Hi,
June was a challenge, but I made it through. The main game update was posted yesterday, and I just posted this month's short story.
Also, to thank you for being here, I invite you to read the first 500 words of the story.
I hope you enjoy it, and thank you again.
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After so many days on the road, sleeping only when he could, Arthur should have been happy to find himself here. And yet, the atmosphere here felt heavier than the hot nights he had endured until then.
They had arrived two days earlier, at sunset, skin damp and bottoms numb. The manor had stood out on the horizon like a fairy-tale castle, all spires and stained glass, casting rainbow colors on the surrounding land. They had been welcomed with bows and compliments too well-polished to be sincere.
"Two Tears under my roof!" the baron had said, pulling them to him like trophies. "What an unexpected stroke of luck."
He had insisted on offering them hospitality. Tobias had smiled, polite as well. Arthur, for his part, had thought he didn’t like this place.
He had been right.
The dining hall smelled of polished wood, fresh flowers, and a tension hard to name. Nothing like the warm atmosphere of his family's inn.
There were only about ten of them seated around a table far too big for that number of guests, but the chandeliers seemed made for a hundred, the meals for a thousand. Shadows danced on the too-clean walls, and the laughter sounded a bit too loud, a bit too hollow.
Arthur said nothing. He chewed slowly, his cutlery almost clenched in his hands. He came from the people, was not used to being in this kind of place. And suddenly all the etiquette lessons he had taken during his training at the academy a few months earlier felt insufficient. He wasn’t even hungry. The meat was tender, the vegetables perfectly cooked, but every bite weighed on his stomach. He felt like he didn’t belong. Worse: like he was in a display case.
Seated to his left, the baron’s daughter, sitting very straight, kept staring at him. Not meanly, but with enough insistence that he had to stop himself from turning to her and telling her to stop.
And then—
"My father says you’re very brave for your age, as all Tears should be. And he also says that a boy like you, with blood—real blood—can aspire to great things in this world."
Arthur widened his eyes, his cheeks flushing as he lowered his head.
"I think you look sad. Do you know how to smile? You’re cute, you should smile."
He looked back up at her, surprised. The girl's cheeks turned red. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Tobias, at the far end of the table, laughing at a joke he probably hadn’t even heard. He looked relaxed, as always. But Arthur noticed that wrinkle at the corner of his eye, the one that only appeared when he was worried or annoyed.
Like a muscle twitching when his Master had to hold back. Could it be that it weighed on him, too? Arthur hoped so. He wanted to leave.
He turned his attention back to the girl. She was still staring. She was only a few months older than him, at most, but she spoke like an adult. Like someone who had already learned how to observe and please.
To please… That was also one of the Tears' duties. So he forced a “Thank you for your compliment, my Lady,” to cross his lips before looking away.
The silence that followed didn’t last long. The baron’s voice rose, warm, perfectly measured to be heard by everyone without seeming intrusive.
"So, young man? Isn’t my daughter charming?"
Arthur nearly jumped. He raised his head. The girl on his left blinked without saying a word, but her smile froze.
"Uh… yes, my lord. She is very… kind."
A ripple of amused murmurs passed along the table—had he sounded too childish? Should he rephrase? Arthur shot a panicked glance at Tobias, who reassured him with a discreet gesture that everything was fine. The baron burst into hearty, almost theatrical laughter.
The young Tear barely held back a grimace.
"Ah! Such politeness! That’s what I appreciate so much in the Tears: discipline, courtesy, a sense of honor."
He raised his wine glass.
"And what an honor it would be to unite our name with that of such a promising young Tear."
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