away, asking again about the Princess’s state. 

“Are you sure, Ma’am? The pain might get worse if left untreated!”

“Yes, Lord Chamberlain.”

The Princess tenses the muscle under her jaw and narrows the gap for the air passage. And, Lord Chamberlain moves his head to the left side and breathes out quietly. 

Lord Chamberlain begins his sentence while remaining unruffled, reminding the Princess about the conclave. 

“Ma’am, the path to the conclave has been cleared, if you wish to follow.”

The Princess nods slightly while mumbling to herself out loud, walking toward the exit from the very same door that the Queen Consort and Lord Chamberlain entered just now. 

‘In order to get back home, I must learn about this world and how it works.’

‘Wait… home? Did I even remember my own home?’

‘Eh—?’

Raeké reaches in front of the Dumajan door for her further escort, seeing her mother standing on the staircases aisle a few meters away from the door and a little to the right side. 

Her mother’s expression never changes, staring downward at the aisle with strained eyelids. 

As soon as Raesha hears her daughter’s footsteps, she lets out a silent sound to express her concerns. 

“Ah—, honey…”

Lord Chamberlain pauses his march. And so, the Princess too.

Raeké runs toward her mother, hugging her and expressing her concerns too. 

“Mom, you look upset… Ké’s upset too…”

‘Ké’ is a short, adorable, affectionate name for Raeké and it’s used to be called by Raesha years ago. 

Being reminded again of the old time, Raesha calls her daughter with that name again. 

“Does Ké know that Ké has to go to a higher school?”

“Ké knows, Mom! It’s called Occult School right?”

The Queen Consort relaxes and looks at Lord Chamberlain, making a dear request for her beloved. 

“Please take good care of the Princess.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Then, Lord Chamberlain resumes to escort the Princess to enter the conclave.