With a grin, the cloaked lady asked me, “What is red, juicy, and sweet?”
If the answer to the question is the one I’m thinking of then her question was easier than I thought. I assumed she would’ve asked me about something involving a location of some sort that I’ve never heard of.
“It’s an apple.” I said.
“Correct, you are. You two can have your princess back.” The cloaked lady said while pushing the princess towards us.
The princess ran towards my sister and me in a fast paced manner and stayed right next to my sister.
“Tell me, is this the last time we’ll have to see you?” I asked the cloaked lady.
“That’s an interesting question coming from you. Who knows, I might return someday again to take the princess again. On an unrelated note, you can have this.” Said the cloaked female as she threw a tiny cube at me.
I caught the cube and took a closer look at it. It seemed to be just a cube painted in the color gray, which made me pretty suspicious of the cube.
“Don’t lose that cube, it’ll be important if you want to do anything with it. And I mean only you. I’ll be taking my farewell now.” Said the cloaked lady as she went into a sprinting position and darted away.
Why’d I just let her run away? In fact, why did nobody try to stop her? Were we too scared of what she could do next?
That was probably it. More importantly, I wonder what this cube does. It doesn’t seem harmful to hold so I’ll carry it with me.
“Let’s get going now.” I said to direct Fuenia and the princess to follow me.
We walked back to the carriage since it seemed like me and Fuenia still remembered the way back. And when we soon arrived to the carriage, the driver gave a huge sigh of relief when he saw the princess. I opened the door to the carriage for my sister and the princess to get in and I joined in after them.
“You can start driving now.” I told the driver as he waved back to me to signify that he understood me. The carriage started moving and we were now off on our way back to the Afure Castle. I could probably get some good sleep just like I did when we heading to this meadow.
As I started to close my eyes, the princess began to speak.
“Thanks.” She said.
My sister was already asleep but I guess it was unnecessary to wake her up for some small talk between me and the princess.
“You’re welcome.” I said.
“That girl was odd you know. I woke up in my bed and when I went to stand up, she was already there. She also flashed some white light in my eye that knocked me out.”
I’ll give credit where it’s due and say that the cloaked female is talented. Not only was she able to infiltrate the Afure Castle, which was the most well-known and guarded castle in Golcon, but she also did it without anyone knowing she was in the castle. The cherry on top was the fact that she also managed to kidnap the princess too. I expected nothing less from a person as skilled as her. Then again, I didn’t have any expectations in the beginning about her.
“Well, we can get this whole situation sorted with your dad. Do you have any ideas about why she would give me this cube?” I said as I opened my hands to show the cube to her.
“Not a clue, I woke up and saw her just standing on a boulder. Realizing that I was handcuffed to her, I asked what she was doing and she told me that she was just waiting for the right time. Then she grabbed me and ran swiftly to somewhere.”
“Did you try attacking her or anything like that while you were handcuffed?”
“Not at all. I was afraid something bad might happen to the people of Golcon if I tried something. Someone as skilled as her that could infiltrate the castle without anyone knowing is an extremely dangerous person, so I decided to just keep my mouth shut.” Said the princess.
I nodded in an understanding motion and was about to close my eyes before I saw that the princess seemed like she was going to speak again.
“I’ve also been wondering what the answer to that first question towards your sister was.” Asked the princess.
“That’s pretty simple. The answer was me.” I replied back.
----------------------------------------
I awoke to the sight of the castle nearby. Next to me were my sister and the princess, both of which were sleeping. We soon arrived at the front of the castle, just like how I and my sister arrived at the castle, and saw my mom and the king there. After noticing us, my mom and the king both perked up, most likely excited to know that the princess had returned safely. I opened the door to the carriage and it was apparently loud enough to wake both my sister and the princess.
Stepping out of the carriage was probably the best thing I’ve done all day.
My sister and the princess shortly followed my lead and stepped out of the carriage as well. The king embraced his daughter in a hug before directing his attention to my sister and me.
“How’d you find her?” Asked the king.
“A person was holding her hostage for some reason. We don’t really know why but she also gave me a simple question to answer if I wanted the princess back.” I said.
“Hm. This situation is quite odd indeed. We’ll have our investigation team ask my daughter questions about it. Thank you for your help, both of you. My daughter couldn’t have been found without the help of you two. It seems odd that this person that held my daughter hostage was waiting for you two, but I’m sure that we’ll find an answer eventually.”
I nodded to show that I understood what the king was talking about.
“Is there any sort of description that you can give me about the person who took my daughter hostage?”
“They were a female and didn’t have an unpleasant voice” was the best information I could manage from my encounter with her.
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“I see. I can’t really work well off that information, which means that this person will have to be free from justice…”
“They also had a brown cloak that had a hood.” I spoke quickly to make sure the king knew that my memory was not useless.
“Is there anything else that could provide us some assistance in locating this female?”
I showed the cube that she had given me. I wonder why she gave it to me but this might be a major clue as to where she would be. The king took the cube from me and asked if it would be alright with him having it for a little while.
“Our analysts have to examine this object. We don’t know how dangerous this cube could be, but seeing how you managed to carry it all the way here without any side effects, I’d say it shouldn’t be too hard to analyze.” Explained the king.
My mom nudged the king right after he took my cube as if it was a signal that he forgot something.
“Your mom and I will take care of all the details about your adventure today. How about you go take a look around the castle with Zelia?” The king said.
It seemed like he was indicating that the princess would take me and my sister around the castle.
I followed the princess towards the castle and left my mom to sort out details probably relating to the money that we would get today. The castle seemed ginormous so my mom should have some time to visit around the castle with me and Fuenia. As I stepped into the castle, I took a deep breath and realized that I really was standing in the Afure Castle. In my whole life I would’ve never imagined this moment happening to me. It truly was a miracle.
And no one could tell me otherwise.
Sunday, June 15th
The tour of the castle was amazing just like I had thought it would be. There were a bunch of rooms all over the place for many different types of activates like eating or just lounging around. The higher parts of the castle were related towards more government like stuff since I imagine it would be a major pain to climb stairs in order to go and eat dinner with your family. After we spent most of the day there we went back home, and while it was disappointing to head back, it certainly was an event that I would remember for a while.
Now, there wasn’t hardly much to do around my house after being at the Afure Castle. It almost seemed like a disappointment to be back in my own home after seeing what the Afure Castle offered, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Bored. I’m in my room waiting for something to happen. I don’t know what Eraga is doing so I really am out of options to do anything today. I truly am in predicament right now. My mom is doing something and Fuenia is out with her friends doing whatever she normally does with them. I am truly lonely today.
“Zaikoto, get over here!” Shouted my mom.
It’s odd to think that my mom would be calling for me today but it didn’t matter. I finally have an excuse to do something productive. I rushed over to my mom quickly downstairs to see what she wanted.
I didn’t expect the king to be there with my mom. I had a bizarre look on my face as I saw the king because there shouldn’t be a reason at all for him being here.
“Zaikoto, glad to see you here. We have some things to talk about if you wouldn’t mind.” The king said.
Of course I wouldn’t mind since I’m talking to the king once again after yesterday. This is truly an odd situation.
“Sure… what do you want your highness?” I asked.
“There’s no need to call me any sort of royalty, you can just call me Phuon and my daughter Zelia. Now onto other matters, I have something of importance to ask you. Would you be willing to go an expedition with my daughter?”
An expedition? And with the king’s daughter?
“What do you mean expedition?”
“Err, it’s more like traveling. We found out that the cube you gave us wasn’t something from any of the lands here. It also has other properties that we wouldn’t ever think could be real.”
“Other properties?”
“It has the ability to travel into another place. However, this place isn’t an ordinary place either. It isn’t a location found in the whole world even. It’s a place to a different dimension.”
Dimension? Does he mean that theory where alternate worlds exist even though we have no way of proving it?
“How did you find all this information from the cube?”
“There was inscribed info on the cube that could only be seem with a microscope. Our team had a hard time understanding the info from the cube because some of it seemed to be in broken English.
“Anyways, the cube lists another place known as Uepi. We don’t know anything else besides that and we were going to send an expedition out to search “Uepi” but my daughter insisted on going by herself.”
“What kind of king would let his daughter go all by herself?” I said. That may have seem a little bit too rude now that I think about it, but it’s the truth. After what just happened yesterday, it could be seen as a huge mistake too.
“As you would imagine, I instantly said no. However, after giving it some more thought, I think it would be wise for her to go with either you or your sister. I did, however, decide that it would be better for you to go on this trip with her since that mysterious cloaked lady could be there too. After all, she did give you the cube.”
While the king made sense, I’m still not convinced it was the most logical choice to make.
“Is there going to be any backup sent with us to this place you speak of?”
“At my daughters request, unfortunately, no. However, it would be vital for her to learn some things about the place possibly. I’m still not quite sure on the decision myself but I do believe in my daughter if you’re there with her. So, I’ll ask once again Zaikoto, would you like to go on an expedition with my daughter?”
There’s a huge chance something could go wrong here too. And I’d be responsible for all of it. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be missing an opportunity. Live and regret, that’s a way of living that I can go by. I also have no reason to refuse since it looks like Eraga would be mad at me for a while. The trip with the king’s daughter surely couldn’t be long.
“I accept. But how long will this expedition be?”
“You’ll be in that place for about a day or so. If you’re feeling uncomfortable then you can leave that place once you’ve been there for a day. If you’re still up to it after, then you’d be there for two days.”
“Hmm… I see. How do we even get in or out of this “Uepi” place?”
“The cube specifically said that the selected ones could use the cube. We tried activating the teleportation for the cube but it wouldn’t work. We believe that you might be able to open it since you were “one” of the people that the cube was handed to. To make the cube work, you would have to say, “Cube, Explode!” and something would happen from there. You would say, “Cube, Enclose!” to get back to where you came from.”
I’ve been reassured that this trip will be alright. Most of my questions that are important have been answered so I see nothing that could be wrong. All but one thing.
“What if the cube fails on us getting back?”
“That’s a risk we’ll have to take unfortunately.”
A risk huh. Another thing I can cross off on my list of risks I’ll possibly never get the opportunity to do again if I miss it.
Of course I wouldn’t say no at this point.
“I’ll still go but my last question is, when is this expedition happening?” I asked.
“It’ll start pretty soon. My daughter doesn’t want to be held up forever so it’s more like if you accepted to go with her, then we would leave to go to “Uepi” immediately. The king replied.
“I’ll go now. Actually, I don’t kn-“
“It’s okay Zaikoto. We’ll be here waiting for you when you get back. At least I will.” My mom said.
So it really is okay to leave this place for now. I’m excited but nervous at the same time. There’s a word for that if I remember correctly. I believe it was “anxious”.
I’m quite anxious as of right now.
I nod my head to signify that I’m ready to go and walk with the king to out the front door. Outside was another carriage, similar to the one that had brought my family to the Afure Castle, and was ready for departure. I stepped inside with the king and the carriage began to move. I guess I won’t be bored at all today, but it’s a little bit odd to think that the king would allow his daughter to do this. He must have a high amount of belief in her to let this happen at all. A higher amount of belief than anybody I know.
With a sigh of relief, I close my eyes once again in the carriage. After all, it’s not every day that miracles happen twice. In this case, it wouldn’t be two miracles though. It was more like a stroke of luck that kept on rolling. I turned a little bit to make my body comfortable before I headed off to sleep. It was tiring having to know that I could’ve skipped this situation entirely. Entirely, and never look back on it. That’s the mindset that I’ll always have.
And I’ll never regret it.