As Ashoka watched the figure of Oswald striding past him, a knock responded from within his own chambers, from the door joining his room to Eldrin's.
He looked back into his room, then turned back to smile at the guard.
Turning back, he headed inside his room and towards the door leading to the king's chamber. Opening it, he saw Eldrin, standing motionlessly in front of his desk. Upon hearing the door open, Eldrin turned his head to face him, a smile unknowingly forming on his face.
"Ah, there you are, my friend. Mind helping me out with something." He pointed to a thick book with a deep red cover, placed on the high shelf, right next to his study desk. "Can't really reach it, you know."
Ashoka returned the smile with one of his, though it didn't reach his eyes. Walking forward, he reached for the shelf, and with a little effort, took it out before handing it to Eldrin, who sat down on the wooden chair with the book in his hand.
"Uncle Alariv is back," Eldrin said, rummaging through the pages of the book. "So is Uncle Gaius, of course."
"And?" Ashoka asked, sitting down on the sofa.
"Their planning is complete. They'll be leaving for the hunt in about 5 days."
"How bad is it?" Ashoka asked, trying to glean more information. He still didn't know if the final boss was a tyrant or a devil. "What are the corrupted like?"
"I don't know." Eldrin wheezed, slumping on his chair, "they won't tell me much. I would get too worried, they said, whatever that means."
"Well, their worry isn't unfounded."
Eldrin stared at Ashoka, almost menacingly, before sighing out a response, "Fine."
After some time of waiting, Ashoka reached into his pocket and pulled out a neatly folded paper. Unfolding it, he handed it to Eldrin. It was the royal warrant that would give him permission to investigate the matters related to the prince.
"You sure took your time." Eldrin said, smiling as he read through the unsigned warrant, his eyes turning a mysterious black as they scanned every letter.
"I got a little busy," Ashoka replied.
Eldrin laughed at those words, which only made Ashoka's heart wince. "If you consider sleeping all day as being busy, sure."
After signing it, Eldrin passed the bill back to Ashoka, before giving him a suspicious look. "So you're leaving right now?"
"Yes." His answer was only met with a sigh.
***
Even so early in the morning, the city center was bustling with activity as crowds of people moved around in a chaotic mess, like a swarm of locusts, haggling and bargaining with the stall's owners in a hurry before being pushed around by those behind.
It seems the caravan merchants hadn't wasted any time setting up their shops in the busiest part of the city. Of course, some of them would decide to stay away from the city center, opting to go to the outer reaches of the kingdom.
Ashoka stood at the edge of the city center, which had now become more of a bazaar. Rows of people flowed past his motionless figure, none paying attention to him. Today, his goal was to dig up information about the history of this land. That was why he had decided to disguise himself as one of the merchants from outside, even though it took a lot of time.
Scanning the periphery of the bazaar, he spotted a stall at a silent corner of the road. Walking towards it, he took out a shining gold coin from his pocket. He sat beside the 50 or so years old looking stall owner and started playing with the coin in his hand, swirling it in between his fingers with practiced precision.
Can't believe I spent a month learning this trick. Ashoka smirked, and with a flick of his finger, the coin sprang up into the air before disappearing with a quick swipe of his hand. At least it's useful for putting up a show.
After some time, when he sensed the stall owner glancing at him, and the coin in his hand from the periphery of his vision, Ashoka finally asked:
"Kind sir, would you be so generous as to pick a number from 1 to 10 for me?"
The man remained silent for a moment, as if contemplating, before speaking in a hoarse voice, "7 sounds like a good pick."
Ashoka nodded in silence before turning his head. "Well, you see, I come from a faraway land and don't know how things work around here. I would be very thankful to you if you could help me out here." As he said those words, he reached into his pocket and took out 6 more glimmering gold coins and placed them beside him.
***
It took him around 7 hours of roaming around and questioning people, and a dozen few incidents that made him want to bury himself into the ground from embarrassment, to finally collect the basic information and history of the land of Casimir.
This "kingdom," which was actually just a city twice the size of New York, was founded by a mysterious quasi-transcendent named Casimir around 70 years ago.
Not much was known about his origin, aside from the fact that he was first spotted when a group of trade caravans was trying to pass the expansive wilderness and came across a never-before-seen circular-shaped mountain range of 150-kilometer radius.
Venturing inside, they found the land completely subjugated, not a single corrupted creature in sight. At the heart of this expansive land, they found the massive brass pillar—which still stands to this day—and leisurely sitting atop that pillar was the figure of the mighty young saint who had single-handedly conquered this land, a jagged yet majestic obsidian crown resting on his head. He was pretty sure he had seen a painting in the palace depicting this very scene in clear details.
In the next 30 or so years, the land had transformed into a prosperous city, first into a safe heavan for trade caravans passing through the wilderness, and later turned into a massive trading hub of its own, attracting numerous merchants from all over the world.
In the midst of his kingdom-building arc, the previously lonesome saint found the love of his life and settled down with his new family.
Thus, 40 years ago was born the first prince, Riven. Then the second eldest prince, Prince Alariv, and after him came the two twin brothers, Gaius and Oswald.
Prince Riven was the most beloved of the four princes by the people and he later even went on to have a family of his own and a child later on, named Eldrin—surprisingly the only prince to have a child.
While prince Riven was the most beloved, prince Alariv was the one most entangled by the common people. It was said that he spent more of his adult life within the company of the common people than with his own brothers.
Then there were Gaius and Oswald, the warriors of the family. In fact, Gaius was the first of the princes to reach ascension, with Oswald right behind him, locked in their fierce rivalry.
.
2 years ago, the peace was broken, as the kingdom came under its biggest corrupted creature raid in its entire history, led by a corrupted terror and a fearsome devil, and finally, a great devil.
Many lives were lost during the raid that lasted an entire year. One of them was Prince Riven, who died 7 months into the raid while heroically fighting the corrupted devil—who had somehow found its way into the heart of the kingdom—to mutual destruction when the king had gone to fight the titan and was unable to give any warning of the devil's approach. The tales of his heroic sacrifice were so famous that they had even reached far away land.
With the first prince's death, a rift appeared between the 3 brothers, and this rift only grew with the mighty king's death 3 months later, after defeating the Great Devil but also succumbing to his injuries soon enough.
The mantle of the crown was passed down to the young Eldrin, and while Prince Alariv had decided to look after his nephew to honor his fallen brother, the other two princes were left shaken.
Suffering from the physical and mental scars of the battles, Oswald drowned himself in wine and luxuries, obsessed with collecting the most riches and lands, becoming the greedy, ravenous fiend he is today.
Gaius, meanwhile, was also shaken, more so by the realization of who had inherited the crown. These great feelings of fury, despair, and disappointment in himself later had him seeking more and more power. Renowned for his leadership among the army during the raid, he became the chief commander of the army, second only to the king himself in power.
There were some other minor details, like how Prince Alariv had fallen in love with a commoner and decided to forsake his title as the prince when met with opposition from his two remaining brothers.
This surely could've been the plot of some top-selling fantasy novel.
He was once again sitting inside his personal room, reading through the information he had gathered. It had taken a fair share of asking around for multiple perspectives to piece together some of the finer details.
As he read through his notes once again and reviewed the rules of the crown in his mind, new conjectures and theories began to form in his mind as more of the pieces of puzzles were put in place.
A plan had begun to materialize in his mind, a plan that just might not force him to end the young king's life early. And he was going to begin the conspiracy today.
***
That night, Ashoka appeared at the gates of the soldier's ward inside the main palace.
The main ward consisted of a central open courtyard, the main armory, the first floor for the living quarters for the soldiers, and the second floor, which was exclusively built for the prince, containing his personal armory and sleeping quarters.
After some asking around with the guards, he found the stairs leading up to the second floor. His heart pounded in his chest as he slowly climbed the spiraling stairway, and the narrowness of the passage didn't help at all with the emptiness he currently felt in his stomach. He wanted to turn away and run, climb back into his comfortable bed, and sleep for another day; many times he almost did, but every time, he stopped.
What would our great spiritual beacon, Fang Yuan, say in this situation?! Probably something about perseverance or shit like that. Sadly, he hadn't finished reading RI before getting thrown into this hell's maw. Heck, he hadn't even finished the northern plains arc, one of his many great regrets upon leaving his original world. Of course, something that trivial couldn't stop him from larping the entire series. He never even got caught!
Guess we'll never know.
Finally, he reached the end of the stairway and entered into the waiting room. A few soldiers were standing guard at the entrance of the prince's chamber door. He walked towards the door before being stopped by the guards.
"Hey, stop! Identify yourself!"
"I am Ashoka, proxy of Prince Alariv," He replied confidently, before pausing for a moment as he pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to the guards, "And I am here to ask some questions of Prince Gaius, with direct permission from his majesty the king."
Looking at the document and subsequently at the signature of the king, the two guards glancee at one another before asking Ashoka, "Um... Then, should we inform his highness—"
"Leave," Ashoka ordered. By now, he heard movement from within the room.
"Alright." Both the guards nodded before disappearing past the stairway.
Ashoka watched their retreating figure silently before turning towards the door. He raised his hand to knock at the door, and then—
And then he stopped, as hesitation crept into his heart.
***
One quiet afternoon, the eating stops. The caterpillar seeks a sturdy twig, spins a small, strong button of silk, and hangs upside down in a "J" formation.
It hangs motionless for a day until, with a sudden spasm, its skin splits behind its head. The last caterpillar skin is shed, revealing a soft, pale green shell underneath that quickly hardens into a tiny jade-colored sanctuary adorned with gold dots.
With that, the chrysalis is formed, and the caterpillar readies itself for the final preparation for its molting into something beautiful.
***
Ashoka silently stared at his hand that was still hovering inches away from the door. A long sigh escaped him, and he let his hand drop.
Looking around the waiting room, he spotted a glassless stone window and walked toward it. He really needed some fresh air.
Resting his hands on the sill of the open window, he took a deep breath and focused his eyes on the scenery outside.
It was an utterly mesmerizing sight. He saw stars—a lot of them, more than he had ever seen in his entire life even. For a moment, he felt like he was floating in the beautiful cosmos, the numerous stars glimmering around him like specks of sands.
Some people would have paid thousands just to witness such a view back in my world, he mused. And here I am, seeing it for free.
Down below, the city was dark and silent, while a few points of light illuminated the various guard stations here and there. On one of the open patches of land, a giant bonfire blazed brightly, illuminating the many families taking shelter from the cold of the upcoming winter, talking, laughing, and retelling many stories of the old days to young ones. He heard the sounds of children running around the bonfire, laughing, giggling, and chasing each other down.
If he went along with his plan, many people would die within the next week. Many more still if he didn't do anything. He let his head fall into his hands.
"What a hypocrite." He said with a self-deprecating laugh. In the end, it didn't really matter, did it? He would either survive this nightmare or he would die. Both of them will result in everything here disappearing.
In the end, it was all just his selfishness, his unwillingness to get his own hands bloodied, that drove him to do all this.
All this, just to save one brat.
With one final breath, he resolved his heart and turned around to face the door to Gaius's room.
On the first breath, he started walking forward towards the door, his footsteps resounding in the waiting room. In the second breath, he reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. On the third breath, he arrived in front of the door and raised his arm high.
Knock! Knock!
"Who is it?" The reply came almost instantly, as if the person on the other side had been standing there the entire time, waiting for him.
"Ashoka." He replied plainly.
The door opened with a click, letting him see the figure of Prince Gaius, a sheathed short sword in his right hand.
"What do you want?" Gaius asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice as his sharp eyes scanned Ashoka's face.
Instead of answering, Ashoka handed him the folded piece of paper. Gaius's gaze did not move from Ashoka's face as he slowly unfolded the note. Finally, he looked down to see the contents of the paper, and his eyes narrowed.
["Do you wish to seize the crown?"]