Entangled in Love chapter 3

                Chapter 3

The room was dark and cold. There were books covering the desk and shelves. Despite the amount of books and paperwork was on the desk and shelves, the room remained very neat and organized. The owner of the room was currently sleeping soundly and deeply, unaware that a person was tiptoeing into the room and towards him. The person continued to watch him and smiled. After a few minutes, he jumped on the bed.

He shouted, "WAKE UP, DEGEL!"

The green hair man woke up, startled. He kicked the intruder off.

Degel pointed at the intruder and shouted, "Koltso!"

A ring of ice came out and surrounded the intruder making him immobilized. Degel glared at the intruder. He was about to ask who the intruder is and why did he attacked him, but he just realized that the intruder was his friend, Kardia.

"What was that for? I wake you up and you decided to attack your friend. If you want a fight, then I will fight you but no dirty tricks like immobilizing me," said Kardia.

Degel cancelled his attack and Kardia dropped on the floor. Unfortunately, Kardia landed on his face and a shout of pain could be heard from the man.

Degel crossed his arms and glared at his friend. Kardia stood up and rubbed his forehead.

Degel asked, "Kardia, why did you do that? I thought you were the enemy and I could have injured you."

"Sure, as if you could injure me."

Degel sighed at Kardia's stupidity. "But really, why are you here? It is early.
The sun is not even up yet. You never wake up this early. In fact, I am the one who always wake you up."

"You make it sound like I can't wake up without you waking me up."

"Of course you can't unless you have a motive for waking me up this early."

"If I have a motive, shouldn't I be acting nice to you?"

Degel sighed. He was getting impatient. "Just tell me what are you doing here."

"We are going to clothing store in Bluegrad."

"...We can just go to a clothing store in Rodorio village later."

"No, if we go to Rodorio village, it would seem suspicious. Rumours would spread and we don't want that, right?"

"We can go to another store near Rodorio village."

"Too close. Besides, I heard Bluegrad have a great clothing store."

"I doubt that the store in Bluegrad would sell Cupid costumes. In fact, I don't
think any clothing stores would sell Cupid costumes."

"We can just give the person the measurements and  the person can make it and we will get it later. Besides Sisyphus wants his costume to be from Bluegrad."

"Really. I doubt that is what Sisyphus wants that. I think the only reason you
want to go to Bluegrad is because you want to..."

"I know what you are going to say and the answer is no. If you don't believe me, then you can ask Sisyphus. I saw him earlier. I think he was having a walk."

"Really?"

"Really. Let's go."

He pulled his irritated friend out of bed and ran toward the direction where he
last saw Sisyphus. Luckily, Sisyphus was still there sitting on the rock, staring at the sky. Degel finally managed to pull his hand away from Kardia's firm grip.

"I can walk, you know. Besides, I am not even dressed properly."

Sisyphus turned to them and smiled.

He asked, "What brings you here again?"

Kardia nudged Degel and Degel glared at Kardia.

"I believe you want the costume to be from a store in Bluegrad, right?"

"Yes, and specifically this store. I know the owner and her clothes are
beautifully made. Plus if you tell her about me, she would give you a discount."

Sisyphus handed a sheet of paper with the address of the store and his
measurements. Degel was surprised. When did Sisyphus became so picky about his clothes? It was also very suspicious that the store was close to the castle in Bluegrad. In fact, how does Sisyphus know people from Bluegrad? Sisyphus saw Degel's confused expression.

He said, "Well, I did a lot of travelling with El Cid to do research on the dream gods. One of the places I travelled is Bluegrad."

"...Alright."

Degel looked at Sisyphus closely to see if he was lying. But he detected no lie
from him. As weird as it sounds, maybe what Sisyphus was saying was true. Degel nodded.

"So you will be coming with us?"

"No."

"No? Why?"

"Unfortunately, I am very busy today. There is still a lot of paperwork I haven't
finish yet. I am sorry for the trouble."

"It is fine. I understand."

Degel walked away back to his temple to get dressed. Kardia turned around for a
second and winked at Sisyphus. Then he followed Degel. Sisyphus sighed. He had no idea what is going on. He remembered Kardia waking him up at an ungodly hour and asking him to lie and tell Degel he want his costume to be from this store in Bluegrad. He found it suspicious but Kardia told him that it was for Degel's good. So in the end, Sisyphus just went along with it. Luckily, he was a good liar. Sisyphus turned back to the sky as the sun started to light up the sky. He stood up and walk away.

XXX
Degel and Kardia was standing in Bluegrad. Degel was used to the weather while Kardia was a little cold. Degel wasted no time to go the store Sisyphus gave him the address to. He glanced at Kardia who was grinning suspiciously. He didn't like this at all. They found the store in a few minutes. Degel was about to go in when he felt a familiar and evil cosmos. He turned around and glared at the direction he sensed the cosmos from. Kardia did the same but instead of glaring, he stared excitedly at the same direction. They heard voices yelling at each other.

One of them said angrily, "I don't understand why I have to come? I thought Queen is buying the Cupid costume for himself. This has nothing to do with me."

The other voice said, "We need your opinion."

"On what? The lady is only going to take your measurements and she will make the costume later. Then you pick it up. You do not need my opinion!"

The three men were too busy arguing that they didn't notice that their enemy was standing in front of them. Degel and Kardia just stood there, confused and surprised.

Degel asked, "What are you three doing here?"

The three specters looked at them in surprise. After a few seconds on registering on what is happening, they stepped back and prepared their fighting stance. Degel and Kardia did the same. Despite the fact both sides didn't have their cloth and surplice, they can still used their cosmos to fight each other.

Valentine asked, "We are the ones who should be asking that question."

The two sides glared at each other. They were watching each other closely in order to protect themselves when the other attack. Gordan decided to move in to attack when a woman came out with a broom. She waved the broom in the air and hit all of them, hard. Valentine was about to kill the woman for what she did but Queen stopped him. The woman was furious.

She shouted, "If you are going to fight, then fight somewhere else. Don't fight in front of my shop. If you are not going to buy something, then leave."

Degel and Kardia glanced at the specters to see what were they going to do. Gordon also glanced at them. Valentine was busy struggling against Queen's grip, but Queen continued to hold him tightly.

Queen said, "Valentine, we can't kill her. We need her to make the Cupid costume."

Degel furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

He asked, "Cupid costume?"

"It is none of your business. Why are you here?"

Kardia spoke, "For the same reason. We are going to be matchmakers. You?"

Degel glanced at Kardia. He didn't think it is a good idea to tell the enemy why they are here even though it is not important and that they were here for the same reason.

Gordon answered, "For the same reason."

Valentine argued, "And I have no idea why you are bringing me? First of all this whole matchmaker is a terrible idea. I don't care if we are trying to pair Aiacos and Violate up but why Rhandamanthys and Pandora?"

Queen replied, "You don't want to make our master happy."

"I do but I don't like Pandora. She isn't good enough for him. She is disrespectful to our master."

"That is because she doesn't realize her feelings for him yet."

Valentine was about to argue back when the woman decided to slam her broom on the
ground. They turned toward the woman.

She said, "Alright, so what do you want to buy? A Cupid costume for each group. I need your measurements to make the costume."

Valentine pointed to Queen and said, "Well, Queen is wearing the Cupid costume."

The woman was about to walk to Queen but Queen shook his head.

Gordon said, "Well, about that..."

Queen continued, "We lied. I am not the one wearing the  Cupid costume. You are."

Valentine was flabbergasted. Before Valentine could react, Gordon quickly held
Valentine. Valentine struggled from Gordon's grip and was shouting curses at his friends. Gordon pulled the struggling Valentine into the shop with the woman while Queen followed them. The last thing the saints heard from Valentine was "YOU TRAITORS!" Degel and Kardia sweat dropped at the situation. Degel turned to Kardia.

"We are here to buy a Cupid costume for Sisyphus, right?" asked Degel.

"Yeah. Why did you ask?" said Kardia.

"Just making sure."

"Alright...Should we do something about the specters? I mean they were right in front of us. I am actually surprised that they didn't attack us."

"They had something important to do... first."

Kardia said sarcastically, "Yes, because buying a Cupid costume is more important
than killing your enemy."

Degel was about to answer Kardia but then he sensed a familiar presence. Degel turned around, suprised.

"Seraphina, what are you doing here?"

Seraphina stood there, also suprised. She asked, "Degel?"

Kardia glanced over Degel's shoulder. "So this is the lucky lady," he said.

Degel turned and glared at Kardia. "You planned all of this?"

"What? No I didn't. I am just as surprised as you. In fact, this is my first time
seeing her."

It was clear that Kardia was lying. Degel was thinking of ways on how to make the Scorpio saint's life suffer but Seraphina interrupted his thoughts.

"Degel, is that your friend?"

Kardia bowed. "I am Scorpio Kardia, nice to meet you."

Seraphina giggled while Degel just continued to glared at him. Is he flirting with her?

"It had been a long time since I  last saw you, Degel."

"Yes, it had been a long time."

"I am happy to see you well, how is your job as a saint?"

"Oh, it had been fine."

While Degel and Seraphina was talking to each other, Kardia tiptoed away to the
shop. He hid behind the door and watched the scene unfolded. He felt someone touched him and he was about to slapped whoever the person was. However, he saw it was his partner in matchmaking, Unity. Unity smiled at him and hid beside him. When Kardia recently found out about Degel's crush, Seraphina, he went to Bluegrad to investigate. He met with Unity, Seraphina's older brother and they made a plan to have Seraphina and Degel get together. The plan was working so far.

As they were watching, Queen looked at Kardia and Unity in confusion but decided to ignore them. The woman had finally finish measuring Valentine. It was hard since Valentine was struggling but Gordon and Queen held him tight. Now, Gordon was pulling the struggling and cursing Valentine out. Queen paid the woman and thanked her. They passed by Seraphina and Degel who were looking at them, strangely.

After they disappeared, Seraphina asked, "What were they doing to the poor man?"

Degel answered, "You don't want to know...Where is Kardia?"

"I thought he was behind you."

"He was...Never mind. So what bring you here?"

"Well, it was strange. Unity asked me to go this particular shop to get some
clothes for him."

"Why didn't he send the servants to do it?"

"I ask him that too, but he told me they were sick. It didn't make sense but my brother refused to say anything else so I went anyway."

Degel mumbled to himself, "...I get it. They were in it both together. But how did Kardia meet Unity?"

"Degel, did you say something?"

"Uh...nothing."

"Ok... You said that you had something for me?"

"Uh...yes." Degel was blushing and he slowly pull out a letter from his pocket.
"This is for you. You can read it when you get home."

"What if I want to read it now?"

Degel blushed some more and lowered his head down. "...Sure, I guess."

Seraphina smiled. "Just joking. Degel, I also have something for you."

"Oh, you don't have to...umph."

While Degel was talking, Seraphina leaned in and kissed him. Degel's eyes widened
with surprise then closed his eyes. He melted under her kiss. She tasted like mint. Then Seraphina removed her lips and Degel sighed, hoping the kiss would be longer. He noticed Seraphina shivering slightly.

He quickly pulled off his coat and covered her. He realized he must have made her
colder when he kissed her. He also realized that he just kiss her. Even thought he liked it, he knew this was wrong.

"Thank you, Degel."

"I am sorry. This was my fault."

"Degel, this is not my fault. I kiss you first without your permission."

"No, I.."

"Degel, I love you. I don't know if you feel the same way. It is alright if you
don't."

"No, I do but you are a princess and I am a saint. You deserve someone better."

"No, you are wrong. I don't care what you say, I love you and there is nothing
wrong with that."

"...But..."

Then Kardia who was watching with Unity behind the door yelled out," Yeah! Even
the girl had more guts than you! Now get going and make out already!"

Seraphina and Degel was blushing bright red. Degel turned to glared at Kardia and Unity. Unity was glaring angrily at Kardia for calling out. Now, they were going to be in
trouble. Degel walked slowly to them and Kardia realized he was in big trouble. Kardia stood up and quickly grabbed Unity. They ran for their lives while Degel chased them. Seraphina giggled at their sight. Degel caught up with Kardia and Unity but Seraphina persuaded him to calm down. Seraphina told him that she overheard Kardia and Unity and she decided to play along with their plan. She was happy that Kardia's and Unity's plan worked. After a few minutes, Degel and Kardia went back to the shop and showed the woman Sisyphus' measurements. The woman told them that she would make the costume in a day and they can come back to get it. They paid the lady and thanked her. Degel and Kardia waved goodbye to Unity and Seraphina.

Kardia said, "See it turns out fine. You got the girl."

Degel sighed. "Yes, but is this right? Saints are never allow to love and are
only allow devote their love to their goddess. I just broke that law."

"Seriously? We are going to break that law tomorrow since we are going to be matchmakers. Who cares what the law says? I would live my life the fullest and you should. All of us have short lives especially me but that doesn't stop me. I became a saint because it is my passion to fight strong people. I didn't become a saint at first because I want to serve Athena. I am not saying I don't care about Athena at all, she is like a little sister to me. But this is your life, live it, enjoy it. You are too serious, Degel."

"...I guess you are right."

"Of course, I am."

"...I just realized something. This means Sisyphus knew and he also plan this,
didn't he?"

"Actually, no. I just told him that this was for your own good and he hesitantly decided to play along with me."

"...I see.

"Why? You not thinking of getting revenge on him, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Sure. I bet you were thinking of that."

Degel rolled his eyes and Kardia lightly hit Degel's arm. They went back to the sanctuary and told everyone that their mission was a success and they were going to pick up the costume by tomorrow.