Crown Prince Lysander.
Crown Prince Lysander stared at the man in front of him, his eyes narrowing as he walked around the man and finally came to stand in front of him once again.
The interrogation room had long since fallen into an oppressive silence.
Scrolls, reports and hastily scribbled notes lay scattered across the table between them, yet none of them held the answer Lysander sought.
He had questioned the man for hours and he had also changed his approach more times than he cared to count.
Calm reasoning and sudden intimidation with long stretches of silence intended to pressure the mind into speaking and not even once had the man reacted to a word he had said.
He sat exactly as he had when he was first brought into the room, his posture relaxed, his breathing steady, his face as unreadable as a frozen lake in the dead of winter.
If not for the occasional blink of his eyes, Lysander might have mistaken him for a carefully sculpted statue.
He’s trained…that’s for sure because no ordinary criminals possessed this level of discipline.
Every instinct within him screamed that this man knew something and perhaps many things, but proving it and knowing it were two entirely different matters.
He didn’t know what to make of this situation he had found himself in as he had been following the suspicious trails that he had found during the cleanup of that Pet Store that Cassian had brought down just a day ago.
It led to a single man who up till now, had refused to say even a word no matter how many threats he had to utilize against him and if he found nothing incriminating against this man then he would have to let him go.
His instinct told him that doing something like that would be foolish but up till now, he still had nothing and it was not as if he could utilize torture on the man.
There was nothing to torture him about and besides, wouldn’t that just be inviting pubkic scrutiny and anger directed at him if he even did that?
His mind went to a certain individual who wouldn’t even care if he set the treasury on fire and a small smirk played on his lips.
Wonder what that little troublemaker is doing now?
Probably causing more trouble.
He felt really annoyed as he thought about it because if he was not here with this man who was refusing to say anything, he would have been watching that little troublemaker.
But no, he was stuck with this man.
Hmm, he had to do something about this and quickly so he could go back and report to his father about his recent findings.
Things in their capital weren’t as calm as it seemed and he felt like they had no clue of quite a whole lot of things that had been happening behind the scenes all these while.
If this little troublemaker hadn’t even started making this rounds and rooting those people out for them, he wouldn’t have been able to find out that these two places he had worked on were all involved in two separate powers.
And the first one of them was already way too ugly from what he had discovered and he was still with this man because he had an inkling that they might all be one huge organization and not just two separate entities.
His fingers tapped lightly against the pommel of his sword as everything inside him screamed that releasing this man was a mistake.
Unfortunately…Instinct alone wasn’t evidence enough to torture or put the man to death and the Crown Prince of the Kingdom could not imprison a citizen simply because of a feeling.
Shaking his head with a small sigh of helplessness, he beckoned one of his guards over to his side.
“Release him.”
“But Your Highness, he’s—”
“There’s nothing we can do about any of it, there is nothing incriminating about him so our hands are a bit tied…for now.”
The guard nodded before he quickly released the man whose face was still as stone cold as it was when he had been brought in.
The shackles around the man’s wrists were removed one after another as he slowly rubbed the reddened skin before taking several unhurried steps toward the exit.
But right before he was escorted past the Crown Prince, he stopped briefly and gave him a mocking smile before he inclined his head ever so slightly before walking away without another word.
A smile that Lysander quickly understood to be that of someone who thought that they had already won at something and for reasons Lysander couldn’t explain, a chill crawled down his spine.
Crown Prince Lysander saw this and knew that it was all because he was unable to get any single thing out of him no matter what he tried and somehow, he felt an emotion push up beneath his chest.
Inadequacy?
He shook his head as he also turned and left the place where he stopped by the counter at the front door and told the female there to keep record of the man who just left.
And also to inform her superiors to immediately send out a task force to follow the man every 24/7.
Then he was on the road and soon returning back to the castle with haste as he just couldn’t waste anymore time here and had to quickly go report to his father of his findings.
Liar!
His eyes shook at that small voice of his but he didn’t say anything against it.
The streets outside bustled with the familiar rhythm of the capital.
Merchants loudly advertised their wares.
Children darted between market stalls while their parents hurried after them.
Nobles strolled beneath embroidered parasols as though the Empire itself could never know unrest.
Everything looked perfectly ordinary and yet the more ordinary everything appeared…the more uneasy Lysander became.
But it was around the time when they were turning down the forest pathway that led directly to the castle that only royals and a select few made use of that something spectacular happened.
As if they had already been marked, a whizzing sound filled the air right before four of his guards alongside his footman who was in charge of the carriage went down.
It began with a single whistle that was barely even audible as another followed and another and then suddenly—
THUNK!
The lead guard’s eyes widened in disbelief as an arrow pierced straight through his throat and blood sprayed across the cobblestones before he collapsed without so much as a scream.
Another arrow buried itself deep into the neck of one of the horses and the other terrified beasts let out a deafening neigh as panic spread through the entire carriage team.
More arrows descended from the surroundings like an unrelenting storm.
Guards barely had enough time to draw their swords before they fell one after another.
The horses bellowed out once again in surprise and panic as their coordination scattered and they began to run in different directions which caused the movements of the carriage to change.
Crown Prince Lysander was shocked at this turn out of events as he quickly pulled open the curtain covering the window by his side but—
WHIZZZ
WHIZZZ
WHIZZZZ
Three arrows flew right at him as if they had been expecting him to do just that and his eyes widened as he instantly dodged and bent down to the floor of the carriage.
The horses neighed loudly as they heard those sounds and saw the arriving enemies and Lysander gritted his teeth as he pulled open a latch from below him and quickly jumped through the hole.
He dropped through the hidden hatch beneath the carriage just as another volley of arrows shattered the wooden walls above him.
His shoulder slammed violently against the stone pavement, knocking the air from his lungs and pain exploded through his entire body but there was no time for him to recover.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself into a roll just as one of the carriage wheels thundered past inches from his face.
Dust and shattered wood exploded around him as he pushed himself upright in one smooth motion, drawing his sword with a metallic SHIIING!
Then his hands went straight to his sword and he pulled it out.
“Hello, False Prince Of The Forsaken Traitor.”
What?
Lysander’s pupils contracted as the words registered into his head with startling clarity.
False Prince?
Forsaken Traitor?
The words struck him harder than any blade could but neither title meant anything to him and yet, the hatred behind them was unmistakable.
It felt old, deep and way too personal to just be something simply said as though the man behind him had spent years waiting for this exact moment.
He turned around the sound and found himself staring straight at an approaching brown horse and on the top of his horse was none other than a face he could recognize even if he was sleeping.
It was the face that had been frustrating him all day but now, the stone cold expression it had had disappeared and in its place was a huge sneer of hatred and it was directed at him.
“It’s you.”
He whispered and the man’s eyes twinkled as he slowly got off his horse and began to stroke the fur as if he had all the time in the world.
The man chuckled quietly to himself before brushing an invisible speck of dust from his sleeve.
“I was a bit peeved when you came after me earlier today, though I soon realized that you had nothing on me.
What a waste of both our time, don’t you think?”
“And for someone praised as the Kingdom’s greatest hope and brightest star….youtruly are rather disappointing.”
Any clues here?