A few hours later, Felix’s arms were laden down with all manner of frog paraphernalia, including a brooch, earrings, a necklace, and a hair accessory.
Several of the items spilled onto the floor as Felix walked. Mathias scurried to pick them up, muttering curses under his breath.
“I can’t believe you bought all this junk! You’re only going to embarrass yourself. You’ll be laughed at, mark my words!”
It was true. Passing girls giggled behind their hands, and one even remarked: “Loser alert! What a shame, he’s so handsome too.” But Felix didn’t care what anyone else thought. Except for Mia, that is.
“I had to buy it all. I don’t know Mia’s preferences, after all.”
“Listen, Felix. Frog accessories aren’t really a thing normal people wear. It’s clearly just symbolic, a little festival fun, silly romantic stuff. Why are you taking it so seriously? Those stallkeepers made a fortune off you.”
That registered with Felix a little. He’d definitely contributed to those stallkeepers’ year-end stock clearance. Their clever sales pitches had all led to him opening up his wallet. In the end, he’d bought everything they thrust under his nose.
“It doesn’t matter how hard you try, it’s not going to work with Mia.”
“Yeah, I know that.”
“No, I don’t think you do. Even if she accepts all your frog junk, that won’t automatically mean she’s agreeing to be yours.”
Truly, if Mia didn’t know the frog custom, she’d probably accept the gifts. Not as symbols of Felix’s feelings, just as gifts.
But if, on the other hand, she knew about the frog legend…
Felix pictured it. He could almost see Mia’s face…looking extremely uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry, but…”
He could almost hear her voice. She was bound to say something like that, wasn’t she? The answer would never be yes, not until Felix helped make her heart’s biggest dream a reality.
“But still, I feel like I have to let her know how I feel. I just have to.”
He had to get his feelings across. There were so many times he wanted to tell her things like: “Hey, I still have the same feelings for you,” and “Just so you know, I’m still waiting. I’ll be here, waiting,” and “please, don’t forget about me in the meantime.”
Sometimes, his patience failed him and he felt frantic. He just couldn’t stand to leave things the way they were.
And on top of that…
Henrik’s face flashed before his mind. Mia was with him right now. And Henrik was a local. There was no way he didn’t know about the frog custom.
If Henrik gave a frog to Mia, would she accept it? What if it was made clear to her that it was a symbol of romantic intent? What if Henrik insisted?
Thoughts like that made his frustration even worse.
Felix’s innate selfishness was rearing its ugly head.
I need to make her mine immediately. I want her to be my Mia. And no one else’s.
But doing so would damage who she was, take away her Mia-ness. Felix would never forgive himself for doing such a thing.
He was trapped between his own wants and the raw truth of the situation.
I need more power. But what will it cost me?
Felix came to a halt, hands bunched into fists by his sides. Just then, a horse carriage rolled by. Struck by a sudden odd wave of déjà vu, Felix swept his feelings of disappointment into a corner of his mind, to be dealt with later.
He turned around. The horse carriage was heading away from the station, toward the west end of town, and traveling at quite a speed. Felix recalled that a certain building was located in that direction.
Not really sure what he was doing, Felix began to follow the carriage. However, his progress was soon blocked by a seemingly popular stall surrounded by a large group of unruly children.
Giving up pursuit, Felix looped around the back of the stalls and headed back the way he’d come.
“What was all that about?”
Mathias was trotting after Felix, still intermittently picking up the frog items Felix kept dropping. Felix lowered his voice.
“Did you see who was riding in that horse carriage just before? It was MacDonnell and Rankin.”
They’d provided security detail once for Felix at some royal parade or other. It was definitely them—Felix never forgot a face.
“Wow, I didn’t even see them! Wait, MacDonnell? The commander of the Mage Army?”
Aside from a regular army and navy, Isea also had a mage army, a special military corps comprised of only mages.
The army commander, MacDonnell, and the lieutenant colonel, Rankin, both belonged to the Mage Army.
Top brass in the army…they must know the answers to the questions we seek.
Mathias’s expression stiffened.
He was getting a bad feeling about this. He wasn’t sure why, exactly, but he decided to follow his intuition. The two young men headed to the west end of town, where a sprawling residence was located. To call it a residence didn’t exactly do it justice, however…
“I knew it. Castle Rigel.”
Castle Rigel was one of the castles once owned by the Radius royal family. The actual former Castle Radius had become the property of Felix’s family, but the other holiday homes and various properties belonging to the fallen Radius crown had been seized and redistributed as spoils of war.
Felix recalled who owned the castle now.
“It’s the residence of Lord Lipsett, of the Lance Party.”
The Lance Party was a political group that called for the reduction of power held by the royal family.
And Lord Lipsett was the party leader. His strong connection with the army made Felix, who knew relatively little about politics, feel unsettled.
“…That’s creepy as heck.” As Felix muttered under his breath, Mathias grimaced.
“You’re not plotting anything crazy, now, are ya?”
“Hahaha…”
“Don’t think you can fob me off by laughing!”
“Ah, let’s just drop it, all right? We have to find Mia! I’m not going to let Henrik sneak in an advantage before me!”
Felix turned his back on the huge residence, acting as if he’d already forgotten what they’d seen. Then, as he’d insisted, they headed back to the town center in search of Mia.