4 Chapter 4 - The Odd-Eyed Boys

"Princess Mana! You're hurt!" the maid cried and rushed to Mana.

Mana was jolted out of her shock by her words and the pain in her hand hit her. "Oww," she groaned softly. Grabbing a naked blade with bare hands was not an advisable course of action, she thought ruefully. She hadn't thought to use her earth magic to shield her hand; she had acted on pure instinct when Liam and rushed towards the boys with his sword.

The maid quickly put some medicinal ointment on her injured hand and wrapped it securely. "We'll have Junior Physician Vale take a look at your hand once he returns," the maid said anxiously.

Mana hummed absently, her attention focused on the two boys.

"Are you really our young Princess Mana?" the older boy asked curiously. "Why are you dressed like normal people?"

"Royalty are normal people, too, you know. Just because we live in the palace doesn't mean we have to cover ourselves in gold and jewels all the time!" she retorted.

The older boy burst out laughing. The younger one smiled slightly.

"Who are you?" Mana asked, trying to keep her voice light and carefree, but carefully observing them.

The older boy looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, and his face was remarkably similar to King Jaren. In fact, if he stood next to the king in similar clothes, they would look exactly like a father and son pair. His hair was the exact same shade of a luxurious, chocolate brown as Mana herself – the hair that she had inherited from her late mother Queen Dora. He was almost as tall as King Jaren himself, and had a robust, muscular body. Even though he wore a peasant's clothes, he was clearly combat-trained.

But the oddest thing about him were his mismatched eyes. One eye was a brilliant shade of green, a replica of Jaren and Astra's emerald eyes. It even glowed similarly, so his earth magic potential should be as high as the royal family. His other eye was a fiery amber, as bright and powerful as that of Prince Mars they had just met.

Mana had learnt that her mother, Queen Dora, also had mismatched eyes, with one a bright amber showing her fire magic, and the other a luminous silver, showing her water magic.

How on earth could this boy be so similar to their family?

"The name is Jules, and I am a resident of Verdant Hills," the boy told Mana. "My grandmother is quite ill, so I was on my way to the capital city to look for Physician Kale. Our local doctor told us that only Physician Kale could cure her."

"What about your parents?" Mana asked. There was no mention of such a character called Jules in the original legend. However, since Mana's appearance had changed several things…perhaps this was one of those. A hypothesis began to form in Mana's mind.

The boy shrugged. "No idea. Never saw them. I was brought up by my grandmother and grandfather."

"I am heading to Verdant Hills myself. Physician Kale will be coming to see me in a few days. If it's ok with you, you can travel with me, and when he arrives, I'll ask him to take a look at your grandmother…? For now, Junior Physician Vale is travelling with us, perhaps he could help a bit, too," Mana offered.

Jules bowed gratefully. "That would be wonderful. Thank you, Princess."

Mana waved away his gratitude. "I should be thanking you for helping me," she said. Her instincts told her that she must not let these two boys go at any cost.

The older boy shook his head. "The princess also saved us from being beheaded by those that hooligan prince," he said, smiling. "You even got injured for our sake."

"Isn't the royal family supposed to protect its citizens?" Mana asked, smiling brightly. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you could have fought him off yourself." This boy somehow gave her a familiar feeling – just as King Jaren had reminded her of her own father, Jules reminded her of her own big brother.

Jules laughed. "But then I'd have injured a foreign prince, and his soldiers would have killed me on the spot," he said. "I'm a decent fighter, but I can't match fifty soldiers by myself."

"Well, you have a capable helper with you, don't you?" Mana asked. She inclined her head towards the other boy. "Is this your younger brother?" she asked Jules.

Jules shrugged. "I suppose you could say that," he replied casually.

They looked nothing alike. The younger boy looked about eleven or twelve. He was very thin and pale, as if he hadn't had enough to eat for a long time. His clothes were hardly better than rags, which had long lost their original colour. He was covered in half-healed bruises and scratches all over. He looked very weak, but given how accurately his stone had hit Prince Liam earlier, he surely wasn't a simple beggar. At the very least, he knew how to fight. His hair was a dark, inky black and fell around his thin face in curly waves, obscuring most of it. His eyes were even odder. They were a pale, pearlescent silver – so light that they were almost translucent. Such eyes indicated immensely powerful magic potential, so it was almost certain that he was a royal child – perhaps of the Pearl Kingdom. But why was he in such a pitiful condition in another country?

The younger boy finally spoke up. "Jules is too kind," he said softly. "I'm merely a poor refugee he saved a few days ago. My father is from the Pearl Kingdom, but I am an unwanted, bastard child, so I was thrown away."

"And…you mother…?" Mana asked. A wave of pity washed over her. The Pearl Kingdom was mostly controlled by the Sages of the Moon Temple, and the king was barely more than a figurehead. Besides, the royal family of the Pearl Kingdom were notoriously promiscuous, so it wouldn't be surprising if this boy indeed had some royal blood. Mana's maternal grandmother, too, had some royal blood of the Pearl Kingdom, even though she was a citizen of the Emerald Kingdom. Her maternal grandfather had been an aristocrat from the Amber Kingdom. Both of them had passed away much before Mana was born. The book had dismissed them in a single paragraph, mentioning their death in a fire accident.

The boy remained silent, his head lowered, while Mana was lost in her thoughts.

It was some time before Mana's mind returned to the present situation and she realised he didn't want to speak of his mother. Perhaps he had been abandoned by her as well. "Never mind," she said lightly. "Since Jules considers you his brother, we'll think of you as an honorary citizen of the Emerald Kingdom, all right? Why don't you come with us to Verdant Hills?"

The boy stared at Mana in shock. Something dark flashed in his eyes for a moment – so fast that Mana wondered if she had imagined it.

He held out his hand. "I'm Naver," he said with a shy smile. "Pleased to meet you, Princess Mana."

"Naver! The famous poison expert?!" Mana exclaimed, grabbing his hand excitedly. "I had no idea you were so young! You must be a heaven-defying genius!"

Naver blushed furiously and tried to extricate his hand from her grasp.

Mana wouldn't let him go, though. "Oh, just wait until Physician Kale sees you! That old man is going to be so shocked!" she said cheerfully. She lowered her voice. "Did you get his letter? About the Shadow Poison?"

Naver nodded, and then frowned. He turned his hand and rested his fingers on Mana's pulse point. His brow furrowed and he took her injured hand, examining both her hands carefully.

"It's you?" he whispered hoarsely.

Mana nodded. "Did Physician Kale give you the details?" she asked. "If not, I'll tell you all about it. Would you accompany us to Verdant Hills?"

"All right," Naver replied.

Mana looked around and found that all her people had arrived with the horses and the carriages. The maid by her side had already fetched Junior Physician Vale – a young man of twenty-five or so, and one of the most talented disciples of Physician Kale.

The doctor quickly checked Mana's injury and gave her a few pills. She made a face and swallowed them obediently. Healing magic didn't work too well on her, and Physician Kale had mentioned that it was an effect of the Shadow Poison. It was quite inconvenient, really. If anyone else got a cut or a scrape, a physician could heal them in seconds…but Mana, she had to heal slowly without magic.

She eyed Naver curiously. Could it be that he was the same as her? Was that why he was covered in injuries…? Was he poisoned, too?

"Naver, does healing magic work on you? Or do you need some ointments and pills like me?" she asked quietly, so that no one other than Junior Physician Vale could hear her.

Naver blinked. "I don't know," he muttered. "No one has ever tried to heal me. I usually don't get sick, and when I do, I recover on my own."

Mana was horrified. "Junior Physician Vale, could you please examine him?" she requested.

The physician obeyed wordlessly. He took Naver's hand and a green glow covered them both. An instant later, all of Naver's injuries disappeared!

"You also have some old internal injuries, which are beyond my capacity to heal," Junior Physician Vale told Naver. "I could give you a few pills to stabilise you, but please let my master check you when he visits."

"I'll make sure that he does," Mana said immediately.

Naver was staring at the fair, clear skin on his forearms, surprise written all over his pale face. "So this is how earth magic works…" he murmured to himself. He turned to Mana and Vale. "Thank you," he said gratefully.

Mana grinned at him and grabbed his hand again. "Come on, we'll sit in the carriage," she said, dragging him with her. "Jules! Come with us!"

With a grin, the older boy followed the two of them.