“Will you shut up?” I screeched, absolutely tempted to grab his mouth to shut it close myself and dig a bigger hole, even though I secretly enjoyed watching a man kneel before me. “Why are you doing this? Is this a prank?” Did he find it amusing to mess with my head?
He suddenly looked serious, even as he knelt on the ground. “No, I simply know what I want.”
And that was the gist of it, wasn’t it?
Even I was doing all these convoluted steps to get what I wanted: to escape this confusing, nightmarish hellhole, back tomyworld, even if said world was as nightmarish as this one.
“Stop kneeling,” I mumbled eventually, while people only watched as if they were afraid of what the Hero would do next. “People will get the wrong idea.”
“I think they’ll get precisely the right idea,” Claude countered, speaking loudly again. “Everyone will be pleased to know that I, Claude Wescott, am in Bea Havenglow’s care!”
At that, the Crown Prince guffawed, clutching his stomach as he bent over in laughs. I could only watch in horror as the people around us were now wary of the Prince, while the professors kept their eyes trained on me and on Claude. Elias vibrated next to me, Vincent had disappeared, Amos ran through the obstacle course like a madman, and my knights were also nowhere to be found.
“It seems we have a Caregiver now,” the Prince exclaimed, gesturing wildly to me.
“More like a caretaker,” I grumbled.
“Welcome to the group, Lady Beatrix Gadreel,” Prince Winston Regalis smiled at me and to the rest of our audience.
“What group?” I almost cried. It wasn’t like Ijustproclaimed that I was in control of my own fate. Of course the Crown Prince would undermine that.
He walked over, the students parting so he could take my hand gingerly as he beckoned Claude to stand up. “The special thirteenth member, of course.” He brought my hand to his lips and kissed it. “The Caregiver of the Twelve Champions.”
Chapter Fifteen
You know the “bullshit” Claude claimed done to me, the thing that started this whole mess?
It was a bunch of my classmates ogling me as we did our stretches. Some made lewd remarks about me to each other; apparently, my reputation as an embarrassment and a weirdo made me fair game to commoners and nobles alike.
When a couple of them tried to touch me without my knowledge, all hell broke loose. And I had no idea what happened to those classmates; I didn’t think I wanted to know.
I didn’t even notice the leery eyes or the unsavory comments. I did the stretches, watched out for the men who had been bothering me for the past several days and kept tabs on them, and thenthat.It happened out of nowhere from my perspective.
Maybe that was what Dahlia meant when she said that I was “being eaten alive”.
“If you must know, my lady, Sir Robin and Sir Reuben volunteered to oversee the punishment,” Mia cheerfully informed me as she laid out my sleeping clothes on the bed. I did not, in fact, need to know. “You wondered where they disappeared to; that was the reason. It made the most sense — thosefoolsdared to disrespect their lady. Sir Vincent Lovell acted as a third-party testimony to the misconduct, since he witnessed the entire event.”
So, the three of them were together at that moment. Would my bodyguards wonder how Vincent knew me?
“Please don’t tell me the details of their punishment,” I begged Mia, who acknowledged my request.
“Do not feel guilty about it, Miss Bea,” she smiled. “The school administration decided their punishment. They’re not expelled yet, but one more mistake and those degenerates will begone.I’m letting you know in case they retaliate.”
I jumped out of my seat. “Retaliate?”
“I don’t think they’re stupid enough to try, but if they do, your knight bodyguards will definitely take care of them. Approved by the admin.” Her bright tone contradicted the dark words she said.
Okay. Not only did I have to watch out for men who thought they could control my life, I also needed to watch out for boys who thought they could bully me. As if I didn’t have this gigantic, life-altering problem already.
Mia exited my room as I mulled over today’s events. The Prince’s declaration that I was now part oftheir groupbothered me the most. They hadn’t even met the other ten Champions yet, but they thought they could add me as acaregiver.He couldn’t even think of a better title!
But that wasn’t the main issue, was it?
Yes, the fundamental problem was their insistent desire to put the spotlight on my unassuming self. It had only been a week since school started, and I could already feel it taking a toll on me. The few weeks before were only a little better.
More than a month stuck here with no reasonable progress in sight.
That only meant I had to work harder and smarter. Unrelenting focus. Maximum tenacity! And all these words that meantserious business.Weekends would be spent at the libraryin the foreseeable future. For that, I needed an optimum amount of sleep.
