“Hmm... I wonder what’s going on here,” I mused aloud.
When Prince Chris assured him that he would get to the bottom of the matter, the fisherman had looked perplexed. He’d made his case in the heat of the moment, but he wasn’t sure he could trust the boy before him. So far, no one had ever been willing to give him the time of day; it was clear that he was wondering why this kid, of all people, was the first to take him seriously. Still, the fact that Prince Chris had heard him out, along with his manifestly good status and upbringing, probably helped his case. After some ado, the man had bowed his head and backed off.
We’d then used the royal family’s Shadows to look into things, and that was how we had ended up here.
“What was he called, again? The Master of Luwak Street, the slums of Kelk?”
This was turning into one of those clichéd tales about vanquishing the bad guys who had captured a princess. But who would be the princess in this scenario? The missing kids? Wouldn’t that make the prince of the story, you know...? Upon making the association, I had to bite back yet another laugh.
Just then, there came a thunderous round of applause. A look in the direction it was coming from revealed that an audience had formed around an open stage set up in a corner of the garden. Evidently, the recipient of the ovation was a child.
While I was wondering what the big deal was, Prince Chris murmured, “That boy has a good talent for singing and music.”
This was coming from someone who had grown up listening to the kingdom’s finest musicians in the royal palace. His assessment was worth further consideration. Alas, I—and all the men of the Eisenach family, my father included—had no musical background whatsoever, so my understanding was limited.
As I watched from afar, vaguely intrigued, the kid finished his song and earned himself another round of applause, then sat down in a chair on the stage and began to perform his next piece. It was a sea shanty, the perfect song for a port town sinking into the darkness of night.
The song told a story that began in a port city. A man ventured out into the open sea, promising the lover he’d left behind that he would return with the treasure of her dreams. However, the man’s voyage was full of hardships. Sometimes he fought pirates, other times he was buffeted about by storms that lasted for days, and when he finally set foot on foreign soil, he was hunted by the natives. Time and time again, he straddled the border between life and death. Nevertheless, he did his best for his beloved back home, dreaming of a happy future with her.
At long last, the man made it back to the port city, a respectable sailor after all the trials he’d endured. But he was surprised by what he found there...
The child strummed his lute for dramatic effect, and the song continued into its second chapter. The story shifted to the woman’s perspective. I’d been drawn into the tale, but I was torn away from the scene by a voice calling for a footman. I returned once the business was taken care of, only for the same thing to happen over and over again. It seemed one of the guests really wanted to summon Prince Chris, who stood out in spite of his disguise. They quickly realized it wasn’t meant to be, however, as the people around him would always scramble to get the job done first.
Of course, those “people around him” were the footmen, myself included. For whatever reason, Prince Chris was strutting around like he owned the place, making no effort to get into the character of a servant. Sensing that it would be wrong to put him to work, his staff took the initiative to bustle back and forth. I was in honest-to-god awe. A prince was a prince through and through, it seemed.
I returned from my umpteenth errand just in time to catch a mighty round of applause and cheers as the song drew to a close. In an uncharacteristic move, I heaved a disappointed sigh.
“Man, I wanted to hear the rest of it. What happened to the port city girl in chapter two, Your Highness?”
In the evening darkness and the glow of the exotic lamps, I caught a sharp glint in his blue eyes. His shapely lips formed a response completely unrelated to the question I’d asked.
“Keep a close eye on that boy, Randy.”
Surprised, I glanced over to see the singer who had basked in the lavish praise of the partygoers step down from the stage, only to be accosted by a member of the manor staff. While everyone else’s attention was drawn to the follow-up act, he was invited to follow the man back into the mansion.
This was a garden soiree. Only a select few were allowed to set foot inside the manor, and it was a handsome child, of all people, who had been invited in.
Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, I acknowledged the order and jumped into my next course of action. Unsurprisingly, the moment I left his side, I saw an offbeat character approach the unbudging prince.
“He’s sure got a lot of confidence...”
I snuck into the mansion in pursuit of the child from earlier, wondering aloud if Prince Chris was going to be all right. His bodyguards were off doing their own thing at the moment. He still had a Shadow watching over him, so I figured he wasn’t in any real danger, but I worried he might do something reckless.
At fifteen, the prince of our kingdom was still in the prime of his youth. He’d desperately pined for his first love, only to have that family of tanuki thwart him at every turn despite his best efforts, and his powerful relatives kept trying to force a fiancée of their own choosing on him... He had no end of problems to deal with on the daily. Between everything going on, it looked to me like he was spinning his wheels—and like he was always vaguely irritated.
If only they were here, I was sure my third brother or the prince’s childhood friend, Lord Alexei, would find a way to take his mind off things. Too bad both had left to go train.
“Can’t say I’m all that close to him...”
My father and eldest brother had probably placed me at His Highness’s side because I was close to him in age and we already knew each other. Still, I was beginning to think that someone else might have been better suited to cheering him up. For example, someone who didn’t know anything about his status or circumstances...
Just as the thought crossed my mind, I heard voices approaching and ducked behind the nearest curtain. That same moment, the blade of a sword lunged straight for me, which I dodged on pure instinct. Before I even had time to wonder what the hell was going on, the sword took another stab at me in the dark, then another, and all I could do was avoid it with my well-trained movements and instincts.
What’s more, the passersby didn’t even seem to notice. Give me a break! I screamed in my head. Careful not to make a sound, I continued to dodge the assault with the minimum amount of movement and an exotic basket hanging from my arm. Once I was sure the potential eyewitnesses were gone, I delivered a powerful kick, one of the close-combat moves I specialized in.
“Urk!”
I was pretty sure I’d landed a hit on my opponent’s solar plexus.
Then, the sword-wielding stranger jumped out from the curtain. His next thrust hit something, but he himself realized that it was too shallow an impact—he’d missed me.
A choked gasp filled the silence, which I followed with a bloodthirsty battle cry—and that was when my opponent screamed, “Wait! Uh... Hold on a second. Like, seriously, stop. In the words of our forefathers, good things come to those who wait!”
In spite of the many questions I had, I determined based on past experience that the best course of action was to put him down.
“Here’s what I’ve learned: kill or be killed.”
I unleashed another attack in time with my words, and my opponent ducked out of the way. Once again, I had to wonder who this mysterious stranger was. Though I was only thirteen years old, my physical combat skills were on par with my brothers’. Yet this man had managed to avoid taking a fatal blow.
Soon enough, we faced off in the moonlight streaming through the window and got a proper look at each other’s faces. He was a boy with gentle features. He had the air of a well-to-do son, and he wasn’t even bothering to hide his appearance.
Still, if the fact that he’d dodged my attacks was any indication, his skill was the real deal. He tried to talk me down in a genuine fluster, spouting the sorts of lines I might hear from an actor. “Besides! I was hiding here first. Sure, it’s my fault for suddenly trying to stab you, but you took me by surprise. Since you came along after me, shouldn’t you show a little more respect for your predecessor?”
I blinked. He had a point.
“Sorry.” I lowered my sword and gave him a polite bow. Then I held it back at the ready and added, “But you’re suspicious. I need to take you out.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?!”
Since I used my blade as a last resort, melee and martial arts were my go-to moves. Facing an opponent who wouldn’t succumb to those had me extra fired up. But just as I was contemplating how to beat the young man in front of me, consumed by an inappropriate sense of excitement, he came right out and identified himself.
“I was sent here by the department of City Hall in charge of regulating currency! I have an official seal right here. I’m undercover as part of a secret investigation. Now, who are you? Child or no, I’ll show you no mercy depending on how you answer. Do bear that in mind.”
My feet, which had been itching to dance to the rhythm of battle, shuffled sadly over the floor. In the end, everything was just as the prince had predicted.