23 Behind the curtain
"So, then..." empress Sabiri whispered while she and Trevor awaited the return of Kurt and Dorothy in a special room mere moments after they left, "You must have a very special reason to have come here, right, Trevor?"
The boy was sitting on a sofa directly in front of the lady while all it stood between them was a small table.
Sabiri wouldn't stop smiling and laughing while looking at the kid, who in turn couldn't help but shiver uncontrollably as he tried to show a composed expression.
"I... I... Well..." he stuttered.
"Clearly you wouldn't have come here and risked revealing your identity to him in the very first day for no good reason... Right?" she asked again.
Her words and facial expressions were warm, but Trevor couldn't help but feel like he was walking on eggshells right now and feared that the wrong reply would cost his neck.
"M- My apologies, madam... Master Kurt seemed troubled when school ended so I tried to follow him to make sure he was okay..."
Sabiri opened her eyes and for a split second, Trevor felt like a dagger had been sent directly into his heart.
"In other words... You already messed up your mission even though I only gave you one job, one very simple, very easy to accomplish job, and you decided that it would be best to come crawling and beg me for forgiveness before things went too far, and hoping that having Kurt by your side while doing so would help put me in a good mood to let you escape..." she guessed while still holding her grin, "Did I get close?"
Trevor just lowered his face and began to pray for his life, "M- M- My apologies..."
Sabiri finally dropped her gentle smile and began to stare coldly at the trembling kid, "Tell me what happened. And do not skip a single detail."
"As you wish... I did as you instructed and tried to approach master Kurt by acting like a simple student that was meeting him for the first time..." Trevor commented, "So far he doesn't seem to suspect anything... But that's probably because he doesn't appear to have any interest in me..."
"You didn't go on to ramble about your passion for dragons and how they function, did you? You know how creepy that makes you look..." she asked while sending a small glare.
Kurt flinched at that question, "Maybe... Just a little... My apologies... But He didn't seem too bothered by it... Although his pet seems to not like me much..."
"Right... His pet... I think he calls it an owl?"
"Yes... That's probably his ruler...? Correct?" Trevor wondered.
Sabiri became quiet for a moment and memories of Kurt growing up while always having Dorothy by his side began to flash before her eyes, "It appears so... I hardly ever see the two too far from each other. To think of all kids to be born as a guest, it had to be mine... I really have the worst luck..."
"My lady... Do you by any chance not love your son?"
"Who? Me? Not love Kurt? Are you crazy? I would die and I would kill for him! He's the best thing that ever happened to me ever since my mother and my father sold me to the emperor..." she explained before pressing her palm against her forehead and leaning on her seat, "But now I have to spend the rest of my life living every second making sure someone isn't going to show up out of nowhere in an attempt to eliminate him from the game...
It's really exhausting..."
"I... I see..."
"Which reminds me!" she then started to glare at him again, "Did anything bad happen to him today? Was he attacked at any point?"
"Y- Yes... Unfortunately..." Trevor explained, sensing the empress's rage starting to grow, "A group of kids tried to corner him during the break and dragged him out without anyone noticing it... I made sure to have one of my spies among them to help him out should something serious happen, but master Kurt managed to handle everything on his own."
"Ah... So there are in fact some garbage that dares to touch on what's precious to me..." the woman muttered while turning her hands into claws and scratching the table to vent her feelings, "And do you already know who sent them?"
"We are working on it..." he explained while trying to contain his shaking and avoid looking at the mess she made on the furniture piece, "It appears that their leader received some kind of letter with instructions to scare him off, as well as a rather large amount of money inside of it... Claiming that they could receive even more should they succeed."
"Tch! That does very little to shrink the list of suspects... But at least we know it isn't one of the rival factions. They would never be able to infiltrate the empire without anyone noticing it."
Trevor nodded, "That's what we assumed as well... The most probable culprit is someone who's trying to take his place in the game and become the new representative of his ruler. If it was an enemy, they could just have gotten rid of the flying beast when they had the chance."
Sabiri suddenly stopped scratching the table and instead straight-up pierced its surface all the way to the other side with her talons, "I. Beg. Your. Pardon?"
"Oh... I... I mean..."
"They touched the ruler?" she asked with a very chilling tone and an extremely unsettling smile, "if something happens to that thing, I'm gonna lose the only son I've ever had... NO ONE! Is supposed to touch that beast! Do I make myself clear!?"
Trevor's trembling finally ceased as his fear had reached such a great level that his body was now completely frozen in place.
"I... I apologize..."
"I do not want your apology! I want you to give me your word that this won't happen again! Otherwise..." she continued while pulling her claws out and increased the size and sharpness of its edges, "I'll have to replace you!"
"It won't happen again! It won't happen again!! I give you my word!! I'll protect master Kurt and his ruler with my life!!!"
"Good!"
Sabiri retracted her claws and returned to the appearance of a regular person.
"B- But..." Trevor muttered, "If I might be so bold... Why haven't you told him about the game yet? Isn't leaving him in the dark like this just putting him in more danger?"
The lady with long dazzling blond hair turned her face away while resting her elbow on the arm of her seat and holding her cheek with the back of her fingers, "When you reach the position where I'm in, at the age I'm in, with the circumstances that we are all in... It gets harder and harder to truly find things in life to enjoy..."
She turned her face back at the boy and stared directly into his eyes.
"My son only gets to be who he is and laugh the way he laughs because he isn't yet part of this messed up world we all are secretly keeping from him... Let me enjoy this fake happiness while it lasts...
I won't get many moments like this once the time to fight arrives..."
"Ma'am... He's gonna be really upset once he finds out... He will blame you and the emperor for not telling him sooner..."
"Maybe..." she admitted, "But when he finds out that he needs to fight for his life because everything and everyone will come after him to either take his life or his place... These memories of naive, innocent joy he is creating right now are what will give him the will to want to survive!
He will fight to get back the happy days that the world stole from him. And I'll make sure he succeeds!"
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Kurt finally returned with a plate of snacks and a pot of tea after finishing up his small chat with Dorothy. He found it strange to enter the room and find Trevor looking so stiff while his mother appeared so relaxed.
"Ah, sorry... I took too long... I hope you weren't bored..." he asked while placing the plate down and raising an eyebrow at the strange marks on the table.
"N- Not at all... The madam was keeping me company in the meantime!" Trevor explained with a shaking voice.
"Everything okay, Trevor? You look tired..." Kurt commented.
"I think some of my lessons were more draining than I expected... Maybe I should head home!"
"Already? But you didn't get to eat anything."
"Kurt, dear, your friend probably has some homework he needs to finish and he must be eager to get it done soon. It's best to let him be so his mind can be at ease!" Sabiri explained.
"We had homework today...?" Kurt asked himself trying to remember, but since most of his classes were so hard to listen to, he actually had no idea if he missed something.
"Don't worry! It's from my classes, not yours! Since today was the first day, we mostly just got some introduction to the subjects and explanations on how the lessons would be delivered!" Trevor commented while standing up and marching towards the exit.
"Ah... If you say so..."
Sabiri continued to smile while pouring a bit of tea in her cup and peeking at Dorothy from the corner of her eye, Trevor walked with stiff steps while quickly glancing at the empress and at the owl, and Dorothy would send a couple of glares back at the boy while also keeping an eye our for the blond lady.
Kurt couldn't put his finger on why, be he started to sense something wrong in the room. By giving discrete glances at his mother, Trevor, and even Dorothy, he began to feel like they were having some sort of unspoken conversation, as if all three were analyzing and studying how the other was behaving before doing anything.
"You guys okay...?" Kurt asked, bluntly.
'"Of course!"', all of them replied, even Dorothy for some reason.
"I... See..."
