Chapter 281

Vorbuk was exhausted from the lack of mana as he burst out of the room and right into the hallway. Ashley and Aoki followed up behind him as he began to stride in the direction that Prince Leo had gone a while ago. It did not take long for Ashley to catch on to where his master wanted to go.

"Master~" Ashley smiled brightly as he tried to ease things over between the two of them more, "I believe he is hiding on the roof of the palace."

"The roof of the palace?" Vorbuk paused as he thought about it. It was possible considering it was the prince.

Ashley lightly tapped the tip of his nose with his fingertip, "Vampire, Master.~"

As a vampire, Ashley was able to sense things at a heightened level compared to regular mortals. His hearing and his sense of smell were both stronger then the average human. It was possible for Ashley to listen to the flow of blood from a person at a distance if he focused his senses on it. Therefore as long as he tried he could close his eyes and focus on locating a specific person within his master's palace grounds and pin point their general location.

Aoki could track just as easily if he wanted. The problem was that he did not have the attention span to track another unless he was hunting them down personally. Smaller tasks did not take his interest because he was not interested in trying to earn the favor of his master.

"Thank you." Vorbuk said without hesitation.

"Of course, master-!?!" Ashley was startled as his words were interrupted.

It was difficult to continue talking as he watched his master dive into the shadows and disappear before him. The moment that his master heard the location of the prince he had wasted no time in rushing off to find him. Traveling with the use of the shadows would make it much quicker to get there, as well as easier. He understood why his master chose to travel in that method. It was also easier to ditch the both of them.

Master should be going to the prince... Ashley thought to himself as he knew the location his master was intending to go. If he went there it would be possible to catch up with them. He could not allow his master to be unguarded even if it was within the palace grounds.

"Are you going after him?" Aoki asked from behind with no intention to follow after Vorbuk.

Ashley thought about it before answering with his own question that had been bothering him, "What did the Grand Duke Heket want from you?"

"What?" Aoki flinched at that question.

"If you do not want me to pry a bit further into your matters then you should at least pretend a little harder that you actually care about our master." Ashley spoke with a polite smile on his face that sent chills down Aoki's spine, "I might be blindly obedient to master's authority, but that's because his life is my top priority. Not yours."

Is he warning me to not do something stupid??! Aoki was baffled by Ashley's sudden aggression after Vorbuk had left the two of them alone.

"What? Hey! Wait!" Aoki shouted at Ashley as the vampire dashed off after their master alone. It was clear to him that Ashley was extremely uncomfortable allowing Vorbuk to be unprotected. How many dangerous things could really be in the palace? Indeed the palace for more royals was a very dangerous place. That was something he could not help but sigh for even questioning.

A palace really is one of the most dangerous. It was near impossible to be accustomed to living the life a palace could bring you. Aoki knew how it was personally from his own experience. Vorbuk's palace life was nothing like the one he had.

Aoki sighed deeply as he muttered to himself, "I will go find the Little Prince Chase."

Meanwhile on the roof of Theapan's Palace,

Prince Leo was quietly enjoying his time alone to clear his thoughts. He had heard a lot from Vorbuk. Much of it was something most average people would find crazy. It was a wonder how he was able to listen to everything the beast told him. There was just no way the prince wanted to ignore the things the beast told him.

For a long time he had already been questioning how the beast was so similar to any other mortal. The beast knew more then any average beast would understand about the world. Though at the same time he saw how ignorant Vorbuk could be about other things that would be considered common sense for people of this world.

"Leo!" Vorbuk's voice called out to the prince from behind.

The prince turned his head around to look at Vorbuk as he stepped out of the shadows. He was still maintaining his human form in order to take their conversation seriously. The exhaustion was already heavy and easily visible to Prince Leo. At the moment he wanted to shout at the beast.

"Are you crazy? Your starting to look like a walking corpse from the exhaustion..." The prince was frustrated but he knew better then to argue with Vorbuk over the matter. He was also too exhausted to complain about how desperate the beast seemed to be to come talk to him. Suddenly part of the tension he had been feeling while alone was swept away.

Vorbuk made his way over to the prince and sat down on the roof of the palace beside him, "Would you have forgave me if I had left you alone?"

"No." The prince answered honestly even if he felt his response made him sound petty. No matter how confused he felt about everything there was one thing that did not confuse him. The fact was he felt relieved to see the beast come after him.

"No hesitation?" Vorbuk did not expect the prince to respond so quickly.

Prince Leo chuckled and answered, "I guess I understand now about why you are so against becoming bound to someone."

"Are you angry that I hid it from you all this time?" Vorbuk asked him.

The prince thought about it for a long moment before answering honestly, "No. I do not think I can be angry about any of it because I can not blame you either. There are not many known throughout history to have experienced reincarnation. I have heard about a few though..."

"You knew of others?" Vorbuk recalled it was not his first time hearing about similar things. He also now had Sebastian in the palace and he had come from his original world as well.

It does not seem to happen often... but why does the god keep pulling souls to this world from another? Vorbuk could not understand what the god's intention was.

Enn!

Vorbuk felt his head throb painfully. Everything was starting to go blurry as his body seemed to reach its limit. Running too low on mana his body was beginning to faint. Collapsing sideways he found himself being caught by Prince Leo's arms. The prince was trying to steady him as he slowly collapsed onto his side.

Prince Leo held Vorbuk close as he kept his steady on the roof of the palace. Black smoke fading in and out around Vorbuk as his body shifted back into the form of a wolf as soon as his consciousness was lost.

Prince Leo sighed heavily, "You really do not want to give me a break do you?"

"I can take master." Ashley's voice suddenly rang out from behind the prince.

Prince Leo felt like he was going to jump out of his skin. Startled by the fact that Ashley could call out from behind him when there was no roof behind him.

Why were you climbing the palace trees just to spy on him?! Prince Leo felt his heart racing from the sudden startle he received.