We finally arrived in Bethilda’s dungeon, which was located in one of her castle towers.Unlike in our castle, hers was spacious. There were windows where the sun would shine its light through. At the same time, it served as a way of proper ventilation for her prisoners. As we passed by the prison cells, I noticed that they were still in pristine conditions. As if not many prisoners were kept here before.Most likely, her servants were the few of the first ones to be kept here.“James, did you imprison all of your servants?” I whispered as I walked closely behind James.“Each one of them had to be questioned. I only released a few after they were interrogated and proven to be innocent,” James explained.We were then led to an open door through the wall.~*~*~*~As we stepped inside, it revealed a staircase that led down to the side of the tower.As we ventured down, the light from the upper part of the tower slowly disappeared. There were no windows as we ventured further down the hid
We climbed up a bit more and we came across the guards.They held one of their own by his arms. “I assume that this is the prison keeper,” James said as he looked at them.“Yes, Your Majesty,” they replied.“Please, Your Majesty,” the prison keeper cried. “Spare me the punishment. I don’t know what I did wrong!”“You don’t know what you did wrong?” I asked as my brows furrowed. They all turned in my direction. The prison keeper’s eyes widened as I spoke.James chuckled. “Unfortunately, your plea doesn’t have anything to do with me,” he interrupted, which caused them to look back at him. “Because I wasn’t the one who bestowed upon you your punishment. Also, I wasn’t the one you offended with your… actions.”Frantic, the prison keeper returned to me and begged, “Please, Your Highness, have mercy on me. I don’t know what I did wrong. I didn’t do anything wrong.”“So, punishing an innocent man who stood up for others isn’t wrong?” I replied with a raised brow.“I was only following instru
“For all my life, I lived in absolute caution.“My parents were once loyal servants of the duchess when she was only a teenager. My mother was chosen as one of her ladies-in-waiting. My father was chosen as her page.“For the longest time, the duchess never treated her household with hostility. Most especially, her favourites. And when time came for my parents to ask for her blessing, the duchess happily allowed their marriage.“But that harmonious relationship with the duchess was destroyed because of a false allegation.“One of the guards accused my parents of stealing the duchess’ crown, which was a family heirloom. Because of that, they ran away from the castle and lived in the mountains in secret.“Day after day, they lived in fear for their lives. It only worsened when Mother became pregnant. Although they did everything to give me a proper, normal childhood, I was never allowed to visit the nearby city. They would make one excuse after another, just to prevent me from leaving t
“I returned to my quarters after that.“I just created an excuse towards my fellow servant. And I kept my lips sealed about that matter. Nobody in this castle - not even the duchess - knew what I knew,” the servant ended the story.Eyes wide opened, I stared at the floor. My mind froze but my heart raced. My hatred towards Benjamin burned more than what it was before.‘I knew it! I was right! Everything was a trap!’ I thought to myself.I tried everything that I got to convince my family that Benjamin was the true suspect. I argued with them, even went against the manners and conduct that they taught me. But they never believed me. We had to have numerous debates. James even had to risk his very life, just to obtain this confirmation that we needed.As my world swirled out of control, James’ hand held onto my shoulder. Slowly, he pulled me away from the servant. James sat in front of me and said to the servant, “Thank you for telling us the truth. I am certain that by doing this, you
“You don’t remember anything?” James asked.I reopened my eyes and replied, “All I can recall is that… we arrived in the throne room and I screamed. The next thing I know, I was on the ground and coughed out blood.”James’ brows furrowed. He looked to the healer and I did the same.“It is quite expected that an immortal will forget the first explosion of their powers. Although the prince has been using his powers for a long time, I believe there is more that he hasn’t discovered yet,” the healer explained. He added, “His body went into shock when it happened. So, it’s understandable that he doesn’t remember anything.”“My body went into shock?” I interrupted, which made the healer turn to me. “Wait, what happened-AH!” My attempt to sit up was immediately thwarted by an agonising headache.“Calm yourself, Your Highness,” the healer assisted my head as I laid back down. “You need to rest. Your body needs to recuperate.”I took a moment for the pain to subside. I then continued my questi
As I opened my eyes, I was greeted by a dim room.I turned to the window and it was already dark outside.‘For how long was I asleep?’ I thought to myself.Slowly, I sat up and laid my back onto the headboard. Thankfully, my head wasn’t in as much of a pain as it was a while ago. The medicine prescribed by the healer was so strong, it put me right to sleep.I looked around the room and tried to think of something that I could do. First thing that came to mind was I could look for James and assist him with the matter at hand. But if I did that, he would only make me return here and rest.And after what happened, James would never accept my help.A knock came upon my door. “Yes?” I answered.The door opened and it was the tortured servant. He was now neatly dressed and carried a tray of food. “It is me, Your Highness, Marcus.”“Marcus?” I asked as I was about to stand.“Please, Your Highness, don’t move,” Marcus replied as he stopped for a moment. Slowly, I sat down again and he proceed
Without any warning, I conjured a sleeping spell from my hands.“Your Highness, what are you doing?” Marcus whispered, panicking.“We don’t have much of a choice, Marcus,” I struggled to reply. The more power I used, the more my essence depleted. But I had to do a bit more because this spell had to work on fourteen soldiers. And it would last longer than usual as well.A few more grunts and finally, the orb was finished. Right after I pulled my powers back, I coughed out blood onto the carpeted floor.“Your Highness!” Marcus whispered as he caught me.“Who’s there?” a soldier called out from the hallway.Marcus and I shared worried glances. Our eyes widened as we heard a booming voice.“Is anyone there? If there is someone, you shouldn’t be on this side of the castle. Were you not aware of His Majesty’s decree that this wing is forbidden?” the soldier continued. “Whoever you are, reveal yourself.”“This wing of the castle is forbidden to visit?” I wheezed as I turned to Marcus. Once a
Bethilda’s maids stood from their beds and rushed over to their mistress as we walked in.Bethilda ran over to them and hid them behind her. Her maids whispered amongst one another as we arrived. They huddled together, fear was evident in the room.“Your Highness, I know all too well that we are not on good terms,” Bethilda said with a shaky voice. “But I beg of you not to hurt us. Especially my ladies. They have nothing to do with my crimes.”I looked over to her ladies. The frightened looks on their faces reminded me of Mother when we were attacked on the ship. Why would Bethilda even think - just for even a second - that I would hurt her or her ladies?It wasn’t a secret that I had a certain disdain for the duchess. But the punishment was already in James’ hands. And I would never hurt anyone that wasn’t the figurehead of the matter.I handed the lock back to Marcus and replied, “I didn’t come here to inflict pain on anyone. I only wanted to speak to you privately.”Bethilda cleare