Chapter 110:
Escape with our Lives
The figure holding the bloodied sword stood frozen as they stared into Silas’s eyes, much like a wolf caught feasting on fresh prey. But, as the figure stared at Silas, their sword was retracted, and they slowly walked to the door and into the view of the dim torches next to the cell, bringing into light the face of the person who had massacred the guards.
“Maeir?” Silas asked aloud, feeling his mom’s name roll awkwardly off of his tongue.
Having heard the voice of her son, Maeir hurried to the door, using her mana to freeze the doorknob solid before she lifted her foot and heavily kicked the handle, taking two kicks before the knob shattered in half, falling to the ground with a resounding thud. Kicking aside the doorknob, Maeir pushed open the door and walked inside the cell, surveying the scene inside before she approached her son with her arms open, her eyes red with relief.
Maeir’s eyes were full of warmth as she stared at Silas, wrapping her young son in her arms with a big hug, patting his head in relief at his well being. Staring at the woman hugging Silas, Clarence felt a bit bitter, his gaze falling dark as he stared at the smiling expression on Silas’s face, feeling regretful he himself had never seen such a warm smile.
Pulling away from Silas, knowing the other man in the cell was the prince, Maeir was angry. The moment Maeir’s gaze turned to Clarence, her eyes narrowed fiercely as she glared at him with vehement hatred, her mana leaking out around her in waves, unable to restrain the emotions with it. She had eavesdropped on the coronation ceremony, knowing full well why the prince was here.
“I’m only here to save Silas.” Maeir said, pulling her sword out of her waistband as she used her other hand to freeze the door handle with her mana. “You, Prince Clarence,” She added, lifting her foot as she kicked the frozen door knob on the ground with a fierce kick, breaking off the heavy handle as if it were glass. “You’ll die today.”
Clarence laughed in response to Maeir’s threats. “Ah, what a lovely welcome. It’s true most of the elves are savages. It seems at least Silas has learned differently.” His eyes moved towards Silas for a moment with a sarcastic smile, infuriating Maeir.
“Calling you an elf is an insult to our race.” Maeir stepped forward, pointing the tip of her sword towards Clarence. “I heard the guards. The Duke has finally begun his takeover of the palace, it seems. Quite a lie he’s crafted too.”
Silas turned towards Clarence, “Duke Godfreed rebelled? How?” He was not particularly shocked, but the timing was surprising.
“That’s not important right now.” Clarence frowned, staring down at the knife. “If you can ask this lovely woman to put down her sword, I can tell you how to get out of here.”
“Why are you trying to escape so suddenly? Aren’t you going to fight for the throne? You’re the prince, afterall.” Silas could not help but ask, finding the situation puzzling. “And why we? We can escape on our own.” Silas did not appreciate the thought of the prince trying to escape with them.
Clarence scoffed, “You think I’m trying to run away?” He stepped back as he said, “Malcolm is desperate to have me killed to take my place. All I have to do is find my father and formalize my position. If you help me, I’ll let you go. I can’t do this alone.”
“Oh, really?” Maeir stepped forward, “I can kill you right here and escape this damn palace with my son.” She stared up at Clarence with a heavy glare. “That would be much easier, wouldn’t it?”
After losing her son time and time again, Maeir was no longer willing to negotiate the wellbeing of her son. The young man in front of her was the reason he was captured in the first place. He had repeatedly harmed Silas, locking him away from his family like a canary, caging him away like a plaything. She would not allow her son to suffer at the hands of the Yursinean royal family any longer.
Held in a stalemate, there were sounds coming from the front of the dungeon, the sounds of footsteps. The door to the cell was in the very back of the dungeon, covering them from view as they stood, frozen in place. Maeir used her free hand to throw a dagger to Silas, saying with warning as she looked at the prince and said, “If he moves, kill him. I’ll be right back.”
Silas turned towards Clarence, his hand carefully holding the dagger as he asked Clarence, “You never answered my questions. Why are you here? And how do we get out of here?”
The prince sighed, “You heard that woman, I was usurped by my damn cousin.”
“And they called you an elf, huh? How creative.”
Clarence rolled his eyes, “That cousin of mine is quite manipulative. He could turn anyone on his side, especially now. Just mentioning elven heritage is enough to have someone killed.”
“Oh, I understand that.” Silas said, staring at the dagger in his hand with a frown.
Before Clarence could answer his second question, Maeir had returned with a somber expression. “More guards are on their way.” Maeir turned towards Clarence and quickly said, “We’ll cooperate for now.” Maeir said, leaning out of the doorway as she watched for more guards. “You betray us, and I’ll take you with me to the grave, little boy.”
“How romantic.” Clarence rolled his eyes, garnering a displeased glare from Silas.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Standing together, there were more sounds of footsteps, alerting of the arrival of more guards. Clarence could only rely on the two elves for now. He knew that he would easily be captured and caught on his own. There were too many guards, too few distractions, and too few paths that were unguarded for him to find his father. He would have to listen to the elven woman, wishing that Silas could stay by his side just a moment longer.
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The three walked the halls carefully on the uneven dirt terrain, using hidden paths Maeir had discovered to crawl through narrow passages to escape any wandering eyes of any passerby. The passages were full of dust and bugs, but the three were unbothered by the dilapidated conditions. They were more happy to preserve their lives than care about the scattered bugs landing in their hair. As they stepped on the bug carcasses, there were audible crunches under their feet, shattering the bug’s deteriorating exoskeletons.
“Figures an elf would find these passages.” Clarence whispered with a scoff, speaking quietly as they walked behind Maeir, who had lit a ball of mana in her hand to light the way. “Like a rat.”
Maeir stopped abruptly, but Silas was quick to change the subject to keep the two from escalating while they were forced to work together. “Malcolm’s your first cousin, so how could he take the throne? Unless he was a direct descendant of the king, then he would have no chance.”
“Malcolm’s mother’s surname is Breslin. He took the Godfreed name as he returned to the kingdom after traveling the continent, taking on my uncle’s surname.” Clarence rubbed his brow, wiping off a cobweb that had stuck itself to his face. “Most of the kingdom knew him as Malcolm Breslin until recently. Reinventing his identity like that, it all makes sense. He’s trying to make himself my father’s son in name.”
Maeir quietly scoffed to herself and kept walking, “Only a blind fool would have missed those signs.”
The group of three fell quiet, leaving Silas to feel much like the third wheel in the burning hatred between the prince and Maeir. He stayed quiet, standing between Maeir and Clarence like an underpaid referee, keeping them both in check as they traveled the short distance together to the king’s bedroom.
“We’re almost there.” Clarence said with a knowing look.
“How do you know?” Silas asked, looking over his shoulder towards Clarence.
Clarence replied vaguely. “It feels close.”
The tunnel was long and winding, but as they kept going, they found a painting back, resting quietly on a wall like a cover, locked in place by two simple mechanical locks. Though the metal screeched as Clarence opened them, the door opened with ease and Maeir was able to survey the area before they were let into the hall.
“We’re leaving.” Maeir said in a whisper as they stood outside the king’s hall, the guards having been led away by Maeir long before. She grabbed Silas’s hand and prepared to take her son away, but before she could, Clarence grabbed Silas’s other hand stubbornly.
“You’ll get caught if you try to escape the way you came.” He said bluntly, staring out the large window in front of the king’s quarters. Guards were stationed everywhere, surrounding the palace like flies to feces, making it nearly impossible to escape through normal means. “The only escape tunnel in this palace that’s still functional is deeply hidden. Only I know where it is.”
“And you won’t tell us until you talk to the king, is that right?” Maeir asked.
Clarence smiled, “I need an escape plan. As long as my father recognizes me as heir, you two can leave. Wait near the tunnel. I’ll be only a moment.”
Before Maeir could respond, Clarence entered the king’s room without knocking, his figure disappearing from view behind the closed door.
“I don’t trust him.” Maeir said, her hand resting on her blade as she turned to her son. “He’s the one that kidnapped you and tortured you, isn’t he? After this is all over, I’ll kill him myself.” Her hand tightened on her sword, her strength denting the metal handle with a clicking sound.
“For now, we can only listen to him.” Silas sighed, looking at his mother with a shallow smile. “I have a feeling he’ll be the one escaping rather than us.”
Staring at the door to the king’s room, Maeir and Silas moved to the spot against the wall, by the painting they had hidden behind as they waited for Clarence to emerge from the king’s chambers. The rest of the path was bricked off in the tunnel, giving them no other exit but the painting itself or the dungeon.
…
Inside the king’s bedroom, there was the king, laying weakly in his bed, his breathing labored. His servants had long since been sent away, even the queen, his wife, was unable to see him in his fragile state due to the orders of Sir Willis and Malcolm. He could only drink the tonics the physician prescribed, feeling his life slip away in his very hands like sand.
Hearing the door to his sitting room open, the king sat up, coughing weakly to himself as he sat up, his eyes fixed forward on the door, where Clarence emerged, his face full of grievances as he stared at his dying father, his sorrow apparent.
“Father, you-” Clarence was unsure what to say as he closed the door behind him, stepping forward to the bedside of his father, who laid in bed like a sickly shell of his former self. His wrinkles were pronounced, his skin pale and blotchy, even bloated in his joints. His eyes were sunken in, dark and glassy, as though he would not see the light of tomorrow. “What happened to you, Father? They say I am not the true heir, but you know. You know I am your son, don’t you?” Clarence pleaded.
“I-I regret ever hiding this from you, Clarence.” The king coughed into his handkerchief, his lips spilling red liquid. “But Malcolm… he is my son.”
“But isn’t he Uncle Thomas’s son?” Clarence’s eyes widened, “Father, this is not the time to lie. Aren’t I your eldest and rightful heir? You said so at the ceremony!”
“You are-” The king coughed again, his face contorting with a weak smile.
“Father!” Clarence shouted, unable to control himself as he grabbed the king’s shoulders. “I am your heir! I am the eldest prince! Just tell them I am your heir, and this will all be over!”
Blood spilled from the front of the king’s mouth, covering parts of the king’s white pajamas and Clarence’s arms. He could no longer speak, his eyes gently falling closed as his breath came to a slow stop, his breath falling silent as Clarence held his father’s shoulders. He repeatedly shaked the man, urging him to speak again, but there was nothing, only the warm corpse of the man who had betrayed him.
He had died before he could wholly certify Clarence as his next heir. This allowed his illegitimate child to fight for the throne in the same manner as his own true son. It was blasphemy.
Stepping back, Clarence was covered in fresh blood, standing alone as he stared at the king, enraged. Just as he had turned to go find the two elves, there was the abrupt sound of the door opening, followed by the startled shout of a servant.
“H-help! T-the king is dead!” A servant yelled, tears flowing from their eyes. “P-Prince Clarence murdered the king!”
Seeing the man, there was no way for Clarence to escape quietly now. Clarence quickly approached and silenced the man, grabbing his mouth as he hit the back of the servant’s neck, knocking the elder man unconscious. With a wave of his arm, he threw open the bedroom door and ran, passing by a second servant as he threw open the door to the hall.
“We need to leave, now! Follow me!” Clarence hissed, watching as Silas and Maeir emerged from the back of the painting. Once the two exited the path, they ran down the hallway towards the prince’s personal bedroom. While it was only a short distance, there were a variety of servants and guards in the passing area that had heard the scream of the king’s servant. Maeir and Silas used their weapons to push and stab anyone trying to stop them, even if it meant killing them.
“In here!” Clarence threw open the door, the intricate style of the doorway just the same as Silas had remembered. The two ran in, followed by Clarence, who had shoved the heavy white door shut and locked the door, letting out a heavy breath as his palms rested against the cool door surface, blood from his hands smearing on the white door.
“Your bedroom?” Maeir asked aloud as she pushed a nearby dresser to block the door, moving the heavy furniture as if it weighed nothing with her hands. Clarence and Silas moved a heavy armoire to reinforce the door, managing to cover what the dresser missed.
“There’s a hidden passage under my bed. If we hurry, we can get through most of the path before the guards get here.” Clarence laughed to himself as he said, “It’s not like they’ll be able to find the path anyway.”
Maeir was the first to enter the prince’s bedroom. The room itself had been decorated for two, welcoming the prince and his new bride, but Maeir could only roll her lip as she scanned the room, beginning to search for the hidden passageway the prince had mentioned as Silas and Clarence entered behind her, closing the door and locking it from the inside.
“This is it, right?” Maeir asked, halfway under the bed as she began to feel around, her hands searching for a latch, button, or lock to disengage the platform door.
Clarence walked beside her and said, “On the underside of the mattress just above the middle of the bed, there are two buttons. Tap the left one once, the right twice, then the left again.”
After feeling around the center of the mattress bottom, barely fitting under the frame herself, Maeir found the button and followed Clarence’s prompting, quickly opening the passageway. Once the door opened, she slid down into the opening, her body landing three feet below onto solid dirt, finding herself in a dark tunnel with no light but her own mana to guide the way.
“Silas, come here.” Maeir’s voice called from the tunnel, urging her son to get into the tunnel. Before Silas could step forward, there was a heavy hand on his wrist, holding him back from stepping forward. The cold hand on his wrist was no other then Clarence’s.
Clarence looked towards the bed and smiled, the pair only feet away from the narrow space. “You go ahead first. Silas will stay with me.” He smiled, “It’s not like I can trust you not to betray me, now that you’ve found your escape.”
Maeir fought the temptation to crawl out of the tunnel and fight the stupid young man, but before she could begin her rapid shuffle back, Silas called out to her. “Don’t worry, Clarence won’t do anything stupid. You go ahead. We’ll be right behind you.”
For her son’s safety, all she could do was keep moving forward. As soon as they escaped through the tunnel, she would make the prince suffer as much as she and Silas had over the past ten years, inflicting the hatred of the elves back on the foolish prince.
Only moments after being called to the bloody scene, the nearby guards scattered, a group staying to protect the king’s corpse, while the others followed Clarence and the two elves he had colluded with, their armor clinking like church bells, signifying the passing of King Godfreed.
As they slammed on the door, attempting to displace the furniture, the three had already hidden in the passage under the bed, leaving Maeir to explore ahead first as Silas and Clarence were forced to lay together momentarily in the narrow passage, their arms touching as they listened for Maeir’s shuffling in the darkness, having long since closed the entrance to the secret passage.
“I think she’s far enough. Let’s go.” Clarence said, moving by Silas’s side in the enlarged passage as the pair traveled downward down the narrow, slight slope, their eyes covered in darkness.
As their figures disappeared deeper into the tunnel, the guards entered the room, surrounding the sitting area first as the leading knight commanded, “Search the area!”
The room that would have once housed the newly wedded royals was now in shambles, leaving only destruction in its wake as the guards stormed through the room, leaving nothing uncovered.
…
The king’s closest advisors were gathered in the strategy room, their bodies surrounding the large round table with alarm. Malcolm sat next to Willis, their eyes full of veiled joy as they spoke with the gathered Yursinean advisors, their voices mixed together.
“What is going to happen now? If the prince is truly an elf, then the kingdom will be ruined!”
“Who will lead the kingdom now? The king has died!”
Malcolm raised his hand. “Quiet, all of you.”
The men fell silent, their eyes falling on Malcolm with hope, looking for someone to lead the kingdom as they once had.
“For now, we need to catch the prince. He escaped somewhere in the palace after killing his own father. Dastardly, I must say.” He paused, tapping his chin as he said, “For now, I will assist the kingdom as the prince’s cousin, until Clarence is captured. He obviously killed the king to take over the throne, there is no other explanation.”
The discussion of the next heir had been pushed back to another date, a date set after the king’s funeral arrangements were made. Once the arrangements were discussed, the other advisors were sent away. This allowed Malcolm to return to his chambers, a set of guards following his every move to protect him as if he were the next king.
After retiring to his room late into the night, a knight quickly arrived to inform the young duke of the current situation in the palace.
“The guards in the dungeon had been killed?” Malcolm asked with a raised brow.
“There were two elves that had escaped with the prince. It is believed that they had colluded with the prince together to murder King Godfreed.” The knight bowed, his eyes full of rage. “They escaped the palace, but our Moon Knight Squad is currently tracking them now.”
“Perfect.” Malcolm smiled, his eyes like crescents. “Captain Laurent will find them easily. Once they’re found, they must be brought back unharmed. Understood?”
“Of course, Duke Godfreed.”
The knight bowed again before he left, bringing a smile to the duke’s face as he stared out the window, his thoughts on the newly-earned power he had gained.
If the king had recognized me as his true heir sooner, this never would have happened. What a shame, he was such a foolish man. At least I take after my mother. Malcolm tapped his finger on the table next to him, the glass full of steaming tea still waiting to be drunk.
…
Hi all! It’s just a me chapter again this week ;A; This was actually supposed to be posted earlier, but some of my students had a disagreement I had to handle so it was a time >u<; It was fairly straight-forward so no worries there. It’s my job =v=
Anyway, SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT~! For YMtK’s second online posting anniversary, we will be doing a special chapter! That special chapter theme will be decided by YOU ALL~ yay! So comment a theme/situation/cliche you’d like to see Silas and Clare in, be that ABO (my friend wants this, I don’t ;; ), modern day college theme, ghost x human haunting, vampires (chef’s kiss), etc, be as specific as you desire comment below. The comment with the most updoots (replies) by other readers will be selected, but the final choice is up to Hunny and I, as we’re the ones writing it! Ahaha (Pueden comentar en español también >y<)
Though, absolutely please be specific as you desire. I’m ready to go ham on this. Spicy content is okay, but within limits 😀 This should be posted sometime by the end of September, so keep an eye out. Final selection will be made next week, so if y’all stay shy it’s author’s choice >u< huhuhu As always, thanks so much for reading! Have a great week >u<~~
Haven’t read it yet but I want to express how I was looking forward to the update for this story. I had been pressing refresh hours now.Thank you for the update. Now, I go on to read.
Aww, thank you so much! (♡˙︶˙♡) It’s been a little hard without Hunny’s help, but it makes me so happy to hear that! (/▽＼*) Hopefully we can stick to uploading earlier Sundays (that’s my fault ;; ), and I hope the story continues to meet your expectations!! ＼(^o^)／
Your comments are always appreciated! (≧◡≦) ♡ Thanks again!