The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)
Chapter 25: Invitation

Chapter 25: Invitation

MARIUS

"I heard from Dimitri that you’ve invited us to have potatoes at your place," Briant said first thing in the morning when we met in the dining hall for breakfast.

"I am assuming there was some sort of misunderstanding," he said, continuing with a smile.

I regretted my clumsy choice of words when I invited Dimitri and wasn’t sure how to smooth things out, but luckily, Alexis chimed in, saying,

"That is very nice of you, Marius."

"It’s not a big deal, Alexis. No problem at all. I just thought a small gathering of friends would be nice, considering it’s our first day away from the Academy and all," I said, seizing the opportunity to steer away from the topic of potatoes.

"Who’s included in ’us’?" Thomas asked, munching on his toast.

"Everyone at this table, of course," I said, side-glancing at Skylark, who had been examining a boiled egg in his hand for some time now, as if he was appraising the quality of a gem.

"He said berries too," Dimitri said, bringing the topic back to my awkward invitation.

"What’s this all about?" Thomas blinked a few times, then asked.

"This egg—" unexpectedly, Skylark interrupted, his eyes still on the egg, and said, "is very nice."

"That took you a while, hah. What’s so special about it?"

Thank you, Skylark and Thomas, for leading the conversation in a different direction.

"The color. The egg yolk is a really nice yellow," Skylark said.

"Like the ones you get in Erdville?" Alexis asked Skylark this time.

"Maybe even better. Let me try."

After saying that, Skylark—to everyone’s surprise—put the entire egg into his mouth and started to chew vigorously.

"Mate, you are going to choke," Thomas said, laughing through his nose.

Skylark didn’t mind. He just kept his eyes closed and kept on chewing, which made all of us just sit in silence and watch him munch like a squirrel with its cheeks full of walnuts.

"It IS great!" Skylark clapped his hands once and exclaimed once he swallowed the last bit of the egg.

That made all of us chuckle and, following Dimitri’s cue, we applauded together.

Such simple things.

"By the way, you guys were talking about potatoes?" Skylark asked the table all of a sudden, as if he had just remembered.

My heart sank.

"Yeah, Marius is inviting us for potatoes and berries," Thomas answered on my behalf.

"There—there isn’t any significance behind it. It’s just that I thought, as students of the Royal Knight Academy, we should not be indulging in alcohol—"

I tried to salvage the situation, but Briant cut in, saying,

"And throwing rocks at each other, haha."

That ended the conversation, and I was seemingly rescued from further embarrassing myself.

"But... it does sound a bit random. Why potatoes and berries?"

Of all people, it was Skylark who asked this question.

Now all eyes were on me, waiting for me to finally solve the mystery.

Then a brilliant idea came to my head.

"This Sunday is August 12th, the day that General Becken defeated the enemies at the Battle of Grunfeld, as I’m sure all of you have been taught."

Everybody nodded, except Skylark, and Alexis remarked,

"I had totally forgotten about that. It’s impressive you remember all these dates, Marius."

"I... just happened to remember. Anyway, then I suppose you also remember that it was such a long battle that by the time we finally drove everyone from the Kingdom of Avelaine out, General Becken’s army barely had any food left? It is said that at the victory feast that night, there was nothing but potatoes and dried berries to eat," I said, and looked around the table.

"Impressive knowledge, Marius," Alexis said and clapped his hands, but seeing that no one joined in, he soon stopped. I was glad it didn’t suddenly turn into an awkward speech and applause.

"So, I just thought, as Royal Knights-to-be, we could commemorate the day by feasting on potatoes and berries."

Thomas then shrugged with a face that said, ’If you say so,’ but thankfully, that was that, and the invitation was successfully agreed upon by all.

"Hmm, but Thomas—" then Skylark began to speak again, asking,

"Should we invite Isabelle too?"

"Leo, I think that is for Marius to decide," Alexis said, almost reprimanding the boy.

"It would not be a problem at all. Thomas, Isabelle is welcome to join us if she wishes," I quickly said.

Thomas, to my surprise, though, simply shook his head and said,

"Nah, let’s make it a boys’ night. That should be more fun, eh?"

"I’m sorry, Mario... I didn’t mean to... be rude," Skylark said. He sounded immediately deflated.

"No need to apologize. I took no offense at all," I said, and I thought I should add something more to it—a fatal mistake, which I seemed to be making a lot these days.

"More people the merrier, but if Thomas wishes it to be so, let’s keep it between all of us—the roommates."

Then Skylark blinked a few times, tilted his head, looked into my heart with a piercing gaze, and asked,

"Then shouldn’t we also ask Dorian?"

Now I was trapped by my own words, unable to come up with a suitable answer. Skylark was right. I had no good excuse to exclude Dorian, our classmate and my roommate. Just as I was about to reluctantly agree, Dorian, like a street cat, brushed against my shoulder as he passed by our table and said,

"I’m not worthy of setting foot inside the Valenkraft mansion."

"That is not true, Dorian," I immediately retorted, despite still being in a state of shock at his sudden appearance again.

Dorian stopped, looked around the table, then at me, and said with a smirk,

"But of course, I also would like to honor General Becken and his heroics. I shall be lighting a candle for the soldiers, eating potatoes and berries in my room. Please allow me to pay homage my way."

After that, Dorian gave a theatrical bow and left. The only consolation I had was Briant patting me on the shoulder.