23 What are you doing here?

As soon as the hallway inside the royal castle leading to the crown prince's chamber became deserted after the guards took off, Noah put out his smart move. He focussed on his duty first to make sure none of the guards was suddenly coming back to check on him.

But when a brief period passed by, courage started to mustered within his thumping heart as he gulped and looked around, putting aside his mop and bucket.

'Looks like those freaks have really gone for a break, huh? This is your chance, Noah!' He encouraged his fretful heart and checked his leather corset belt carefully again. No matter how hard it was, he didn't remove that silver dagger away from the pouch of his corset belt since he was determined to follow Kirin's advice till the end.

Indeed for him, the castle was a horrific maze with dangers surrounding him all around. That sharp silver dagger was only the mere defense he could opt for. Though he couldn't bring himself to touch the dagger, he couldn't help but regret as always, if he didn't have the aichmophobia, life wouldn't have been such a mess for him in this scary world.

Quickly without wasting a second, he dashed towards Crown Prince Xanthus's room with speedy footsteps. For a few minutes, he was awestruck by the majestic giant doors leading inside the room.

They were massively tall, approximately 10-15 feet, and made of pure gold. To his surprise, there wasn't a single doorknob on those massive doors but they were locked. No matter how many times he tried pushing them to open, it wasn't of any help.

Two big fierce-looking wolf heads were engraved with pure gold at the center of the doors. Moreover, those wolf heads were quite scary to look at which made Noah puzzled. Peering confused gazes all around, he started thinking of every possible way to get inside first.

"What kind of fuckin' door is this? How come a door doesn't even have any knob at least?" He scowled after a few vain attempts of push and pull, before throwing a loud kick on the door.

He ran his fingers to push his hairs above his forehead as he grew anxious, "Damn it! Those guards can come back at any moment now! If I don't get inside and get caught by them, my head will surely fly up in the air!

Fuck...What can I do to open this fucking door? Why won't you let me go inside!?" Controlled by immense frustration, Noah started pushing the door again to open inside but it was of no use. Those heavy metal doors won't even budge off, no matter how much strength he applied.

TAK! TAK! TAP! TAK!

When he had hoped things won't go worse than this, dreadful chills of horror ran down his spine as he heard the loud approaching sound of boots that echoed in the walls of the hallway. He became benumbed and frozen in shock as he turned around to glance with his spooked eyes.

This time, he didn't fail to realize either that the guards were already coming back!

"F-Fuck! No...I don't wanna die like this...P-Please...There must be some way to open this stupid door! Let me in, please! I beg of you!"

Panicking hard in fear, Noah almost reached the verge of sobbing as he started to shake those doors vigorously. Without finding any other way, he ran his hands aimlessly over those golden wolf heads but at that very moment, a strange phenomenon occurred!

As soon as his bandage-wrapped finger touched one of the wolf heads, suddenly the big dark eyes of the engraved figure started to glow bloody red in color! The moment it happened, all of a sudden, his wound started to bleed again soaking his bandage in blood.

Noah flinched in fear to watch the strange incident since there was no other way to cut open his wound after that old woman had bandaged him carefully. But for a second, it felt to him as if those monstrous wolf head figurines craved his blood!

After his bandage got drenched wet, suddenly a few drops of his warm blood fell on one of the wolf-heads and its glowing eerie red eyes reverted back to normal dark.

But this wasn't the end yet! A brilliant spark of yellow light flashed all around that door. Making a faint creaking noise, suddenly the door halves opened wider inside leaving Noah benumbed and frozen in shock!

The moment those ghostly doors opened wider, without wasting any second Noah swept inside in a rush. As he got in, the doors quickly closed on their own once again as if nothing had happened. He noticed the wound in his finger had also miraculously stopped bleeding as if those wolf-heads allowed him inside only after granting his blood!

This horrified eerie incident shuddered his body in cold chills, as he started panting heavily running out of breath. Facing his back against the giant door, he wiped off the cold sweat from his forehead. Moreover, he could hear the approaching sound of boots clearly outside which made him realize the guards had already returned back!

It was an extremely close call of danger.

After getting a grip over his thumping heart, he blew off a heavy air and glanced around him. The room was pretty dark without any lights on, which made him unable to get a proper grasp of his surrounding.

But suddenly, an unusual sight piqued his curiosity!

The windows inside the room were kept wide open. Along with dim rays of moonlight, a mild night breeze was wafting inside the room. But, he noticed something more like a thin scarf, tied along with the wind chimes hanging over the window. Making soft tingling noises, it was drifting with the wind.

Noah curiously walked straight towards the window since the sight of the scarf strangely pounded his heart in awe. As he reached closer, his ocean eyes rolled bigger in shock to find it was that exact same red scarf, which he had tossed at that golden-eyed strange man by side of the lake. He touched the scarf slowly to confirm it once again, but indeed it was the same!

"W-What...What is my red scarf doing here? I...I had given it to that naked pervert but how did it come here?" Baffled at the sight, he quivered on his own, knitting his brows.

CREAK!

But before he could utter a word, those ghostly doors suddenly opened again, making a sharp noise. Badly flinched, Noah turned around as his heart had stopped beating for a second in fear!

From the doorstep, a tall majestic figure dressed in an embellished royal robe walked inside the room with heavy footsteps. The moment that majestic figure appeared, all the lights in the room turned on in an instant, making Noah blinded for a second by the dazzling lights.

In a few seconds, he slowly opened his eyes but the sight ahead left him deadpanned in shock.

The mysterious figure who had appeared in the room was no one other than that exact golden-eyed man. But this time the only difference was that instead of his naked body, Noah saw him gloriously dressed in royal silk robes, giving off a majestic elegance around him.

Not only Noah, but Xanthus appeared equally occupied with shock with a jaw-dropped expression. His big golden eyes rolled in disbelief to watch that same person standing unexpectedly inside his chamber.

Coincidentally, he found Noah standing beside the same flaunting red scarf, that served as the only memory he could retain about their encounter.

As a brief, awkward baffled silence persisted between them, Noah squinted his orbs with disbelief at him.

Instead of fear, he muttered in confusion, "Y-You...N-Naked Pervert? W-What the hell are you doing h-here?"