10 QUESTIONS UNDER THE MOONLIGH

The two walked through the garden, Andrei on his original attire, and the girl named Claire on her black dress outfit.

"Aren't you cold? Wearing a dress like that outdoors?" Andrei asked the girl who was walking beside him.

She was only inches shorter than him, and her ponytail swayed from left to right, with both of her hands at her back as they walked. The moonlight shone towards them and to the flowers around them as they passed, but what was more enchanting was that the place was still filled with the small violet lights that Andrei saw when he tried to escape, "wow, it's much more beautiful at night,"

"No, I'm used to it, after all this is my favorite place, I come here often," she looked like she was skipping as she walked enjoying her surroundings.

"Ohhh, okay," Andrei's eyes wandered not on the surroundings this time, but on the girl next to him, as the moonlight struck her skin, showing her beautiful skin, from her nape to her shoulders.

"So, who are you, where did you came from and what's your real objective of saving my sister?"

Andrei was startled in the queue of questions that was pushed to him suddenly, but in order to have information, he decided to give her information too.

A fair business deal, however, he wasn't sure if he wanted to reveal that he came from another world, or at least not yet, he's afraid of the possibilities of them knowing that there was an alternate world and he came from it, they might think he's going crazy, or something bad might happen to him and to them.

"Not until I know more about this world and these people, I think I have to keep it as a secret," he thought.

"First of all, I am Andrei Spia, I came from, ahhh hmm… a far away country I guess? But trust me that I am not plotting anything, or have any bad intentions of saving your sister, it's just happened that the carriage that she was on was approaching in my way and seeing the dead coachman, I knew I had to take a look inside and things just happened as you see"

"So why were you approaching Kydus Empire?"

"Ahhh I also don't know, maybe I just didn't know the way?"

"Shady, if you didn't know the way then where were you planning to go?"

Andrei couldn't help but get comfortable on the atmosphere between them, the questions coming from the girl beside him were indeed like a harsh inquisition, but her sweet and flat voice was just the same, that he couldn't help but answer her truthfully whenever he can, and if he couldn't answer it, he would just divert the topic.

"Well, you could just imagine me as a traveler with nowhere to go, who just happened to save your sister, I'm not a hero, adventurer, or anyone impressive, I just had a little trick that saved us both"

"Regarding that, the other golden knights order said you were impressive in the arena, that you finished off of the opponent with a one-hand surprise magic attack, and that you were wielding two swords instead of the standard? Is that true?"

"It's not that impressive really, the dual-wielding of swords were inspired by a martial art in my country and the one-hand thing was a tool that contains lightning, only myself can use it though"

"Tool? That contains lightning? And you can set it off without chanting? Impressive, even my sister who has her own magic weapon would have to chant some lines making her knights cover for her before setting it off "

"Her majesty is a wizard?" Andrei wanted to divert any more conversations about the stun gun.

"Yes, a witch to be precise, she's a woman after all, but… no nevermind," she shook her head, with a pained expression on her face, this was the second unique emotion that she displayed to Andrei.

"If you don't want to talk more about it then, it's fine"

"Anyway, I'm surprised, that a coward like you tried to escape from the people who treated you so well. Ahhh really makes you think that it was a different person, you'll fill me up about how you did it okay?"

"If you're surprised then please do something with your tone, or are you mocking me or something?" this time Andrei said it out loud that he covered his mouth immediately.

The girl stopped, glanced sideways, and responded in the same way, "Ahhh yes but please don't mind it, if you want this conversation to end in peace"

"Eh? Is she pissed or something? hmm... basing from her tone, she might be?" Andrei tried to guess what she was thinking.

After a few minutes of walking, they finally reached the veranda where Andrei tried to escape, Claire walked a few steps forward and Claire leaned to it, and looked at the scenery before her, due to its height she could see the stars and the moons as it shone on the mountains when she looked straight, and when she looked downwards, it was a city bustling with life, where there were lamp lights everywhere and where everyone seems to be having fun, there were some were drunk commoners playing music and there were dancing and partying nobles, Andrei also saw the same scene.

"It's lively isn't it?" She spoke without looking at him.

"Yes it is, is it always like this every night?" Andrei asked, and glanced slightly at her.

"No, not every day, the people here, really respect and adores her highness, my sister, hearing the news that she safely came back from Kydus, it's expected for them to feast like this"

"So today's a celebration huh?"

"All thanks to you, but my sister could've got out of her own I think… probably, but yes you did a great part so congrats," she made a small clap.

"I know you're congratulating me, but I wonder why it feels like you're mocking me?"

"But really, thank you" she showed a peaceful smile while looking at the city in front of her.

Andrei stayed silent and just looked straight at the moon that illuminated the mountains, "Ahhh the moon looks the same wherever you are, but more stars could be seen without light pollution, this is really another world eh?" he smiled and then looked sideways at the girl with him.

Her hair, getting carried by the breeze swayed back and forth, and her grey eyes glimmered and looked more peaceful and gentler while focusing on the scene before her, and her subtle smile.

The moonlight shone on her white skin, she doesn't seem like a girl who's suited to wear a knight's armor, moreover to fight as a knight.

To him he seemed like a completely normal girl compared to the beautiful blonde and almost perfect girl. However, she has her own charm, which was mysterious yet made Andrei feel comfortable with her, for an unexplained reason.

"Is it because she's average that I feel comfortable?" then he realized something important.

"Wait why am I the one who's answering all the questions!" he pointed at the girl.

"Mr. Andrei you're noisy," she kept looking at the scenery.

"Andrei is fine, now its my time to ask questions," Andrei puffed his chest.

"Why are you acting so haughty? Anyway go on, I'll answer as long as it isn't confidential information," the girl turned around to face him.

"First question, where am I?"

"You're on the Kingdom of Ethareri it's no surprise that you don't know the name, as you can see, this kingdom is smaller compared to others"

"This… is small?"

"Of course"

"Really?"

"Wait, if you're really someone from far-away I think you have read books and maps haven't you? Suspicious... what the hell are you really?"

"Ahem Ahem… my turn to ask questions don't butt in!" flashing a no-no sign with his fingers.

"Tche… okay"

"Next, what happened to your sister… no, her majesty and why did she suddenly make me her husband, is she alright in the head?" Andrei realizes that he made an insult and quickly covered his mouth and gave a peace sign.

"What's with that hand? Ahhh do you want me to take the fingers off?" then she took a knife under her leg, "Then I'll gladly... "

"No no no no, this is a V sign it means 'peace' "

"V? What is that?" the girl tilted her head and looked at Andrei's eyes directly with curiosity as if earnestly waiting for an answer.

"Ahhh haha, if I made that sign to you, it means that I don't want to have a conflict with you or I want to have peace with you, perhaps?"

"It would be disastrous if she says the ???????????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ???????????????????????? line here though," he thought, but the girl tried imitating Andrei, and made a V sign and showed it to him.

"How's this?" she looked like an awkward robot, which made Andrei almost burst out a laugh, but she girl was still holding her knife so he faked a cough to stop his laughter.

"Hmmm… Good enough! Wait! Answer my questions!"

"Well about my sister, to explain a bit, after our father... the King's death from the war four years ago, a year later our mother followed by dying from a strange sickness, without a son as the heir, the ministers were forced to crown her Michaela Acirendra as the reigning queen. She was 17 and I was 16 then, fast forward three years to the future she became a full-blown queen"

"Then why did she came from that settlement in that sorry state, moreover was chased by those knights? She's a queen right?"

"It seems you are ignorant of the politics in this world, even commoner would know why if I gave them these details"

"It's not that I don't know but if I have to speculate then judging from what you said, the struggle for power is it?" Andrei made an assumption based on medieval movies he watched.

"Bingo, but yeah, it's not as simple as that" she raid her pointy finger to her side swaying it "no"

"Why?"

"Because the empire is involved, and one of the most troublesome one, with great military power"

"If she came out from that empire, then-" Andrei was unable to complete his speculation.

"Yes, the empire of Kydus, a power struggle or something, or perhaps it's our country that they want to invade this time? I'm not sure, there's a lot of irregularities, we will be discussing more about it from her highness herself.

I also don't know why she wanted you to be her husband, so you can ask her personally about that, just for your information I don't approve of it yet"

Silence filled the air, after the two exchanged information about each other.

"The last question" Andrei broke the silence, the topic was hard for him to keep up, so he wanted to divert the conversation to a positive one.

"What? You still have one? You're getting bothersome"

"Nope, I just want you to introduce properly yourself, so what's your name?"

"I think you know already"

"But I only heard it from your sister, was it Eclaire? Kler? Clear?"

"I would really appreciate it if you stopped making fun of my name you know, when you have already called me Ms. Claire earlier"

"Ahaha sorry, I really don't have high retention," this was true for Andrei in his college days he wouldn't forget the lessons but he have always been bad at names, he would often mistake other professor names for another which made some of them mad at him.

The girl then properly stood up from her leaning position, her skirt flew a few inches to the air as she turned around slightly to face Andrei, then in a princess-like gesture, she inched some each side of her skirt and made a slight bow.

"I am Clair Acirendra, 2nd princess of the Ethareri kingdom, nice to meet you, Mr. Andrei Spia"

Andrei was captivated of the scene, for him the way she turned was in slow motion, it was enough to make him speechless for a minute. The silver rays of the moonlight hit her slender figure, and the black dress she wore, making the gesture suddenly breathtaking. The purple lights that flew everywhere made it magical and the air that flew her hair back and forth made it so captivating. that he couldn't react after seeing such a dazzling sight.

"Andrei?" the girl asked she was intrigued as Andrei didn't respond, with her hands clasped behind her back, she inched closer and looked at his eyes left and right, her face was so close that Andrei could slightly feel her cold breath.

"Ahhh haha, nice to meet you too!" Andrei instinctively stepped back and smiled awkwardly, but he stepped into a vein which made him lose his balance.

"Ahhh," as he fell down, his hands swayed to the front, and Claire's delicate hands caught it.

"Aren't you too clumsy Mr. Andrei?" She spoke bluntly, but Andrei was heavier than she expected, "Ah," she made a quick girly shriek, and with a thud, Claire fell on top of Andrei.

"Ouch, it hurts!" Andrei held the back of his head, but seeing the girl on top of him, he felt that it was time for his comeback, "Aren't you too clumsy Ms. Claire?" The purple light went closer to them as if checking if they were okay.

"Ohh, she's surprisingly light," he thought, "I thought she was heavier though" he spoke his thoughts out loud, Claire who was looking at him in the eyes, blushed a little, but when she heard him she suddenly hid her expression and pinched Andrei's sides without saying a word.

"Ah it hurts! It hurts! Stop!"