Pretending To Be Gilead's Prince and Master Wizard

{This is the start of the author dedicating chapters to its readers. And for today, I would like to dedicate this chapter to Dark_Void_Eater for giving me your daily power stones. Your votes motivate me more to write and stock more chapters for my upcoming MGS. :D )

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I looked as surprised as Maggie is right now the moment we heard what our friend Ariella had said about Alex.

Well, I know that lad is a jerk alright. But a coward?

"W-what do you mean, Ariella?" I asked, confusion and curiosity is visible in my tone right now.

Ariella faced me with a serious expression all over his face.

"Have you heard about the War in Sodor?"

Huh? War in Sodor?

"Uh, n-no. W-why do you ask all of a sudden?" My forehead creased with her sudden question.

First of all, I hate the subject History.

"When Gilead was faced with a great threat from its enemy country Sodor, a war broke out between those two in the borders of these two countries. Captain Alex was the newly-appointed captain of the Magic Army that time, and…."

I saw tears start swelling in the corner of our friend's eyes as she narrates the past events between these two countries.

We immediately looked for a bench where our friend could sit down and I offered my clean white hanky to her which she gladly accepted.

I heard her sobbed a few times and choking back her tears before she proceeded with her story.

"...and many have been reported dead from his troops-- including my childhood friend Peter. Only Captain Alex was able to survive the war, which is quite odd for me and for others. Some said that he hid and left his army dying amidst the war that's why he survived on his own."

My eyes widened upon hearing her story. I know Alex could be a jerk sometimes, and also heartless towards others, but I never thought he could do something as horrible as that.

I may not know the whole story yet, but I know for myself that Alex would never do such a thing to his people. I'm sure he wouldn't turn his back to those in need.

"My childhood friend was super excited for his first fight, and was so reassured when he knew that Captain Alex would be the one leading the army… but then…" she sobbed once again while rubbing the tears away using my hanky..

"But then he ended up dying… because of him." she continued.

"I-I'm sure there's also a story behind all that. We couldn't just trust the rumors, right?" I chimed in, rubbing the back of my neck.

Wait, why am I doing this for that jerk?

"Even so, no one knew the truth but Captain Alex himself. But since then, he never talked about it nor spilled us the truth that we deserved to know. For that, I hate him."

My eyes landed on the girl talking, and I can clearly see the hatred in those pairs of eyes. I knew at that moment I had to do something… to clear things in the past.

"If you want, I could do something to get the truth from him?" I declared all of a sudden, but then I immediately regretted saying it out loud.

Geez! Me and my big mouth indeed!

The look on Ariella's face was replaced with confusion as she turned to look at me. Maggie's face says the same thing.

"And how would you do that?" she asked.

I tried to smile as widely as I could. "Well, trust me. I have my resources."

It's a good thing Maggie and Ariella didn't ask any more questions about that, and we all went home by five in the afternoon.

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As soon as I went home at the castle after Lucas picked me up outside the mini door, as usual, they made me dressed as the prince immediately.

When I was soon finished dressing up, I immediately went to the prince's office where my mentors: Lancelot, Alex, and Lucas are waiting for me.

For the first time, I didn't hear any complaints from Alex when I went inside the office. Usually, he would scowl at me for being late for a minute or two. But now… I wonder if he suddenly decided to be way nicer to me.

After my table manners session, speech improvement, and fencing session with Lancelot and Lucas, it's already time for me to have my usual magic training session with Alex. But I couldn't just concentrate on doing my spells because something is bugging me from the start.

And I bet Alex has noticed it as well, since I saw him crossing his arms over his chest with his eyebrows drawn together.

"Stop." he finally said, then I immediately stopped from what I was doing.

"Is there a problem, Krisella? Why are you so out of focus right now?" he asked in his pissed tone, his face reeking of evil right now.

"I-I wanted to ask you something," I said, not meeting his gaze.

He clicked his tongue. "I knew it."

I only lifted my eyes to meet his gaze for a split second, but afterwards looked back at the floor once again.

"Alright then. What is it?"

I can't help but swallow this invisible lump that is starting to form on my throat. Now that he is asking about it, I can't seem to bring myself to ask him about the thing that my friend Ariella had mentioned a while ago.

And I did promise her to know the truth from this guy, didn't I?

"I-I was just wondering, what really happened during the War in Sodor?"

That question of mine brought a really heavy and awkward silence in the room. I turned my head to look at Lancelot and Lucas, who were standing in the corner to observe our training, and they looked at me as if I just dropped an invisible bomb towards my own death.

Then I turned to glance over Alex, and I'm sure I saw his face darkened.

Gulp!

"Why do you ask?" he asked back in a subtle voice.

Silence…. I wasn't able to answer that.

"I said, why do you ask?!" I instantly flinched when he raised his voice all of a sudden.

"Alex…" Lancelot called out, but the lad didn't look at him.

"I expect no one, especially you who knows nothing about it, brought up this topic ever again! Do you understand?" His eyes narrowed when I met his gaze one more time.

I tried to fight back tears as I nodded.

Without uttering any other word, he immediately left the office after that heavy and awkward conversation I had with him.