"Take ten," Theodore barked, his voice carrying a tone that brooked no argument.
Clyde immediately tossed a towel at Vyan, who collapsed onto the grass, looking thoroughly defeated. "Ugh," Vyan groaned, burying his face in the towel. "Another minute, and I swear my arms would have detached and walked off on their own."
"Guess Spencer is not around to save you, huh?" Clyde said with a grin, sitting down beside him. "Sir Theodore isn't big on mercy as usual."
"Spence is probably somewhere out there enjoying his family vacation while I am here being drilled into the ground." Vyan grumbled, his words muffled by the towel.
Clyde studied Vyan for a moment and then blurted out, "You look… different today."
"Different how?" Vyan muttered, emerging from his towel cocoon to wipe the sweat off his face. "Extra exhausted? Half-dead?"
"Nah, that is your usual look." Clyde squinted thoughtfully. "There is just something… something I can't put my finger on."
Vyan raised a brow and shrugged. "Maybe it's just because I got less sleep than usual."
Clyde's gaze zeroed in on Vyan like he was a detective solving a mystery. "Nope. You are… glowing."
"Yes, that would be sweat, thank you for noticing." Vyan snapped his fingers, conjuring a glass of water from thin air and taking a sip.
Clyde leaned in with a suspicious gleam in his eyes. "No, it's something else. Oh—hold up. Why is your collar buttoned all the way up? In this hot weather?"
Vyan choked on his water, sputtering as Clyde's eyes widened in sudden realization.
"Oh my goddess, you got laid!" Clyde shouted, loud enough for Theodore and every knight within earshot to swivel around and stare.
"Brilliant, Clyde!" Vyan hissed, his face now as red as his shirt. "You want to announce it to the whole empire?"
Realizing the attention he had drawn, Clyde quickly backtracked, waving his arms. "Oh, no, no, sorry! I meant paid! You said you got paid, right, my lord? Yup, nothing to see here, folks! Ha-ha!"
Vyan shot him an incredulous look. "You are terrible at excuses."
Clyde shrugged nonchalantly. "Hey, it was worth a shot. Anyway, I am right, aren't I? You are a changed man now. Finally got some action, huh?"
"Will you keep your voice down?!" Vyan groaned, rubbing his temples. "And how did you even figure that out so fast?"
Clyde clapped him on the back with a proud grin. "It's one of my many gifts. Call it my freaky sixth sense. Congratulations on finally joining the club, my friend. I am proud of you."
Vyan shook his head, exasperated. "Your sixth sense is freaky, alright."
Clyde chuckled, leaning in with a mischievous glint in his eye. "So, tell me—how was it?"
Vyan couldn't help the automatic grin that spread across his face. "Well…"
Clyde let out a low whistle. "Look at you, all those hours with your nose in a book finally paying off, huh? Tell me more."
"Oh, shut it," Vyan muttered, his cheeks going pink. "I am not giving you a play-by-play, okay?"
Clyde laughed even harder. "Relax, I am just giving you a hard time. Even I don't want to hear the details. But hey, I have got to say, I respect it. Not many men like you, Vyan. I will admit, back in my day, I was a bit of a rogue." He gave a sheepish smile.
"But now that I have Athy, sometimes I look back and wonder if I would have been better off waiting."
Vyan nodded thoughtfully. "Well, you did your 'rogue' thing before you met Thea. And for me... I have always been all about Iyana. I mean, I couldn't even imagine kissing someone else, let alone anything more. Otherwise, you never know, I might not have waited, either."
"Yes, I get it," Clyde nodded, his face more serious. "We men do get a free pass on these things, while the high society is always harping on about women staying 'pure' and all that nonsense. But in my opinion, if someone wants their women to be 'pure,' they should also restrain themselves, right? I mean, what's with the inequality?"
"So… things like that still exist?" Vyan asked, surprised.
"Yep. They sure do. Stupid, but what can you do?" Clyde shrugged. "Apparently, they still consider women like that are 'used goods.'"
"I… I had no idea."
"Well, I guess you missed out on some pretty messed-up things while growing up then. Scandals like that are a big deal."
Vyan licked his bottom lip, looking a little nervous, as he brought up, "So, hypothetically, if something happened to me and I couldn't marry Iyana… would that mean her life is ruined?"
Clyde's eyebrows shot up. "First of all, why wouldn't you get to marry her? Secondly, no, her life wouldn't be ruined. Women like Lady Iyana, Athy, they will be just fine without us or any other men, for that matter. Besides, any man who has that kind of messed-up mentality doesn't even deserve to be with them either way."
"No, I understand that. Obviously, they deserve the best. But the last thing I want is to make things harder for Iyana." Sёarch* The Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
"Don't even go there. You guys are perfect, and you are going to get married to her. Maybe not immediately, but in the future," Clyde scolded, wagging a finger. "So, stop with the doomsday thinking, my lord. Life might not be a bed of roses, but it sure as hell isn't a bed of thorns either."
"Yes, about that…" Vyan slumped back against the tree, looking defeated. "My life actually might be one giant thorn bush."
Clyde's smile faded. "What's going on?"
"There is a lot I haven't told you, Clyde," Vyan said, his tone low. "And honestly, it's something Thea should hear too."
"Well, don't keep us hanging," Clyde replied, his tone a mix of concern and curiosity. "You know we have got your back, whatever it is."
Vyan managed a small smile. "Yes, but I am not so sure how you are going to take this."
———
"So, let me get this straight," Althea said, raising an eyebrow. "According to this alternate timeline, you have got... what, twenty days left to live?"
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Clyde threw his hands up. "Whoa, whoa. Back up a second. I can't keep up with all this alternate timeline, parallel world nonsense."
Vyan rolled his eyes. "This is why you should read more, Clyde. You can't expect to know about alternate dimensions just from backpacking across the empire. You need to have read that book."
Clyde crossed his arms, undeterred. "Hey, I happen to prefer practical knowledge, thank you very much. Besides, why should I bother with books when I have a geeky beloved and a best friend?"
Althea and Vyan simultaneously shot him a glare that could have melted steel.
"Alright, Thea, do you mind explaining it to the future emperor again?" Vyan groaned, letting his head hit the desk.
Althea took a deep breath and launched into another round of explaining dimensional rifts and alternate realities, while Clyde's eyes glazed over slightly. Finally, he nodded, as if he had grasped the basics.
"Okay, so even if there is this alternate timeline, nothing lines up with our reality," Clyde argued. "I mean, in that ridiculous version, Athy never becomes crown princess, Lady Iyana never falls for you, she never gets Aura powers or becomes the Commander, Prince Easton is on the throne, and, well... you are dead. None of that is going to happen here."
"We don't know that," Vyan replied with a sigh. "The chance of me kicking the bucket is still high."
"Come on," Clyde shot back. "According to that timeline, you are supposed to die at Lady Iyana and Prince Easton's wedding. I don't see how that is remotely possible—unless Lady Iyana loses her memory again!"
"I am not saying I am actually going to die," Vyan clarified, a little exasperated. "But if you look at the timeline, it's a coincidence too big to ignore. The wedding date for Iyana and Easton now overlaps with Thea's coronation as Crown Princess. It's the same date we planned for the coup. We are talking about probabilities here, Clyde."
Clyde snapped his fingers, as if he had just solved everything. "Easy fix! We just postpone the coup."
"Not an option. Giving Easton more time is just asking for trouble. He knows I can use magic; he just can't prove it yet. If he gets his hands on evidence, we are toast."
"Well, fine. Let's move up the coup, then," Clyde suggested, looking far too pleased with himself.
"That won't work either," Vyan replied, shaking his head. "To pull this off, we need the public on board. Thea's coronation needs to happen first, and as it stands, most of the empire has no clue she is going to be Crown Princess."
Clyde frowned. "Who cares? We are not exactly a democracy. The nobility calls the shots, and they already know Athy's next in line."
Vyan exchanged a look with Althea, and both of them had the same thought: Clyde's logic has officially left the room.
"Clyde, it's not about democracy," Vyan explained patiently. "We just don't want to paint Thea as some kind of power-hungry tyrant. If we go ahead without the coronation, people will think she is a dictator in the making. And besides, there is the official seal—she hasn't inherited the crown on paper yet."
Clyde stared at Vyan, clearly trying to process everything, before he abruptly stood up. "Alright, I am out. I need some air," he huffed, striding out of the room.
As he left, Althea gave Vyan a reassuring nod. "I will go talk some sense into him."
"Thanks," Vyan murmured, watching as they walked off, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
He glanced down at his hands, noticing the slight tremor. Clenching them into fists, he muttered to himself, "Come on, Vyan. You have made it this far. You are going to see this through."