No hard feelings

Calanthir kneeled down and kissed Elyrielle's hand again. He turned and looked at her eyes. His own eyes started glowing more intensely. He smiled at her and said:

- My Princess, Elyrielle. Is an honor to meet the princess of my dearest kingdom. May I know what you are doing with these... unimportant people? Shouldn't you be at home, waiting for your turn to take the throne?

Elyrielle's ears pointed upwards, and she blushed. She was annoyed. But she didn't want to be rude, so she just nodded and shook his hand before saying:

- You can get up now, Mr Calanthir. There is no need for such formality towards me. I am on a long trip and these people are my party. You should be more respectful towards them.

The tension on the air was palpable. Calanthir was a tall and thin man. A dirty blonde hair kept in a high ponytail with a red silk ribbon as a hair tie. He had what seemed to be a full white suit with golden details at the sleeves of his shirt and of his hems. He had a red tie with a beautiful oval shaped gemstone in the middle. His hair line was divided just in the middle. Two thin strings of hair fall softly by his temples.

Even though he was trying to act kind, Elyrielle could feel his attitude towards her team. He looked down at them. His grin, while he did, was disgusting to her. Finally, Leonard broke the tension.

- Neither of us wants you here, Calanthir. Be respectful to Lady Elyrielle, at least. You can not be so rude in front of her. At least not in front of her. - Said Leonard with an angry expression. He put himself in front of Elyrielle and softly put his hand at her shoulder. To keep her distance in case he had to fight to protect her.

- And of all of you three, YOU dare to tell me that? The mediocre magician? PLEASE! You are lucky that I still know your name, you useless magicless bastard.

- Say it again, an arrogant piece of shit. - Said Leonard as he opened his spell book, and Hocus started angrily flapping his wings.

- You better shut your mouth, you tight ass. - Said between her teeth, Louise.

- What do you want, Calanthir. - Said finally Edward, the voice of reason.

- Well, I needed a party. I found you again! We can make one quest together if you want. JUST one. Then, if you don't like me, I will leave you alone again. - Said a still smiling Calanthir.

- Let us talk about it. Go away for now. - Said Edward.

- Okay, I will give you 5 minutes. Choose wisely!

Calanthir walked away from them. Sat in one table that was by a window n ordered some red whine. He made contact once more with Elyrielle before turning to the window and drink his whine in silence.

- So, who is this Calanthir to you? - Said Elyrielle.

- He was our party member for a few quests. - Said Edward.

- But he was too...

- Too much. - Said Leonard.

- He was too centered on himself. He helped, yes, but every time he told us how weak we were in comparison. He used to call Louise "beast" and me "muscles and no brain," but that was nothing. Not only that, but he especially mistreated Leonard.

- He called me "magicless." Yes, my magic is not that impressive, useful for what we needed. He always teased me in every mission. He had to show off how powerful and strong he is in comparison to me. He used really powerful spells to show off. If I did anything, he would say, "I bet you can not do something like this, you're inferior being." He was l just annoying all the time to all of us.

- Rumors said that nobody wants to work with him because of his attitude towards others. He's so centered on himself that nobody wants to be work with him. He must be desperate. This is the only way he would want to work with us after the sour note in which we ended our party. - Said Louise.

- We just couldn't handle his attitude anymore. He kept treating us like garbage every time, as well as making us look bad in front of others. Not only that, but he managed to show himself of the better person, as the victim, every time if we tried to tell him that he was being unreasonable with us. - Added Edward.

- The last time that we spoke, we told him that he needed to leave our group. He was really offended and told us that "You wouldn't find someone as good as him" But without you... so we never looked for him again. But...

Leonard, Edward, and Louise exchanged a look.

- But we don't want to kick him when he is down either. What do you think Ms Elder? Should we give him a shot? Besides his attitude, he is good with magic and really helps. - Said Edward.

- We think highly of you Ms Elyrielle. Please be honest. Do you believe it second chances? - Said Louise.

- I do believe in second chances. If he is really in need, we can give him a hand. This time. - Said Elyrielle with a serious expression. - I can kick him out if the situation requires it this time. - Said Elyrielle and winked at their party.

They nodded and Edward made a sign for Calanthir to come. He nodded, left his glass of whine on the table and came walking slowly with his really inflated chest. His eyes were piercing Elyrielle's eyes.

- So, have you reached an agreement? Friends? - Said Calanthir, with a special emphasis in "friends".

- We agreed that you can join us. THIS ONCE. - Said Edward.

- Oh! I knew that you would come around friends! - And trapped all of them with a tight hug. - Let's go then, let's not wait anymore!

- Breakfast is here! Said loudly the maid behind them.

- Okay, then after breakfast, we go. I would want a fired egg with fresh brown bread, please. I pay for all of us today! Let me do this as an apology, my dear friends! - Said loudly, in a theatrical way. The other clients that were at the pub cheered for him .

- Attention seeker. - Said Leonard in a whisper.

- What was that? - Said Calanthir with a raised eyebrow.

- Nothing. Let's just eat in peace.

- Agreed. - Said Edward as he grabbed his eggs and started eating them in a sloppy manner.

All of them, besides Calanthir, started eating in an awkward silence. Elyrielle took this chance and started talking telepathically with Leonard.

// Leonard? Can you hear me? //

Leonard almost choked on his coffee. He locked eyes with Elyrielle.

// Please pretend that everything is normal //

- Are you okay, magic man? - Asked Edward.

- Y- yes. I was just starving. Sorry about that.

Calanthir looked down at him and then looked at the window again. He was really trying his best not to say any smart-ass comments.

<< Yes, Lady Elyrielle... Loud and clear >>

// Can you tell me more about this man? It seems that you really can not stand him //

Elyrielle drank her coffee after that to mask her conversation.

<< He is really a dick. Honestly, of the decision to accept him was only mine. It would be a solid no. >>

// What did he do that made you throw him out of your party? //

<< On our last mission together. We went against a cursed dragon. It was a huge fire dragon. Red and black skin and dark purple glowing eyes. It had huge wings full of poisonous spikes. One of them reached Edward on his shoulder. The pain was so had that he was on the floor shaking. >>

Leonard drank his coffee slowly as a pause.

// Go on //

Elyrielle picked the fresh bread and took a bite. To swallow it, she drank more of her coffee.

- This bread is really good! My congratulations to the chef! - Said Elyrielle with a smile. One of the elves who previously welcomed her smiled visibly. Her face turned red and whispered as silent as she could to her coworker. "The princess liked it! Maybe I should become a chef!"

Then she turned to her coffee and started drinking it again.

<< He wanted to show off as always. He made a projection of the dragon to confuse him. This worked for a while. He turned to me and said "See? This is how you do it simple human! LEARN! " He lost focus, and the dragon focused on him. He noticed and teleported away. But behind him was Louise was carrying Edward to get him out of there. When she saw the dragon's foot coming in her direction, she threw Edward in a pile of dry leaves and fell to the floor. Sadly, she couldn't react in time, and the foot got her arm. It broke into several places. She screamed. I will never forgive thar scream >>

Edward now grabbed some bread and ate it. It was really good.

// What happened then? //

Elyrielle grabbed the bread again and sumerged it in her coffee. She enjoyed the mix of flavors.

<< Well, I took the chance. The dragon got distracted with Louise agonizing scream. I threw a freezing spell at his feet, and it worked. The dragon couldn't remain still, lost balance, and starting falling. Calanthir then uses a wind spell and moves it towards a rock on the floor. This rock ended up piercing through de dragon's skull. It killed it instantly. >>

- Could you please give me one extra piece of bred? - Asked Elyrielle.

- O- Of course! - Said the elf with black hair.

<< The people of the town heard the noise and came running to check. They saw Calanthir closer to the dragon's corpse. He grinned and screamed something along the lines of "Me thr amazing Calanthir defeated the dragon! With my own spells!" He took 90% of the reward that time. That was enough for him. Can you believe that after that, he came to us asking for the next quest? >>

- I would want more coffee as well, please. - Said Leonard.

// So shameless. I totally understand why you don't trust him. Thanks for explaining it to me, Edward //

Nobody actually talked during the breakfast for several minutes. Calanthir broke the silence again:

- Just to be clear, friends. No hard feelings, right?

Calanthir grabbed his glass of whine and lifted it as if he was going to cheer for something.

Leonard just nodded, Edward showed thumbs up, Louise just answered "mhmmm" and Elyrielle just smiled at him. Calanthir could feel the tension on the air but tried to ignore it for now. He won't leave that those stupid inferior beings laugh at his expenses. If there was anyone that was reasonable there at his eyes was Elyrielle. He just wanted to make her his side and that would be all that he needed. "Yes, just play along and get her by your side" thought to himself.

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