Chapter 23: The Meeting

Yani called all the eight princes and eight princesses for a very important meeting. Although Yani didn’t say what they were going to talk about, they immediately left what they were doing and immediately went to the underground meeting room. If before, they would come in pairs and sometimes one would have to wait for his prince or princess first, now they really come one by one and they will not interfere with each other when they come inside the room and go straight to their respective seats.

For the very first time, since they ruled their nation, only now that they are so awkward with each other. Jethro is unfortunate at his position right now because he looks stuck in between in his current position because it is obvious that almost all of them have resentments. When two people get angry or end up breaking up, they ignore each other, but when they end up treating each other as 'friends', they still make eye contact with each other and smile, but that's all there is to it.

There are very few who plan to talk to one but if they do, the prince will only talk to the fellow princes, their brothers or maybe other princesses whom they can talk with while the princesses are talking to fellow princesses… as long as not one can look at the eyes at the guy or the girl they hurt. Looking around, Jethro can feel the tension in the room and he seems to be suddenly embarrassed because he is the only one who has a relationship now that is 'fixed' and out of all the people now in the room, only Elesa knows what happened between them and Yani… because almost everyone in the room is a victim of a broken relationship.

They also fell silent and settled in their place when their leader also came, and stood in front of them.

"Good day to all of you," Yani said to them with a smile but no one spoke because there was no good day for them and Yani realized her mistake. "I mean it was just a greeting but—"

"It's okay Yani," Eaux replied so she stopped.

“Oh okay. Uhm…” she cleared her throat first. “Anyways, thank you all for coming. Sorry if I disturbed anyone here who is busy. Well every one of us is busy so uhm without further ado, for our meeting today…” she paused and looked at the door. "…you may now come in."

Almost all the princes and princesses wondered at what Yani said but suddenly someone came out of a tube, and almost everyone was surprised to find out who it was (except Jethro and Elesa).

"Everyone actually knows Pearce right?" Yani asked.

"And what is he doing here?" Fuego asked seriously.

“Uhm well…” Yani was startled because of how serious Fuego said that. “Actually he's here because this is what our meeting today will be about. We will decide on whether Pearce should stay here in Eullenum Nation or not.”

When she said that, they were a little surprised and still did not lose the astonishment on their faces. Pearce sat down in a chair before someone spoke.

"Why do we need to talk about that?" Callie asked directly. "Has Pearce done anything wrong that we are not aware of?"

Yani looked at Pearce first who just avoided looking at them with worry in her face and let out a sigh.

"Uhm well…" Yani started but he didn’t know how and where to start. "You see it's a long story and I don't know where to start but—"

"I caused trouble in your nation," Pearce immediately interjected, so everyone turned their attention to him.

They were silenced for a few seconds before,

"What kind of trouble?" Flare asked while crossing her arms.

Pearce gave her a look first. "The trouble of meddling with all of you," at the same time looked at every prince and princess in the room.

Some were startled but… “Meddling with us?” Feesy asked. "What do you mean by that?"

Pearce let out a sigh first. "Do you want me to reiterate all the troubles I caused in your nation?" he seriously asked.

Feesy was speechless because of what Pearce did but…

"Yeah you have to," Kyrie replied so everyone turned their attention to him. "We are all here to decide whether you should stay in our nation or not but most of us here are not even aware of what troubles you caused so how can we make a decision?"

Pearce paused and bowed his head.

"Does everyone want to know?" Pearce asked everyone.

They looked at each other and replied 'Yes, we need to' but when Pearce raised his head to them,

"Are you all sure of that?" his face was even more serious as everyone fell silent.

It was as if he was threatening and others began to doubt. Yani, on the other hand, remained silent and even bowed her head. She’s not making a move because she knows everything and she will let Pearce explain himself. She might just say something that could worsen this case.

"Move on with it," he said in a cold way so they looked at Turuki with a blank and numb face.

Pearce wants to wait for what others will say but it looks like they are really quiet and he only received that one prince's answer so,

"As you all wish so," Pearce said and he suddenly looked at the metal prince.

"First," he began, that slightly startled who he was looking at. “The trouble I caused for the metal prince's helicopter. For all the princesses that didn't know, when they kidnapped me, I panicked inside the helicopter not knowing who the guys caught me so I made a move that made the helicopter blow up. Coincidentally, it was actually his monthsary gift for the earth princess.”

Donna was surprised to hear that and even looked in Aes' direction just looking at the table in front of him.

"Second, I accidentally ate the fire prince's pastry that was out in the open, which he actually made for the ice princess."

Callie was surprised but more surprisingly,

"Do you still need to reiterate that?" Fuego said irritatingly. “That's some minor thing to do. Some of the people here in this nation did that. That's not even a major problem.”

"I know," Pearce replied. "It is a minor thing but I'm starting at that part because the second part is all about…" Pearce looked at Fuego. “…you and your relationship with the ice princess.”

Fuego was silenced for a while when he said that.

"I heard you two have a strong bond with each other that some of the people here…" suddenly, Pearce looked at the fire princess. “…look at you two with inspiration.”

Flare was startled when he did that but the two were surprised.

"And yet because of me, I end up breaking that bond between the two of you," Pearce said and also looked back at Fuego. "Do you want me to explain how it all happened?"

Fuego was speechless but,

"No," Callie answered immediately so they looked at her. “The reason we broke up has nothing to do with you, Pearce. This is our relationship and you were just there to help.”

“Help…” Pearce said. "I wanted to help but why are you two separated?"

With that question, Callie completely felt silent. We don’t know how many times but it rarely happens that someone like Callie can be silenced. What happened was probably bad.

"Third," Pearce continued and looked back at Flare. “The fire princess and the nature prince. It's the same case but the fire princess already told me not to meddle with them anymore… but I kept persisting so I end up breaking them—“

"No," Flare groaned. “Why are you blaming yourself?! You kept persisting that time because you just want to know the reason behind all of that. You were there when that incident in the restaurant happened so you just want to know and you just want to help. I don't know what happened when you got into Callie and Fuego's relationship, but all I know at that time when you approached me, I can really see that you just wanted to help me. If there is even to blame in that situation why we broke up was…”

Flare could not continue what she was going to say and suddenly looked at the man she wanted to blame who was also looking back at her. Feesy immediately averted his eyes by bowing his head.

"…you were just curious," Flare said and looked away from him too. “And that's not even reasonable.”

"You know, fire princess…" Pearce said so the two turned their attention to him, while he gave them back a serious look. “…sometimes curiosity can kill.”

The two were surprised by what he said last and just like before, they were also silenced because they seemed to be hit by what he said.

"Fourth," Pearce promised. "The nature princess and the air prince."

And just after Pearce said that,

"What?" Kyrie exclaimed so almost everyone looked at her. "You meddled with us also?"

Pearce just gave back a serious look at her.

"Ahem," Kyrie cleared her throat. "Sorry for the interruption but please do explain your side on how you will blame yourself for uhm…" she looked at him first, who was giving back a cold stare at her. “…for separating us.”

Pearce paused first. "I know the air prince explained himself at that time and even told the truth but I saw the whole scene at that time when he was with—"

“Yeah, yeah. I know that part,” Kyrie added again. "You just saw the whole scene and that's it," she looked back at Pearce. “Well unless… you did something that I didn't know.”

Pearce let out a sigh. "Don't you remember that you asked me if I knew something about his situation… and yet, I didn't answer you princess."

Kyrie was surprised by what he said. “What? What do you mean?”

Pearce looked at the cold air prince who was looking away from them as if he didn’t care.

"You see princess, I don't know how the prince explained himself but the truth is—"

"Okay I think that's enough," Turuki interrupted, so Pearce fell silent and everyone looked at him.

"Pearce explained himself already and now proceed to the next," he commanded. “If ever you all didn't get what he did or mean, that's all your problem. Just judge for yourself whether he's guilty or not.”

Almost everyone was speechless when he just said that and they could still feel the sudden weight of the air in the room. Well we can do nothing… Turuki is now cold.

"Fifth," Pearce said, breaking the silence in the room. "The air princess and the earth prince."

"I knew it," Jessy said suddenly, so they looked at her, which also surprised her.

"Ah hehe," she chuckled nervously. “Uhm maybe let's not just go there Pearce. But for the sake of everyone so that you can judge whether he was guilty or not in our situation, it's all the same with everyone. He was just trying to help me but uhm… Edmondo and I knew that Pearce is really a good person right?” and she looked at Edmondo.

Edmondo smiled weakly back at her. “Yes indeed. He is a very helpful man.”

"But you're envious of me, right?" Pearce suddenly asked while he's looking at Edmondo which surprised him and fell silent for a moment.

Edmondo averted his eyes before he smiled weakly.

"Yeah I am," he said and that made Jessy speechless.

"Sixth," he said and looked at Donna. "We're back with the earth princess and the metal prince."

Donna suddenly let out a sigh to break the silence and everyone’s attention went to her.

“Let's not get into our situation too. He already stated his wrong at first and even though I'm thinking of defending him just like what mostly everybody did here…” Donna looked at Pearce. “…he will say something that will silence me. But yeah, I could say that Pearce is really guilty with our situation so let's get this over with.”

Honestly, Pearce was surprised by what the princess did so he was the one who fell silent because of all the princesses here in the room today, he didn't really expect that from the earth princess.

"I can also see a pattern here," Hera said suddenly, so they looked at her. “So I'm sure that the seventh issue will be our situation too. But uhm if it's okay…”

Pearce looked seriously back at Hera. "…what exactly did you do to say that you uhm broke us?"

When she sincerely asked that, Pearce looked at the water prince who was a little surprised. And even though that was just a look,

"Ah… i-it has something to do with me," Eaux said so they turned their attention to him. “I don't know which part but through his stares, I know it was me.”

Hera looked at Eaux and just bowed her head because she seems to understand as well. Pearce looked at the next one.

"Eight," he said. "The water princess and the—"

"No not us too," Zoltar interjected so they turned their attention to him. "Pearce wasn't even present when Femme and I… uhm…" he looked at Femme with an innocent face and didn't seem to know what they were talking about but she suddenly smiled, a weak one.

"Pearce was there," she started so their attention turned to her. “Pearce was there to help me. He came to fill my loneliness when I needed to. He even convinced me to be hopeful… despite being at that point of being hopeless with our situation.”

Femme looked at everyone still with her weak smile. "I don't know what you guys mean of him trying to help but ending up causing trouble in your relationships but for me, Pearce is not guilty."

Almost everyone was surprised by Femme's last statement, but…

“Pearce is a sweet guy. I know to myself that he has no intention to ruin our lives so that's why—“

"Sorry to be rude princess," Pearce suddenly interjected so Femme was really surprised as Pearce looked back at her. “Truthfully, it's so nice to hear those words from you and I thank you that you can see through my intentions but…”

He paused and suddenly looked at Elesa, but instead of being startled, she gave back a stare to him.

“…your situation at that time was different from the others. Frankly, I didn't have the intention to help you at that time because... it was all a plan.”

Femme was shocked and seemed to lose her innocent face suddenly. "What do you mean?"

Pearce didn’t say a word and just looked eye to eye with Femme and just like the water prince, Femme also got what he meant and just looked away from him.

Pearce let out a sigh before giving everyone a look.

"The trouble here princes and princesses is that each and every after tour with your cabins, I was there in each situation and would end up breaking your relationships," he said. “Or even if I did want to help, like in the case of the princess of your nation…”

When he said that, everyone suddenly looked at Yani that startled her.

“…I still end up causing them trouble.”

Everyone was surprised when he said that but they didn’t understand what he said. Some were surprised but some were worried but no one spoke.

“So lastly, for my last reason why you have all the means to kick me out of your nation is because of my situation with your princess,” and he glimpsed at Yani.

Yani glimpsed back at him but she remained silent.

“It's not her fault to push through to convince me to stay here in your nation because I understand her duty as the princess of your nation… but when you let me meddle with your situation, truth be told that I myself cannot even determine what I can do, but all I can do is to make the situation worse.”

"Rather than help them get back together, I end up messing up their situation…"

Pearce didn’t say what he was referring to but almost everyone understood what he meant and who he was referring to.

"…and because of that, your princess was so angry at me that she wanted me to be out of your nation," he said.

They thought he was done with what he was going to say but,

"But please," he added. “…don't blame her. She just only did that all for the sake of your nation.”

“You see the problem here dear princes and princesses is that because of my presence, whether you all solved your problem or only thought that I was helping, is that my presence can cause problems. It's a great curse, and I'm already giving you all a warning. You have to all decide wisely.”

No one can speak after all that. He said a lot that some can't even talk back because they seem to have realized that he has a reason why he is always quiet… because when he says something, you are the one in turn that will be quiet. Even if his reasons are a bit superficial, they can't speak because he seems to have a point. They want to think twice that maybe everything that happened really was out of bad luck but he himself said it. He does have a curse and as princesses and princes of their nation, they must first think about the welfare of the nation, and it looks to them…

"Now that the defendant stated his reasons," Yani said suddenly that broke the silence in the room. "…it's high time now that we have to—"

Ring, ring! The sound of a phone so everyone's attention turned to where the sound came from.

Elesa took it out of her pocket and immediately turned it off.

"Sorry for that," Elesa apologized. "Please proceed, Yani."

Yani cleared her throat first. "As I was saying, since Pearce explained himself already, now is the time that we—"

Ring, ring! The phone rang again when Yani stopped and again everyone looked at her looking at her phone and looking at the reason for its ringing. Elesa let out a sigh before looking at Yani.

"What's the problem?" Yani asked.

"An emergency that I really need to attend to," Elesa replied.

"Are you sure?" Yani answered. "You know that we set a rule that every underground meeting is the first priority, right?"

"Of course I do," Elesa replied. “As much as I want to ignore this thing, this is a kind of emergency, what if…” she gave Yani a very serious look. "…a commotion is already happening in our nation without us knowing?"

Yani was slightly surprised by what Elesa did and at the same time, she understood what she meant so she just let her go.

"But before I do go," Elesa said as she stood up in her chair. “You were going to say that we are about to vote right? Whether Pearce should stay here in our nation or not?”

"Yes," Yani replied.

"Well then, since I'll be gone for now, I'll make my decision," Elesa confidently said so almost everyone looked at her and was even surprised because she seemed to be able to decide quickly.

She crossed her arms first. "I neither want Pearce to stay in this nation nor kick him out," Elesa directly stated that they were really surprised while the others were wondering, of course especially Yani.

"Uhm I don't get what you said Elesa," Yani said but Elesa just let out a sigh.

“Well in case you all haven't realized, when we count the number of individuals who will make their vote for this issue, it's an odd number. Which means…” she paused while smiling.

"Which means that we can decide the majority for being odd," Aes replied to Elesa.

"Exactly," Elesa replied with a smile.

"Okay, but what is your point?" Yani asked her.

She still didn’t lose her smile, but on her face, she looks like she's smiling foolishly.

"Since that's the case, wouldn't it be better if we are even out so that we will have a hard time to decide whether Pearce will stay or not?"

They were surprised after she said that because it seems like just because of what she said, her smile is no longer a crazy one… it's so sinister but…

"What do you mean by that?" Femme asked ignorantly.

Elesa looked at her and that smile still lingered.

"You see Femme…" at the same time looked back at everyone. “…I think it's obvious that half of the individuals here have the same decision for Pearce to stay while half of them are deciding to kick him out.”

"I just don't know which is which…" Elesa just smiled even more. "…it's either all the princes have the same decision or all you princesses are also the same…"

They all kept quiet after Elesa did that and they can't look at her because… that seems to be true.

“Haha. Sorry for that,” she suddenly chuckled. "I just want to liven up the situation because you all look so serious."

Even though that was her intention, no one was able to react. There she is again, the usual Elesa although no one knew about that and no one even expected to see that coming… well except for the victim himself because all the days he lived here in their nation, of course this woman is always with him .

"But it's not that reason why I can't really decide," Elesa said that broke the ice. “Again, if you all haven't realized… out of all the princesses here, I'm like the black sheep princess here because Pearce didn't do much trouble with me so I can't decide whether he is guilty or not.”

Some of the princes and princesses do agree with what she said because even Pearce, there is not one of his reasons that he mentioned Elesa.

"But…" Elesa added so she got their attention. “I know no one else noticed this but I was also there when Pearce was in each of your situations.”

Almost everyone was surprised but Elesa looked at Pearce. “I was there from the start when he meddled with Yani and I admit to myself that I'm a type of girl that butts-in in a situation where I shouldn't be so I can judge for myself what kind of person Pearce is.”

She smiled again. “I don't care whether you decide for him to stay or kick him out but here's what you all have to know…”

“I made a deal with him that whatever you all decide to his fate now, I will go with him wherever he is. I never go back to my word.”

Others didn’t say a word in what she said, well except for,

"So are you saying," Zoltar said so she turned her attention to him. "…that if ever we decided for Pearce to leave this nation, you will still go with him… even though you're the electric princess?"

Elesa confidently smiled at him. "Yes."

They were completely surprised by the answer, especially Zoltar.

"But—"

Ring ring! Zoltar's words were cut short when her phone rang again.

“Oops. Looks like I need to go,” she still didn’t lose her smile. "Excuse me for a moment," Elesa walked away at the same time.

No one talked after that while she was walking towards her tube and everyone just watched her go but as soon as she disappeared from their eyes… the silence in the room… was just silence.

The air inside is heavy because of what they talked about but in case you didn’t know, after Elesa said all that, that silence is like their time to think about their decision…

…and one of them saw that. And that person is none other than him really. He is the only one who understands that woman. He even clicked his teeth because of what Elesa did but even so, we don’t know if he was frustrated because everything became awkward after she did that…

…or maybe he could have done that because Pearce kept his smile after she said that.

He's thinking… he's thinking that she's still the same. She's still that person that has no intention to help to make the situation better but in her own unique way, she can turn things around in the end… what she does or says is what the situation actually needed.

“Okay, anyways…” Yani said to break the ice. "Should we proceed to the votation?"

She thought no one would speak even if she asked that but they each answered "Yes".

"I see," said Yani. "Well then, to make things easier, just raise your hands once I asked you to."

The princes and princesses began to look at each other…

"Okay for those who want Pearce to stay in this nation, please raise your hands," said Yani immediately.

The princes and princesses were still looking at each other… but not one raised their hands which surprised Yani and she also started to worry but…

"Uhm how about those hands who want him to leave the nation?" she asked and,

Still the same. No one also raised their hands. Yani took a deep breath at first but she suddenly wondered why no one answered.

"So uhm, you can't all still decide for the matter?" Yani asked.

"It's not that," Zoltar replied. “I don't know what all of the others are thinking but for me, I want my answer to be confidential.”

"I agree with him," said Femme.

"Same here," Eaux said.

"Me too," Hera said and they each answered the same.

"Oh I see," Yani said. “I didn't know about that. Well then…” she paused and thought about what to do, when she suddenly thought of something.

“How about this? Each should bring out a piece of paper and put a check mark if they want Pearce to stay while an x ​​mark if they want him out of the nation and put it…” while he pulls out a box. “…in this box. Is that okay?” Yani asked.

They immediately agreed and that is what they did.

Pearce is watching each of them and he can see that some are thinking twice while some are already writing their decision, but he was stopped suddenly because he saw a shadow inside the room that was roaming around so there was a look of shock on his face. He even scratched his eyes to make sure but his eyes were startled…

He was surprised because that shadow was gone so he thought he was just imagining things. One by one they went to the box to place their paper and after the last paper was dropped in the small hole of the box,

"Okay," Yani said. "So we will count the—"

Toogsh!

Everyone was surprised when Yani's body suddenly fell on the table in front of her and Jethro was about to react but he followed. One by one the princes and princesses fell down and Pearce was shocked by what was happening because he saw them every fall and he was the only one left awake. He stiffened in his place at what he was seeing right now and he didn’t know who to approach first...

…but he was just surprised when the shadow he saw was right in front of him.

"You thought you were hallucinating when you saw me?" the shadow smirked at him before he did something…

…and Pearce completely lost consciousness.