The Reincarnator's Inauspicious Route to Finding Love-Chapter 66: Something Strange (1)

"What list?" Cedric asked, not receiving an answer from the retreating figures.

After Prince Mikyle and Adrien left the building, Cedric felt his shoulders relax with a little slump. He had never realized before that Adrien had no clue about his birth. He had assumed that Adrien would have figured it out sooner given how smart the boy truly was, or that their mother would have told him about it. In hindsight, Cedric should have known that the latter wouldn’t be the case since both of their parents seemed intent on keeping Adrien’s illegitimacy a secret even from their own children. In fact, Cedric only knew about it from overhearing their father during one of his drunken stupors.

"I’m sorry you had to find out on your own, little brother. But that doesn’t mean I can– or will– ever stop hating you." He couldn’t give that up. He felt as if he had to hate Adrien since he couldn’t vent his frustrations on the person he truly hated– or at least, the person he wanted to hate.

It was his mother who had betrayed their father, the person whom Cedric admired the most in the world. It was his mother who had borne another man’s child. But he couldn’t hate his mother since she was the woman who gave birth to him. So instead, he encouraged others to pick on and to humiliate Adrien since Adrien was easier to antagonise than his own mother.

"But what did his highness mean by "a list"?" Hopefully his highness wasn’t referring to that childish list full of names of the people he pranked?

Cedric shrugged his shoulders. After a few minutes, he turned to leave.

He had made Brayden wait for him in a place where he hopefully wouldn’t run into Adrien. He didn’t want to risk the chance of Brayden doing something stupid that would allow for other nobles to gossip about their family. He couldn’t afford anyone figuring out their family dynamics behind the scenes and risk someone speculating about Adrien from the way he was being treated behind close doors. Especially not after his father had decided to continue to support Adrien as his own son.

If only his father would openly admit that Adrien wasn’t his biological son and cut ties with him.

. . . . .

Later that day, Adrien found himself inside his room, absent-mindedly staring at the collection of drawings that had built up since the beginning of the school year. He was hoping to find inspiration inside one of them, an idea for what to do for his next piece– even if he still hadn’t figured out in which style to paint it.

The side of his face tingled, and Adrien brought his hand up and laid it against his mole. Ever since earlier, he had been feeling a tingling itch there. He was pretty sure Aisley had something to do with it, but he wasn’t sure what.

The door to his bedroom opened and closed. The bed dipped as a warmth pressed against his side. Mikyle wrapped an arm around him as he peered over Adrien’s shoulders.

"Are you trying to figure out what to paint?" Asked Mikyle, his chin resting on Adrien’s shoulder.

"Yes," Adrien mumbled as he shuffled through the pages.

"I think you should go with your drawing from earlier."

"It’s too lewd to have a public viewing of," Adrien immediately shot the idea down. The picture itself wasn’t lewd if he were to go by the standards of his old world, but it would definitely be considered bold and somewhat lewd by this world’s standards all because it showed a little bit of skin and because it was portrayed in the bedroom.

Mikyle’s hand lifted up from where it was snaked around Adrien’s waist and gently flipped the pages backwards until it found the recently added, unfinished drawing of Mikyle.

"It’s a good piece," Mikyle argued, his voice sounding more jovial than usual. "It will also help to remind those who don’t know their place that you are mine and that I am yours."

Adrien belatedly realized what Mikyle was doing. A soft smile graced his lips. Maybe he should paint the drawing, if only just to make Mikyle happy. But I think I want to keep it as a surprise if I do wind up painting it. . .and I should probably find a way to make it a little less. . .provocative. And without realizing it, he was already making plans on doing the piece.

Adrien hid his inner thoughts as he shook his head. "No. I think I might do this one." He then flipped to a random page. Luckily, it landed on a decent drawing. It was actually one he had drawn that featured his classmates displaying their powers during training.

Mikyle frowned slightly. "If that’s what you want." Even though he was frowning, his voice never lost that light, happy tone.

"Did something good happen?" Adrien asked after shutting the sketchbook and placing it down on the bed beside them. He then turned around on Mikyle’s lap so that he could look at him.

Mikyle’s frown instantly turned into a grin. "You could say that." His expression and tone of voice showed that he was pleased with himself. "The Short-haired Half-wit is officially supporting a new look. One that will hopefully stay with him for a few days."

"What did you do to him?" As soon as Adrien asked that question, his mind flashed to Mikyle’s earlier promise about beating the crap out of Brayden during their martial arts class.

Mikyle’s confident smile turned cocky and his eyes sparkled. "During our fight, I made a few "fumbles." I made it look as if I tripped a couple of times, swinging my fist widely. You should have seen how infuriated he was when one of my kicks came close to his manhood. He was red with rage and fuming like a lunatic when I apologized for my mistake!" Mikyle finished his retelling with a hearty chuckle.

Adrien found himself laughing along with him, wishing for nothing more than to have seen that fight for himself. "I wish I could have seen it," Adrien admitted.

"Hmm. Then I’ll just have to do my best to recreate the scene during the swordsmanship contest if I’m pitted against your brother."

Adrien was suddenly looking forward to the Fall Festival even more. Just because he did not prefer physical confrontation, did not mean that he didn’t enjoy dishing out snarky comments or witnessing humiliating beat downs.

"I can’t wait." Adrien’s voice practically dripped with honey and his smile looked similar to a cat while watching its prey.

"Then I’ll be sure to put on a good show if I’m given the chance." Mikyle’s eyes then drifted down to the closed sketchbook that was now laying beside them. "Is there any way to change your mind about the painting?" Mikyle’s voice dropped low until it sounded like velvet to Adrien’s ears, and his hands cupped Adrien’s ass, bringing him closer.

Adrien found himself stuck between wanting to laugh and to gulp for air. He had a feeling that it would be a while before he became used to how quickly Mikyle could flip from being serious and carefree to provocative and sexy, if not down right voracious.

Mikyle leaned down and his lip grazed Adrien’s neck. Adrien released a sigh, and he angled his neck to give Mikyle a better reach.

With each stroke and squeeze Mikyle’s hands did to his ass, Adrien found his lower half stirring even more. I called Mikyle voracious, but maybe I’m the one who is truly voracious. Maybe it really is my soul and not just this body that is bonded to Mikyle if I become like this so easily with just a touch from him. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Mikyle’s lips pulled away from their feast and he peered down at Adrien with a hungry gaze. "I can feel your mind wandering."

"I was just thinking about what style I should do my painting in." Adrien voiced his earlier concern, not wanting to reveal his current worries for fear of having to come clean about his closely guarded secret, which wasn’t something he wanted to talk about quite yet.

Mikyle’s lips dipped downwards minutely. "Is there a reason you can’t do it in the style you’ve been using."

"I’ve been selling paintings while using a pen name underneath the Count’s nose."

Mikyle’s head cocked to the side and his eyes lit up with amusement. "Isn’t a little too late for that. You’ve already handed in a few paintings as assignments."

"That’s true. But I’m pretty sure not many have seen them outside of the teacher."

Mikyle released a chuckle, and that small smile of his grew into a devilish grin. "I assure you, more people have seen your paintings than you think."

Adrien actually felt his heart sink with those words. He hadn’t even thought of the possibility of their teacher sharing her students’ works with others. It’s possible that the more exceptional pieces may have already made their way through the art community with the owners of the artworks being none the wiser.

One of Mikyle’s hands left his ass and made its way up to his hair, where it gently entangled itself in the soft strands. "But is that really concerning enough to distract you from the here and now?" Mikyle practically purred the words that sounded more like a threat.

"No." Adrien licked his lips as a new wave of heat flushed through him as he stared into Mikyle’s gaze. He felt as if he would be eaten right then and there, and he probably would be if he allowed this to continue. . .which he would.

. . . . .