A young man tossed and turned in bed.
I can’t sleep.
Running his hand through his hair, Alexis rested his hand on his brow.
“It’s not that I can’t sleep… I don’t want to sleep,” he muttered to himself.
Ever since arriving in Turchen, his dreams of King Eus had increased. Most of these dreams took place at the Earl of Turchen’s castle, where Alexis was staying.
However, according to history, Turchen was part of Khangena during Eus’s reign. The nations were at war, but there was no record of King Eus conquering Turchen at the time.
Now Turchen was a part of Esfia, but that had only happened about a century before, and yet the Eus in Alexis’s dream walked the castle of Turchen as if it belonged to Esfia.
Alexis’s dreams were likely of the time King Eus went to Turchen to wage war against Khangena, but his dreams were fragmented, and he could not glean much information from them.
He had learned three things: One, his dreams showed King Eus after he had killed his sister, the queen, and ascended the throne; two, during the war, King Eus had fought against the warring tribe of Adjutants; and three, King Eus had felt an extreme hatred toward these Adjutants.
But if all of this is true, then why had King Eus not conquered Turchen?
There were no images of a post-war Turchen in Alexis’s dreams, but in these dreams King Eus clearly was the victor. King Eus and his soldiers were inferior to the Adjutants in battle, both as individuals and as an army, but the Esfian army had strength in numbers, and the king’s shrewdness—his willingness to do whatever it took to win—had made Esfia’s victory possible.
“Let’s not forget, this is only the case if my dreams are true.”
Alexis sat up in bed.
I can’t sleep anyway…and I don’t even want to.
While in Turchen, Alexis slept in his regular clothes so he could be ready for action at a moment’s notice. He stood, grabbed a coat, and lit a handheld lantern.
“Randal. Follow me at a distance,” he called out to his attendant knight after opening the door.
It was late at night, and the castle was blanketed in silence—as it should be. The castle’s master, the Earl of Turchen, had left with his family for the Council of Feudal Lords just as Alexis and his party had entered the dominion to stay. Their early departure was at someone’s request, or so Alexis had heard. He need not ask whose, because it was due to that request that Alexis could visit an empty castle in Turchen.
It was certainly by order of his father, the king.
Alexis’s secret mission had two objectives. The first did not seem right to him—the urgency of it in particular. It was difficult to believe it had been assigned to Alexis.
And the other objective…was yet unknown to him.
“By going on this mission, you will be helping Octavia.”
His father’s words likely referenced the second objective. And the longer he spent in Turchen, the more his suspicions grew.
Why did father send me to Turchen? And why did he use the Council of Feudal Lords as a pretense to evacuate the earl and his family early?
Alexis walked through the castle, lighting the way with his lantern. When he reached a particular wall, he stopped. It was an ordinary wall with an ornamental desk and a vase in front of it. Had the Earl of Turchen put these things there on purpose to hide what was behind them? Or had the secret been lost to time?
The spot did not have any particularly distinguishing features. However, according to his dreams of King Eus…
Alexis pressed his fingers to part of the wall, just as he had seen Eus do in his dreams. He wasn’t sure what he hoped would happen—probably that nothing would happen. This wish became painfully clear to him once he sensed the anomaly.
If nothing had come of him touching the wall, he could believe his dreams were a mere delusion. If only he had found one thing to assuage his growing dread.
But, just as in his dreams, the wall sank in where he pressed it…activating a mechanism. Before his eyes, a pathway the width of a person opened.
“…!”
Alexis noticed Randal gasping in shock behind him. Alexis wasn’t surprised by the door—in fact, it was strange that he remained calm.
He took a step inside the empty passageway.
No hesitating.
He had no reason to hesitate. In his dreams, this pathway led there. Even though it was his first time walking there as Alexis, it was a place that King Eus had already visited.
All he needed to do was retrace the steps from his dreams.
As the second prince of Esfia, Alexis was free to wander Turchen Castle while its inhabitants were gone. The same applied to inspecting the lands of Turchen.
But there was one place nobody was allowed to enter—not even royalty. At the very least, his grandfather—the former king—and his father, the king, had kept this spot secret.
The pathway Alexis currently walked led to this place deep within the castle. Though the Earl of Turchen’s castle was indeed decorated differently in the modern era, the basic construction remained the same as in Alexis’s dreams. This likely applied to the passageway as well.
While he was a welcome guest there, Alexis could not bring himself to go in broad daylight. There would be trouble if someone saw him. Completing his mission in secret was his top priority.
If he hadn’t had those dreams…he would never have fathomed doing something like this.
But he simply had to if he hoped to confirm his suspicions.