The blazing fire was everywhere and the scenery was filled with people who were running and shouting in agony as if their life was on line to the people who were killing them like the hunters did to their own prey.

‘What am I doing here?’

The one who was standing, without understanding the situation, was none other than the silver-haired boy. Lucas knew this place too well. It was the middle of the capital city, not that far away from the entrance of the palace. And he remembered well that this place where it was once prosperous and peaceful, not a place filled with despair and agony.

‘What the heck happened?’ Lucas didn’t really know what kind of disaster had made this place like that. Everything felt like it was happening too quickly and somehow felt fumy. ‘Is it because of the smoke?’ Lucas really didn’t know as he looked here and there of this scene.

“Please stop, citizens! This is not the real way! What you are doing is just creating more victims!”

As Lucas heard the strong and loud voice, as if it was begging the ranging people, he turned around to see who was giving the words. And in an instant, Lucas’s eyes widened.

Prince Eldric, whom Lucas remembered last as a youth, was now somehow looked older and his reddish brown eyes were on the verge of wanting to give up. But a part of him looked like he was still hanging on to calm the crowd down.

But what could he do with just some palace knights and companions. It seemed like he was not someone of power too, judging that most of the people were not paying attention to him. Lucas could hear that his companions were telling him to go back to the palace but he refused to listen.

The whole scenery was giving a headache to Lucas and more shock crossed his face as he saw a familiar someone come out from behind as Lucas was not expecting to see him. Not like this.

“Just give up.”

His voice was dreadful and his eyes seemed lifeless. He seemed somehow older, more mature and fully armored which made him look like a strong soldier but his facial expressions were not that good. No, it was bad. It definitely seemed like he had already given up on this situation, not like Prince Eldric.

“Let’s just kill everyone. It might give those cowards a scare and perhaps, they might stop.”

‘Wait!? You are not supposed to talk like that.’ Lucas knew that the man was not joking. It was far from his usual jokes.

“Are you crazy, Ryosuke!? Just stay near Lady Stella. I will try to do something...”

‘Yes, prince. Go and tell him.’

“She is already gone….”

The moment of silence came between them and the prince couldn’t believe his ears.

“Wait, didn’t you get the elixir from the elves!?” Eldric seemed like he didn’t pay attention to the scenery happening before him as he looked at Ryosuke.

Ryosuke didn’t reply to him and he just looked at the crowd in despair. With one glance, anyone can tell that he was cursing the whole world and already despised this situation. And it made Eldric’s anxiety rise up to its peak. The poor prince didn’t know whether he should firstly stop that man behind him or the crowd before him.

Lucas already had a realization of what was happening. And it was not something he could interfere with. He should have realized it sooner when the people didn’t care about him or pay attention to him.

“Even though I tried so hard,...”

“Why don't things go the way I want?”

It seemed like he wanted to kill all the people who were on haywire but the small sanity left in him was somehow holding him back. The sanity that he was going to lose during the war which was coming in the near future after this.

Far from the duo in despair, Lucas could see there was another man staring at Ryosuke from behind, and what made this man scary was that it was how he seemed to be enjoying this situation. Lucas clearly knew who this man was as well, and what kind of situation that he was amused to see.

‘Edwin……’

Lucas murmured the man’s name as he closed his eyes, feeling drowsy all of a sudden.

Opening his eyes again, all he could see was no longer the gruesome scenario but the ceiling which he always saw when he woke up.

‘Sh*t… It feels so different from reading the book…….’

Lucas realized that he just saw the scenes that happened instantly after Stella’s death, which meant that the disease had spread to most of the towns in the capital which would happen around 5 or 6 years later, if this went with the novel’s timeline. But now, it was not like that. It was happening real early because of a reason that he didn’t know.

‘It won’t happen like that…..’ 

Watching Ryosuke who seemed so mature yet lifeless and miserable, his own brother who seemed to be amusing at someone's distress, and the country on the verge of breaking down made Lucas felt, somehow, heavy and stuffed. But Lucas was sure that it wouldn’t turn out the way it did in the novel. Because he knew how to control it and by this time Walter should have left for Sansa and should be arranging the necessities.

‘Yes, it won’t…’

And there would not be a villain Edwin like he saw. Maria wasn’t dead, yet and Prince Albert was also not overly powerful to manipulate the people’s mind. And he also believed his father would call back Maria as soon as possible when he knew of the situation.

But a thought struck as Lucas held his forehead, making his mind anxious once more.

‘I don’t know the cure….’

Lucas remembered it too well that there was no cure for it except the elixir. And the elixir is something that only elves possessed generation to generation, with no formula existed to make it again. And who would be fast enough to heal someone’s mana flow before it got corrupted by the disease. Not even the top healer could do that in the novel.

‘What if it had already spread to other towns? Maybe a national lockdown will be great?’

He slowly felt that his head was wrecked from those thoughts, groaning the messed up timeline and cases. It also made him more worried because he didn’t know about the case immediately. 3 people had already died when he first knew of this.

‘Yea, I should write to Walter, just in case.’

As Lucas couldn’t sleep anymore, he chose to get up, cursing inwardly because he wasn’t able to sleep long.

“Oh my, Lucas, why are you awake this early?”

Rubbing his eyes a bit, he could see that it was Eura, carrying a bowl of water to his room, which he would use for washing his face after he was up.

“Why don’t you sleep a little more, master. It is still 7 am and you stayed really late last night.” Tus followed Eura as they came into the room but no matter what they said, Lucas had no desire to sleep anymore.

“I will just get up. Tus, can you prepare me some coffee, please? I am going to have breakfast in my room, too.”

‘I really need to freshen up my mind.’

And it was when Tus and Eura started to believe that Lucas was stressed. Because coffee was something that Lucas asked only when he felt tired or pressured by something. Judging from last night’s talk, they immediately noticed the cause.

“Why did you go to Sansa, alone? You could have just waited for us.”

As soon as Lucas had washed his face, Eura started to talk while helping him to get dressed up as usual while Tus went out for the drink. And Lucas, straight away, knew that he could not be free from her lecture, anymore.

“It's just that my curiosity got ahead of me. And I returned safely, see?”

He wanted to smile but the glare of Eura was making him a bit anxious.

‘Why does her look have to be so vicious!?’

If one compared the body sizes, even though Eura was a lot older than Lucas, they were not that different in body sizes, but Eura was a little bit taller. But now Lucas didn’t know why this small girl had to be scary when she glared.

“You cannot just go out with a simple curiosity. What kind of kid will just go travel alone? Yea, let’s just say that you are quite capable. But Lucas, you are not just anybody. What if there were some assassins after you?”

Lucas was preparing to get some scolding from Tus but he didn’t expect that Eura would come to him first.

“Who would target some youngest child? And we don’t have that much of an enemy.”

“I said, what if. No one can predict what might actually happen.”

“I know. Don’t worry. I won’t do that again and I promise that I will take at least Tus or you with me even when I sneak out!”

“That means you will still continue to sneak out!?”

“No one can predict what might actually happen, right?”

“Haaa… what am I supposed to do with you…”

Even before Eura had finished sighing, Tus knocked and came into the room with a tray containing coffee and breakfast for Lucas. As he put the tray on the table, he also pulled out 2 letters from his pocket under his jacket and he handed them over to Lucas, telling him that they were addressed to him.

As Lucas looked at the letters, he saw that one was from Walter and the other was from Ryosuke. He instantly guessed that the one from Walter was to tell him how it turned out in Sansa and some other future plans he might have thought, which Lucas considered that Walter was kind of a quick worker.

And the one from Ryosuke was probably to tell him how he was doing in the academy. Lucas really didn’t think that he would write this fast and started to suspect whether the news had reached the capital or not.

Lucas decided to reach them right now as both letters seemed that they were important but even before he did so, he could hear Tus called out to him in a gentle voice.

“Master”

“What is it, Tus?”

Lucas' intuition told him that the next thing that came from Tus’s mouth would not be something enjoyable.

“Don’t you think that we need to talk about how you go out alone?”

.

.

.

‘Not again, please……….’

Lucas literally wanted to cry out as he looked at Tus with the eyes in misery. Why? Because Tus was not someone to underestimate when it came to lectures, even to Lucas.

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A/N: I have come over 45 chapppppp!!! Thank you for reading this far and I really appreciate all of you, dear readers. TT