Long Live the Emperor: Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Mabel knocked on Alvin’s door early in the morning. Alvin had been expecting her. She’d been asking him if he wanted to go to the practice field every morning before training, and he could practically set his clock to her visits. Or rather, that’s what he’d do if he had a clock. The locals had a few decent ways of telling time, most of which involved sundials and loudly hitting a bell.

“Aldrich! Come on! You’ve skipped practice a few times by now! Aren’t you worried your skills will go rusty?” Mabel called from the other side of Alvin’s door.

Alvin tugged on the other side, making sure his pants were up all the way. He’d been dreamwalking with Clover all night, and he’d stayed up reading romances the night before. His eyelids felt heavy, despite most of his work happening in bed. Still, there was so much to do and so little time to waste.

He reached behind him as the door swung open, and he greeted Mabel with a fistful of flowers.

“For you, my lady,” Alvin said as he gave her a deep bow.

“O-oh, flowers?” Mabel seemed confused at the gesture, which Alvin thought was all wrong. Had he sprung the flowers on her too early? Or had he said something wrong? This had worked perfectly in six of the fourteen local romance novels he’d read so far.

Her gauntleted hand clutched the flowers, and the thorns broke off as they scrubbed against the rough edges of her armor. A few of the pedals fell to the ground.

“I’ll... uh... do something with them,” Mabel said.

“I think you usually put them in water. Sometimes they grow new roots,” Alvin shrugged. Clover had found the flowers for him and brought them to him. She’d probably created them with her powers, but Alvin wasn’t sure.

“I was never all that good at gardening,” Mabel let out a gentle laugh. “My older sister told me I had a poison thumb instead of a green one. The only thing I could do in the flower beds was tear up weeds. Anyway, practice? You and me?”

Alvin bit his lower lip for a moment. He knew this confrontation was coming sooner or later. Faking an injured arm had worked for a few days, but that excuse wouldn’t work much longer. Mabel kept offering to take him to the healer every time he mentioned it, and he knew she was starting to get suspicious. So he had to resort to a more permanent solution.

“Alas, oh fair lady!” Alvin began, clutching his brow and leaning back. “I have looked upon my own soul and all the vile deeds I’ve done! My past is too dark and brooding, and my many sins are beyond count! I realize that now I must give up the way of the sword. From now on, I intend to live a peaceful life. I will love where I killed and sing where I swore!”

Alvin cracked an eye open as he waited to see Mabel’s reaction. Would she swoon in love and appreciation of his romantic gesture? From his research, women of this world loved it when a deadly bandit or warlord put an end to their violent ways out of love for them and settled down to live a quiet life.

“Okay...” Mabel said slowly. “If you really don’t want to practice with me, you can say so. I’ll stop pestering you about it. I just thought... oh... never mind.”

He was losing her. Alvin could tell by the way her head drooped, and she looked at the floor instead of meeting his gaze. He had to do something to save this. After all, his entire future depended on Mabel liking him.

“Wonderful!” Alvin said, reaching out to grasp Mabel’s hand in his own. “In that case, how about a romantic walk over the manor grounds?”

Mabel’s face flushed red. “A romantic walk? With me?”

“Just so! Come along.” Alvin left the room and tugged Mabel along behind him. He didn’t want to give the girl a chance to back out. She seemed like the shy type of heroine as far as romances were concerned, and Alvin figured that so long as she wasn’t actively protesting, he could lead her wherever he wished.

The guards still stood before the gates of the manor, and they had blocked Alvin from leaving every time he’d tried to exit the manor before. But this time, he had Mabel with him, so at her nod, they stepped aside and let the two of them through.

“I know just the place! There’s an orchard out back that my family used to own,” Alvin explained.

Aldrich’s family used to own the orchard before Aldrich sold it off to cover some of his debts. It was an unfortunate loss since it was a rather beautiful orchard. Clover had said as much when he had her scout the area for places he and Mabel could go on a romantic pick nick.

“I have to say, I’ve never been on one of these before,” Mabel said. After leaving the manor, Alvin finally released her hand just to see if she would grab his as they walked. He was disappointed to note her hands would rather fiddle with her hair and toy with the buckles on her armor. “I mean, I shouldn’t be wearing my practice gear, right?”

“Mabel, I’m sure you’ve walked before. It’s just one foot in front of the other.” Alvin pointed to his own legs to make his point. “You can think of it like marching if you’d like.”

Alvin lifted his knees high as he walked, micking Count Grandhill’s soldiers as he walked. They’d stomped across the town with wide, ungainly gaits that looked sharp but were both slower and far more exhausting than walking normally.

“I meant I’ve never gone out on a date before.” Mable let out a giggle and covered her mouth as she saw Alvin walk. “You know, I never knew you had a sense of humor.”

She leaned into him. Alvin was surprised. He hadn’t even stolen that from the romance novels he’d been reading. But if it worked, he was more than happy to continue.

“Come on, march with me, soldier! I’ll teach you how to go on a date!” Alvin said.

Awkwardly, Mabel fell into step behind him. “Yes, sir!” She burst out into a fit of giggles, but Alvin kept at it.

“You will see beautiful sights! You will giggle in delight, smile, and laugh!” Alvin commanded. “We will complete the objective of having a romantic stroll at any cost!”

Mabel giggled again, and some of the tension she’d had ebbed out of her.

Like a angler sensing a nibble on his line, Alvin realized this was his chance to reel her in. So he started using some of the best lines he’d stolen from the romances he’d studied as he prepared to win Mabel over for good.

“My dearest lady, my heart is like the blossoms on this cherry tree.” Alvin’s voice turned low and husky. “And meeting you was like the changing of the seasons. Once, these leaves were dead and plain. Now they are beautiful and full of color, just like my heart is now full of life when I gaze upon your face.”

“Uh... okay...” Mabel let out an awkward laugh. She turned to look behind her as though making sure he wasn’t talking to someone else.

Alvin reached out to grab her hand, taking it in his own. He cupped her fingers within his palm and took a knee in the middle of the mud-stained path.

“I speak truthfully, my dearest love! My bosom longs only for thee! I would giveth my heart’s blood to see thee smile!” Alvin declared as he gazed into Mabel’s eyes.

Mabel started giggling. “Are you making fun of me, Aldrich? I know you spoke with my father. Did he give you that cheesy line?”

“Nay, fair maiden!” Alvin cried. He sensed he was starting to lose her. “My love doth--“

Alvin never finished his sentence as a carriage raced around the bend just ahead of them. The horse’s hooves sent a wave of mud flying right for Alvin’s face, and he spent the next few minutes coughing and spluttering.

“Hey, watch it!” Mabel raised her fist as the carriage driver passed, but he ignored her and carried on toward East Water.

Alvin shook his head as the gaudy golden carriage passed, though for a moment, he thought he recognized the symbol on the side of the carriage. That was the symbol of the Spirit Realm Monastery from one of Aldrich’s books on magic. What was someone like that doing in East Water?

“Oh, great spirits! Aldrich! Here, I’m sure I have a clean cloth somewhere...” Mabel searched her clothes for something and eventually tossed Alvin a bundled-up patch of torn cloth with just a tiny bit of dried blood on it. It had probably served as a makeshift bandage after a sword training accident at some point and then been promptly forgotten about.

Alvin made a show of using the thing, but really he just wiped the mud out of his eyes with his sleeve.

“Well, that didn’t go as planned,” Alvin sighed.

Now he’d have to get Mabel in the mood all over again. And he couldn’t reuse the lines he’d already shared with her, which meant he’d need to do more research to find new ones.

“Let’s go back to town to get you cleaned up.”

Note:

Sorry I've been quiet lately. I have been reading comments, I just don't like replying on mobile since I sound slightly more unhinged than I actually am when I can't use paragraph breaks. I'm still having some internet issues, but I'm hoping they'll be cleared up before the end of the upcoming week.

I've been really focused on Paladin for a bit. There are more edits to work on than expected to get the novel where I want it to be, and I have the proofreader scheduled on the 30'th so the major rewrites and changes have to be done before then.

I have taken care of the ending rewrite I mentioned, so you guys will get the new ending. The old one was okay, but feedback so far says the new ending is way better. But I also have stuff earlier in the story to rework, so that has to happen within the next three days as well.

Weird how editing always takes me right up to the day of the deadline no matter how much extra time I schedule for myself. It's like the amount of work expands to fill whatever void I give it.

Anyway, here's another chapter of Alvin's adventure! I have done some more brainstorming of what's going to happen here. Based on that vote, I think everyone wants to see more magic, so that's what's going to happen.