Chapter 9: Filling the Moat
Ruri had decided to give Jade proper consideration, but she found herself at Lydia’s for some reason. Well, the reason was clear. She was going to ride the momentum all the way to Jade, but along the way she hesitated and couldn’t bring herself to see him. She went to Lydia’s to get away. And there she sat cross-legged in front of the room where the ghost dwelled, listening to the haunting tune that seeped through the door.
“Ruri, what are you doing?” Lydia asked.
“Gathering my mind.”
Puzzled, Lydia watched Ruri as she sat and practiced this mysterious method called “meditation.”
“I’m trying to process my feelings before I go talk to Jade-sama,” Ruri said.
Ruri wasn’t quite ready to accept Jade’s feelings. At this rate, she could speak to him as many times as she liked, but chances were that she would stop short and run away.
When all was said and done, what did Jade mean to her? Her heart raced whenever she looked into those jadeite eyes. She was captivated by the sweet, charming smile meant for her eyes only.
The elders would bring Jade portraits of potential brides, and seeing them would make her irrationally irritable at the thought of one of them becoming Jade’s queen. If she already knew that much, wasn’t that more than enough? That was the question.
“Oh my, you’re finally ready to put this matter to rest, then? But why are you in front of this room again?” asked Lydia.
“Well, because listening to this song puts me at ease.”
Since she’d first heard this ghost’s song, she’d been frequently returning to this room in hopes of listening to the melody etched in her mind. Not every visit yielded her a listen, unfortunately enough. However, she seemed to be in luck this time around. The song had poured out from the room at just the right time, so she’d decided to stay and listen to it as “meditation.” Their voice was always so beautiful; it felt like it was cleansing her mind. After reeling from the idea of going to Jade, it helped calm her down a great deal.
Ruri didn’t know why she was being so wishy-washy. After learning that Jade had given her a dragonheart, she was overwhelmingly bewildered. Now that she had calmed down, though, what else was there? She asked herself this question and realized that she was honestly...happy. She liked being with Jade. Being by his side was comforting, and she wanted to stay there.
It hadn’t started out that way, but before Ruri knew it, being with Jade had become the status quo. She tried to ignore it during her stay in the Nation of the Beast King, but she missed having him near her. The sense of longing churned up a murky feeling in her heart. That was a testament to how natural it felt being with Jade in the Nation of the Dragon King.
Ruri pondered over her course of action. A dragonheart was incredibly important to a dragonkin. Quartz had even mentioned how it wasn’t some half-hearted gesture. But was Ruri ready to accept Jade’s feelings? That question weighed on her mind. She could return the dragonheart, but part of her didn’t want to do that. She didn’t want to give back Jade’s show of affection. Then should she accept it? A part of her was still conflicted about that as well.
After hearing about Quartz’s deep, binding love for his mate, Ruri felt her feelings still weren’t ready to be taken out of the oven. She thought it would be better to give it just a little more thought.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
“Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmmmm.”
After she left Lydia’s, Ruri hummed a little ditty as she strolled to her room at the castle. The ditty in question was the ghost’s song. It had lingered in her ears, and as a result, her vocal cords naturally reproduced it.
As she continued to hum, she heard the distant sound of footsteps hurrying down the hall. Ruri stopped in her tracks and turned around to see Quartz running from around the corner. He looked desperate.
“What’s wrong with you, Quartz-sama? Why are you in such a hurry?”
“Oh, it’s you, Ruri. Did you just hear a song coming from somewhere?”
“A song? Well, I was just humming to myself, but that’s it.”
“You? No, it can’t be. I must’ve heard wrong...” Quartz mumbled to himself, coming to some sort of conclusion on his own. The only word to describe the look on his face was—despair.
Ruri cocked her head and asked, “Is something the matter?”
A moment later, Quartz reverted back to his usual gentle smile. “No, it’s nothing. I must’ve been thinking too hard and misheard you. Anyway, did you go to Jade’s place? I was convinced you were going to let the momentum carry you there.”
“I thought about going in there like that, but I wanted to think it over before I gave him my answer.”
“Well, that’s smart. It’s best to give it proper thought. Dragonkin can get extremely jealous, so I would suggest not going in with any second thoughts. That would be torture for Jade.”
“Yes, don’t worry. I’ll give it the proper consideration,” Ruri said, hoping she didn’t regret her eventual answer.
“I’m looking forward to your wedding.”
“Wait, wedding? That seems like quite a big leap,” Ruri replied. She found his comment odd considering they hadn’t even started dating yet.
“No, I don’t think so. Once you accept Jade’s feelings, Agate and the others will be so beside themselves with joy that they’ll skip straight to the wedding. And it will be an extravagant one, I’m sure.”
Agate had been nagging Jade to marry for some time now. He seemed gung ho about rushing headlong into a wedding if Jade found himself a mate. Ruri had wondered why he hadn’t been bugging Jade about a wife lately, but that was because he knew that Jade had given Ruri his dragonheart. They were instead busy working on something else—something Ruri was still not privy to.
“By the way, what was your ceremony like, Quartz-sama?” Ruri asked, curious to hear the former king’s firsthand experience.
“We had a modest ceremony.”
“Really? A king’s wedding? Modest?” Quartz’s explanation was surprising. Ruri had imagined that a royal wedding would be quite a grand affair, especially for the king of a superpower nation.
“Well, I suppose it would be common procedure to invite a lot of guests. But I didn’t want anyone else to see Seraphie in all her beauty, so we held it with just us.”
“Oh, I see.” Quartz seemed to be enjoying himself as he recalled that moment, so Ruri fought to keep her cheeks from twitching. From what she’d heard so far, Ruri secretly thought that Quartz had a bit of a yandere temperament. Perhaps because they were destined to love the same mate for life, dragonkin were said to get very attached and possessive. Quartz seemed the typical dragonkin in that way.
So, what would Jade do, then? Quartz had told her that he rarely let his mate out into the open, so would Jade end up keeping her from leaving her room as well? Ruri thought she’d need to check with Jade about this matter.
As she walked to her room with Quartz, she noticed that people were coming and going from the room next to Jade’s.
“Why?” Ruri questioned, curiously peeking in. The room was supposed to be unoccupied, but she saw that they were removing items from it.
“Huh? Is someone moving in?” Ruri wondered aloud. She caught a person working and asked, “Why are you moving things out?”
“We’re redecorating the room by order of Lord Agate.”
“And who is it moving in?”
“I was told you are, Lady Beloved.”
“What? Me?” Ruri’s current room was right across from Jade’s. Why would she need to move even closer when they were already so close. It made no sense.
Quartz, however, seemed to understand the situation. “Yeesh, that Agate. They haven’t even had the wedding yet. He’s being too hasty.”
“Care to explain?” Ruri prompted.
“The king’s quarters and this room are adjoined. Both bedrooms are connected via a single door, meaning you don’t have to go outside to go to and fro. It’s the ‘queen’s quarters,’ as it were.”
“The queen’s quarters?!”
“It seems they’re filling the proverbial moat to keep you from running away,” Quartz explained.
“Agate-san...” Ruri trailed off. She remembered that Agate had been asking her detailed questions about curtain colors and furniture preferences. This was the reason why. All this time, he had been steadily fashioning a net to prevent Ruri from escaping.
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