A sharp inhale came as his shoulders stiffened a bit. How long had it been for him since formalities had been dropped? More importantly, how long had it been since he could just be Cedric? No titles attached, no rigid words -- simply a conversation. As the stifled breath seeped from his lips, his body began to relax more and more. His facial muscles ached as the corners of his lips twitched upward into a smile. (How long had it been since he'd been able to offer such a genuine gesture?) A laugh came at the way she mocked him and his stiff mannerisms.

"Sorry, force of habit," he admitted sheepishly. "I promise it's not you, it's just the constant formalities that have been drilled in for years. But... I'm glad to hear Hoenn has become a better home for you than Galar ever could."

He knew why, but that went without saying. No need to bring up old wounds. With a step down, he instinctively offered a hand out to his company to help her down the steep path. But with the way he reached out, it didn't seem in tandem with duty -- rather a softness fell in the way he looked back and flashed her a reassuring smile as if they were no more than two kids who traveled the ways of a lush forest. (It brought back some of the days before duty was placed before family and friends, Cedric felt at peace in that brief moment in time.)

"Things have... Well, they're different," he attempted to verbalize.

But when words couldn't cut it, he raised a hand and removed the glove that accompanied it to give her a peek of the black tungsten ring that adorned his ring finger. A show of arranged marriage, something that never really felt necessary to Cedric. When it came down to it, he could never remember a time he felt drawn to such a permanent idea. Did he resent his fiancée? Not at all, Estelle Valentine was a well-rounded young woman with a sense of duty that matched his own. But it felt rigid behind all else, like it was a partnership forced onto them by the hands of the crown -- they were two strangers forced to share the same home and at times, tensions flared to a crescendo that left them both empty in the end. A breath caught in his throat as the thought echoed in his mind: perhaps in another life, the two would have been happy.

"Her name is Estelle Valentine. Other than her cooperation under the Queen and Galar's military, there's... Not much I truly know about her."

The thought went as soon as it came. Eyes fixated on another issue as his Tsareena went in for the attack of a Deino that had reared its head. Cedric slipped his glove back on and poured his focus into the battle that unraveled before him as he took command over his loyal pokemon.

"Power Whip."

The Tsareena lunged foward as vines began to materialize. The pokemon gripped onto them and used the vines to wrap tight around the Deino. As it made contact, the Tsareena lifted the Deino off of the ground and soon send it plummeting down. In tandem with this gesture, Cedric stepped back and sent a pokeball forward in a curveball throw.

catching deino

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Guinevere Calcifet