Page 24 of Is It Wrong to Escape My Fate? (Dealing With Fate #1)

I glanced at the man mentioned to find him tapping the seat next to him, invigorated with energy.

What was with this guy? He reminded me of an overexcited puppy.

What if he was actually a puppy turned human?

Was that possible in this universe? That sort of magic existed, right?

Transformation, shapeshifting, transfiguration?

“I wonder what’s going on in your head right now,” Lord Grimwald muttered out loud, a corner of his lips upturned. “It can only be entertaining.”

“Was musing if Claude’s actually a dog,” I replied. The Prince and Claude laughed out loud at my response; Grimwald chuckled too. Was that really funny?

Claude wiped the tears from his eyes. “I wish I have the ability to shift, but I’m not special like that.”

“Surely you are, or else you won’t be the Hero.”

He grinned widely. “You know what, you’re right, baby girl! I am special! But not in the way you think.” He glanced at the Prince. “Are we supposed to tell them?”

“That’s what these meetings are for,” the Prince confirmed. “As members of the Champions, we should be open and honest with one another from now on.”

I was not a member of the Champions! At least, not according to the prophecy.

Wouldn’t adding me to the equation ruin the future?

Wasn’t that the reason Prince Winston Regalis didn’t want to mess with politics and marriage?

Did they think that since I was a literal nobody, I couldn’t possibly have any influence on how things would go?

Well, they would be right about that.

“First order of business, introductions.” The Prince eyed me with interest. “And we should start referring to one another by our first names, without titles. I know in your head you’re calling me the ‘Crown Prince’. Enough of that.”

What the hell, how did he know that? His laugh following my internal reaction told me he only goaded me, and I probably made a face that told him exactly what I thought. Dang it.

“In the spirit of fairness, I’ll go first. I’m Winston Regalis. You may call me Winston, or Win if so inclined,” his angelic face plus his radiant smile almost blinded me. Was that a practiced move? In the modern world, I would call it a “PR smile”. Very convincing, too.

I grimaced. “If I start calling you Winston in public, that will be reputation suicide for me. I can’t be disrespectful to the Crown Prince.” Which was an ironic statement, since I was being very bold with him here.

“How many times must I tell you, you’re a member now,” Winston insisted, his composure losing a little. “If anyone disrespects you, you only have to tell us.”

“I’ll be happy to talk to them,” Claude added, beaming.

Oh, no. That would make things even worse. Of course, I could tattle, but there was no way for me to tell what these two would do to the perpetrator. Winston, with his royal power, and Claude with his … Claudeness.

I glanced at Grimwald, nervous. He was a witness to what transpired yesterday morning. Would he tell them? He met my eyes, immediately understanding what I was watching him for, and the bastard smirked. Great , now he had something to hold over my head.

Winston sighed. “Moving on. This is already public knowledge, but for the sake of completeness, my Unique is Precognition.”

Holy fuck . People really could predict the future? With all the magic around, I shouldn’t be surprised. Heck, a prophecy existed!

“My ability allows me to see, at most, five seconds into the future,” Winston clarified. “I can look further, but at the cost of extreme pain. So we will only use it in dire circumstances.”

“You can control it?” I gasped. “Does it stay on all the time? Like do you have to think actively to stop it, or think to activate it? Does it work with everything? Or only things related to you? What does ‘extreme pain’ mean? Do you have migraines, or body pain, or do you bleed from orifices?”

I caught my breath as the three of them gaped at me.

Winston recovered first, chuckling a little.

“Yes, I can control it. I have to ‘activate’ it, and it only foresees events directly related to me, as if I were already there, witnessing it through my own eyes. Really useful with dodging in combat. As for the pain, it’s not consistent, but let’s just say it’s a combination of those. ”

I nodded along with his words. “I can see the downside of it. You’d have to —”

“— know when to use it appropriately, yes,” he grinned when he continued my words exactly what I had already planned to say. He used his ability to prove it to me. “But the specifics of my Unique are unknown to the masses. It only stays within our group.”

He shouldn’t have to say it. While the Kingdom tried to catalog every person with a Unique, through the employ of Inspectors, specifications were kept close to the chest. It was common sense to keep the details a secret.

Only the Kingdom’s royal army, the people close to you, and yourself should know of it.

Otherwise, an enemy could use it against you.

“That was very adorable of you, baby girl,” Claude exclaimed. “You’re interested in us, huh?”

I sputtered, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks. “No, not really! I —” Oh, who was I kidding? I was very interested! But specifically about their Uniques.

“I’m Samuel Grimwald. Call me Samuel.” The other guy found this the right time to speak up again. He focused on me. “Stop calling me Lord Grimwald.” How were they guessing how I referred to them in my mind? “It makes me feel you’re talking about my father, and I’m not that old. I’m twenty-four.”

“Oh, are we sharing our ages?” Winston said. “I’m also twenty-four. Samuel and I graduated last year from the academy, in fact.”

“You also attended the school?” I asked, because I would have thought the Crown Prince was an exception to the rule.

All three of them had confused looks.

“Yes, it was the best example to show and encourage the Kingdom’s magical academy,” Winston answered, but quickly added, “That’s also public knowledge.”

Ah, now I understood why they stared at me as if I was out of this world, because I definitely was, and where the heck was Mia again to provide me with lore drops and exposition? I needed her intimate knowledge of the Kingdom.

I pulled at my topaz earring before replying. “Um, I’ve been a recluse for six years. I didn’t keep up to date with the nobility. It’s like I’m navigating the world anew, you know?” Half-truths. Was I convincing enough?

Apparently, it was so convincing that the possible implications of what I shared dawned on them so heavily, it lowered the cheeriness of the room. I had to change the subject.

“Are you two friends?” I asked the two graduates, and sensing my intention, they humored me by shaking their heads.

“Acquaintances at best,” Samuel admitted. “He is the Crown Prince. I’m the son of the marquis in charge of the border territories against the Demon Lord. My family works closely with the royals.”

“We saw each other frequently, but we didn’t spend time together outside of official meetings.” Winston glanced at Samuel. “During our time here, we had different circles of friends.”

“Or how many friends can someone have for being a high-rank noble,” Samuel grumbled.

Well, that was one of the common gripes I heard from my rich or popular ex-boyfriends.

How they thought no one was genuine with them; those so-called friends were only after the money or the influence.

That they wouldn’t take it against me if I were the same as everybody else. Real confidence booster.

They were right about one thing, though; I was after something from my exes — love and affection and sex, my addiction. But that was an issue that should no longer be relevant here.

“My Unique is much simpler to understand,” Samuel decided to return to the main topic. “Triple Strength. I can go beyond triple, but like Winston, it drains my stamina too much and I collapse when pushed too hard.”

“Is it triple the average human strength? Or specifically your strength? Is it multiplicative? That means when you get stronger naturally, your Unique gets stronger too?”

Samuel gave me a genuine smile, for once. “I should’ve known you’ll have questions. You’re right, it’s triple of my own strength. This is why I train myself a little stronger every day. If the base is strong, then the boost will be stronger.”

I was so curious. “What’s the best feat of strength you can do without straining yourself?”

He actually looked thoughtful for a few moments before answering, “I can cut down a tree with my punch in two to three hits.”

Holy shit. That meant one punch from him would kill me. One flick of his finger and I would turn to mush. “And it doesn’t hurt you?”

“The Unique protects me from my own strength. It’s like I’m invulnerable at that moment,” he answered after another few seconds of thinking. “That’s something I never thought about before. If I have my Unique active, and someone hits me at the exact, precise second, will it hurt me?”

Winston gestured to the two of us. “See? This is exactly what I’m talking about. You get us thinking, Bea. An outsider’s point-of-view is invaluable.”

I laughed in my head. An outsider. That was precisely what I was; not only with this group but also to the rest of this world.

I don’t belong here. And I’d keep reminding myself over and over if I had to.

Claude jumped up from his seat again. “My turn! I’m Claude Wescott, nineteen! I’m not a noble like you guys though. I’m a commoner and an orphan.”

My heart wrenched a tiny bit. That must have been a lonely childhood. I knew the feeling of loneliness quite well, and it absolutely sucked. And I had parents and an older brother. What more if I didn’t?

Claude was grinning. “Don’t feel sorry for me, baby girl. I’m quite alright. I grew up in an orphanage with great Sisters. In fact, that’s how the Priestesses found me — they were on their annual visit to our orphanage and bumped into me. Then they had the prophecy right there.”

I didn’t — I thought for sure I had hidden my feelings away. He still saw right through me? Good god, I was that easy to read? I learned something new every day. Fuck.

I ignored his comment and addressed the rest of his statement. “You’ve been with the Priestesses this whole time?” I had no idea how Kingdom-wide prophecies worked, but it made sense to me how they’d try to protect the child Hero as he grew up.

“Oh, no,” Claude giggled, walking over to where I sat.

“This only happened last year or so. Our orphanage is huge; even though the Priestesses had yearly visits, they had never seen me until that day. I guess that’s what triggered the prophecy.

” He sat on the floor beside my legs. “I hid from them every year because I thought I’d get punished for being a troublemaker. ”

Him being a little goblin wasn’t a surprise to me. What was surprising was that he laid his chin on my knee, looking up at me like an oversized dog asking for pats. Like getting up, sitting on the floor, and pouting on my lap was completely normal.

Skies above, he really did want head pats, did he?

I reached out and stroked his golden blonde hair, and if he were an actual dog, he’d probably be drooling on my lap with his tongue lolling out with how happy and content he looked.

What even was this?

“The Priestesses brought me to the royal family, and I’d been under Win’s care since,” he continued the story as if he did nothing absurd. “He’s my boss.”

“No, and I will refuse that word every time,” Winston frowned. “You are the catalyst of the prophecy. If the party needs a leader, it will be you. The Oracle’s Divine magic works through you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I thought for sure you two are friends. Or at least had a close working relationship before the whole Champions prophecy.”

“I’m so far divorced from the royal family, it’s impossible for the two of us to meet in this lifetime if not for the Priestesses.

” Claude lifted his head from my lap, dislodging my hand from his hair.

“I’m from one of the border territories, but at the western side of the Kingdom, far away from the Everlasting War battlefields.

There’s no reason Winston will be there or for me to leave the region.

“In fact, before the Priestesses discovered me, I was finishing my training as an infantry for the regional army. As soon as I’m emancipated from the orphanage at eighteen, I would be part of the army. Then you know the rest.”

Holy wow. His entire origin lore and backstory screamed main character energy.

From how he had been living in relative peace, and then his fate altered because of an event out of his control.

He was brought to a strange new land, and got to meet new people along the way, as he grew stronger and made more allies to defeat the Big Bad.

No wonder he was the Hero of the Kingdom.

A niggling thought came to mind. “Wait, what did Prince Winston mean when he said ‘Divine magic works through you’?”

“Winston,” Winston corrected me first.

I smiled. “Prince Winston.”

“No titles amongst us, or I’m making it a royal decree if I have to,” he smiled back, that freaking angelic face betraying the underlying threat in his words, playful as it might be.

Okay, no titles. “Tony,” I replied with an even bigger smile.

Samuel coughed a laugh. “What a brat.”

Winston grinned wider too. “You know what, I’m actually fine with that. You’re the only one allowed to call me that, princess.”

What — princess?! “Why are you calling me that?” I asked, sounding lame.

“You picked a name for me, so I’m allowed to call you one myself,” he explained, my game of giving him a nickname biting me back in the ass. “Don’t worry, I won’t call you that outside of this group, lest those silly nobles misunderstand me.”

“They’ll definitely misunderstand,” Claude laughed.

“Besides, it doesn’t feel right if anybody else aside from us calls you princess,” Winston pondered, frowning slightly. “You’re our princess. Not theirs.”

Claude guffawed this time. “Sounds about right.”

“Stop saying that,” I bit my lip.

“Stop doing that ,” Samuel grunted, shifting in his seat.

“I’m not doing anything.”

“I think what he meant is you’re being too cute right now,” Claude tried to clarify as he laid his head again on my lap. “You’re so entertaining to be with. This is why I like you.”

I had quite enough of this, so I steered the conversation back to my question. “You didn’t answer me yet. What’s that about Divine magic?”

Claude opened his mouth to respond at the same time as Winston, when the door to the parlor slammed open, making me jump on my seat and kneeing Claude in the face. “Sorry!”

“It’s okay, baby —”

“Winston! I finally got the recipe right!” Vincent’s cheerful voice sounded in between gasps of air. “Last week I was doing my experiments when — Bea?”

The three Champions glanced from him to me, and I could only bite my lip again in response. Things just got interesting, didn’t they?