Chapter Twenty Five

'Did I fall asleep?' I asked myself, confused.

"I-I am sorry for my ruddiness! I didn't know you were a royal." The boy said bowing to me.

"Royal…?" I asked, confused.

Then I realized what just happened. I wasn't using my magic anymore.

'Shit.'

I looked at the boy in front of me, he was still bowing and trembling, nervous.

Looking at his vests I noticed that it is the same clothing I saw some boys using in the training ground earlier.

'Then is he a page?' I asked myself.

Pages are young boys that are training to become a knight one day. But, for a boy his age to be training here in the palace he must be from a low-class noble family, then.

In this world, it is pretty rare for nobles from upper-class families to send their children to be a knight.

And the peasants that train to serve the kingdom as a knight, they don't train here in the palace, they are just sent here when they are adults already.

'Being a child that is taught since early ages to obey and serve the royal family, it is no surprise that he is so nervous right now.' I realized, noticing how much he was trembling.

I cleared my throat and said trying to calm the boy. "You may raise. It is fine, I am not mad."

The boy raised and looked at me, still nervous. "I-I am really sorry, my lord. I didn't want to disturb you."

'My lord? Oh, true he thinks I am a royal.' I realized, embarrassed.

"Don't worry, you actually made me a favor." I said, trying to calm him.

'If it wasn't him waking me up it would be the doctor seeing me, and I don't even want to think what would happen to me.' I realized.

The boy looked at me confused but said nothing.

'I should just go before someone comes.' I thought.

I got out of bed, but then I saw that the boy had a bandage on his right arm and that there was a lot of blood coming out of it.

"Oh my God, you are hurt!" I said, surprised.

He tried to hide from my sight his arm placing it behind his back. "It is nothing, my lord. It is just a small wound."

"Let me see it then." I said.

The boy reluctantly showed me his injured arm.

His clothes, hands, and face were dirty, probably from training in the training ground. So it was no surprise for me when I took off his bandage I saw that his wound wasn't just blooding a lot, but it was dirty as well.

'How could someone send a child here by himself with such a wound like that?' I asked myself, mad.

I went to the cabinets where I saw the doctor taking the medicine he gave me. But, first I took a chair to stand up on it so I could look inside of the cabinets.

"There must be alcohol or something like that here somewhere." I whispered to myself looking through the bottles in the cabinet.

"W-What are you doing, my lord?" The boy asked, confused, behind me.

I ignored him and continued to look into the cabinet. Then I saw a big bottle of glass with a transparent liquid inside.

I picked the bottle and opened it, then I felt the strong smell of alcohol coming from it.

'Yes, it is definitely alcohol.'

I got off the chair and looked for a clean cloth. When I found one I took it with me and then I said to the boy.

"Sit there." I said pointing to the bed I was laying before.

Hesitantly he did as I told him to.

"What is it, my lord?" The boy asked pointing to the bottle that I was holding.

"It is alcohol. I will use it to sterilize your wound, or else it will get infected." I explained.

"Ste...Sterilize? Infected?" The boy asked, looking at me confused.

I sighed.

'In this world, people don't know about these things? Or is it just because he is just a child so he doesn't know what these things mean?' I asked myself.

I held his arm and warned him. "Just hold tight… It might hurt."

Without waiting for his answer, I started to clean his wound using the alcohol.

Surprisingly, he didn't try to take his arm off of me, neither did he moan in pain. He just closed his eyes tightly and bit his lips.

When I was done I used the cloth to bandage him. Though I didn't even know how to do it, still I tried my best.

"For now I think this is good enough. I will have to go now. So, just wait here for the doctor to treat you. Alright?" I said.

The boy nodded and then he stood up and said. "Thank you for helping me, my lord. I swear I will repay you one day." Then he bowed respectfully.

"It is fine-" I was about to tell him that he wouldn't have to repay me when I heard someone getting close to the infirmary door and was opening it.

It was the doctor.

"Oh, you are awake. Usually, people sleep for hours after taking the medicine I gave to you." He said looking at me.

"W-W-What?!" The boy shouted, confused.

The doctor and I looked at him surprised, though I knew why he acted like that.

"Is everything alright, boy?" The doctor asked him, confused.

"M-My lord, you… How?" The boy said, confused, looking at me.

As soon as the door was opened, I quickly used my magic to change my appearance.

'He must be pretty confused now.' I thought.

I looked at the doctor and said. "Doctor, this boy here is injured. I tried to help him while you weren't around, but I think it is better if you help him."

The doctor noticed the boy's bandaged arm and said. "I see. Let me take a look at your wound, boy."

Since the doctor's attention was on the red-haired boy, I walked away, moving closer to the door.

"Then, I will leave now, doctor." I said.

"B-But, my lord!" The boy shouted, calling for me, confused.

"Please, don't call me 'lord'. I know that my vest may confuse you, but I am just a servant." I said, forcing a gentle smile.

I could see how confused the boy was. He didn't even know what to say.

"I will go now. Thank you doctor for treating me. Bye." I said and then I left, without waiting for the doctor's words.

I sighed, relieved, after leaving the room. 'I just hope he doesn't tell anyone about me.'

"But even if he tells I doubt anyone will ever believe him." I whispered, trying to calm myself.

A story about a royal boy suddenly changing his eyes and hair color is too surreal even for me.

I sighed, tired. 'It is better if I just go to my room for now. There is nothing much I can do about it anyway.'

When I woke up it was already dark outside. I had to use my magic so I could see the time on the clock in my room.

It was almost midnight.

Just as the doctor said, I was feeling too sleepy. As soon as I entered my room, I couldn't help but go to sleep.

But I couldn't stay like this for any longer since I just remembered that I had to meet Lena tonight.

Though, I know that I didn't tell exactly the time for us to meet, I am pretty sure that she is probably waiting for me for a while now.

'Well, it is not like I care if I made her wait or not.' I thought.

I was on my way to the northwest side, invisible. I passed through the guards and went directly to my old room. Before entering I became visible again, I didn't want to Lena discover that I could become invisible.

When I opened the door I was shocked to see that there was nothing in the room anymore, it was all empty.

The only thing in there was Lena standing in the middle of the room holding a lamp.

She was looking at me, she had a mix of feelings showing through her face. It seemed like she was relieved to see me but mad at the same time.

"I've been waiting for you for hours already." She said, mad.

I said nothing. I just closed the door and made sure that I was a few meters away from her, for my safety.

"Where is the money?" I asked.

Lena picked something on the ground closer to her. It was a bag of coins.

"It is here." She said and then threw the bag in my direction. The bag fell on the ground in front of me.

I picked the bag and opened it.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked after looking inside.

"...What do you mean?" Lena asked hesitantly.

"After everything you and the others stole, there is no way this is half of all the money you made sealing everything." I said looking at her, mad.

Lena was staring at me without saying anything.

Inside the bag, there were silver and copper coins, and just a few small gold coins. There is no way it is half of the money they made.

"I can be a child, but I am not stupid. You won't fool me. There is no deal between us anymore." I said, already turning my back, going to the door.

"I am sorry! Please, don't go, Alexander! I don't wanna die!" Lena cried.

When I looked at Lena she was kneeling, facing the floor.

"If you wanted my help, then why did you try to fool me?" I asked, mad.

"...I didn't want to fool you, Alexander. This is actually all the money that it is left." Lena explained. Then she looked at me, with tears falling through her face. "Please, I am begging you… Help me."

I looked at her, unsure. "How could this be all that is left?"

Lena was facing the floor when she said. "Most of the money was used to pay the guards so we could leave the palace and sell everything in the black market. What left from it was divided between me and the maids."

"So what? Even if you had paid half to the guards, there should still have a lot of money left. There were a lot of expensive and rare things here in the palace, you probably made millions of gold coins selling all those things. How could you even spend all that money already?" I asked, skeptic.

Lena looked at me with her wide eyes open, she raised from the ground, and then she shouted. "It is all because of you! It is all because you were born!"

"What… do you mean?"

"Since you were born I became a prisoner, being obliged to live all days of my life imprisoned here! It is all because the King wants to keep his bastard a secret!" Lena shouted.

I was shocked by Lena's words.

I knew pretty well that Lena and the maids weren't happy having to be locked in the northwest area just as I was. But, I thought that it was part of their job, so they had to do it, but it seems that they were forced to be here imprisoned with me.

"But, what about the guards? If you can suborn them to leave the palace to sell the palace things you stole, so why can't you pay them so you can just leave?" I asked.

Lena clicked her tongue.

"Tsk. Do you think if we could do it we wouldn't already have done it? The guards always send some of them to follow us whenever we leave the palace. And even if we paid them all the money we made selling the palace's things they would never let us escape from here... Not after what happened in the past."

"What are you talking about? What happened in the past?" I asked, confused.

Lena's mad expression faded away giving place to a melancholic one. "...After your mother died the King stopped coming here, and everything changed. The food, clothes, and everything else was stopped being delivered here from the main palace as much as it was before. Even our payment was reduced."

'They gave me plain clothes and horrible food because it was all they could give to me... So, it wasn't because they just hated me?' I realized, surprised.

"I don't think you remember but, there was a maid that also worked here in the past, her name was Sarah. Six years ago she managed to escape from the palace. One of the knights was her fiance, he escaped with her, and some of his friends helped them to escape… The last news we had from them, was that they were found in Sarah's hometown in the countryside with her family. Sarah, her fiance, and all her family were executed right there by the King's order."

Lena then looked at me in the eyes and said. "Klaus came here and told us what happened to Sarah and that it would happen the same with us and our family if we ever tried to escape. Even though we did nothing wrong we became prisoners here being forced to raise the King's bastard!

All we could do was to steal everything we could and sell it to send the money to our family, so they could buy some lands far away and run away from the King's sight!

Our plan was that even if we were caught and executed, our family would still have money and would be free from the King… But I don't wanna die, I still want to see my children one more time." Lena said with tears falling from her face.

I couldn't believe what I just heard. I've always hated them, but in the end, we were just the same. We are all victims of this situation that we have nothing to do with.

I was born as the King's bastard, and they were his servant. That is all.

'We were just… unlucky.'

I breathed deeply, and looking at Lena's eyes I said. "Forget about our deal."

"I-Is it because of the money!? I can… I can give you more, then! If you can just wait I will find a way to give you more money!" Lena said, desperate.

"No, it is not about the money. I just want to make a new deal with you." I explained.

"...What deal?" Lena asked, confused.

"Tonight I will help all of you to escape."