The King's Beloved

~ [Music Recommendation: "I Miss You" by Soyou (Instrumental only) - available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter XD ~ 0/////0

Hours passed by while the Sortis household merrily celebrated Selena\'s birthday. They ate the scrumptious food prepared by the house chefs, drank the best tasting beverages, and sang and danced to the lively music. Even the ever reserved Oracle, Illumináire, joined in the fun by offering a song of friendship to Selena. Though she had been busy with her duties, she always found time to hang around with Selena and had grown fond of her like a sister.

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"Ha ha ha! So even the Oracle has a cute side to her," Selena thought as she listened to her sing.

After her song was a little play created by the maids and butlers of the household depicting Selena and Clavis\' relationship from Day 1 upto the most recent one. All of course, with amazing facts, thanks to their keen observation, and not to mention, Mitis\' gracious intel.

"What?!" the maid playing Selena, exclaimed. "I\'m disqualified and you\'re taking me to your master? That means I\'m already given away to some stinky noble family?" She was almost crying.

Everyone laughed at the "stinky noble remark". Selena guessed that the noble family\'s reputation was indeed not something to be proud of. Though she had to cover her mouth from laughing so hard, remembering what happened before she came to the Sortis household.

Clack … clack … clack … It was now the scene where Mitis visited Clavis room when Selena first arrived.

"Argh, this is such a headache," the butler playing Clavis muttered. "I shouldn\'t have teased you, I\'m sorry".

"Huh?" the maid playing Selena stopped crying for a moment. She lifted her head and saw Clavis looking at her. His light blue eyes were really captivating. "So, you were only teasing me? It\'s not true?"

"I\'m the one who took you in. And I\'m not a pervert so you don\'t need to worry," Clavis breathed heavily. "The last thing I\'ll do to you is to sleep with you".

The whole crowd laughed at this remark. They all knew very well, thanks to Mitis, Clavis didn\'t keep that promise. Clavis and Selena covered their faces in embarrassment.

And then, there was the scene where Mitis visited them in the morning and was shocked to see Clavis and Selena sleeping together. The crowd giggled, it was simply the sweetest. They acted like Mitis, fangirling over the situation. 

It was followed by the scene of the couple paying respects to the king. And we all know what happened there - Selena\'s war between two jelly bitc*es, and her very first kiss with Clavis! Selena was so cool in her acting skills and the crowd went nuts when they kissed.

The play went on. After a few more scenes where the part where they first fought, because Clavis was being a jerk, not believing in love. Clavis could have sworn he felt intense gazes stabbing his back.

But of course, they made up afterwards, followed by a steamy night, all thanks to Clavis finally realizing his feelings, and let\'s not forget, the aphrodisiac candies - three of them.

The crowd giggled and laughed and cried, and laughed again as the play continued. It was an emotional rollercoaster but very entertaining and warm. For the Sortis family, they were just really thankful that Clavis didn\'t end up alone, given his previous personality. And it was all thanks to Selena who melted his ice heart. Ever since she arrived, she was nothing but such a sweetheart.

When the play was over, Clavis leaned unto Selena and whispered to her.

"Selena, about my gift to you … it\'s in our bed chambers".

Selena blushed hard thinking it was gonna be another steamy night for them.

"A-ahh, y-yes! In our chambers!" Selena stuttered.

Shortly after, Clavis and Selena bid their farewell and thanks to everyone, telling them to continue the party as they pleased. Everyone agreed to them leaving, after all, a couple would always need a moment for themselves. Clavis led Selena back to their chambers as he mentioned. Much to Selena\'s surprise, they walked past their bedroom, and onto the spare bedroom.

"Huh? Why the spare bedroom?" Selena blinked her eyes.

Clavis opened the lock for her and covered her eyes with his hands before fully opening the room.

"What\'s this?" Selena chuckled. "Why are you covering my eyes?"

Clavis led her inside. He only let go when they reached the middle of the room. Selena slowly opened her eyes and yet again, she was speechless. Her mouth gaped as she spun her head around the room - everything that she liked was there! And at the very center of the room was "Last Dream"! Her most favorite game! And not just the latest one, but all of them! The whole set was complete, too - with the gaming console, the headsets, controllers, even the VR option.

"C-Clavis! T-this … this … Thank you so much!" she shouted in joy and jumped at him to embrace him tightly. She bawled her eyes and thanked him over and over as she cried.

"Hey, I didn\'t prepare this for you to cry about it," Clavis flicked her forehead lightly. "It\'s meant to be an entertainment room, not a crying room". He chuckled afterwards and took a game from beneath the coffee table in front of the purple couch.

"Sniff … sniff … Hm? What\'s that game?" Selena asked. Indeed, it was not "Last Dream" or any other familiar game she knew.

"Play it," Clavis told her. "It\'s just a simple game I created".

"WHAT?!" Selena\'s face turned into shock. "You can create a game?"

Clavis smiled at her. "Well, I had to study it a bit but yes, I can do it now. Just simple ones though. I need more experience to create more complex ones".

"How did you -"

"- Nevermind that, just play the game".

Selena\'s eyes twinkled in curiosity. Clavis helped her set it up and taught her how he used magic as a substitute for the electricity and plugs. The big screen lit up, and there, the game started.

"Wooow! I can\'t believe you created this!" Selena blurted out in awe. "The graphics are amazing and the gameplay is so smooth. So I just need to find a couple of items as I fight through monsters right?" With a cheeky laugh, she said, "This will be easy".

A cute cinematic played out first, followed by a mini tutorial for Selena to familiarize the controls. Well-versed in playing role-playing games, it was easy for her to adapt. She quickly finished the tutorial and was able to customize her avatar after. She made it look like her, with purple hair and pink eyes.

A couple of minutes passed. Clavis was happy to see Selena seemed to be enjoying the game. He embraced her back as she played the rest of the game. A few moments more and Selena was now at the final stage - the battle between the final boss. She managed to get the two treasures she was tasked to do. Just one more and she would finish the quest.

"Oh! Nice final boss, ha ha ha ha! A handsome Ice Prince! You definitely created this game!" Selena laughed hard. Nonetheless, she continued playing until she finally defeated the last boss and got the last treasure box.

"Yay! I did it!" Selena leaped in joy. "Did you see that? I beat your game!"

"Yes, you did," Clavis smiled warmly at her. "Now, go open the treasure boxes that you got".

"Hm? Is there a next stage? Are those loot items?" Selena asked, then turned her head back in the game to open the treasures.

The first box contained the crystal-like flower, Verus Amor.

"Wow! That\'s a gorgeous flower! So this is Verus Amor, huh? The flower of true love and destiny. I wonder what I can use it for in the next level?"

The second box contained a white gold ring with a light blue gem like no other in the middle of it, and white smaller gems encircling it. The light blue gem was very unique for it shined like sapphire, but had golden dusts inside it, making it look like an ocean reflecting the beauty of the stars.

"That\'s so beautiful …," Selena was in awe again. "It\'s like your eyes, Clavis, just without the golden dusts".

"Really? Perhaps I intended it to be like that," Clavis smirked.

"Ice Prince\'s heart, huh? Is this the reason I defeated the Ice Prince? Because I had his heart all along?" she wondered. "But why is there no stat boost? Is this a key item instead for the next quests?"

Lastly was the third box. Selena anticipated so much what she\'ll get in the third box, since it was the treasure given by the final boss. \'It better be a rare item\' was what she thought.

Upon opening, Selena couldn\'t be more dismayed to find it was only an envelope with a letter inside.

"Why a letter? What\'s so important - oh wait, maybe another quest item".

She opened the letter afterwards and it said:

 "Love … I didn\'t believe it until I met you.

Now, I can\'t imagine losing you.

Will you … spend the rest of your life with me?

Will you marry me?"