The King's Beloved

~ [Music Recommendation: "Passing By" by Yiruma - available in Youtube] ~ Please listen to it in loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter XD ~

Ducis rolled his eyes and shoved Flora's arms away from him.

"I'll say this to you once since you're new," Ducis sighed. "I'm not someone you should meddle with. You may be a guardian, and nature is indeed your domain, but I'm the Guardian of Space and everything in it - including nature itself. If you understand the gap, get lost now before I get pissed".

"Hmf! Space and everything in it," Flora mocked, copying the way Ducis said it, "If you're oh so great, then the Supreme wouldn't bother appointing the other eleven guardians. There's a reason why we're twelve and a LOT of reasons why you're not the ONLY existing guardian even if you're the most powerful. Hmf!"

Unfortunately, Ducis was in no mood to talk and his patience was draining fast.

"You must be proud since you're the very first guardian that existed! But don't think that gives you the right to bully others. Hmf!" Flora continued ranting her complaints. "And why are you so grumpy? Must be because you're too old, huh? You have lived for thousands of years already, so no wonder. It's okay, I'll be respectful to the elderly".

Suddenly, swords made of black fire encircled Flora in all directions, pointing at her. Ducis' patience ran out. A cold and frightening stare met Flora's eyes.

"Yikes! I think I pissed him off too much," Flora thought in her mind. "What a scary face he's making. This old man has some issues". Stuttering a bit, she replied to him, "D-Don't tell me you're angry because I called you old?"

"Are you leaving or not?"

"What is wrong with you? As I said, this is my domain and I need to do some -"

"One".

"Oh, you're counting now?"

"Two".

"Go on, I'll help you count. Three, how about that?"

"You don't listen to warnings, huh?" Ducis mocked her. "Fine".

Ducis flicked his fingers and the dark flame swords began attacking Flora. Good thing Flora has quick reflexes and she immediately cast a barrier to protect her from the swords.

"What the - Seriously?" Flora exclaimed. "You're attacking a co-guardian? Are you nuts?"

"What I hate the most are foolishly greedy people … and being disturbed in my sleep".

Ducis continued to stare coldly towards Flora, and waved his hands, commanding the dark flame swords to follow Flora and attack her again.

Flora kept on dodging and shielding herself. But Ducis' magic was more concentrated, thus, breaking her shields, and rendering her counterattacks useless. The gap in their power was indeed, too high. Even if Flora was known to have the highest spiritual capacity, Ducis' skills of a thousand generations was still far superior. Even this complex dark flame swords he cast was a mere child's play to him - a child's play that Flora couldn't defend herself from. Truly, she just made the biggest mistake of her life.

Or was it really a mistake?

"Ahh!" Flora exclaimed when she accidentally stumbled and fell on the ground again as she tried to dodge the last sword that attacked her. She turned her body and behind her was Ducis, floating in the air, preparing his next batch of dark flame swords.

"Scared now?" Ducis mocked her as he looked down on Flora's dirt covered body. Even her beautiful dress was now tattered due to the scorch from the dark flame swords. "You should have listened when I was still being nice and warning you properly. Now, nature will lose their newly appointed guardian".

At these words, Flora trembled and began to cry.

"Waaaaaa … bad dragon! You're a meanie! I can't believe you're really trying to kill me!" Flora wailed and bawled her eyes. "I hate you! Meanie! Meanie! Waaaaa!! Hu hu hu!"

"Ugh," Ducis was taken aback. He was never good at dealing with women, especially crying ones. "Y-you're the one who started this!"

"Waaaaaaaa!!! Bad dragon! Hu hu hu!"

In his panic, Ducis dispersed his dark flame swords and drew closer to Flora.

"Stop crying! Are you a child?" Ducis frantically tried to calm her down.

"You were gonna kill me! A guardian! And a cute woman, too! Waaaaaaa!!!"

"Ugh, c-cute? Woman? You're more like a child!"

"I'm not a child!" Flora pouted, as tears kept falling from her eyes. 

Truthfully, she was a very beautiful woman, with an alluring body as well. No man would think of her as a child should they see her - except when she acted like this.

"Only children throw tantrums, and that's what you're doing right now," Ducis argued.

"Sniff … sniff … You're really bad! I hate you!"

Ducis sighed once more. "The feeling is mutual. So stop crying!"

"I'm all dirty now because of you!" Flora continued to cry. "And my favorite dress is ruined! Hu hu hu hu!"

Ducis pressed his fingers on his temples and shook his head.

"What a pain," he mumbled. "It's so easy to clean yourself up, and fix a broken dress, for goodness sake". Then, he waved his hands and golden dusts surrounded Flora's body, cleaning her skin and fixing her dress. "There - happy?"

Flora's crying face changed in an instant. She felt so happy that she smiled gleefully at Ducis and jumped towards him, giving him a big hug - something Ducis wasn't very accustomed to, so his body froze from being touched by a woman. He could have sworn that he felt her large chest pressed unto him which nearly made him faint.

"Thank you very much!" Flora thanked him, as she rubbed her face on his cheeks. Noticing he wasn't moving, Flora blinked her eyes and looked at him in the eyes, while her arms were still wrapped around his neck. "What's wrong with you? Why did you suddenly freeze?"

Ducis furrowed as he gulped and flushed pink for some reason. Seeing this, Flora burst into laughter.

"Wait a minute! Don't tell me you're a complete virgin?" Flora blurted out. "Like those who never touched a girl? Literally? Ha ha ha ha ha!" She laughed so hard, her eyes teared up.

Ducis glared at her. "You speak as if you had experience!"

"Ha ha ha ha! I don't! I'm a virgin, too. But I'm still young, not like an old geezer like you who lived for thousands of years and still not getting laid! Ha ha ha ha! Must be because you're too scary!"

"Shut up!" Ducis shouted.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Flora shrugged. "If I had known this earlier, instead of evading your attacks, I could have hugged you instead and you'll freeze real quick. Ha ha ha ha!"

"Stop laughing, it's not funny".

"Virgin old geezer," Flora teased him.

"For your information, I am ageless, so I'm neither old nor young".

Flora shook her head, "No-uh! You're an old virgin and that's it! If you ever try to attack me again, I will tell everyone this and I'm sure they'll all laugh at you".

"What's wrong with being pure? I'd rather remain pure for the rest of my life than to delight myself in meaningless craves of the flesh".

"Pft! Yeah, yeah, of course," Flora continued to tease him. "Well, you know the deal. Now I'm gonna enjoy blackmailing you with this information. What a good find I got! Ha ha ha ha!"

"Are you trying to test my patience? Don't think just because -" Ducis tried to scare her again but Flora hugged her and he froze up in return. "S-stop that! Get off me!"

"You should learn to get used to this, old dragon, or else, you'll be forever lonely".

"I said, get off me!"

"And thus, this was how the fairy and the dragon first met," a voice over narrator spoke, echoing through the whole coliseum. "And where our bittersweet story begins … 

- Flora, a willful apprentice fairy who was just promoted as the 'Guardian of Nature',

- And Nox Ducis, the unreplaced 'Guardian of Time and Space' who had existed since the beginning of time".

The lights dimmed out, along with the music, slowly fading. It was to prepare for the next act and redecorate the stage. The audience clapped their hands and began murmuring as they waited for the next act.

Meanwhile, as the lights faded, Luna felt tears flowing from her eyes. Upon noticing it, she quickly wiped them with her hands. Ducis sat beside her and saw what was going on. He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and gave it to her without saying a word.

"It's the same as that time," Luna thought in her mind. "When we were under that big tree, and Ducis suddenly hugged me and kissed me. My heart … its stinging again. I feel like I'm missing him so much when he's always been with me! Why do I have these feelings? Are they … mine at all? If not, then whose emotions are these? Is it mine?" 

Then looking back at the stage who regained its brilliance, she stared at the actress playing Flora.

"Or is it … yours?"

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