Journey to the Palace

The atmosphere was tense. Based on that, Arthur knew that the things Marget wanted to talk about weren't good.

He sat on the chair, gazing directly at Marget. Arthur could see how worried she looked, and it only increased his anxiety.

Marget's fingers tapped on the table. Both of them stood there without talking for some time.

"We need to rescue Jane," Marget said.

Arthur thought he had heard it wrong, but Marget kept her serious face, so it must be true.

He got up from his chair and said, "how? Weren't you supposed to protect her?"

"You don't understand. Sit."

There was no way Arthur would disobey her, so he did what she said. And he also wanted to know what happened, so blaming her beforehand was stupid.

"Things are not as simple as you think, Arthur,"

"Do you know Jane's true identity?" Marget said.

It was a weird question, yet Arthur had no answer. The only thing he knew about Jane was that she had a rare type of mana core and was a student of Frostpeak Academy.

"Never occurred to you why Jane is my apprentice? I mean, I'm far superior to all of the teachers here. That's why I'm the president of this academy."

"Isn't it because she's talented?" Arthur said.

"No, there's much more behind it."

With that, Marget started to explain what happened with Jane. And Arthur, of course, paid attention to all details.

"Jane is not only talented, but she's also part of the Royal Family,"

"There's strife going on with the Royal Family, and they called her back to the palace,"

"But the real problem was that she fled the palace before coming here. The king wouldn't allow her to learn magic, and she wanted that badly. And based on what she told me, her father is not the same anymore," Marget said.

"Wait a second. So you are telling me that Jane is a princess?" Arthur never even thought about that possibility.

"Yes. Anyway, the real problem lies with the king, Arthur. Jane said to me that he's different from when she was little as if he had turned into someone else. And not only her, but some influent people in the kingdom started to notice that too,"

"We need to rescue Jane from the palace, or she will never leave that place again."

Things got complicated once again. Jane is not only a princess but a princess on the run. Now that her father has her again, she will never leave the palace. And something was up with the king. Arthur had a bad feeling about that.

"But how are we going to do that?" Arthur said.

"Not we, but you. I pulled up some strings, and you're now a new chef for the Royal Family,"

"You'll come up with a plan to rescue her. The Royal Family will throw a feast next month, and it will be the perfect time to flee with her," Marget said.

"But the royal palace is probably filled with strong people. How can I escape with her without getting us killed?"

"You killed, right? There's no way they would kill their princess. Anyway, you are not alone. The day the feast will happen, Myria and Wisa will be there to help you," Marget said.

Arthur sighed in relief after hearing that both of his teachers would be helping him with the plan. But still, they would only help him with the escape. Arthur still needed an escaping plan and not to expose his identity.

"You will be leaving tomorrow. Prepare your things and be ready by the morning," said Marget.

~~~~

Arthur left the office without knowing what to do. It would be a dangerous mission, but he couldn't let Jane rot inside the palace. Marget also told him that if he managed to get some information about why the king had changed, he would get an extra reward.

Marget gave him his chef uniform and a book containing cooking recipes. The hardest part would be pretending to be a chef. Arthur knew how to cook back in his world, but now things were entirely different. He hoped that the recipes at least had some things in common.

On his way back to his dorm, Wisa passed by.

"Hello, my hardworking disciple. Marget talked to you about our little problem?"

"Yes, she did. How am I supposed to cook?"

"I'm sure you'll find a way to do that. Anyway, take this. It is an old sheath for your sword. If you arrive at the royal palace carrying a precious weapon, they will think you're suspicious, and that's not what we want," Wisa said.

The sheath was entirely different from the one Arthur had. It did not have any details on it, and by looking at the sheath, people would assume Arthur had a worthless iron sword.

A chef appearing with a sword felt strange for Arthur, but Wisa assured him that most people walked around carrying swords. And he would get a room inside the palace, so Arthur could store his sword there if people found it odd.

"Thanks, Wisa." Arthur bowed in respect to his teacher, and they both parted ways.

Arthur returned to his dorm and realized that he did not have many things to pack for the journey. Only a few pairs of clothes and some books. He packed everything inside an improvised backpack. It looked like a potato sack, to be honest.

There wasn't much he could do before the journey, so he lay on his bed and read a book about recipes. The one Marget gave him. The way people cooked in this world was the same, and only the ingredients were somewhat different. Arthur was much more confident after reading that.

~~~~

Night came, and for the first time since Arthur got to this world, he had to sleep alone. Jane was not there with her tired face after a day filled with practice. Maybe because he was her familiar, but a feeling of protection rose within. Arthur had to rescue her.

Arthur's night of sleep went badly. He was too anxious, rolling side-to-side on his bed, thinking about the next day.

Early in the morning, a man came knocking on his door. It was the first time Arthur saw another man inside Frostpeak. The man was the one who would drive him to the palace. He appeared early, so no other students saw someone leaving the academy. It was a secret mission, after all.

"You are the one Marget talked about, right? Let's go."

Arthur grabbed the things he packed the night before and left with the man. They would travel to the palace by carriage, and Arthur wondered if that would take a long time.

"The palace is not that far from here. But it will still take us three days to get there,"

"I'm Samuel, by the way," the man said.

"I'm Arthur. Guess we will talk a lot. There isn't much to do inside this carriage," Arthur said.

~~~~

For the first time, Arthur left the academy. A carriage was not as comfy as a plane, but Arthur felt happy to be able to explore this vast world. And it was a beautiful world.

There was green everywhere, and Arthur saw more animals than he had in his entire life. It was as if humans hadn't destroyed the world yet.

Arthur saw many marvelous landscapes, and that made the trip more satisfying. He also took the chance to read a lot. It took them three days to get to the palace, and that was enough for Arthur to read the entire cooking recipe book. He also read a few pages of the books Myria gave him.

They made a few stops to buy food. Marget gave Arthur money before they left, and it was more than enough to buy a lot of good food. When they were a day from arriving at the palace, they decided to stop at an inn on the road. Arthur slept inside the carriage, but Samuel drove two days straight without sleeping. He needed to recover some energy before getting back to the road.

Arthur loved the idea. Sleeping inside the carriage was in no way good, as it went up and down due to the bad road. It was not the most luxurious of inns, but it was far better than the carriage.

The price of the rooms was cheap, so Arthur rented two for them. It was a basic room with only a bed and a few pieces of furniture.

Arthur prepared himself to sleep, but suddenly someone knocked at his door, angrily.

"I did not offend anyone. Why is someone almost knocking on my door?" Arthur thought.

He opened the door and saw three muscular men angrily staring at him. They all had weapons, and it was clear that they weren't good people.

"You rented the last two rooms of this shitty inn. We need this room. Step out, or else you will have to deal with us," the man said.

They laughed when they saw how skinny Arthur looked compared to them.

"You want to fight with only three of you? That's a joke, right?"

"What did you say?"

They all unsheathed their weapons and wanted to rip Arthur into pieces.