Chapter Thirty Seven

The shapeshifter creatures are one of the most dangerous monsters as they disguise themselves as inoffensive animals to attract their prey, a lot of people die in the forests when they have the mischance to come across these creatures.

But, even though there are reports of these monsters shapeshifting into small children to trick humans, they are incapable of speaking and acting like humans, they are just beasts that have the mechanism of shapeshifting to defend themselves against predators and to hunt their prey, they aren't rational beings.

"I-I am a human, not a monster! Shapeshifters creatures aren't rational, they can't speak, how could I even be one?!" I shouted, scared, trying to convince him.

The boy looked at me knowing I had a point, but then his eyes were full of skepticism again.

"You can't be a human... I've never heard of a human shapeshifting their appearance like you did." He said holding my collar ever more firm, almost lifting me off the ground.

Then, he released one of his hands from my collar, and from his hand, a spike of ice appeared pointing to my neck.

'H-He is a water mage!' I realized, surprised.

Ice magic is a rare form of water magic, just a few water mages can use this magic.

"Give me a reason to not kill you right now." The boy said with a dark look on his face.

I tried to free myself, but the boy was too strong. The more I tried to move, the more he made the ice spike get near my neck, I could already feel the cold sharp edge touching my skin.

'He is not lying, he really intends to kill me! W-What should I do?' I thought, desperate.

"I-I am a royal!" I shouted, not just showing my true eye color, but also making light out of my hands.

The boy was shocked, he looked at me like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"You are… a light mage" He said, releasing me.

'The light magic is undeniable proof of my royal blood, there is no way he wouldn't believe it after seeing that.' I thought, changing my appearance back.

The boy suddenly knelt on the ground.

"I am deeply sorry, my lord! I thought you were a threat to the palace, that is why I treated you this shameful way… I accept any form of punishment, even death if this way I can deserve your forgiveness and clean my family name." He said with his head almost touching the ground, deeply asking for forgiveness.

"Please, raise I don't want to punish you, even less I want you dead." I said trying to calm him.

Unsure, the boy raised, then I noticed tears on his face.

"...I am sorry." He said trying to wipe his tears with his wrist.

'As a kid that was groomed to serve the royalty, I can't even imagine how he must be feeling right now after knowing that he tried to kill a royal.' I thought, pitying him.

I took a handkerchief from my pocket and gave it to the boy, that unsure took the handkerchief.

"T-Thank you, my lord." He said wiping his face with the handkerchief, he was crying a lot now.

'In the end, he is still just a child.' I realized.

I patted him on his head and said softly, trying to comfort him. "Everything is fine now, please don't cry… I know you were just trying to protect the palace. You did great, you were pretty brave."

'If he really believed I was a shapeshifter monster, and still tried to fight me on his own, he is indeed brave and loyal to the palace.' I realized.

The shapeshifter creatures are deadly and scary, their real form is like a giant and bestial humanoid creature. Even a well prepared adult avoid fighting against one alone.

The boy stopped crying, but suddenly he bowed and shouted. "Please, my lord, let me repay you! Ask me anything and I swear I will do it for you!"

I was surprised by his words, but I already knew what I wanted from him.

"Then, I want you to never tell anyone that I am a royal. I am just a servant that serves Prince Noah, no one must ever know otherwise. You must keep this secret, just between us." I said firmly, staring at the boy.

"In the name of the Earhart family, I swear to you I won't tell anyone that you are a royal, my lord." He swore, kneeling in front of me.

I was surprised that he didn't ask me my reasons to keep this a secret, or how I can change my appearance and why I serve Prince Noah, he just accepted my order with no questions.

'It must be the way "follow the orders and don't make questions" of the royal knights, huh.' I realized.

"Good, but please raise, and don't ever call me 'my lord' again. Remember, I am just a servant of the palace, so treat me like one." I explained.

"A-Alright, I'm sorry, my lor- I mean… Alex." He said all clumsy after he stopped kneeling in front of me.

I chuckled seeing him acting like that. "Yes, call me Alex from now on."

"Alex!"

Someone suddenly called my name, surprising me. It was Nicholas, he was coming toward us.

"What are you doing here, Nicholas?" I asked, surprised.

"You were alone too long… I mean, my match with Noah is over already, Noah wants to go back to the palace." Nicholas explained.

"I see, thanks to call me." I said.

'But why did Prince Noah tell Nicholas to call me and not one of his maids, though?' I thought, confused.

"It seems I have to go now, thank you for seeing me today." I said forcing a smile looking at the page boy, acting friendly.

He just nodded back, probably unsure how he should behave.

I was about to leave with Nicholas when he suddenly asked the other boy. "What is your name?"

"I am Theo Earhart, Baron of the Aston lands' first son." The boy introduced himself, bowing respectfully.

Nicholas stared at him for a while.

"You know, Alex is a dear friend of mine, so if something bad happens to him… There will be consequences, you know that, don't you, Theo?"

I was surprised by the cold expression on Nicholas's face when said that to Theo, I have never seen him like that before.

"Yes." Theo said bowing.

"Good. Let's go, Alex." Nicholas said holding my hand, then forcing me to go back, leaving Theo behind.

"W-Why did you say that to him?" I asked Nicholas, confused. He suddenly seemed mad at Theo.

Nicholas stopped walking and looked at me and he asked me.

"He is not your friend, is he, Alex?" Nicholas asked, surprising me.

I didn't answer him for a moment, surprised, and when I was about to lie, Nicholas interrupted me.

"I saw how he was looking at you when Noah and I stopped our match, it is not a look someone would have towards a friend. Also, your shirt is all messed up, and your neck is red… What did he do to you, Alex?" Nicholas asked, serious looking into my eyes.

"T-This is not what you think." I said trying to avoid his question, fixing my shirt.

"I understand if you don't want to tell me, but I wish it will not ever happen again." He said with a threatening look staring in the direction Theo was before.

But then he looked at me and held my hand.

"Alex, what do you think of becoming my servant and living with me in Durhan?" Nicholas asked looking into my eyes.

"...What?" I asked too surprised to say something else.

"I have been thinking about that since I arrived here in the palace, one of the reasons why I was looking for you was that I wanted to hire you to be my servant. Yesterday when I confronted Noah saying that I knew you were his servant and that you were locked in that room, I asked him for you to be my servant, but… It seems Noah got offended by my words, and then we started fighting." Nicholas explained.

'Is that why they didn't stop arguing this morning?' I realized.

"But I will not give up, you will come with me to Durhan!" Nicholas shouted, decided.

***

The time passed peacefully since Nicholas said those words to me. I thought he would try to argue with Prince Noah again, but he didn't, actually all this morning they were pretty friendly with each other.

After their match, Prince Noah and Nicholas had classes together with Prince Noah's tutor. There I saw how smart Nicholas is.

During all classes, it seemed like Nicholas and Prince Noah were disputing to see who could answer the tutor's questions more. And Nicholas in the end was the winner.

'Nicholas is pretty intelligent for his age. I have heard that Prince Noah is ahead of kids his age, then how much ahead is Nicholas?' I asked myself, curious.

Prince Noah can be better at swordsmanship, but it seems Nicholas is better academically.

'One is the brain and the other is the muscles… A good combination, indeed.' I thought chuckling looking at both of them.

I was following them together with the other servants to the dining room for their lunch since their morning classes were over.

But I was feeling a bit nervous knowing we were going to the dining room.

'Will Princess Isabel be there?' I thought, anxious.

I couldn't stop remembering the moment I saw Princess Isabel staring at me this morning.

'Why would she stare at me, though? Didn't I just misunderstand it?' I asked myself, trying to convince myself that I was wrong, that it was all a misunderstanding.

'But our eyes met that moment.' I thought, remembering when I raised my head and saw Princess Isabel staring at me.

"Alex, are you not going to sit with us?" Nicholas asked, taking me out of my thoughts.

I didn't even notice we were already in the dining room. Nicholas and Prince Noah were already in their seats, looking at me.

"...Won't Princess Isabel come? I think it would be better if I don't seat with you today." I said.

'I don't want to call her attention more than I already did.' I thought.

"Alex." Prince Noah called me.

"What, Your Highness?" I asked.

"Sit." He ordered, looking at me with threatening eyes.

"Y-Yes, Your Highness." I said, quickly giving in and seating by his side, as usual.

"Why did you sit by his side?" Nicholas asked me, frowning.

"Because he is my servant of course." Prince Noah said with a grin on his face.

'They are not going to fight again, are they?' I thought, worried.

"Wha-" I was about to change the subject when I was interrupted by Nicholas.

"Noah, I still want Alex to come with me to Durhan." Nicholas said, decided.

"Are you still talking about that? Alex is my servant and I won't let him go with you." Prince Noah said, annoyed.

"Alex I will pay three times what you earn if you come with me!" Nicholas suddenly said, surprising me.

"What?!" Prince Noah shouted surprised.

"This way there is no reason why would Alex not want to go to Durhan with me." Nicholas said looking at Prince Noah, with a grin on his face.

"...five." Prince Noah said low, I didn't hear him well.

"What do you mean, Your Highness?" I asked, confused.

"I will pay five times you earn for you to stay!" Prince Noah shouted, looking at me, mad.

"T-Then I pay you ten times more!" Nicholas said, surprising me.

'T-Ten times more?!' I thought, excited, but then I remembered, despondent. 'I am not paid, ten times of nothing is still nothing...'

Suddenly, Prince Noah said, surprising everyone. "I pay him twenty times more, then."

Nicholas gulped, probably realizing there was no way he would win a dispute against a prince using money. But then he looked at me and it seemed he had an idea.

"Money is not everything, Alex can still choose who he would prefer to work for, you or me." Nicholas said and then he looked at me smiling.

Prince Noah then stared at me too but frowning, he seemed nervous.

I didn't know what to say.

'I was thinking about leaving the palace, and living with Nicholas doesn't seem to be a bad option, but..'

I looked at Prince Noah, but he avoided my eyes and looked away.

"I think-" When I was about to answer that question I was interrupted by Prince Noah.

"This is not up to Alex." He said, with a grin on his face looking at Nicholas.

"What do you mean?" Nicholas asked, confused.

"It seems you don't know, but all servants have a contract, they can't leave the palace to work somewhere else before the contract ends." Prince Noah explained with a mocking smile on his face.

When Prince Noah said about contracts I remembered something important.

"Mary, shouldn't I have had to look for Mr. Williams since my punishment is already over?" I asked looking at Mary, worried, remembering the scary looks of Mr. Williams.

"Well, since Mr. Williams seems to be pretty busy with the management of the ceremony I don't think he would even have time to see you, Alex, so I think it's fine." Mary explained, comforting me.

"Why does Williams want to talk to Alex?" Prince Noah asked Mary, confused.

"Mr. Williams ordered Alex to see him, because…" Mary then seemed to realize something and stopped herself.

"Because of what?!" Prince Noah asked, impatient.

Mary didn't seem like she wanted to answer, but looking at annoyed Prince Noah's face, she realize she couldn't keep quiet.

"Because there was a problem with Alex's registration, and since Your Highness decided to make Alex your servant, then Mr. Williams said he should have classes with him before serving a noble,

just then he said Alex would be officially servant of the palace..."

There was a silence in the room after she said that. Prince Noah seemed surprised, but Nicholas seemed excited.

"Alex, then you can come with me!" Nicholas said breaking the silence, looking at me smiling.

Then, suddenly, Prince Noah slammed his both fists on the table and shouted. "Stop it!"

Before we could say anything, Prince Noah left his seat and run away, leaving the dining room.

"Your Highness!"