Meeting Her

[Author's POV]

[Flashback]

Walking down to the basement, Kazech could feel how dark and crowded the interrogation room was. It was intentionally done to force the prisoner's mind to go mad and result in telling the truth. However, from what Kazech heard from his butler, even though those assassins were tortured until their bodies were covered in blood, they did not want to open their mouths and instead make fun of the soldier in charge of interrogating them.

He arrived at the entrance door of the basement. Two soldiers that guarded the door bowed down to welcome Kazech.

"Welcome, Your Highness."

One of the soldiers has a long scratch on his cheeks.

"What's wrong with your face?" Kazech blurted out and made the wounded soldier cover his right cheek quickly.

"I-It's nothing, Your Highness."

"Ah—one of the prisoners attack him using the chain on the handcuffs."

Kazech frowned at him. He then turned to the grate room that had been separated using metal bars. He saw two prisoners lying on the ground with blood covering their bodies. Even though they looked almost fainted from blood loss, those prisoners were eager to get up when they saw Kazech's arrival.

"Hoi, look who it is, Dude! The crown prince!"

"Huh, crown prince? Who is he?"

"You stupid! Of course, a crown prince is a crown prince. He must have a crown somewhere!"

"You said I'm stupid before, aren't you?"

"Of course you are!"

Kazech felt confused now. What are they fighting for? Did they still have the stamina to fight over an unimportant matter like that? Are they really fools?

He walked over to the bars and crouched down with holding the bars tight. Kazech's cold gaze landed on them. "Tell me, who sent you to attack the palace? Tell me who was the culprit behind this incident."

The prisoners looked at each other for a while before they burst into laughter.

"Buahahahaha! He said, 'who sent you here' with a flat face like that. Can you imagine it?"

"Yep. That was so funny, really. Huahahaha!"

"These damned prisoners. Your Highness, please back off and let us give them a lesson to shut their mouth—"

"No need. You can back off." Like George did at the meeting, Kazech lifted his right palm to stop the soldier from coming forward. He aligned his gaze with those prisoners and looked closely at them. From this distance, he could see something similar between them. There was a crescent moon tattoo on their neck. Is that their guild tattoo?

He ignored it now and put on a threatening expression before talking again. "I don't know your reason to act childish like this, but you must forget that no one of you could escape death punishment. Stop playing and tell me quick who is the mastermind behind the incident that ruined my brother's birthday banquet. If you want to cooperate with me, maybe I could help to change the death punishment into a lifetimes punishment."

Lie. Kazech lied.

He would not change the punishment or give them a penalty abatement. Not in the slightest bit. He used this trick to make them break down and willingly cooperate with Kazech. Almost all prisoner who knew that only death was waiting for them constantly changed their mind at the last minute.

"Pffft—you think we didn't know that?"

"Huh?"

"After receiving this mission, we have prepared to die. No—we both died even before we came to this place. If he didn't save us from the slums, we might never encounter this wonderful experience! Bombing down the palace! Boom! Wahahaha!"

"That's right! We don't even mind dying right now!" Both prisoners crawled forward and tried to release themselves from the handcuffs, making Kazech realize it was useless talking with them.

"Your Highness! They're so crazy! Please leave this place soon!"

Got up, Kazech heaved a sigh and walked out from the basement. He stopped at the entrance door and looked up the stairs that headed to the ground floor for a while. He looked like he was thinking about something.

'Saving them from the slums?'

Even though Kazech was unsure if that information helped find the main culprit, he still needed to ensure it. He must go to the slums and gather other information from there.

"Klein, prepare my disguised clothes with cloak and mask. I need to go out of the palace now." He walked on the palace corridor, followed by Klein, his private butler. Kazech must not waste even a minute. Who knew if the mastermind of this incident had been told by those prisoners now in the slums area and looked for another pion to start his new plan to attack the empire?

Klein, a man in his mid twenty, bowed down with his right hand on his left chest. "Yes, Your Highness."

***

It was the seventh day since Kazech went out from the palace to seek information about the culprit in the slums. In those days, Kazech has been in and out of the slums. He remembered all the passages and alleys there. Not infrequently, he also met with some gangsters or robbers, but he often met kids from the slums.

Kazech thought it was normal. Every person was born with different paths of fate. It is not like everyone could not become a king or become poor to share a destiny with each other. Some people need to fill the role of poor and rich. So, Kazech did not empathize with the child in the slums and passed on to them with flat emotion.

Moreover, currently, he needed to focus on finding the track of the mastermind told by those prisoners. Two days ago, he received news that those prisoners committed suicide, bit their tongues, and died from blood loss. It was a pity on them. Kazech needed to seek other information from them, such as where the exact point their boss met up with his subordinate or collected new pions.

"Hey, you! Take this and bring it to the place I've told you before! Don't you dare to drop it or lose it, understand? If you understand, now get lost!"

Kazech quick hide behind the alley's wall when hearing that suspicious conversation. He tried to look from the slit and found a young boy holding a red package in his hands.

That boy looked so dirty under his rag clothes. He was about Nath's age, but he was too skinny and looked so malnourished that he would get swayed by the wind or fall down when he took another step with his thin leg.

However, what made Kazech really surprised was the picture on that red package. It was the same crescent moon as on those dead prisoners' necks!

That silver-haired boy nodded and ran into another alley. Kazech was late to respond to his quick movement because he was thinking too long about the crescent moon picture. "Shit, I lose him."

He got out from the wall and tried to find the boy around there, but Kazech could not find him or the person that ordered him before.

"I must find him. I must."

Kazech tried to find him everywhere. He even got to the main road in case that boy was going there, but he did not find the boy either. However, he did not surrender and tried to seek the boy in the slums again. He checked every end of the alleys one by one when suddenly he heard a scream from beside him.

"MOVEEEEE!"

He turned his face and found two familiar faces. That was the boy who brought the red package! And … Portia?

Why would the first daughter of Palmerston's duke be in the slums, and why was she with the silver-haired boy? Kazech did not even finish his sentence on his mind when Portia charged at him at full speed and hit him hard until both of them fell to the ground together.

BRUGH!