PeaceMaker

She turned to Dominic and bowed, "I will take my leave then your highness."

"Hmm, be careful," Dominic replied.

"Got it," Desilva nodded, then turned around and walked out of the tent, trying to read the curvy words on the page.

Axel turned around and began gathering the ingredients to make Dominic's next tonic. The quiet air gave him time to think about things that he noticed earlier but ignored. He looked down at his hand and twitched his fingers. They had been tingling since he caught Desilva and he had to focus hard to keep his hand from trembling when he wrote in front of her.

'What was that?' Axel asked himself, 'why did I react like that earlier?'

He ran the situation through his head again, reevaluating what he felt in the moment to react that way.

'That speed of reaction… was not…' Axel pondered, 'was not a product of pure responsibility.'

"Axel?" Dominic called out.

'If we were able to… why was I like that to her?' Axel wondered, looking at the list of ingredients he had prepared to assist him in making Dominic's tonics, '...impossible…'

"Axel," Dominic called again, his patience starting to run low.

'Why would I feel that way toward…?' Axel pondered, his mind deep under layers of confusion, 'it doesn't make sense.'

"AXEL!" Dominic yelled, his voice straining in the process, "PHYSICIAN XICHENG!"

Axel jumped, nearly dropping the ingredient in his hand from shock, he quickly turned around to Dominic and gave a deep bow of apology, "I'm so sorry your highness, I lost track of what I was doing​."

Dominic sighed, "what are you thinking about so deeply when you should be focused on me?" Dominic pouted, "am I not important enough to give full attention to?"

"I was just wondering if Desilva would be able to find a lot of those things… if I'm not wrong, she should be back here in a few minutes to seek help from me. Sometimes even I get confused about where I put my stuff too," Axel sighed, smoothing the hair leading up to his ponytail.

"Haha, I doubt she'll be back," Dominic chuckled.

"Huh? Why?" Axel asked, turning back to preparing the tonic.

"She hates to back down from a challenge so she certainly isn't going to walk away from this and seek help from someone else," Dominic grinned.

"Oh…" Axel muttered absentmindedly. 'So you know a lot about her…' He thought to himself, "that doesn't sit well with me…"

"You don't like that either?" Dominic sighed.

"Huh?" Axel flinched, realizing he said the thoughts in his mind out loud. "Oh..um, y-yes, I don't like that much. She should be able to rely on others more," Axel stuttered.

"Yup! It's ridiculous that even after spending all that tie in a close environment with other people that trust her, she doesn't seem to trust much," Dominic nodded softly.

"Yes…." Axel's voice trailed off as he turned back to his table and grabbed a wooden bowl and a hand grinder.

Dominic paused and sat in the silence for a moment unable to continue the conversation due to Axel's detachment and the unwillingness to continue speaking in his voice.

"Is there something bothering you? You haven't been speaking as much now and it's upsetting a bit," Dominic sighed, "or do you just not like talking to me that much? You've always been a bit reluctant too."

Axel turned to Dominic and then looked back at the ingredients on his table. 'Yes. You are bothering me,' Axel thought to himself. "Of course not your highness, I don't hate you," Axel replied, avoiding looking at Dominic.

Dominic paused before speaking, his face pouting a bit, "You're lying."

"Huh?" Axel muttered, "no I'm not."

"...I know you are. I can tell from the tone in your voice," Dominic huffed, "it's ok… I can tell you don't like your prince…"

"Eh?! NO, YOUR HIGHNESS!! I COULD NEVER!!" Axel exclaimed, falling to his knees and bowing his head, "I WOULD NEVER THINK OF YOU IN SUCH A WAY!!"

There was a long silence that suffocated Axel. His hands began to tremble. He messed up again and kept his mouth running.

'Why am I so careless with my words in front of him?! Am I trying to get killed?' Axel scolded himself, 'this may have done it… he'll look back on all the times I did it and then decide to get rid of me.'

The silence slowly engulfed the room in tension.

'Ah… I must have really messed up,' Axel pondered, 'is he thinking about ways to get rid of me?'

Sweat started to line Axel's forehead, as he stayed longer in the silence. 'I should have paid more attention to the words he said… I should have looked after him better… now I'm going to die without even having to… sigh. I messed up,' Axel sighed, 'I guess I do deserve to die. I was in the presence of a soon-to-be king and neglected to treat him correctly and even acted dismissive. Maybe they were right… I don��t have anything to do with myself except medicine. Otherwise, I am useless."

The silence continued until Axel heard a little puff of air.

"Huh?" He flinched.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA," Domain burst into laughter, basically vibrating in his position on the bed, "HAHAHA *OUCH!* HAHAHAAHAH."

"Eh?" Axel peeked from his bowing position to Dominic and felt his shoulders relax at the sight, "your highness?"

"HAHAHAH, WHAT ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF? AHHAHAHA" Dominic chuckled, "Do I scare you or something?"

"OF COURSE NOT YOUR HIGHNESS!!" Axel bowed again, pushing his head deeper into the ground.

"Stand up. You'll stain your head," Dominic commanded, his tone switching in seconds.

'Oh… there it is…' Axel flinched, slowly pulling himself up, he kept his head hanging low and avoided looking at Dominic.

"Come here," Dominic ordered.

Axel slowly inched over to Dominic, like a child reluctant to get reprimanded.

"Will you hurry? Stop overthinking idiot," Dominic sighed.

"Excuse me?!"