Chapter 79: A Dragon and His Phoenix (3)
Mikyle stood up, sliding his arms underneath Adrien’s. In a smooth motion, Mikyle had Adrien outside of the bath and standing up. Without grabbing a towel, he slid his hands slowly against Adrien’s skin. Heat radiated from Mikyle’s hands, both warming and drying Adrien’s cold, wet skin.
Adrien held himself back from leaning into the warmth that was coming from Mikyle. He hadn’t realized he had been feeling that cold until Mikyle had started drying him off by using his power.
That really is a useful power, though. I could reheat the bath water to no end. Adrien suppressed a laugh as he envisioned himself turning into a wrinkly old prune from staying inside the bath for too long.
"Hmm?" Mikyle brought a hand up and wrapped it underneath Adrien’s chin, lifting his face up. "What has you in such a good mood?"
"Nothing," a smile splayed on Adrien’s lips as he mentally shook off the image that had him wanting to laugh. "I was just imagining how much of a prune I would look if I had your power."
A well-defined golden eyebrow arched beautifully upon hearing his words. "The power of fire, and all you can think to use it for is to reheat your bath water?" His gaze then drifted low, scanning Adrien’s body. A small smirk lifted one side of his mouth. "At least you would be a cute prune. One I wouldn’t mind taking a bite out of."
Adrien froze and his heartrate picked up. His face, which was slowly turning red from Mikyle drying him, was now a bright scarlet color. "How do you always say things like that nonchalantly?!"
"Hmm? Why would I not be nonchalant when I mean every word."
Ba-dump!
Adrien’s heart thumped loudly in his chest. Hearing Mikyle’s words were starting to stir Adrien, so in a bid to not be caught since he was standing butt naked, he pushed Mikyle’s hand away and practically dashed over to where the towels were.
If I don’t run away now, I have a feeling that we will miss lunch with his family! I just know it!
Adrien wrapped the overly-large towel around him before walking out of the bath. He could feel Mikyle’s stare drilling into his back the entire time.
After a few seconds had passed and a light chuckle, Mikyle followed him out of the bathroom. He leaned against the wall and watched with a heated gaze as Adrien tried to dress himself while not removing the towel.
The book that Adrien had been so absorbed in was left forgotten on the ledge of the tub.
* * * * *
A little while later, Adrien and Mikyle entered the main palace. The others were already waiting in the family dining room when they arrived.
"I’m sorry for being late," Adrien apologized, trying to look everyone in the eye as he did so. He wasn’t sure if that was considered proper etiquette or not.
King Asher held up a hand. "It’s fine." He then turned toward one of the maids that were standing off to the side. "Bring everything out now that we’re all here."
Mikyle pulled a seat out for Adrien and graciously accepted it, still feeling slightly uncomfortable with being in this kind of setting.
"Did you have time to look at any of the books?" The Queen Regent asked, a smirk splayed on her red-painted lips. Adrien had noticed that the Queen Regent preferred wearing make-up with darker tones while the Queen Consort went with a bare-faced natural look. The two of them really were almost polar opposites of each other.
"Hmph," snorted Mikyle, his gaze practically burning a hole in the side of Adrien’s face. "He was so absorbed in one that he forgot all about me."
"I did not," Adrien hissed on reflex. "I-I mean, I did start reading a book, but I didn’t forget about him," Adrien stammered. His ears, hidden by his hair, were starting to turn red.
"Hmm." Mikyle hummed, clearly not believing Adrien’s words.
"Oh? Which one are you reading?"
Adrien turned his attention away from Mikyle and focused on the Queen Regent. "It’s the white book. The one about Velron and Shigaron."
"Ugh," the king groaned, his distaste for the book obvious. While the king was rubbing his temples, the servants brought out the food and placed the plates in front of each person.
The Queen Regent let out a hearty laugh. "That one is special to me. I mentioned before how it was the inspiration behind some of my earlier works."
Upon hearing her words, the Queen Consort and Prince Nathaniel became disgruntled.
"I still can’t believe we had no idea you were writing under a pseudonym," spoke the Queen Consort with a frown.
"Yes, mother. You knew how we were secretly writing books to help promote Mikyle’s good qualities, yet you didn’t bother to inform us that you were doing the same," Prince Nathaniel complained.
"What’s worse, even Asher knew about it," the Queen Consort continued pouting.
Adrien poked Mikyle in the side with a finger. "Shouldn’t you do something? You’re the one who ratted her out yesterday," whispered Adrien.
During their dinner yesterday while everyone was present, Adrien and Mikyle had been persistently hounded with questions about how and when they met, and what shenanigans Mikyle had caused. Somewhere among all the questions, Mikyle had mentioned how Adrien had been in the bookstore purchasing books written by the Queen Regent.
That had caused all hell to break loose. It was sufficient to say that dinner had ended early.
"No. They would have eventually found out about her secret hobby one way or another."
"Ugh, that’s enough about me," the Queen Regent narrowed her eyes on Prince Nathaniel. "You can badger me all you want, after Adrien and Kyle leave."
"Fine," Prince Nathaniel relented.
"So, Adrien, how do you find the book so far?"
"It’s really interesting. Though, I’m not very far into it yet." He answered earnestly, though his mind was still lingering on the way that the Queen Regent was speaking. He was struck again with how strange her behavior and the way she spoke was different from everyone else in this world.
The Queen Regent smiled when she heard his words. "I believe you will enjoy it. The beginning Chapters are extremely informative as they hold information that is not known to the public. And the later Chapters are quite romantic. It’s unfortunate that we have no information to support whether or not that Velron the Dragon and Shigaron the Shadow Phoenix were ever involved. Though I’m inclined to believe that they were. If they weren’t then why would the two of them establish kingdoms so close to each other?"
