Valerian, The Legendary

She was shocked and scared to the core of her being. Never has anyone treated her like this. Ever since she could remember, her words had been held in high regard, and the people did not even dare to raise their gaze at her let alone harm her. Her brain could not figure out what was happening right now.

She wanted to struggle and move away but the grip tightened slightly, and she heard a cold voice, “Do you wish for me to kill you?”

Ashlyn shivered, she noticed that the pair of silver eyes were gazing at her with a strong indifference as if she was already a corpse. The gaze made her body go soft, her legs were numb. She used her hands to grab hold of the door threshold. She did not want to fall in front of this guy.

This was an attempt to preserve a shred of dignity she had. Valerian said, “You are very mindful about what happened to Teacher Lilian. How about I give you a lesson similar to her, and then probably, you will learn the virtue of being a human. What do you think?”

That said, he slowly took out a wind blade from his belt and placed the blunt face against the cheek of the princess. Ashlyn was shocked and scared right now. This guy will really kill her. This thought was enough to give up her pride and ego.

Ashlyn shivered and cried, tears began falling from her eyes, and she said with a stammer, “I am sorry, I apologize, please let me go.”

Valerian, however, simply chuckled and said, “Did I hear the esteemed princess of the Sapientia Empire, begging a lowly bastard like me? Well, people can indeed change in dire times. However, if I let you go, what will happen to me? Do you not want to take revenge on me?”

His tone was calm yet it made the people shiver. Ashlyn shook her head and said, “I apologize to you, please let me go. I will never make trouble for you.”

.....

In her mind, she was already coming up with ways to kill Valerian. However, she was still underestimating the caliber of the boy in front of her. Valerian smirked and said in a low tone, “Liar. Your eyes gave you away, your highness.”

He leaned closer to her ear and sighed, as he gently said, “Please tell me, how can someone as beautiful as you, commit actions like this? Do you not think it makes you ugly?”

His words were directly putting the lady to shame. He was not going to back off, this girl was acting as if she was entitled to everything, how can Valerian take this? How can he allow his teacher to be insulted? His actions left Ashlyn flushed. She has never been close to a male, and that too, someone who looked down on her like this.

However, for some reason, she was not feeling hatred towards Valerian anymore, she was too concentrated on the humiliation, specifically the last words, how her deeds made her look ugly.

Her face was flushed, and her body was numb, as the words said by Valerian repeated in her mind like a loop, her eyes became misty. Crystal clear tears dropped from her eyes. She wanted to wipe them away, not wanting to look weak in front of this hateful boy.

Valerian saw her tears and sighed, he let go of his grip and gently wiped her tears. He did not know why, but when he watched someone cry, his emotions would enter into chaos. He said, “Your highness, do not cry.”

Ashlyn could not hold back anymore, her legs gave way and she fell in Valerian’s embrace and started to cry. The situation had turned too quickly and became too ambiguous. Lilian wanted to say something, when the boy turned back slightly to look at her, and said, “I can handle this, you go, but do not tell anyone what happened here.”

Lilian was aware that if she let this news out, it will make trouble for her more than it will for Valerian and Ashlyn. She bowed her head and left. While Valerian was tending to the sobbing princess, Fortuna was looking at them with great interest.

Valerian did not know how to handle a lady with grace or care, by instinct he placed his hand on the waist of the princess and carried her to the chair not far from them.

He helped Ashlyn sit down, and the lady broke away from his embrace, she was still crying and sobbing. Valerian did not know what to say, and then he looked around, on a small table in the corner, was a glass jug filled with water and an inverted glass was placed.

He poured a glass of water for the lady and came over. He squatted in front of her and said, “Your highness, have some water, please.”

He was a child after all, and the tears of this lady made him worried. To him tears were extremely precious, how can someone who could not cry even if someone close to him was to die, tolerate the other people crying?

He waited for a bit, but when Ashlyn did not reach out to take the glass, he said, “Ashlyn, I apologize.”

The princess raised her head to look at him and wore an expression as if she was wronged. Valerian placed the glass against her lips and she drank the water slowly. He said, “You are a person gifted with both magic and wealth. Yet you comment on what someone else lost, that too something irreplaceable? Tell me, if you were born a commoner and this happened to you, would you like someone else looking down on you?”

Ashlyn was scared of him, but when she heard his soft voice, she shook her head. It was not that she was a bad human, she was just sick with chronic princess syndrome. At this sensitive moment, Valerian was trying to cure her, and she was cooperating out of her free will.

Valerian said, “As far as I can remember, I have suffered a lot. The only person in my life who gave me some warmth was also taken from me, that too, on the night of my birthday. That was the first time I killed someone. I do not regret it, but my hate will not bring back my mother.

I was left behind by my parents because they had their reasons and did not want to implicate me. When you called me a bastard, I wished to kill you, but you did not know anything about me, so I held back. Empathy is the only thing that makes us different from animals.

Magical beasts have empathy, but normal beasts do not. Do they?”

Ashlyn nodded and said in a soft voice, “I apologize. I will not do something like this again.”

“You do not have to promise me, but promise yourself, you are better than just looking down or scheming against people. Your deeds define how the world will look at you. Your actions decide if you are good or bad.”, replied Valerian.

The two people began to chat about a lot of things, and Valerian was silently listening to how Ashlyn told him that she was so pampered that if something did not work in her preferred method, she will go mad.

Valerian patiently played music at the side and gave her sincere advice and he also told her that only when the heart was calm and clean, with the spells exert their true strength. This was not something to be overlooked. Ashlyn agreed with him and accepted her flaws, she said, “I have actually known all this, you know. My handmaid is scared to look me in the eyes. All these things make me irritated and I cannot help but act out. I just cannot control myself.”

Valerian chuckled and said, “It is very simple actually. If you had met me a month ago, before I was titled a prince, you would have really died for calling me a bastard. I was so eager and so indifferent that one time I injured Prince Ignis critically.”

Ashlyn was surprised, she did not expect such a thing to have happened between the people. Valerian told her that he was the one who cured the prince and a few more things about himself. In the end, he said, “It is easy to hurt others and disrespect them. They might not say anything in return, but that is because of your status, and not your deeds.

What if the people who show awe in front of you turned out to be something different behind your back? They gather around you so that you can act up and they get entertained. Otherwise, why did none of your friends come over to stop you when we were quarreling?”

Valerian has gone a tremendous change in terms of his cold nature. He was now simmering down, slowly realizing the warmth, and Ashlyn was the same. The two got out of the room, and outside the art pavilion when Valerian said, “Ferrum Ventus.”