“I heard you got rid of the guards again.” I cringed watching Felix talking with his mouth full. He was the least bit civilized once he began eating. It was a surprise that he was still seen as an eligible bachelor by most of the single women in the kingdom. Most of whom were extremely sad when he started coming to the arena to train for the big battle next month. “I’m still so surprised that you dislike the Queen.” Scoffing at his assumption, I shook my head. “Dislike? I hate the Queen.” Felix groaned since he knew that convincing me to love our royal was like convincing a child that playing outside was dangerous. I also knew that he disliked it whenever I said something rude about her, but I couldn’t help not to. The punishment in the kingdom for speaking ill about the Queen, was life imprisonment. And Felix didn’t want to come visit me in the dungeons. "Are you, young ones, talking about her royal highness?” Felix jumped up from the bench we were currently sitting on. Both of our attention was turned to an old, bearded man, who looked like he knew of our deepest and darkest secrets. And from the looks of it, he had just learnt them. “O-Of course, not! We w-were just eating!” I rolled my eyes as I saw Felix dismissing the old man, but his attempt was lacking in spine. I turned to the old man and narrowed my eyes at him. “Isn’t it rude to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations?” “B-Bran!” I could only groan as my friend placed a hand over my mouth. “She has a bit of a temper. W-We were really just eating. We could never say anything bad about the beautiful and intelligent Queen. Look! I’m even training to fight in that battle next month so I can marry her!” The old man mirrored my disinterest in everything that Felix had just spewed in his little anxious run. Our new companion looked from Felix to me, before he smiled in a friendly way. “I must’ve just heard wrong then.” Felix nodded his head frantically, as the old man smiled once more and then moved away from us. I watched him leave, as he moved slowly while leaning on his stick a little. I hadn’t seen him there before but then again; I didn’t see much of anyone. But if he was in the arena, he must’ve been there to meet someone or something. “Are you trying to get us killed or something?!” I rolled my eyes as soon as I was released from Felix’s hold. He looked livid even when I should’ve been the one angry at him. “I could’ve handled that.” “No, you would’ve gotten yourself arrested.” He groaned as he picked up the remaining piece of his bread from the bench. “You must be careful of what you say, Bran. I’ve told you this before.” “I don’t care about --” “Yes, I already know. You don’t care about anything, Bran. But I do.” I looked away from him since his wounded look was making me feel bad. This was the only thing we would ever have fights about. Him wanting me to abandon my hatred for the Queen, and me not being able to let it go. How could I even, when her parents were the ones who were responsible for the deaths of my own. “I’m sorry.” I relented, just like every other time. I was always the one catering to his feelings because I knew it hurt him. But he didn’t know how much it pained me to see no consequences for the woman whose parents were the reason mine were killed. Felix sighed before he smiled. “I’m going to go back to my training.” I nodded my head at the information, which meant it was time for me to go back to my house. “See you tomorrow?” “Yeah.” Sending him a smile as well, I watched him fit the remaining piece of bread in his mouth before he was running off to join the other men who were training. He wasn’t like me. He didn’t know tragedy like I did. He still had living parents and a loving family, who conformed to everything that the Queen had done after the late King died. Sighing to myself, I got up from the bench, but as I was packing my own food, I saw the old man return. “Do you need something?” I didn’t want to be rude to him, but he was ruining my already terrible mood. “I heard your conversation with that young man.” He pointed towards Felix with his stick, which made me grit my teeth. “Look, he didn’t do anything, okay? I was the one saying shit about the Queen.” “I know it was you, which is why I came to you.” I frowned at his words, not understanding what he really wanted, and also not wanting to know what he wanted. “Alright, I’m going to leave now.” Rolling my eyes at him, I was about to walk away when I saw him zoom right in front of me all of a sudden. My eyes widened at his speed which was normal for a young person, just not for an old man who used a stick to walk. “So, you’re a con man?” The old man was the one rolling his eyes now as he looked at me with disgust. “Are you usually this hard to get along with?” “That’s rich coming from an eavesdropping old con man.” “I’m just trying to have a serious conversation with you.” The old man groaned before he looked around us as if checking to see that we were not being listened to. “It seems like our dislike for the Queen aligns.” One of my eyebrows rose in interest. But dislike was a small word. “I hate the Queen.” “Excellent! I hate her as well.” Now, this man had my entire attention. “And why is it that you’re telling me that?” I crossed my arms, not trusting him completely, but also being intrigued by him. He was the first ever person I had met who didn’t worship the Queen like every other person in the kingdom. “Because I have a plan to ruin her reign as quickly as possible.” “And what is that plan?” Either this man was crazy, or he really had something up his sleeve which was brilliant. “I need someone young and smart for the plan.” Of course, he did. “Let me guess. I’m that someone young and smart?” The old man laughed loudly which got the attention of some of the people passing us by. I hissed at him to shut up, but my words only went to deaf ears. Fortunately, he did stop laughing after a while. “You’re nowhere near that, child.” Damn, that hurt my feelings. I was about to voice out how I wasn’t going to help him anymore, but he tried to save the situation, and I let him because I was intrigued in his stupid plan. “But you will be after I train you.” “Train me for what?” My interest in his plan was slowly dying since I didn’t like where it was headed, but it was of no use now. “Train you for the battle next month.” The serious expression on his face had killed off my desire to laugh since I knew he wasn’t joking about this. But as I looked back at the multiple men sparring with one another, I felt the need to leave this old man and his plan as if I had never even known him. “Don’t worry, I will train you to defeat them all.” “And how exactly will I even enter this battle? As far as I know, only men are to take part in it.” The old man smiled as if he knew something that not even the Queen knew. “Nobody said that women couldn’t also participate. The announcement just read: eligible bachelors.” Everything about this screamed like a scam but it could also be funny if I won the battle. I could imagine the look on the Queen’s face when she would see that a woman won. Would she marry me then? Of course, she wouldn’t. “Okay. I’ll play along.” The man smiled widely. “Excellent! Meet me by the forest’s west, early in the morning.” I had multiple questions about those specific instructions, but before I could ask the man anything, he was already turning around and leaving. “I don’t even know your name!” “Tomorrow!” He screamed out without turning his head or even halting his movements. He was just walking over to the arena’s entrance, and I just watched him exit swiftly. “He walks fast for someone who was limping on a stick before.” ….......................