Pretending To Be Gilead's Prince and Master Wizard

Alex's face became serious, like he was thinking where was the last time he saw my childhood friend or is trying to familiarize his face right this instance.

I quickly came to his side and said, "However, I am not yet so sure either if it was really him or not since we didn't have the chance to see his face."

"Believe me, I will take all my chances just to catch this culprit behind that attack, as well as for the death of my grandmother and for the prince's abduction." he sneers.

I bowed my head and contemplated my actions. He is right. It is indeed better to take all of our chances to pin down who is the real mastermind behind these series of unfortunate events that is currently happening in Gilead.

"Then, if you insist, there is something more I need to tell you…" I decided to open up the information I recently found out regarding the prince's missing case.  I looked from my left and to my right, looking for any signs of other beings that might hear this conversation.

Alex's forehead forms a crease upon hearing me. "This looks important. What is it?"

"Indeed, it is. Since it is all about---"

"Your majesty, captain Alex, I do apologize if I am interrupting your urgent discussion, but..." one royal guard suddenly emerges from the scene which kind of startled me and the captain. As we straightened up once more, he continued. "there is someone waiting at the lobby that would require the captain's presence."

I can't help but be curious about this someone that the guard mentioned about. Someone visited here in the palace for the captain of the magic army?

"And who would that be?" Alex looks annoyed right now for suddenly interrupting our very urgent discussion. "I am still having this important discussion with the prince."

"It's Lady Margaret from Beldovia, my lord." 

Upon mentioning that very name, I did not miss to notice the sudden change into the captain's facial expression. From being serious, his face softened a bit as he looked at the guard once again.

Amidst Alex's silence, the guard adds, "Perhaps, would you like me to tell her to visit some other time?"

As quick as lightning, Alex replies, "No! I will see her in a minute."

The guard curtly nods and says, "I will tell her immediately. Please excuse me,' and began to walk away from here.

Alex's mind seems to be occupied now, our discussion long forgotten already. I wonder who this Lady Margaret is that caused such a reaction into this lad's nonchalant face? This would be the third time where a lady from the other nation has visited our palace.

"May I perhaps know who this Lady Margaret is?"I curiously asked, but not to the point of making it so obvious in my tone.

But instead of answering me directly, Alex now turns towards me and instructs me on what to do.

"I want you to remain here and practice while I will be seeing someone in the lobby. Or perhaps let us meet later at the secret hideout to pick up where we left off this afternoon."

"As the fake prince, am I not allowed to see this Lady Margaret in this form?" 

"You might confuse her. Look, just do as I say…" he trails off, his voice begging. "Please?"

Against my will, I made a long, exasperated sigh before answering him, "Oh, alright! Whatever you say."

"Thanks."

After that, Alex starts to make his leave here and proceeds into the lobby where his guest is waiting for him. As much as I wanted to know who that was, I have to respect his privacy.

To keep myself occupied, I did as he says. I tried to practice those ten spells that he made me do for a dozen times earlier and tried my very best to make it perfect. Those spells are mostly from the element water, where I am currently weak at. The rest are from the element fire, where Alex said the other day that I am now improving on it.

However, despite anything I do to occupy myself and my mind, it just won't do the trick. Call me anything you want, but I am really curious about what is going on right now. I wanted to know if this Lady Margaret is someone significant in Alex's past, or there is something more to that.

If so, then why show up now? Geez, with all the available time we had in the past, this lady did pick the most crucial time in my life where I was about to tell the captain of the truth about the prince's missing case. Talk about bad timing, huh.

After a few more minutes of arguing with myself if I should go in the lobby right now or not, the former decision wins. Privacy my ass, I am definitely going in there… no matter what I am about to see later.

Performing the invisibility spell that I have learned from my mentor and from the school as well, I started taking a lot of turns from where I am from until I finally reached the lobby. Even if  I am in an invisible form. I still chose to hide behind a wall that is near to where the two of them are currently seated so that I could stay out of Alex's radar and can still hear what they are saying at the same time.

"Enough of the run-arounds, Margaret…" Alex firmly says, interrupting his acquaintance's story-telling. "I am sure you did not bother yourself to come here to talk about your word tour, didn't you?"

World tour? Is she a renowned artist that I am not aware of?

"I understand that you are still angry with me, after the inconvenience I had caused in you and Lucas in the past…" Lady Margaret trails off, her hands are now shaky. "But I am here to ask for your forgiveness, and to redeem myself as well." 

"Save your words, Margaret. You really don't have to come all the way here to do that. It is better if me and Lucas don't see your face ever again," Alex says with so much rage in it, I think both of them have a bitter past together.

"But I still care for you... '' Lady Margaret trails off, making both of my hands clasps into my mouth. "I still love you… that is why I chose to come back here, so that we can start all over again." 

Suddenly, I started to feel something tingling inside my chest. And then I realized sooner that it was my heart, being crushed right at this moment as soon as I heard the truth from the lady's mouth herself.

So it is true… that he and Lady Margaret did have a relationship in the past and that Lucas was somehow involved in it.

And speaking of which, I just saw Lucas walking his way inside the castle but soon makes an abrupt stop upon seeing who is the woman currently seated on the couch. 

I cannot bring myself to listen to them anymore. If I do, it will just pain my heart to know the whole truth, and I don't want that to happen once again. 

Tears started to spring up at the corners of my eyes. And before I could let these tears roll down my cheeks, I started rushing my way into the prince's chamber… Alex's rules be damned. After a few walks and a turn to my left, I finally found the chamber, opened it, and closed it as quietly as I could. I still don't want to let Alex know that I actually listened to their conversation earlier.

By seven in the evening, I turned back into my normal self once more. The invisibility spell already faded from my system. I started to head for the prince's office in my fake princely getup, and by the time I passed by the lobby, there was no Lady Margaret in sight now. And so is Alex. I wondered if they started reminiscing their past at this moment.

"What are you standing there for so long? Are you looking for something?"

I almost flinched into my place when I heard Lucas' voice right behind me. My head swiftly turned into his direction.

"Good evening, Lucas." I greeted, forcing a smile to my lips.

"Come on now, I know you are dying to ask me," Lucas says, but I was too oblivious to catch up.

"Huh?"

"Aren't you curious about Lady Margaret and Alex's relationship?" Now, Lucas is smirking at me, like he is challenging me to deny his accusation.

"I was just curious where they went at this time, that's all." I still denied it though.

"To answer your question, Alex is now in his room, having a good night's rest after the dinner. And Lady Margaret was long gone since the afternoon." 

I nodded. I thought him and the lady are now together.

There was an awkward silence after that, with each side refraining themselves from talking.  But a few moments had passed, Lucas began to speak once more.

"Just so you know…" he trails off, meeting me in the eye. "Lady Margaret and Alex had once become lovers in the past."