19 Chapter Nineteen

Prince Dylan just stared at me for a bit longer and said. "Goodbye. It was nice to meet you, Alex."

Then he left.

'What just happened?' I asked myself confused staring at the closed door.

"I will make you wish to have never been born… I already do though." I whispered, annoyed.

'I thought that Dylan was easier to deal with than Noah, but it seems he is the one that I have to be careful around actually.' I realized.

I sighed, exhausted. "Nothing can be easy for me, huh."

I was back on the west side, looking for a better room to spend the night. 'At least a room where there is a bed this time. I can't keep sleeping on the floor forever.' I thought, annoyed.

I was getting tired of searching, most of the rooms were locked, and the ones that weren't were just like the one I spent the last night, all empty.

I sighed. "I can't believe I will have to sleep on the floor again tonight."

I decided to go back to the same room from last night because there I knew it was safe for me to spend the night since I know that no one will try to enter that room.

But then I was surprised, at the end of the corridor there was Lena walking in my direction.

'What is she doing here?!' I thought, shocked. 'I should get invisible… No, she already saw me, and there is no way she will recognize me, I am disguised after all.'

Lena was getting close, and I was getting tenser. 'She won't recognize me. She won't recognize me. She won't...' I thought repeatedly to calm myself.

As I wanted Lena passed through me, and I breathed relived. But I commemorated too soon.

"You, boy, over there. Come here." Lena suddenly decided to call me.

'There is no way she recognized me, right? Even if my face is pretty much the same, there is no way a normal person would think that I could simply change my eyes and hair color.' I thought, nervous.

I turned around slowly and looked at her. "Is there anything you want, Ma'am?" I asked.

Lena was staring at me, angry. "I said, come here."

I gulped. 'This woman doesn't change, does she?'

I did as I was told, I got closer to her and asked again. "...Is there anything you want, Ma'am?"

Lena looked at me from head to toe. "Is that possible that… Have you seen a boy with golden eyes walking through here?"

"You mean, the princes?" I asked, though I obviously knew that she was talking about me.

Lena stared at me silently for a moment with her fierce expression. But then she said. "...Just forget what I said." And then she just turned away.

I sighed relieved when she was already far from me. 'As I thought, she didn't recognize me.'

But then I noticed something. "Is that why she is here in the middle of the night? Is she looking for me?"

'Let's find out.'

I decided to go after her, but invisible. I didn't want to be noticed, of course.

But after following her, I realized that Lena was probably not looking for me. She didn't even try to look through the rooms or anything like that.

In the end, I just followed her all the way back to the main area.

'Perhaps… Is she going to where she always went when she had to leave the northwest side?' I asked myself.

I never knew why Lena could leave the northwest side or what she did when she left. But, as long as I knew, when she had to leave the northwest area, it was never during the night.

My curiosity made me keep following her. 'Is she going to meet someone? Maybe… the King?' I asked myself, curious.

We weren't in the main area anymore. 'I've never come here… Maybe is here the east area? What is she even doing here?'

The time passed and nothing about her doing anything suspicious besides keep walking through the palace in the middle of the night.

'I'm getting tired… Just as I thought this place is huge. It is like there is no end here.' I thought, exhausted.

But then, suddenly, Lena opened a door, surprising me.

'I have to go fast or else I won't be able to enter.' I thought while I was running through the door before it got closed.

'I almost didn't make it.' I thought after entering the room just at the right time.

When I looked inside I was surprised by seeing a blond nobleman sitting in an armchair holding a cigar. He didn't say anything, he was just staring at Lena silently.

"Greetings, Your Grace." Lena said bowing respectfully.

'...Your Grace?' I asked myself confused. Just then I noticed the man's eyes, he had golden eyes. 'He is a member of the royal family!'

The man slowly placed the cigar in his mouth and smoked it. After he slowly blew the smoke he asked, dry. "Did you find him?"

Lena hesitated to answer. "No, Your Grace, we still didn't find the child."

'Are they talking about me?' I thought, confused.

The man pressed his temples with one hand, obviously mad, and then asked. "How can you not find him? It is not like the northwest area is that big, there is no way you couldn't find that child until now."

'Yeah… They are talking about me.' I realized. 'But, who is he? And why is Lena talking about me to him but not to the King?' I asked myself, confused.

Lena was staring at the floor, it was the first time I ever saw Lena acting like this, acting so submissive. "We have been looking for him all day, but he is nowhere in the northwest area… I think he actually left the northwest area, somehow."

Suddenly, the man slammed his fist on the table beside him, making a loud noise. "Are you stupid?! There is no way a child could escape a place where there are guards guarding all ways out of there!"

Lena kept looking at the floor, she didn't dare to even look at the man's eyes. "...Is there any possibility that there are secret rooms or secret passages in the northwest area, Your Grace?" Lena asked.

The man stared at Lena for a minute, his eyes were colder than ice. "Had you forgotten for what reason the northwest area was always been used for? There is no way that there would be any secret room or any secret passages."

The man sighed. He got up from his chair and then he slowly got closer to Lena. He then stared at her in silence.

"Your Grace?" Lena said, for the first time looking at the man's eyes, confused.

In a blink of an eye, the man grabbed Lena's throat squeezing her neck and lifting her off the ground.

"Y-Your… G-Gra-" Lena tried to say, suffocating.

'What is going on?! Is he going to kill her?' I asked myself, scared. I didn't know what to do. 'S-Should I save her?'

But before I could decide what to do, the man released Lena's throat, making her fall to the ground on her knees.

"You have three days to find the child. If you don't find him I will kill you." The man said, and then he left the room, leaving Lena fallen on the floor.

Lena was trembling and crying silently.

'...Is she alright?' I thought, worried.

I kept staring at her for a moment before I decided to leave the room.

I was walking back to the west side with many thoughts on my mind. 'Who was this man?'

He was obviously a royal member, but I don't know who he could be. I don't know any royal member besides the King and his children.

'Why was Lena talking to him about me?' I asked myself. I could think about some reasons, but I didn't want to admit it to myself.

'What if… This man was my real father, not the King?' I asked myself, afraid.

'But, all my life the maids insinuated that I was the King's bastard.' I realized.

But then, I thought about something. 'What if Lena is the only one that knows who my real father is? And she let the other maids think that I was actually the King's child… That would make sense.'

I sighed, hopeless. 'There is no way I can know for sure.'

I looked at the dark night sky through the window. 'It is getting late… It is better if I go back to that room for now.'

I was laying on the floor, trying to sleep. But after all that happened tonight, it was hard for me to calm down and sleep.

First, for some reason that I still don't know, Prince Noah wants always to have meals with me. And, to things get worst, he decided that he wants me to be his personal servant now

"Should I really go with it? Becoming his personal servant would be too troublesome… But, it can have some benefits. Like, the biggest one would be that, maybe if I become his personal servant I will also get paid!" I realized, excited.

Money is my biggest problem, for now, it is one of the reasons that stop me from running away from this place. If working for Prince Noah I will get paid, then in a few years maybe I will have at least enough money to support myself for a few months after leaving the palace.

'And as an official servant, I can have meals with the other servants as well, besides having to eat leftovers… Though, thanks to Prince Noah I didn't have to do this for a while now.' I realized.

"But what about Dylan? He threatened me earlier, if I commit any mistakes as Noah's personal servant, what will Prince Dylan do to me?" I asked myself, scared.

I sighed. 'So many things have happened to me today. If it was just the princes I would be fine, but now that I saw Lena talking to that nobleman back then, what should I do?'

The man said that Lena have three days to find me or else he will kill Lena.

"Will he really kill her?" I asked myself.

But then, I remembered that man's eyes, cold and emotionless while he was suffocating Lena. "...I think he wasn't just bluffing. He seems to be a person capable to kill someone without any remorse."

These thoughts gave me chills. "I hope he is not my father. Even the King seems to be nicer than that man."

I sighed, hopeless. 'I just hope that nothing bad happens tomorrow.'

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