Rodderick eyes reacted to the light of the flame that suddenly illuminated the dark room. Prince Adrian was standing in front of him, his left hand hanging on the air as one of his fingers was set aflame. Despite the fire being small, it illuminated the room as a lamp would making once dark and scary room feel warm and comfortable.

“Is Edeus not with you?”, the prince asked, looking down on Rodderick.

“No, I came on my own. I didn’t told sir Edeus about this place either, don’t worry”.

The prince fell in thought, looking at Rodderick, trying to grasp his intentions, but came up in blank.

“Your name is Rodderick, is it not? Barth told me about you, you are supposed to be Edeus apprentice? I never seen you in my life, if you truly are, then he must have picked you up fairly recently”

“Ah, yeah. I’ve only been with sir Edeus for 2 days”, Rodderick stood up, and smiled at Adrian. He was scared about talking to the prince when he walked here, he wasn’t sure how he would talk to him, after all, don’t the nobles talk in a weird way?. But when it was finally time to talk, the words came naturally and the prince word’s were not complicated.

Communication was as easy and simple as if he would be talking to a friend.

“Just two days? So he must find you while he was looking for me. Your talent must be truly impressive if he sat aside his duty.”

“Eh?”, Rodderick was surprised, the prince seemed to have gotten the wrong impression, if anything, he was told time and time again his talent was non existent.

“Good, good. I was scared for a second, you look like a wimp so I thought teacher only adopted you out of pity.”, Adrian displayed a smile so big that his shiny white teeth could be seen in the dark room. He patted Rodderick’s back in a friendly manner as he laughed. “As apprentices of teacher, lets get along, Rick!”.

“…eh?”

….

Rodderick who got pulled along by the mood couldn’t find the words to correct the prince.

They were now sitting down in the bed in one of the rooms on the second floor.

A lamp rested on a nearby on a bedside table illuminating the room.

“So, Rick, why did you come here? Wanted to meet your cool senior? Maybe you never seen a prince? Considering how you are dress you must be a commoner.”

“Rick?”, Was that a nickname? Rodderick couldn’t catch up with the talkative prince, he was using his brain to come up with a way to erase the prince’s misunderstanding, but the prince non ending conversation continuously caught him off guard.

“Yeah, sounds better right? Your name is unnecessarily complicated, very like commoners to name their child like that so they sound important.”

“Hey!”, he couldn’t let that comment pass, even if it came from a prince, he wouldn’t let someone speak ill of his parents.

“Haha, sorry, sorry.”, the prince waved his hand.

Rodderick sighed. “Actually, I’m here to hear about your story. I came with sir Edeus looking for you, but you came here on your own, you must have your reasons.”

He looked at Adrian straight in the yes. “My parents were taken by demons when I was young. Was your…was your sister taken by the demons too?”

Adrian finally felt silent, his mouth agape. He looked away from Rodderick and after what felt like an eternity, he nodded.

“That’s right. Her name was Maria. Honestly, she was annoying, always going on about the duty of those who rule and yada yada yada.”, Adrian looked up at the dark ceiling as he spoke, he seemed somehow embarrassed of talking about his sister. It gave Rodderick the impression that he didn’t really meant the things he said, and was actually very fond of her.

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“One of the things she did was going to the front lines to raise morale. We the royal family have the bloodline of ancient heroes and are much stronger than the common person, because of this we are also a sign of hope. People will always feel safer with someone stronger standing with them, right? Sometimes we do public appearances because of it”. He stroke his long red hair as he spoke. It was the symbol of the royal family. Rodderick could understand how those people felt, he looked like something out of a fairy tale.

The prince closed his eyes as he traveled through his memories.

“Dorhem had become part of the front lines last year, and it’s inhabitants started panicking. The Earl sent a request to the capital for strong fighters who could defend the town, but most of our strongest warriors are busy with their own duties or fighting in the front front lines already. Because of this, my father decided to send Maria to Dorhem instead to bring comfort to the people.”

“But…”, he opened his eyes, looking down with sadness.

“But?”, Rodderick asked, trying to give the prince the push he needed to finish his story.

“Something happened, she left with a group of soldiers and never came back. Neither the captain of the guard nor the Earl heard a report of what was going on, it was like they saw something and acted on it on their own. They are still missing.”

“So, maybe she is still alive?”, Rodderick asked, in part due to his own hopes of his parents somehow still being alive after all this time, in part trying to cheer up the prince.”

“Maybe…”, the prince said with a weak voice. “But I wouldn’t bet on it. Even so, I can’t stand home and do nothing like my father, if there’s even a tiny chance that she is still out there, I’m going to look for her. My sister was somehow lured out of Dorhem, and I believe the demons will attempt to do the same with me”.

“So that’s what he was planning”, Rodderick thought. He wanted the demons to know he was there so he could understand how his sister was attacked. Perhaps that could give her a clue of where she was.

“Okay!”, Rodderick jumped off the bed and landed on his feet. “I will help you. But we should probably ask sir Edeus for help too”

Adrian shook his head. “Edeus won’t help, my sister has been gone for a month now, in his eyes, shes already dead. He’s only here to take my home. But even if he is right and my sister is long gone, I want to kill the bastards who done it”. The prince fist was clenched tightly at his side.

Rodderick was troubled, he didn’t want to go against Edeus’ wisdom, but Adrian here was in a lot of pain. He knew how he felt, the two of them lived in completely different worlds, but at this moment, he never felt so close to someone, he knew exactly how the prince felt, a sinking pain so strong you hang to false hope to not be drown in it. Rodderick experienced it for many years after his parents disappeared.

He really wanted to help, but…

“If sir Edeus doesn’t help us, the town may really be in danger, I don’t want anyone else to be taken by demons.”

“Huh?”, Adrian rose an eyebrow as he looked at Rodderick. “What are you talking about? That’s just war, isn’t it? These people are already in danger, the demons could attack at any moment, if they will, isn't it better that they do it now that Edeus is here?”

“That makes a lot of sense I guess”, Rodderick thought, partially trying to convince himself. He thought it over and then nodded.

“Okay, let’s do it then”, he extended his hands towards the prince.

Adrian smiled and shook his hand. “Pleasure working with you, Rick.”