Aaron’s POV

I stood in front of the man that had raised me, the man that had given me food and shelter, and the man that guided me through life. He was the man that gives me order to obey. He made many requests and today was no exception.

“You have summoned me father?” I asked out of courtesy. Royalty are supposed to be perfect and I need to be nice and polite in front of the king.

“Oh yes, my dear son. I want you to spy on the Isaducha kingdom. I want you to become an internal spy. I could trust no one other than you for this important job. Since you are my son and a intelligent and infallible young man, I trusted you to perform this task with perfection,” my father said.

My father is very good at commanding others. He knows very well that once you’ve complimented someone, you owned him. You enslave other’s mind by destroying it with sweet words. Compliments expand your mind so that to the point where you become a big airhead.

But I see through my father’s mind. I was the hidden son from our family. I was the child that my father kept in hiding. Rarely anything knows about my existence. No one in Isaducha will suspect me as the king’s son so I could easily deceive them.

My father has trust issues. Notice how he mentioned the word “trust” every five second. He doesn’t trust anyone that has the slight possibility to assassin him or betray him. He relied on me a little more than others because of our kinship but the relationship is very weak.

“I have set up for you to become a young merchant to enter the kingdom of Isaducha. There is a young man, Ralph, whom would be at the gate of the kingdom. He would help you penetrate their borders. Ralph works in the palace and he had already arranged for you to take care of money management and food production in the palace. Once you are in the palace, you know what to do. You will leave tonight,” my father instructed.

“Yes father. I will follow your instructions.”

Hebe’s POV

“Time for dinner,” I heard Selina’s voice calling out to me outside my room.

“Coming,” I replied politely and I look into the mirror to check to make sure I look appropriate.

As I opened to the door to leave, the door next to me also opened and I saw Jiro walked out. He politely greeted me and we walked to the dinning room together. Tonight is the first night the royalties of both the Isaducha and Herochan kingdom will dine together.

We walked into the lavish dinning room and sat down at the two empty seats.

“Do you like our palace?” my father asked Jiro.

“Yes. You have such a lovely home,” Jiro said politely.

He still kept his prince-charming image, the perfect, chivalrous prince.

“Everyone is great about your palace and your kingdom,” Jiro’s father complimented my father. “There is one thing that I wanted you to consider changing and that is perhaps Hebe should have a bodyguard. It’s not safe for a young princess to be alone even if she spends most of her time in the palace.”

A bodyguard? I’ve never recalled having a bodyguard. I guess it would be nice to have someone staying beside me all the time to protect me but where are we going to find a bodyguard this short notice.

“I would look into that,” my father replied. There was neither annoyance nor thankfulness in this replied.

We had sushi for dinner tonight and I was chewing very diligently when my father spoke up.

“Why don’t you show Jiro our kingdom tomorrow, Hebe? Introduce him to Isaducha and spent the day with him in town. You can spend more quality time together,” my father suggested.

“Yes father,” I obey his command. It is part of my duty as a royalty to obey commands given by elderly.

Aaron’s POV

It is midnight and it has been a couple hour since the start of my journey.

As I travel to Isaducha in my horse, I heard a loud beat coming from behind. It was a very fast running horse trying to catch up to someone, perhaps it is I.

I was correct. The horse and the man on the horse were next to me now and the man instructed me to stop. I recognized the Malevitor symbol on his clothes and followed his instruction. It turned out that the man was a messenger.

“Prince Aaron,” the messenger said as he tried to catch his breathe, “the king…the king….got….message…..-sage…Ralph….Isaducha…..murdered…discovered….spy...go…go back.”

Even though the message was composed of single words, they were very important key words and I picked up exactly what he was trying to tell me.

“I will not go back. Even if Ralph could no longer provide the service and help me, I could finish this mission on my own,” I stated to the messenger. I am very confident that I could find a way to help my kingdom by sending important warfare information of our enemy. This job has to be done by someone that who could be better fitted for it than I? Yes, my father may have gotten into my head but I’m not a total moron if I can accomplish my mission.

I’m almost at the gate that would take me into the Isaducha kingdom. For a long time, I’ve been in the frontier.

No idea had sparked in my mind to get into Isaducha.

I’m arriving closer and closer to the gate. Soon, guard would be questioning me and I’d have difficulties answering them.

Then I saw a man with a very old and dirty carriage with cargos. Some of his cargos had fallen out and he was trying to pick them up. His carriage was parked on the side of the road. I stopped my horse and helped him pick up the heavy cargos. I realized the boxes were filled with uncooked food. If my assumption is correct, he is a merchant importing food to restaurants.

I was wrong. After the man thanked me for helping them, I asked about his status. He told me that he was a restaurant owner that is shipping fresh supplies for today. It is almost dawn and he had to get home fast to prepare for the day.

An idea sparked up in my mind.

Ever since birth, I had been trained to lied. When others asked who my parents were in school, I had to pretend they were dead. I had to lie to my teacher and classmate that I lived with a relative. I’ve been taught to lie to my classmates when they asked me to join them for after school activities. My father had been giving me lessons so that I could become his tool one day and I have to come up with lies so that I can attend the lessons.

Lying is like a second nature to me so I quickly came up with a lie.

“I traveled from the faraway kingdom of Hydot. Both of my parents had died of a disease recently and I lost a purpose to live. For days, I have been traveling around the vast land of strangers to search for a purpose in life. I’ve realized recently that I wish to help others and to provide service for others. Would you be so kindly to help me by letting me help you in your restaurant? I do not wish for much in return but a place to stay and food to eat,” I said to the man.

“Hmm, I do need some help around the restaurant,” he said as he packed for the continuation of his journey. “My wife is pregnant right now so I’m short on servers. You could help me serve the guests.”

“Thank you so much for your generosity,” I smiled happily. I have finally found a way to enter Isaducha. Once I’m in there, I’d think of another way to enter the palace.

I rode the man (I later learned that his name was John) and we enter Isaducha. The guard did not question me since he recognized John who apparently travels back and forth from a farm to Isaducha weekly to transport supplies.

After we crossed the border, I smiled to myself secretly for my success.