Calypse stormed down the burnished corridors of the first prince’s wings of the palace. His fists were clenched and he chewed the inside of his cheek until he tasted copper. There was only one thing on his mind: finding Hyasar, who was likely lounging about in his chambers. His eyes blazed with the flames of pure rage.

‘I’ll kill him,’ he thought, ‘but not before making him admit everything first!’

He was nearing what he thought most certain to be Hyasar’s bedchambers until a flash of white and green blocked his view. He did not have to meet the eyes of his interceptor to recognize who it was.

“Out of my way, Alciel.” He gritted his teeth. It angered him enough to see his green-haired classmate and the lackey of his brother at the academy. He was certainly in no mood to see him in his most hated brother’s palace.

Still, the figure did not budge. “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you,” said Ikras Alciel.

Calypse’s last string of tolerance snapped. He jumped abruptly at Ikras, pulling back his still-balled up hand to punch him. His fists landed squarely against the side of his face, sending him to careen all the way to the side.

After stumbling a few steps back, Ikras only met his gaze with a blank expression whilst holding his face. Seeing his all-too-clear blue eyes only made the prince even angrier. “Didn’t you hear me?! I said, out of my way!”

Ikras snickered once. “You think I’ll follow your orders? Prince Hyasar has already thrown a temper tantrum this morning and is in no mood to welcome any visitors today. If you have anything to say to him, I suggest you relay them to me first.”

He narrowed his eyes. Without another word, he strided forward and grabbed the other man by his white collar.  “Is that so? Then let him know that I demand to see my maid! I’ll kill him if anything has happened to her!” he snarled.

“That’s it?” Ikras, infuriatingly unfazed, only raised a single brow. “It wasn’t Hyasar’s doing, but mine. That maid tried to snoop around in these wings, you see.”

All the prince saw was red as he punched him again in the same spot without a second thought. Then another. And another. All the while he screamed, “TELL ME WHERE SHE IS, ALCIEL! YOU PIECE OF SWINE. YOU GOOD-FOR-NOTHING BOOTLICKER. JUST WHAT DID MOTHER SEE IN YOU? FUCKING HELL. GIVE MEREDITH BACK TO ME!” Even when Ikras slumped to the ground, he still held him by the collar and brought his fist down. Only when his throat burned and he was breathing heavily did he snap out of his haze slightly, wanting to finally get a response.

The green-haired man, having noticed as well, spat a wad of blood to the ground first. “You think only I’ve seen how close you were becoming to that lowly lady? Even the gossip news caught wind of it. It’s only a matter of time before Hyasar orders her to be killed and the Vesteins take up arms against the royal family. Dealing with His Highness and Lady Mir Roysa is already asking to be driven off a cliff for the people of this palace.”

“Ha!” Calypse cried, “Don’t act as if you’re helping me! You said so yourself–with the Mir Roysas out of the picture, nothing can stand in my way now!”

‘So tell me where you’ve kept Meredith!’

“If you wish to speak of treason, Your Highness, then I suggest you not speak of it so proudly in your enemy’s quarters. Or in front of me, especially.”

“Urgh!” His entire body trembled as fury grew in his heart again. He once again raised his fist into the air.

But this time, Ikras managed to snatch his wrist with an iron grip he hadn’t expected to come from a mage student. Unfamiliar searing tendrils of an invisible force coursed through his bloodstream, coursing up his arm to engulf his head. His eyes widened. “You…you!” He desperately tried to pull his arm back, releasing his hold on him. “Let me go this instant!”

“Sleep tight, Your Highness.” Ikras smirked. “I’m sure your beloved maid wishes that for you as well. She was sobbing so hard to ensure that you would not die after she got kicked out.”

Calypse parted his lips to spew out more curse words. Yet before he could, his eyes lolled back and he unwillingly began to fall backwards. The man with the swollen, bruised face was unperturbed as he flicked his fingers to slow the fall. He let the prince thump to the ground, glad for the now quiet hallway.

Ikras let himself catch a few more breaths before standing and brushing the lint off his clothes. He waited for a servant to pass by to help him carry the prince back to his wings.

…

Meredith was sitting in a rundown hut in a village not so far from the capital’s borders. She had her eyes shut tightly, hands clasped together.

Back when she worked as a maid for the nobility, she worried greatly about her father. Once part of a wealthy merchant family that bought the title of Baron, her father fell into great debt in one of his business ventures and lost everything. Ever since, he had squandered his money on gambling and alcohol, yet still she persisted in working and sending money back home in hopes that one day her father would come back to his senses.

But now, her father was the last thing on her mind as she thought back to her interactions with the second prince.

She’d never expected the second prince to be the child she had saved so long ago, back when she still lived with her father in the East province. Truth be told, she never forgot him and always wanted to know what happened to him. Well, now she had her answer, and was more than happy to be working for him in his part of the palace. She wanted to protect someone, even if she was no more than a peasant. Especially the prince, her employer who treated her so kindly.

It was only when he revealed that remembered her, too, that she began distancing herself unwittingly. She knew of Calypse’s fiancé, Lady Florencia, and recalled her time in the Vestein household all too well. She had no desire to cross such an influential noble family, and had dropped to her knees to swear her undying loyalty as a servant to the prince. The truth was, she could not bring herself to see the look in his eyes.

If he looked at her with such caring because he remembered his childhood savior, didn’t that make it love? It was only much later after she’d received the hawk fledgling that she found out what his actions actually meant. Both joy and terror plagued her heart. It was the same reason why she had left the fledgling back in the prince’s bedchambers before leaving the palace. She still remembered the words of that mysterious hooded person with the sky blue eyes.

“If you truly want to ensure the prince’s safety, then leave the palace. Leave the life of a maid.

‘And become a different person entirely.”

Meredith opened her eyes as the weight of her decision bore down on her. The person had promised her something she could never deny, especially when it pertained to her own father as well. She raised her fingers to graze her lips absentmindedly. ‘Prince Calypse, please forget about me.’