Joy had not found his morning to be incredibly exciting. He knew that he should treat every single day like an adventure. That everything from eating breakfast to finding clothes should bring him happiness in some small ways.

  But he felt sad.

  And that was okay.

  He moved through the motions of getting ready. He dressed himself in something that made him look devilishly good. Then he spent some time trying to pick out some accessory that brought out his eyes.

  He eventually decided on wearing glasses with empty lenses to the tournament today. It felt a little too dangerous to have easily breakable glass near his sensitive eyes.

  Joy barely even looked at the magical coin that told him about when his match was and who it was against.

  The whole thing felt formulaic to him. This tournament was banal in some way. It was the way that his victory was assured by the formula. He was the brash up and comer who took out the favorite for the tournament this year through what everyone else thought was luck. Then after a few scrapes and bruises he slowly won the crowd over by showing them that it wasn’t luck but an almighty skill.

  He just felt like a trope in a bad play.

  Hopefully, today would be different.

  Joy slowly trudged towards the exit from the room, wishing for something exciting to happen to spice up his day. A firm knock stopped him in his tracks.

  Joy stared at the door. No one who came to talk to him knocked. All his friends knew to just barge in. So, who would knock?

  Joy slowly opened the door a smidge to see Rose, the prince’s personal confidante standing outside. She was dressed well enough to make Joy feel like a donkey at the disco. Vibrant waves of color shimmered throughout her outfit, changing as Joy watched. Patterns flowed freely through the cloth and Joy was mesmerized by her beautiful clothes.

  Rose coughed once. Then twice as Joy kept ogling her clothes.

  “Normally, people are at least staring at me, not just my clothes.” Rose said in a sarcastic tone.

  “You must introduce me to your tailor. This is exactly what I have been missing. That is truly beautiful. Did you get Marzano to make it, or Pimento? Who could do such a thing?” Joy excitedly chattered at her.

  “Well, since I have something you want and I need you to do something for me, how about we make a trade.” Rose smiled at Joy. The look reminded Joy a little too much of crocodile teeth, but he loved fashion more than anything else, so he had already made up his mind about this deal with Rose.

  “Anything.” He bent to one knee and looked at her with his best puppy dog eyes.

  “Yuck.” After a pause where she recollected herself, she continued, “you have been winning in the knight tournament and have been developing quite a following within the common people. However, you have not been expanding your influence, thereby the prince’s influence, within the upper tier circles. I want you to attend a party that is being held in the castle tonight. And I want you to be a dashing gentleman that makes people swoon and turn green from envy.”

  “That seems amenable. Now who is your tailor?” Joy barely even thought about what he agreed to. He loved a party, and he was the envy of everyone everywhere he went so that wouldn’t be an issue. But he would probably enjoy a party, it might even be a ball.

  Rose smiled with her crocodile teeth and said, “I am doing the colors myself.”

  Joy was filled with awe. The only people who Joy generally respected were farmers, followed by stay-at-home parents, and then fashionistas. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen at that moment.

  “Please, I beg you. Give me an outfit that looks like yours.”

  Her hand came to rest on Joy’s chest. Rose’s smile had only grown more reptilian as the conversation continued.

  “Since you have been so willing to help me out, I’ll help you out. Your outfit will now be everything you wanted it to be.” Underneath Rose’s hand, Joy’s clothes blossomed into color. Red, green, and blue spun around him in circles, infecting his entire outfit with life.

  Big fat tears rolled down Joy’s face as he said, “thank you, this is so wonderful.”

  Rose almost looked a little guilty as she removed her hand from Joy’s chest. As she started walking away, she said, “Joy, make sure you look beyond the outfit a person is wearing next time. Someone might take offense.”

  Joy let that comment slide off him like water off a duck’s back as he jauntily started walking towards the tournament.

  His stride was bobbing and happy as he wandered the streets. He was in such a good mood about his clothes that he stopped by his favorite shop in Vena Cava and got a candied apple for breakfast. Not the healthiest breakfast for an athletic competitor, but he needed to celebrate his new favorite outfit.

  Everyone looked at him a little oddly as he walked by. He was the beauty in the eyes of these beholders, his new clothes fit him like a kaleidoscopic glove.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  The arena felt wonderful today as Joy wandered the stands, munching on what remained of his candied apple. There was a charge to the air; the fact that only eight competitors remained had turned the crowd from excited to ecstatic. Popcorn flew from people’s mouths as they watched some pre-fighting entertainment, and Joy laughed as he wandered between them.

  Everyone looked at him funny, but he just knew they were jealous. Anyone with half a brain could understand that his outfit was to die for.

  Joy spotted the prince’s private box and started making his way towards it. Joy didn’t push through the crowd, rather he slipped through it, taking advantage of small holes in the deluge of bodies.

  Joy smiled as he saw the prince’s eyes meet his. He blandly kept moving his gaze until he did a double take, looking back at Joy.

  Joy knew that those eyes could only mean one thing. He had bested the prince in a battle of outfits. As could only be expected of the most beautiful man in Vena Cava.

  The prince slowly lifted one hand over his mouth, Joy thought to cover the obvious grimace that must be tearing its way across his face. But Joy spied someone else in the booth with the prince. Sam and Ian were still there, but the wonderful Rose sat there perched with immense dignity next to the prince.

  Her beautiful clothes were still flowing between colors in a beautiful display. Joy entered the private box and took a bow.

  The prince slowly removed his hand from his mouth. His hair was the color of seashells today, Joy wasn’t sure how he could tell it was supposed to be seashells, but he felt it in his bones. And his eyes were the color of a river flowing through a particularly silty area. It made for an odd effect; it made the prince look like some sort of deity of water.

  “Joy, what a wonderful outfit you have on. Who did you get to design it?” The prince looked Joy up and down.

  “I got the wonderful and beautiful Rose over there to give my clothes a makeover. She really made my day when she morphed my clothes into this new and sleek look.” At mention of Rose the prince’s head whipped over to her. A look was shared between the two, but Joy had no clue what the inaudible questions were.

  “He really got on my nerves this morning, so I decided that he deserved a proper reward.” Joy nodded his head at this, she obviously didn’t know what getting on someone’s nerves meant, but that was okay, even perfect people could have some faults.

  The prince let out a very undignified chortle before he turned back to Joy. “We hope to see some stellar performances from you today.” Then he waved Joy away.

  Joy harrumphed as he was led out of the box by Ian. He hated the little hand waving, he wasn’t some lapdog who came and went as his master pleased, was he?

  Joy stalked away to go to the private competitor area, at least there he would be respected.

  __

  As Joy left the prince turned to face Rose. “Did you really have to make his outfit so ugly?”

  "He really asked for it, it’s not my fault he hasn’t checked to make sure that the patterns are still rippling. It’s also not my fault he doesn’t understand that my gift only works through direct touch. Also, he annoyed me.”

  Rose put her nose in the air like she really was offended by Joy. But the prince had spent far too much time with her not to know her true intentions. Rose was a person where every interaction led to her desired outcome. She was not part of his inner circle just because she was the greatest friend he had ever made in his life; she was brutally efficient at all things political.

  There was some purpose for everything she was doing, the prince could smell that, but he was content to wait and see what she would do.

  “On a separate note, please don’t use your gift on anyone else anymore. Some secrets are best left until the very last moment.” A dark gleam shone in the prince’s eyes as he stared at Rose.

  To this she just nodded her head in agreement. Maybe it hadn’t been so prudent to do as she had done, but she didn’t regret it.

  __

  Joy knew that his time had come. He was going to battle his opponent. He had done no research and knew nothing about his opponent. All he knew was that he looked handsome as ever today and that he felt stronger because of it.

  Joy walked into the arena with a strong stance. He didn’t strut as he was prone to do at times, instead he stood proudly and defiantly as he entered an arena unlike the others he had seen before.

  The arena had been converted into a picnic area.

  There were blankets laid out, little baskets of food haphazardly placed, and beautiful trees to look upon as one dined. It was a little odd, but Joy enjoyed that the arena supervisors were trying new things out.

  Once Joy became visible to the crowd he did a curt half bow with little extra flourish, then he wandered over to smell the flowers.

  In a distant corner of the arena a wordless yell rose with a strength and ferocity unmatched by any of the other sections. Again, there was an entire section filled with the people that Joy had saved a few nights ago. They were all still red, but it was closer to being sunburnt than crimson now, and their horns had slowly receded, now they only looked like growths upon their skull.

  Joy took special care to raise a few flowers that he had picked out towards them. They needed so much love. Joy had felt all their pain, and he wanted them to know that someone cared about them and their suffering.

  Joy sat on the ground and fashioned a small crown of flowers. The announcer didn’t even say anything about him this time. It was becoming a serious issue. Joy could take many things, but being ignored was not one of them.

  “And in the other corner, this time we have someone new. He apparently defeated Ronald the McDonald who held a coin for this tournament in a bar brawl and he is here for a rootin’ tootin’ good time. We know nothing more about him except his name; please, give it up for Lambo.”

  The crowd roared with the delight of a five-year-old receiving a new present. Maybe it wasn’t one of the fighters they had come to know and love, but he certainly was exciting.

  The man was chubby and unkempt. His hair looked smelly, his shirt was two sizes too small, and he picked his nose as he entered the arena. He even had a beer bottle shoved down his pants in what Joy hoped was supposed to be a vulgar display.

  Joy had felt this day was going to be boring, yet exciting things kept happening left and right.

  The announcer yelled “begin!” And the noise of the crowd suddenly disappeared as a bubble of silence was thrown over the competitors.

  Joy took his customary stance of readiness. A cocky grin spreading across his face. Lambo started ambling over to Joy as he shoved one of his hairy hands down his pants to root for something.

  “Ya know,” Lambo burped, “me and my friends have a bet going. We been watchin you these past couple days and we thinks we gots a plan to beat ya.”

  From his pants Lambo pulled out a deck of cards.

  “How would ye feel if I asked, ‘do ye wanna play a game?’”

  A grin spread across Joy’s face as he looked at the man as if he were Joy’s true love. He had never seen a man so repulsive in his manners and yet he felt irresistibly drawn towards him.

  The two competitors sat down at one of the picnic tables unaware of the riot of booing that their actions had caused. No one came to the arena to watch two people play go-fish, they wanted blood, not hearts.

  But even if Joy did know, he could’ve cared less. He was excited.