Chapter Ten

I picked the letters, there were three of them. When I opened one of the letters I confirmed my thoughts. It was all from Nicholas.

"Are you mad at me, Alex?

I see that you didn't come to see me today again. Did I make you waiting for too long that day?

I'm sorry, I tried to tell you that I couldn't see you that day because Noah apologized to me for our fight, then he wanted to stay with me all day.

Since the last time, Noah saw you he got mad, I thought it would be better to not make you both see each other again, at least for a while.

So I wrote you a letter explaining all of it and ordered my maid to send the letter to you in the garden, where we met before. But, later I discovered that she didn't send you the letter on purpose. She said that it is not good for me to be friends with a servant like you.

But, don't worry, Alex. I don't care if you are a servant or not I still want to be friends with you.

I have already punished her for what she did. It won't happen again, I promise.

I will visit here tomorrow again. I hope that I will meet you soon.

Nicholas."

"...Nicholas tried to send me a letter that day."' I said surprised.

He tried, but the maid decided to not send me the letter. Well, the maid that served us yesterday didn't hide her surprise when he saw me with Nicholas. Just as I thought, it is not that common for nobles to be friends with peasants, even more servants.

So, in the end, it was all a misunderstanding. It was just me taking conclusions too soon. I could feel my cheeks getting hot because of my embarrassment.

'I am the older here, yet I acted like a little kid.' I thought, embarrassed.

Trying to not think about it too much, I quickly started reading the other letters.

"It has been already three days, and I still didn't see you again.

Are you still mad at me? Or is that something else?

Did something happen to you? Is that why you can't come here?

I noticed now that I should have asked you before where you worked. I have tried to look for you in the main area, but I couldn't find you there.

I hope that nothing bad had happened to you. I will still be waiting for you here. I hope you come soon, Alex.

Nicholas."

Nicholas tried to look for me, but all I did was be hiding from him. Reading his letters just made my conscience got heavier and heavier.

"Today is the last day of my stay here at the palace.

I wished I could see you before I left, Alex. But it didn't happen.

It will take me some time to come here to the palace again. I hope you find these letters before then. If you do, please wait for me, Alex. I promise I will find you next time.

Nicholas."

The last letter was the shortest but made me feel devasted. Nicholas has been trying to see me all those days, and now he is gone. And I don't even know when I can see him again.

'I am the worse.' I thought, guilt looking at Nicholas's letters.

"...I need to apologize to Nicholas next time I see him.'"

From that day on, I passed by the three every day, before I went to the royal library and on my way back to my room. I always passed there hoping that I would see Nicholas waiting for me.

It has been a month already. And I still didn't see Nicholas.

Like always, my whole day I passed reading books at the royal library. I have studied more in this world than in my past life. If I studied this much in my past life as I do now my grades would be excellent.

'How things are going, it's easier for me to become an academic than an adventurer in the future…' I thought frustrated.

Though I like to study, and I know it is pretty useful to learning everything I can about this world, I still want to learn skills that will be more useful when I become an adventurer.

Like swordsmanship, or archery, and even fighting skills. It would be pretty useful if I learned all that before I become an adventurer.

Once I visited the royal knights' training ground. It was so cool watching them training. It would be nice if I could train like them.

But, all I can do now is reading. And that's what I do. Though, that is not the only reason. Reading calms me, makes me forget about my problems, and gives me the fake sensation that I'm doing something useful.

If I stayed in the northwest area every day, without being able to leave there, and all I could do was to read the same books over and over again, I would be crazy by now.

At least, even if I stayed in the northwest area, I would barely see Lena and the maids, they seem to be doing things more important than their job, that is, well, serving me.

Though I like that they don't stay around me harassing me as they used to, still, it started to concern me now.

I don't know since when that started, but a few days ago I noticed that things have been disappearing in the northwest area, like expensive and luxurious things. Decorative vases, paintings, and even books.

One night, when I arrived late at night in the northwest area, I saw two of my maids getting in through the guards in the back door. The maids gave them a small bag of coins before getting in.

I knew that something wrong was happening. Only Lena has permission to leave the northwest area, the guards forbid anyone else from leaving. At least, that was how things were supposed to be.

I already know that the guards are here so I can't leave, but it is not just me, the maids as well. That is all so the King can keep his secret, that is me, hiding from everyone.

I don't know why he permits Lena to leave the northwest area, but I believe that Lena has some important tasks to do for him, and he knows that, if some rumors about the King having a bastard living in the northwest area appear, it would probably be Lena's fault. So Lena wouldn't tell people about me so carelessly.

But, now there are guards letting maids leave the northwest area, and they are getting paid for that.

It has been some time since I noticed that there were many things that were supposed to be in the northwest area, wasn't there anymore. But I didn't know why.

Now I know that the maids were probably selling everything they could, bit by bit. And they were paying the guards, so they could leave the palace to sell those things.

Well, the King never comes to the northwest area, and there is plenty of expensive things there with no one guarding them.

So, it's not hard to think how the maids could do that, selling royal property. They are locked in the northwest area, to keep the King's secret. When the maids noticed that no one would care if somethings disappeared, they took advantage of that.

'At least I hope no one discovers that.' I thought, concerned.

I don't know what may happen if the King discovers what they are doing. What if he takes out his anger on me as well?

Killing all the maids and me at once would be the fastest way to deal with all of it.

'If something happens to me because of them, I will kill them myself.' I thought, mad.

If after all my efforts to live I end up dying because of them, I won't hold myself. I've never used my magic to hurt anyone, but I'm pretty sure that I can at least kill those wicked women.

I sighed, hopeless. 'There is nothing good thinking about it.'

The sun was almost down when I decided to leave the royal library. Since I found Nicholas's letters, I walk around the palace in my disguise again. It is easier this way, I get less tired than being invisible.

'And this way Nicholas can easily find me.' I thought.

Today, again, I was on my way to see the three before going back to my room. I know I probably won't find Nicholas there, but it became kind of a habit to me now.

"Is that…!"

From afar I saw a boy standing there.

"Nicholas!" I called him while running towards him.

When I got close he turned around looking at me, and then I noticed that it wasn't Nicholas.

It was my half-brother, Prince Noah.