an illusion of mind

it is the third day of the survival test.

group 2 was sitting around a bonfire missing 2 members, one was Rica, and the other was Adam, rica was obviously in charge of food storage she had duties, however Adam? no one knew where he was.

while a few students ate grilled fish, others chatted amongst each other.

the prince was conversing with Arron, the two were on friendly terms now.

"do you commoners always live like this?" the prince asked, he was a sheltered one, he was always used to living a life of luxury, so his tone came off a bit rude.

"haha! no, no... that's not the case." Arron chuckled at the princes question.

"we live in normal houses, eat normal food... however some... aren't as lucky as others... they might end up as homeless, orphans, starved..." his expression turned visibly upset.

the prince had a look of sympathy on his face, "are you also one of them?"

"no, i was lucky enough to have food on the table, i don't have any parents though, i'm an orphan." Arron had never known who his parents were, he was abandoned on the side of the road randomly one day, and a priest found him there and decided to raise him, oh how grateful he was to mister ludwig...

if it wasn't for him, he wouldn't be where he was right now...

"you seem in deep thought, is something the matter?" Evan asked him breaking him out of his memories.

"o-oh it's nothing i was jus-" he was cut off by a panicked Rica, as she ran over to the prince.

"your highness! the food storage..." she huffed and puffed tiredly, she must have sprinted at full speed to get here as quick as possible.

"what about it?" the prince got up his expression stern.

"it's gone!" she yelled.

this caused many of the group members to pause, some gasped while others just stared at Rica.

"what?!" the prince yelled.

"i-it's just gone! i-i apologize your highness you gave me the job to run the storage now all the food is gone..." she said bowing.

Evan put a hand on her shoulder, "raise your head, it's not your fault, if it's just the food storage we can always hunt more later... what truly is the problem... is what this implies..."

"what does it imply?" Arron asked from the side a little dubious as to what the problem is.

"well first if the food is gone, there must be a culprit behind it, and that culprit is either a predator from the forest, or one of the other teams, or it's one of us..." the prince finished.

Arron tilted his head to the side confusedly, "why would it be one of us?" Arron asked.

"well first off, the goal of this test is to survive, right?" the prince said.

"yeah?" Arron said still confused.

"the instructor said it's only important to survive and not get eliminated, so what matters most to pass this test is to survive, weather it be with your team or without them..." the prince trailed off.

Arron raised an eyebrow, "so?"

"so if one of us, holds a personal grudge against our team, he could go ask for refuge from the other teams and help them by giving them information or helping them eliminate us from the inside." the prince finished.

"wait, wait..." Arron raised his hand.

"are you saying Adam might be the culprit?" he said, his voice raised a little higher than he meant it to, some of the group members heard him, and they turned their heads towards him.

and in perfect timing Adam just so happened to just arrive at the bonfire, he wasn't particularly close to any of the group members so no one knew where he went, all eyes turned to him when he arrived.

Adam paused feeling all the gazes fall on him.

"..." he stared as all heads turned to him glaring at him.

"...what?"

"hey, now! let's not do anything we might regret!" Adam said trying to defend himself, he was tied up to a palm tree in a sitting position, his hands were tied behind his back and onto the palm tree.

"shut up! this is what you get for sabotaging our food storage." a group member yells at him.

"what?! i didn't even go near the storage!" Adam spat back in an irritated tone.

he was just taking a stroll in the forest and now he's back, branded as a traitor? he gritted his teeth and glared at the group.

"what are you glaring at huh? did you forget this is an island? not your home territory? where you can do whatever you want?" a student said.

"oops~ you forgot silly~ he's disowned~" a girl said punching the guy's shoulder playfully.

Adam just stared at them, coldly, he might have had a bad temper, but he was not an idiot, no... he was anything but that...

then the other students joined in the group and surrounded Adam, the prince came forward staring down at him sternly.

"I knew you were on bad terms with the class, but i never thought you'd betray us..." the prince said his tone cold and calculating.

"I didn't betray anybody..." Adam said, he didn't have any evidence to backup his claim, he could only grit his teeth and let the accusations fall on him.

"you stole from the food storage, and you gave it to another group, we already caught you, so spill it." he glared at Adam intimidatingly.

Adam could do nothing but bite his tongue, if he kept talking he'd get nowhere, he was familiar with this type of scenario, it happened to him once, and it cost him his title...

he knew these types of people will not change their mind no matter what, once the masses deem you in the wrong, you are in the wrong that's just how it is, and he was outnumbered 1 to 9, he decided to not say anything he would just waste energy trying to change their mind.

Adam's silence made David even more mad, "what? you think you're too good to talk with us?" he crouched down next to him.

"..."

"you think you're better than us? huh?" David was about to hit him before the prince put a hand on his shoulder, and he reluctantly pulled his hand back.

"bastard..." he spat before backing away.

"..." Adam remained silent despite everyone ganging up on him, he had a smirk on his face, he wasn't about to lay down and let them do as they please, he'd at least piss off a couple of them.

David had a vein popping in his forehead from anger but he held himself back.

"... Adam you better answer, or we'll leave you here for the rest of the night." the prince said his tone cold and stern.

"I have nothing to say to you." Adam replied.

"what's going on?" a feminine voice was heard in the group, the prince turned and there he saw Regina, snacking on a grilled fish.

"Adam stole from the food storage." the prince replied.

"oh, really? haha!" Regina chuckled.

great, now she's here, Adam gritted his teeth.

"but I find it a little idiotic to jump to conclusions eh~ don't you agree your highness?" Regina said patting Evan's back.

everyone looked at Regina as she made her way through the crowd, she stood next to Adam the grilled fish still in her hand and she faced the crowd.

"you guys are kind of stupid for just branding him the traitor without any evidence." Regina said smiling as she took a bite of the fish.

"what do you mean? he was the only one gone when the food storage disappeared!" a student said from the side.

Regina stared at him as if he was stupid, "so? that doesn't mean anything, he could have been anywhere." she said shrugging her shoulders.

"we all know how Adam's personality is, it's obvious it's him!" another student said from the side.

"wait why are you defending him?!" David spoke glaring at Regina, "are you also a traitor?!" he yelled angrily.

Regina just broke out into laughter at David's accusations, "do you actually hear yourself?" she said breathing in as she continued laughing.

Regina's laughter quietened as she wiped a tear from her eye, she took a step towards him and spoke, "what evidence do you have~?"

David scoffed "you're defending the traitor of course your his ally."

"no, what evidence do you have against him to brand him a ~traitor~" Regina spoke in a mocking tone.

"tha-" but he couldn't come up with anything other than him being gone at the same time the incident happened.

"see~ you have nothing~ so let's untie this guy and let's not do anything stupid for once." Regina said gesturing at Adam.

Regina pulled out a dagger and slashed the ropes tying up Adam, who was bewildered and stunned that Regina out of all people would defend him.

Regina just pointed accusatorily at all the students "you never even considered another possibility, like the other groups sabotaging us, or a wild animal stealing our food which is the most likely scenario, you just jumped to conclusions and blamed Adam for your lack in security for the storage." Regina called them out, her eyes lingering on the prince especially.

"and you, what kind of prince just assumes their comrade is a traitor?" she said her eyes boring at him, the students just gasped their faces blanching as she called out the prince, no one expected her to even speak about the imperial prince like that let alone right in front of him.

the prince's face darkened as he remained silent.

"you got nothing to say?" she spoke her tone amused.

"..." the prince clenched his fists before letting go and relaxing he looked up at Regina, "you are right, and I apologize for my mistake..." he said bowing his head slightly.

this caused the eyes of the students to almost pop out of their sockets, as Regina just grinned at this, "apologize to him, not me." Regina said gesturing at Adam.

Adam just looked up now standing up on his feet, he was on the shorter side, but he was still a head taller than Regina.

the prince apologized to him, and he just stared down at the prince, "I don't accept your apology..." he looked at the group in disdain.

"y-you bastard... the prince apologized to a bastard like you, so accept his apology you-" he couldn't finish as the prince held up his hand.

Adam just turned away huffing and walked into the night.

"..." the atmosphere was too awkward for anyone to speak.

"I'm gonna go after him~" Regina said cheerfully almost like nothing happened as she skipped away humming to herself.

"..." everyone just stared at her, going after Adam.