Chương 79: Heavy Heart

Lilia lay on the floor with a blanket covering her tall figure; her face was smushed against a translucent pod door without any propriety in mind, her breath mixed with the chilling air of her room and fogging her fixed view of a peacefully sleeping June. Her cold, glassy eyes, which were reminiscent of an ice rink, didn't blink, and the only thing that betrayed a notion of their unnatural stillness was a slow rise and fall of their chests as they respired.

The room that housed June and Lilia was provided by the showrunners of the Colosseum Games and, by extension, Lengue.

During the period of the games, the royal families had the opportunity to fraternize and engage in several other private events such as balls, buffets, and the occasional bout, but unlike the other royals, the Harth family had begrudgingly substituted June in as their champion instead of their usual champions, who were unable to participate this year, and thus tearfully, a recovering June was thrown into the harsh games without any basic education on their function or how to use his own powers.

The games took place over 12 days; the gladiators were placed in pods that enabled them to travel into the simulated realm and also sustained their bodies with a vile-looking goop designed to both saturate and hydrate the fighters.

Each day in the Nightrealm was approximately a month within the simulated one, and for the last few days, Lilia was unable to exercise her VIP privilege and watch over June; whenever she attempted to, her streaming device would return a lightless black, and thus, without June's visage to comfort her and her current ire of Mortimer and her family, Lilia has begrudgingly locked herself away in her room.

Her room was fairly modest in size; it was a rectangular room with a large specialty-designed bed that rested several inches off a lacquered brown wood floor. The bed had a light blue canopy that flowed over it, which couldn't be used currently and had inexplicably frosted into place.

The room had a large dresser and a walk-in closet on the left side of the bed and a large window that let in both natural light and a beautiful holographic ocean view, and June's pod was flush with the floor, making it almost unnoticeable if a rug were pulled over it. But alas, Lilia quietly and mournfully stared at June; since the day when Mortimer ungracefully whisked June away from Lilia, she had even considered properly freezing the old man for a while.

Lilia rolled onto her back next to the pod and tilted her head towards the frozen bed's canopy. She was used to waking up and immediately reaching out to grab a warm cup of tea off a serving dish that Mortimer presented every single day, but four days ago, the day after Mortimer stole June away, Lilia woke up and reached out for her tea like usual, but after a few moments of quietly sipping her tea, she remembered the great injustice that the old man acted out and attempted to freeze him alive.

"tsk." Lilia slowly rose from her prone position and dusted dirt off her nightgown; both alters were feeling grumpy and a little hateful. The Harth family had to hide their alters when in the presence of other royals; it was not a guarded secret, but even then, others found it incredibly jarring, and at times, it caused problems. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Lilia looked down at June before walking into an immense subspace closet.

'Tsk, our June could always tell which one of us was talking.' Today, the more timid alter of Lilia was going to take the seat of burden-bearer while her more rambunctious self would take the backseat and simply chat when others bored her. Lilia walked down the seemingly infinite rows of clothes and scowled at the frilly dresses.

'Sister, these all suck.'

"I know! Too many dresses." Lilia, at some point, stopped walking and begrudgingly settled on a modest sundress, but alters hated dresses, but she dressed herself, tied her hair up using her royalty headband item, and crouched down next to June and waved at her once again comatose lover before setting out to make an appearance.

Lilia walked through desolate halls, ignoring the glances and occasional stares from royals and servants. Her rumbunctious twin silently fumed, but since her timid twin was more reserved, she did not let her bother show in her actions or face. She walked into a training field, and her eye twitched.

'Tch, you got to be shitting me.' Lilia turned around to try to walk out unnoticed when an unpleasant voice grated on her ears.

"Princess Lilia, by the nine! You couldn't be thinking of training in THAT!"

'Tch, Sister, we can't kill that idiot.' Lilia slowly turned around and, with a forced smile, spoke.

"Ahh, Prince Giles, pleasant seeing you here." The prince's cocky grin faltered for a second before his voice, honeyed in motive, shot back.

"Care to join me for a competition? I heard from my towel boy that you are an exceptional ice sorceress." Lilia held herself back from grinding her teeth or plainly killing the impudent prince.

'Ask the idiot, what's in it for us?' Lilia faintly nodded in response to her sister's, though when the prince suddenly burst out.

"Yes, I see you have agreed! How about a wager, princess!?" Lilia let out a sigh as she glimpsed a building crowd. Being royalty meant they had to follow certain rules, stupid ones like honor. Honor to a kingdom was akin to a trust rating, and without trust, alliances and coalitions would fall through; refusing a challenge could stain your own honor, and asking specifics could be and has been ammunition for people like Giles to call out and besmirch your honor. So Lilia unwillingly nodded to accept the wager.

The two royals stood behind a line straight in front of distant targets; the crowd had grown to an irreparable size, royals and servants alike. Losing in a duel would harm a person's reputation, and winning would bolster it, but quite evidently to Lilia, the Aspirant prince had illicit motives.

"An idiot would probably say something along the lines of 'A loser grants the winner one wish.'" Prince Giles turned around and opened his arms to a large crowd in a bout of showmanship.

"Ladies and gentlemen, kings, queens, presidents, sultans, and more! I, Prince Giles, of the kingdom Eurious, have challenged the beautiful flower of the kingdom Harth, Princess Lilia… To a duel of ice." The crowd erupted in a roar before the prince turned to Lilia with a cocked grin. He turned around and shouted into the crowd once again.

"I propose the wager that whoever loses does one irrefutable thing for the winner." The rambunctious Lilia did her best to keep her homicidal alter from blatantly blasting the stupid prince.

'We can't refuse the wager now! He had to go and make a show about it.' The reserved Lilia, who was in control of the body, deeply inhaled before curtly speaking.

"You know it's courtesy to speak the terms of the duel before the wager." Prince Giles stunted his actions and regained his poise after a few seconds of her calling out his blatant motives. He cleared his throat and then shouted to the crowd once again.

"This will be a simple shooting duel, a battle of pure power, awe, and skill. The judges will be YOU! Our humble audience." The prince turned to Lilia with a shit-eating grin. And Lilia considered whether the other royals would think it too far if she requested his balls on a platter.