1 Prologue: The Boy Who Mourned His Past Mistakes

Life's easy!

The two words I've said countless times since childhood had never felt so disgustingly immature to the point where it's actually giving me shivers...

...or maybe it's just the cold. Sitting outside in the middle of the night was not a good idea, especially with clothes this thin.

Regardless, I had a reason to sit there out in the open. Despite the cold, the air actually felt fresh here, and the sound of the water stream from a river just in front of me were relaxing. Another reason would be...the scenery.

A landscape filled with a lot of greenery, a giant waterfall, and an empire named after said stream of water which gave live to the empire; Waterfall Empire. The empire was lead by a king who resided in a castle located right in the middle of the empire. In a castle, where I used to live.

Being the son of the king, I always thought that everything would fall to their places. I always thought that my life would be easy no matter what, yet there I was, sitting outside in the middle of a grass field.

No, it wasn't because I was banished. To be honest, I wasn't even sure if my old man's still alive, as the castle had fallen to an opposing force. Supposedly, he had been taken hostage somewhere inside the castle, was what I heard from my personal butler...no, my best friend. We were forced to seek shelter outside of the empire to avoid unnecessary conflicts.

"Achoo!"

Oh man, the cold finally got me.

I looked back for a split second after I heard the grass behind me hustled. I thought I woke someone up, but to my relief it was an rabbit hopping away.

"...ahaha, sorry 'bout that."

I glanced back towards the landscape of the empire, towards the castle. A train of thoughts suddenly filled my head, a flow of nostalgia, and disgust.

Yeah, this is the life. Everything's easy!

That line again.

The line that came from the old and naïve me.

Even I couldn't believe that was me just a couple months ago...

Heh, I guess people were right. Everyone can change drastically when forced by situations.

Another grass hustle reached my ears. Multiple and gradually getting louder -- closer. I turned my head towards the source while showing a somewhat bitter smile.

"...was I that loud...?"

"I'm just a light sleeper. You know how easy I am to wake up."

"As expected from the top servant, and you're still eighteen too. You really are on guard, huh, Flow?"

"I can't really help it when that's how I was taught from childhood. So, what are you doing out here, Sly?"

Stopping his steps besides me, he looked at the same scenery. Seemingly reading my mind he started speaking,

"You can't take that off your mind?"

I kept silent. Honestly speaking, I didn't know what to say even if I wanted to.

After a brief silence I finally started speaking.

"...I can't even if I want to. I can't stop thinking about my old man. For the longest time I can remember I've been such an ungrateful brat taking everything for granted, yet before everything went downhill, he still wanted me to take over the throne."

I felt my right eye warming up. It even started getting blurry as I kept moving my mouth.

"I just want to apologize, but I don't even know if he's ali-"

"He is."

Flow interrupted me.

"Your majesty is alive, and he's inside that castle."

"How are you so sur-"

I wanted to retort but stopped myself after looking at his expression.

His was just as pained as mine. I realized he was also hiding his own pain from everyone else.

"...sorry."

"No need to apologize. I know you have it even harder, being the heir."

Once again I went silent. I wiped the one tear that managed to escaped and stood from where I sat.

"It doesn't really matter. Heir, butlers, maids, all of those don't matter now."

I walked 2 step forward, standing just at the edge of the river.

"We'll retake the castle, we have to."

I looked back to Flow with the biggest smile I could muster that night.

Flow responded with a small one of his own.

"Yeah."

After the exchange, I decided to sleep.

What I didn't realized was that, on that very night, someone else was listening from the tent.