Discovering the Truth (Francis POV)

I knew that this sparring was arranged to eliminate me. Since the emperor had interest in me, I became a clear thread to the Ashford family. So, they used the fact that I was bad at sword fighting. They wanted to show that I wasn't qualified to be the crown prince.

Before I entered the training ground, I drank a glass of water to relax my body a bit. When the host called me, I took my sword and entered the ground. I had to fight well and defeat Roosevelt for sure!

Once the sparring started, Roosevelt and I attacked each other. Roosevelt's move was so accurate and efficient, giving me a hard time to block his attack. But, I had to use all of my power, making sure that I won. If I could win this sparr, then everything would be easy for me.

After a few moments, I could feel that my body lost a lot of stamina. I felt dizzy and hard to focus. I never lost this much stamina everytime I practiced, so I guess I was poisoned. So, they really wanted to eliminate me.

If I force myself, then my life would be in danger. Even if I won this spar, if I couldn't survive this poison, then everything would be in vain. But if I gave up, I wouldn't get any good chance to show myself in front of many people like this.

'Slash…' Roosevelt scratched my left arm. I didn't see his sword for a second before then my arm injured. My arm was throbbing a lot and my focus also decreased.

Should I really give up here? But what would happen to my dream? No, I should survive and win this spar. I had to be the crown prince and achieve everything I had dreamt of.

I continued attacking Roosevelt with all of my strength, ignoring the throbbing at my arm. Because I wasn't in a completely good shape to fight, I had to finish it quickly.

'Clank… clank… tak' After a while, I finally managed to send Roosevelt's sword flying. I- I won this spar. I really was winning this spar.

When the host ended the spar, I returned back to my palace as fast as I could. When I entered my office, I dropped my body to the floor, followed by Noah who tried to catch my body. "Cough… cough…" I even start vomiting blood.

"Your highness!" Noah shouted in panic. He gave me a massage on my back, trying to help me to breathe properly. "Your highness, please control your breath."

"Cough… This poison… is stronger than usual... " I tried to explain.

Suddenly, someone entered my room in a hurry; Olivia entered my office. "Francis!" She shouted as she ran toward me. With a handkerchief in her hand, she knelt beside me, trying to help. "What happened to you so suddenly?!" Olivia, did you come just to check if I had died already or not?

A half an hour had passed and after struggling so much, I gained more strength to my body. I guess that time I could survive also thanks to my body that was immune to poison.

I raised my body, higher than Olivia's. "My body is immune to several poisons, so don't worry that much." I paused a bit. I still had to adjust my body; it was still weak. "But I guess you have to stop pretending..." I moved his body closer to her. "Charlize," I whispered right to her ear. "I know it was you who made me in this state."

Olivia was stunned. She couldn't say anything, as she realized I knew her secret. "How… How much do you know? How can you know it?" Her voice was trembling.

"I know you're Charlize. I know that you're the one who is poisoning me. But it's not important for you to know this fact. Do you have anything that you hide? Why are you betraying me? I'm just a prince who has nothing."

She was silent for a moment, then smiled, "Francis, you know, I do everything for you. I admit that I am poisoning you, not only once or twice, I do it many times. But I do it to make your body immune to poison. I can't tell every detail to you, because as you know, there's a lot of ears who hear our conversation."

She was right. My body was immune to poisons. I could survive the last poison also thanks to my body. But to retrust Olivia who had a lot of secrets was a hard thing. She could tell me everything when we were at the bookstore, but she hid everything from me instead.

"Do you want to know another secret of mine?" She continued. "Noah, the person who you killed that day was actually Francis' mom."

Noah, he killed my mother? Was that even possible? I looked at Noah to look at his reaction. His gaze was empty and his face was pale, as if he lost his soul.

"Do you know about this Noah? Is that true?"

Noah was still silent, with no words coming out from his mouth. His body was trembling so hard in fear.

Judging the way Olivia told us about this fact and Noah's reaction, I conclude that Noah didn't know that he killed my mom. It may be related to something in Noah's past that he never told. But, how could he kill someone without knowing the victim's identity?

"He doesn't know about it. He was just a kid who asked to kill someone, then ran." Olivia explained. "You can guess who asked him, right?"

Of course I knew. Who wanted my and my mother's life more than the Ashford family? Everything was finally connected. Noah worked for Olivia and Olivia worked for the Ashford family. But why couldn't I accept it?

"Both of you leave me alone!" Olivia and Noah left me alone as I asked.

I stood up and walked to my bed, then threw myself there. My mind was completely blank, I didn't know who to trust anymore. From three people I trusted, two of them were the same person and lied to me and the last one turned out to be my mother's killer.

Should I kill Noah? He killed my mother after all. But he didn't even know that he killed my mother, and it would be right if I blame the Ashford family for it. I didn't have a good proof for it too, so people would call me a murder. But, Noah still was a killer.

Not only Noah, I should deal with Olivia too. How should I deal with her? She came from the Whitley family and was backed by the Ashford family. She was a person that was hard to eliminate. People watched her every time, so it would be hard for me to deal with her.

The only way I could deal with this situation was ruining the Ashford family, exposing their misdeed. But to do that, I needed someone who could provide me information and the perfect person to do that was Olivia. But I wasn't sure if Olivia would help me or not.

What should I do then?

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Hi, I'm here with the new chapter.

Honestly, this chapter is a sad one for me, because Francis learned the truth. Even though he had learned it from Lydia, but still it is a sad thing for him.

This chapter also the hard one for me to write because I felt so sad for Francis to the point I didn't know how to write it.

Anyway, thank you for read this story this far! I love you all

Tell me if you have any ideas, theories or any thought. You can tell me at the comment.

And don't forget to vote this story with power stones because I will publish 1 extra chapter for every 20 power stones.

Thank you everyone and see you