Chronicles of the Red Sovereign

I entered the VIP room Peter reserved to watch the Firefly Event. Although I knew he would rather watch it with the rest of the audience, his father wasn’t taking any chances especially when it’s in the middle of the night.

The participants of the Hunting Event arrived about an hour and a half ago, and we all proceeded to Anatoli Stadium to cheer and support Freya and Torii. On my way to the room, I actually saw my adoptive siblings as well as Sebastian and Zach in another room. I could only guess they took some time off from the frontlines to see Torii in action that night.

I glanced at the seats and noticed that the only remaining seat was beside Kai. I probably wouldn’t have a problem sitting next to him if I was asked to do so like three months ago. Lately, interacting with Kai had become awkward. And no, it wasn’t because of me. It was Kai who made things awkward and difficult for me.

It all started two months ago.

To make it simple, Kai was being pursued by yet another assassin (or was it another kidnapper?) and ended up in the hot spring the female G.A. Games representatives were relaxing. It was one hell of a day of training so the hot spring was really helpful.

Anyway, he suddenly popped up there. We were all taken aback and froze on the spot on his appearance, which was perhaps a bad idea. Because his pursuer took that opportunity to hit him on the head and he ended up falling to the deeper part of the hot spring.

We immediately put on our robes and acted.

Torii and Senior Anastasia immediately pursued the attackers who escaped upon seeing us while Freya and I worked on getting Kai out of the water. Once he was brought back to the surface, I noticed that his head was bleeding and that he wasn’t breathing.

-This is not good.

“Freya, call someone from the disciplinary committee or better yet a teacher. Tell them what happened as well as send someone to help me bring Kai to the infirmary.”

“Okay.”

I could tell Freya was shaken up. She didn’t even make a snarky comment and immediately sought for help. As for me, I immediately performed CPR, a technique Aunt-Zaira taught me.

“If he’s not breathing and is not responding, immediately apply thirty compressions in the middle of his chest in a swift manner. Afterwards, if there’s still no reaction, tilt his head upwards a little, pinch his nose and breathe into his mouth twice. Do this repeatedly until he responds or gains consciousness.” Aunt Zaira’s words rang as I remembered her training. [1]

Just as I was about to give Kai the second set of breathing into his mouth, he woke up and coughed out some water. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Oh my gosh! You’re okay! You made me worried!”

“Luna?”

“Do you feel okay?”

He just looked at me confusedly and then winced. He touched the back of his head where he was hit and my eyes widened when I saw it still bleeding. I immediately pulled out a bottle of restorative pills in my item box and gave it to him to stop the bleeding.

“Thanks.” he said once he drank a pill. “I feel a lot better now.”

All of a sudden, he was staring at me and his nose started bleeding.

“Kai! Are you really okay? I don’t think a nosebleed is a good sign!”

He looked away, putting a towel on his face which he grabbed from who knows where.

“I’m fine. It’s just that… never mind. Anyway Luna, can you tell me what year it is?”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at his strange question but I answered him nonetheless. “It’s the tenth year of Emperor Ivan von Praiji’s rule.”

His eyes widened and slowly morphed into what I could recognize as happiness and relief.

-What’s up with that?

“Luna! We got them!” I heard Torii yell which snapped me out of my thoughts. I saw her and Senior Anastasia drag a body each, hopefully still alive, so we could interrogate them.

“We’ll turn them over to the disciplinary committee for questioning.” Senior Anastasia said. “How is the prince?”

I saw Kai go rigid and turn to where our seniors were standing. His eyes widened at the sight of them. “You guys… you’re still alive. Looks like we succeeded.”

-Huh?

It wasn’t only me, but also Torii and Senior Anastasia who looked as bewildered as me. But before we could ask Kai about what he said he already collapsed.

Ever since then Kai started avoiding us and I had a suspicion he was actually planning something. Another thing I noticed was that he had been meeting Aunt Zaira in secret since then.

Strange? Definitely.

Well because of that incident we did manage to track an assassin’s guild in which got wiped out overnight. Who did such a feat was beyond me but I had a feeling my adoptive aunt had something to do with it. We also discovered who sent those assassins/kidnappers after Kai; his own father, the king of Syna Kingdom.

At the moment, the royal family of the vassal kingdom Syna, are under monitoring. It was the reason they did not have any representatives for the Grand Academy Games.

Back in the VIP room of the Anatoli Stadium…

I sighed and just sat on the remaining seat.

“Hey Kai.”

“Hey.”

It’s really awkward. Kai wasn’t talkative but not to this level.

“Luna, is there something bothering you?” Kai suddenly asked.

-Yeah, you.

But I couldn’t exactly tell him that.

“Uhm, nothing. Just a bit jittery and excited to see Senior Torii and Freya compete for Firelfly.”

“I see.”

Silence hung between us as we waited for the event to start.

-This is really awkward.

And it wasn’t helping that none of my other friends seemed keen on talking to me or Kai. I was used to that since I sometimes don’t have input on their conversations unless needed.

“By the way Luna.”

“Hmm?”

“Are you really Luna?”

I stared at Kai with a raised eyebrow.

-What is he in about?

“What do you- I am Luna you know.” I said a little baffled at his question.

-Well I’m Luna yet I’m not? Or at least I have been living as Luna ever since I ended up in this body.

“It’s just that, there’s something different about you. I apologize I guess my memories are still a bit hazy after that incident two months ago.”

According to the doctors, Kai suffered a severe concussion that time so his memories were jumbled and sometimes he acted strange. But I had a feeling it wasn’t that and there was something more.

“Have I… brought you to see the glowing Moon Lotus on the night of a full moon during the winter solstice?” I nodded gingerly and then he started mumbling. I couldn’t quite catch what he said but two phrases did stood out; ‘that wasn’t supposed to happen yet’ and ‘Luna does not have a fox familiar’.

“Kai?”

“Nothing. Firefly is about to start. Let’s cheer for Freya and Senior Torii.” he said in a nonchalant manner but I could see the nervousness in his actions.

-If he’s not going to tell me anything, I guess I can only investigate and find out on my own.

**********

A/N:

[1]To be honest I just put what I remembered during my First Aid Training on my first year of college. If you think it’s wrong just tell me.