After resting till noon and having a good meal, the energetic prince from Griven wanted to leave the guest’s lodging. It was his first time travelling elsewhere without his parents, as well as his first visit to Blackhelm, thus Arlan could not sit still and wanted to roam the royal palace. He didn’t listen to anyone, and in the end, was allowed to go around the palace grounds while others stayed in to rest for a while more.

Arlan was accompanied by his nanny as well as the two servants appointed by the Queen to look after his needs.

“When we just entered the palace, the carriage passed by this really really beautiful lake on the way. I want to visit it!” Arlan insisted, and the servants serving him made arrangements for him to be brought to the most famous scenic spot in the palace.

When Arlan reached there, he found the little red-eyed prince from earlier playing with a large bird on the lakeshore. Both saw each other but none of them approached the other, not even as an act of courtesy. The adults accompanying them could only let out apologetic smiles as they at least acknowledged each other’s presence, before returning their attention to their respective wards.

After walking for a while, Arlan found himself bored since there was nothing to do. His nanny wouldn’t let him approach the water and would not let him run around on his own. He was about to walk back towards his carriage when he saw a group of boys playing in a lawn nearby. One of the boys saw him staring and whispered to his friend, who gestured to his other friends to look towards him.

Arlan recognized one of the boys as the First Prince of Megaris who he also met earlier. This time, Arlan approached the other prince and the group of children also moved towards him, allowing them to meet midway.

“Greetings, Prince Keiran.”

“Greetings, Prince Arlan.”

The eldest princes of the two kingdoms politely greeted each other. Since they were just acquaintances who met for the first time that day, their greetings were quite awkward. Prince Keiren, being the older one, quickly thought of a way to break the weird atmosphere and introduced his playmates to Arlan.

They all greeted the First Prince of Griven after Keiren introduced him to them. As Arlan was a prince from another kingdom, they were excited to talk to him. Keiren was content to simply watch them interact when he spotted a black-haired boy from afar. Drayce had crossed the wooden walkway and was now watching them from the gazebo in the middle of the lake.

Leaving his friends behind, Keiren went towards his little brother.

When Keiren left, the others talked among themselves, causing the curious Arlan to listen to their ramblings with interest.

“Why does Prince Keiren always act nice to that red-eyed monster?”

“I don’t know why he still favours his monster brother.”

“What can we do? He does not believe us. Only when he gets hurt will understand that his younger brother is a monster.”

“Shh, talk slowly. What if that monster hears us and brings the earthquake here like last time?”

“Did you forget how scary he looked?”

“I still get nightmares of his scary red eyes from that day.”

Arlan tilted his head in confusion. He looked at Drayce who was talking with his brother inside the gazebo. ‘Earthquake? Monster? I think he looks like one of my sister’s dolls, though he truly does look mean when he frowns’

One boy saw Arlan looking at Drayce and said. “Don’t get near the Second Prince. He will hurt you if he doesn’t like you.”

Arlan put his gaze away from Drayce to look at the boy. “What’s an earthquake?”

The young noble looked at the five-year-old boy curiously staring at him, waiting for his reply. “Earthquake is…it’s when you feel the ground shaking so strongly it sometimes causes things to break or fall or people to get hurt.”

“Oh, so that’s called an earthquake!”

The boy nodded. “The Second Prince caused an earthquake when he got angry last time. He is not normal like us.”

Arlan’s eyes widened. “He made this”—he stomped his feet on the grass as if to highlight his point—”shake? For real? Is he strong?”

“Yes! Because he’s a monster!”

The boys who were present that day to play kickball started to retell the story from various perspectives, the loudest being the three children who bullied Drayce, though, of course, they didn’t mention what they did.

Arlan stayed quiet not knowing what to say, but he felt like he should hurry back to tell his sister what he learned—that the  Second Prince of Megaris is a monster.

“Ah, it seems that Prince Keiren is calling us!” one of the boys gasped.

A servant of the First Prince had come to them, telling them to go towards the gazebo. Seeing that a boat was approaching the gazebo, the group of boys became excited as they realized what Keiren wanted to do.

“Your Highness Prince Keiren, are we going boating?” one boy asked when they entered the gazebo.

Keiren, who was talking to his brother, looked at his friends. “That is why I called you here.” He then looked at Drayce. “Come with us?”

Drayce shook his head. “Thank you, Brother, but I have my next lesson in half an hour. I will need to go back soon,” Drayce replied.

Though he had lessons, he sure didn’t want to be with those annoying boys or he was not sure what way they would anger him this time. He was smart enough to understand that when there are many important guests in the palace, he should not cause any trouble.

“How about you, Prince Arlan? Will you come with us?” one boy asked.

“N-No, I won’t,” Arlan directly rejected. His face turned nervous.

“Why? Are you scared of—”

“It’s okay if Prince Arlan doesn’t wish to,” Keiren interrupted his friend.

Arlan gave out a sigh of relief. It was true that he was scared of sitting in a boat as his experience was not good with it. A few months ago, he almost drowned in the water after falling out of a boat because he was being naughty. He was yet to recover from that accident, and that was also the reason why his nanny refused to let him get near the water

The First Prince and his playmates climbed inside the boat that was arranged for them while Arlan simply watched them in envy. Drayce observed his expression but said nothing.

With the other kids gone, the atmosphere within the gazebo grew uncomfortable since neither Drayce nor Arlan were talking.

The palace servant in charge of touring Arlan broke the silence. “Prince Arlan, would you like to see the various fishes in the water? You see, that part of the gazebo will allow you to see them.” The servant gestured towards the centre of the gazebo that had glass flooring. Tentatively, Arlan walked there and let out a cute gasp of surprise. The floor was made of transparent glass, and the lake water under it was crystal clear as well, allowing him to see the colourful fishes moving underwater.

“Ohh! This is amazing!”

He was so amused, his mouth was gaping open as he watched the fishes on all fours. His nanny wanted to scold him because his hands and knees would turn dirty, but the five-year-old prince looked so adorable she decided to simply let him be.

“Prince Arlan, are you hungry? Should I fetch you some snacks?” the nanny said after a while.

However, the little prince did not seem to hear her so she simply left him to continue watching the fishes while she left to go get some small snacks from their carriage, guessing that they would probably stay long inside this gazebo.

Arlan was on the floor, fascinated by the colourful scales of the fishes. There were some who were bright orange, some yellow, and there was one particularly adorable fish with bright blue scales swimming around and around, which made the little prince let out an ‘aww’. His eyesight followed it, and along with it his body.

Without realizing it, Arlan was at the edge of the gazebo, having gone down the wooden steps where the boat would usually be docked, looking at the water as he could not help but watch those colourful fishes up close.

Drayce looked down at Arlan from the gazebo railing and sighed at this little guy who looked like he had not seen a fish in his life. For Drayce, watching fishes swimming around didn’t feel this exciting.

He turned to the person accompanying him. “Saira, let’s go back home—”

Just as he thought to leave, his eyes noticed something. That little guy was putting his hand on the water, trying to reach what seemed to be a group of blue fishes that was near the surface. His position looked dangerous, as one wrong move he would fall into the water.

Drayce looked at the two servants who were busy talking among themselves while neglecting their duty towards the royal guest. He saw the woman who seemed to be the little guy’s nanny walking back towards the gazebo with a basket in hand.

Drayce frowned and he was about to scold the palace servants assigned to the guest when he heard a panicked yell. Arlan slipped from the gazebo, but before he could fall into the water, he was caught midway. His knees were still touching the wooden steps but his small face was only an inch away from the water.

Arlan swallowed the rest of his yell as he was too stunned by what happened. Something was holding him midair, and slowly, his body was pulled back towards the glass flooring floating in the air as if he weighed nothing. Drayce felt it was not good to leave the little guy at the dock.

When Arlan turned his head around, he found Drayce with his hand put forward in his direction, as if he was the one who pulled Arlan back.

“P-Prince Arlan! It’s dangerous at the edge!” the palace servants called out belatedly,  unaware of what their negligence could have caused.

With Arlan’s safety settled, Drayce moved his hand back and turned to leave. While the servants were busy fussing over the little prince from Griven, the boy ignored them. His blue eyes followed that retreating back, still gaping in disbelief.

“Your Highness? What happened?”

Arlan’s nanny had just returned to the gazebo with her food basket when she saw the servants surrounding her prince. Her surprised voice caused him to snap out of his daze, and he suddenly stood up and ran towards the shore.

When Arlan was about to reach the Second Prince’s carriage, he could not see Drayce anywhere. He only found one woman walking towards it. Drayce had left using his powers after saving Arlan from falling into the lake. As such, only Lady Saira was actually the one using the carriage. As Drayce’s nanny, such things were no longer surprising to her.

Arlan caught up to Lady Saira. “Where is the Second Prince?”

“His Highness has left in another carriage, Prince Arlan,” Lady Saira replied politely with a pleasant smile.

“Where did he go?” Arlan asked. Then, he tilted his head. “You’re his nanny, right? Why do you take different carriages?”

“He returned to the Queen’s palace in a hurry because he had lessons and didn’t want to be late.. Uhm, I-I feel squeamish if the carriage is moving fast so I have to take a slower carriage,” was what Lady Saira said as an excuse as she could not explain to anyone that the Second Prince could travel around the palace in a blink of an eye. The carriage was actually to put on a show.

“Can I go to where he is? I want to meet him,” Arlan insisted with an earnest expression.

Lady Saira could not deny this request and said, “His Highness has other things to do today, but I will convey your message, Prince Arlan. I will let your servants know his response.”

Arlan smiled as he watched the woman leave. He knew Drayce was the one who saved him and he wished to thank him.

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