Finding Stardust

Didn"t people say when someone was drunk, they tend to be more honest?

All her life, Emma had experienced having two men confessed their love to her. The first one was Haoran, her best friend, who later became her husband. And the second one was Allan Wu, her senior in school who went to the Computer Science course in NTU and met Emma there. She obviously rejected Allan"s love confession.

"Don"t talk carelessly, Therius. You"ve only known me for a month... There"s no way you can really love me," Emma said. "You don"t understand what love is."

Xion wanted to correct Emma and told her that Therius had actually met Emma in the past, with her ring hanging on his neck now as proof.

However, he finally decided against it. It was not his place to talk about Therius feelings. Besides, Emma would call him crazy if he said all those

"Ahem ... I think I"m going to my room now and rest. I"m suddenly feeling very sleepy," Xion said as he tried to leave the lounge.

After Therius suddenly professed his love for Emma, ​​Xion felt uneasy about remaining there and be the third wheel. However, before he could walk out of the lounge, Emma suddenly grabbed his arm and stared at him with furrowed brows.

"Where are you going? Don"t pretend to be sleepy," said the girl. "I know you aren"t."

"Eh ... let me go. I"m really sleepy. Look... Hoaahhhemm ..." Xion pretended to yawn very wide. "See?"

However, Emma brushed it off.

"How could you leave in the middle of a celebration? What kind of friend are you?" Emma said. He pulled Xion"s hand and made him sit down again. "I have agreed with Therius to forget the animosity between us while we are in this s.h.i.+p. So, for the next five months, we will be civil toward each other, and we can even be friends. That is why tonight I came to have a drink with you two and celebrate his birthday. If you leave now, you will ruin the atmosphere."

Xion finally relented and sat back on the sofa. He poured wine back into his gla.s.s until it was full. The atmosphere became awkward for a moment. Once Xion was seated nicely, Emma cleared her throat and turned toward Therius. Her forehead looked creased, but she was not angry.

"I will pretend not to hear what you just said. It"s your birthday today and I don"t want the situation to turn awkward. I don"t think you are thinking clearly either. However, I hope you will not mention love again while we are in this s.h.i.+p. I am a married woman, and I love my husband. I promise I will work hard to be stronger and train all my powers so I can beat you five years from now. When that time comes, and you lose in a fair fight... I trust that you will not go back on your words and let me go."

Therius stared at Emma with a complicated look. Finally, he took a deep breath and nodded. "I understand."

Emma nodded in satisfaction. "Good. If you mentioned the word love in front of me for the next five months, I don"t think I can be friends with you. You will make the situation awkward. I will stop studying and training with you. You"d better find me a third private teacher. "

"I won"t say it again," Therius said obediently.

Emma rolled her eyes and finally nodded. "That"s good."

She did not know whether Therius obeyed her words because he understood well that Emma was threatening to distance herself from him if he mentioned anything about love, or Therius actually only looked obedient because he was really tipsy and couldn"t think straight.

"Please forgive my friend," Xion suddenly chirped, trying to defend Therius in front of Emma. "He is a lousy drinker and couldn"t hold his liquor. He rarely drinks and gets drunk. But the rare moments that he did, they were always like this. He would say whatever stupid things that were in his heart. If you don"t say anything tomorrow, I don"t think he will remember any of these."

"Oh ..." Emma glanced at Therius and saw that his pair of topaz eyes were getting droopy, and his face looked very sleepy. Gosh ... so her nagging Therius just now was utterly useless. As it turned out, he would forget this conversation when he woke up tomorrow.

Frowning, Emma poured wine into her gla.s.s and drank quickly.

She decided to change the subject and asked about Akkadia. She wanted to know many things about the place, especially the academy since that"s where she would go to study once she arrived in Akkadia.

Xion patiently explained everything she wanted to know, while Therius looked more and more sleepy. Suddenly, his head drooped to the side and almost fell on Emma"s shoulder. The girl quickly stood up and dodged. Therius" upper body was lying sideways on the small couch and the man finally fell asleep.

"Gosh .. this friend of yours really can"t drink, huh?" Emma asked in surprise. "He just drank two gla.s.ses and pa.s.sed out like this."

Emma almost finished her fourth gla.s.s and didn"t look the least bit tipsy. Xion just chuckled to hear her.

"Well ... he is a lousy drinker. I told you, the only match you can win easily against him is the drinking game," Xion answered. "When he is upset, he can drink and not get drunk, though. I"ve seen him like that several times. His mind will stay alert and works several times harder than usual so alcohol will not affect him. But if he is feeling comfortable and decided to drink, then this is what happens."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. Hmm .. So, I think he feels comfortable enough around you, that he lowered his guard down when he was drinking."

Emma nodded. She turned to Therius, who was sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. Suddenly Emma was reminded that some time ago she experienced the same thing. She was forced to sleep curled up on a small sofa in the library that her body ached all over.

A faint smile suddenly curved up on her face when she was thinking of ways to make Therius pay for letting her sleep on the library couch.

Ahh... she would also let him sleep on the lounge couch tonight...

"Let"s leave him to sleep here tonight. I want to make him pay for making me sleep on the library couch the other day," she said to Xion.

"What? No. That"s not what happened." Xion shook his head. "Therius actually didn"t let you sleep in the library. He tried to wake you up but it didn"t work—"

"He didn"t try hard enough," Emma grumbled, interrupting Xion.

"—And he didn"t allow me to slap you so you can wake up. Finally, he carried you to your room," Xion said.

Emma was very surprised to hear Xion"s words. "What did you say? I didn"t hear you the first time ..."

"I said, Therius didn"t let you sleep on the small couch in the library. He took you to your room because it was so difficult to wake you up. I saw it for myself."

Emma swallowed.

"No way ... I woke up in the library with aches all over my body, and I was curling up on the small couch..." Emma sounded confused. "I wasn"t dreaming. That"s the truth. But, if he did take me to my bedroom, how come I woke up in the library the next day?"

"Don"t ask me ..." Xion said. "Maybe you sleepwalked?"

"No. I sleep like a princess," Emma snapped. 

She was baffled but couldn"t figure out what actually happened.

Finally, Emma decided not to prolong this problem and find out from Xion about Therius because she wanted to gather as much information about the man as possible. She hoped to find things that could be useful for her in the future.

"Xion ... how long have you known Therius?" she asked to start the conversation.

"Hmm ... quite long." Xion nodded. "I"ve known him for almost eleven years. We met at the academy. I think you already know that."

"Does that mean you two are very close?"

"Yes."

"Are Therius"s words true? That his parents died when he was a child?" Emma asked again.

Xion nodded. "That"s right. He didn"t lie to you to attract your sympathy."

Emma went silent when she remembered Therius words about his parents. She slowly felt sincere sympathy for the man.

"I feel sorry for him," Emma finally said. "I will try not to be too harsh from now on."

"That"s a good idea," Xion smiled.

"Hmm.. and you, what about you? Do you still have your parents?" This time Emma asked Xion about his family.

Xion looked at Emma attentively and shook his head. "I can"t tell you. I"m sorry."

"Huh? Why?" Emma furrowed her brows. She didn"t understand why Xion had to act all mysterious all of a sudden.

"Because..." Xion lowered his gaze. "If I told you, then I would have to kill you."

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