The palace walls were decorated with different portraits of royalties in the past three centuries. And the knights and maids who saw the prince bowed their heads as soon as the prince walked past them.

The prince stopped in front of a room where two guards were stationed. They gave a brief salute and opened the door. Inside the room were the guests that were waiting for him.

“Your highness,” Everyone in the room stood up and gave a brief bow as soon as Prince Kija entered.

“Please have a seat everyone,” Prince Kija said and everyone adhered. They sat back towards the sofa while the knights following the prince remained standing behind him. The maids immediately served them teas and some sweets to eat.

“It’s been a while, Lady Malaya, I heard from Sir Oliver that you went missing after the accident.” The prince started the conversion.

“Unexpected things are bound to happen even if we wanted it or not. But I have solved it all now. Now, why does the prince wanted to see me?” Malaya said as she looked at the prince directly.

Their eyes were trying to scrutinise each one’s motives.”I will be direct, Milady. I want to ask for your cooperation.”

“My cooperation? I heard that Sir Oliver and another friend of mine, Sir Oliver are already helping his highness?”

“Yes,” The prince looked quite helpless now. “And I can’t take Sir Oliver and Sir Rein’s help. The Kingdom is now turning into chaos and because of them we manage to make it this far.”

“You flatter me, Your Highness,” Oliver said. “It is normal for people to help those in need.”Malaya, hearing this, managed to stop her from letting out a scoff. Out of all people she knew, Oliver was never the kind of person to help someone without ulterior motives. Especially with that calm smile on his face.

“I heard that you become a master of a Siren.” Prince Kija finally said. “And he is the one who caused everyone to sleep from further self-destruction. Right now, there are suspicions that you colluded with the siren and was the mastermind to all of this.”

“Oh, so I become the prime suspect here,” Malaya said, a bit amused.

“No that’s not true!” Dandras slammed his hands on the table to everyone’s surprise. “It is not Lady Malaya’s fault!”

“And who might you be?” Realising himself from losing his temper, Dandras felt a little embarrassed.

“Ah, I haven’t introduced them to you, Your Highness. He is Dandras,” then Malaya gestured to Lamar who was sitting at the right side of Dandras, “And that is Lamar. There are my new friends that I met in the desert.”

“I apologised for my rude behaviour, Your Highness.” Dandras knelt down, not daring to raise his head. “But it is not really, Lady Malaya who caused this.”

“Why do you say so?” Prince Kija looked at Dandras intently now. “You sounded certain that Lady Malaya is not the one behind this. And please take your seat. I’m not blaming Lady Malaya either, I am just stating the rumours and suspicions of the kingdom so that all of you will be aware.”

“His highness told you to go back to your seat now, Dandras,” Malaya said. “If you stay longer like that, you are disobeying a royal.”Dandras sat back but he didn’t look at the prince’s eyes.

“To answer his highness question. I brought these two with me since they are witnesses on who was the one behind this.” Malaya said.”Witness?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Will it be alright to let them tell you everything they know?”Prince Kija looked at Dandras then at Lamar.

“Then I’ll listen, please speak everything you know.”

“Dandras, Lamar you can tell everything to his highness now.” Malaya urged them. The two seemed nervous but they formed themselves. They glanced at Malaya and Malaya and nod at them to reassure them.

“Then Your highness I’ll begin.” Dandras was the first one to speak. After almost an hour of their tale. The whole room was filled with silence. The maids refilled the pitcher and the cup of everyone.

“A group of red mask men were behind this?””Yes, Your Highness.” Malaya said. “Those people are now chasing Dandras and Lamar. And if I didn’t make it in time, they would have been long dead before we could know the truth.”The Prince fell into silence, thinking deeply.

“Your village is where they are right now. Sir Aston,” he called out to one of the knights standing behind him. “Go and investigate everything in their village right now. I want the results of the investigations this evening.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” Aston, the head knight, bowed down and quickly left the room.”What are the reasons for doing something like this?” Prince Kija glanced at the two.

“We can’t clearly say, Your Highness,” Dandras said. “We are separated from another room from the others since we are the ones who develop the powder. When the guard, the member of the red mask, left for the capital, we seized that chance to escape.”

“I know how to pick locks, so that escaping becomes possible.” Lamar said after Dandras.”Your highness, we are willing to dedicate our lives in order to create a cure.” Dandras said. “We deeply regret that our creation has been used like this. We don’t want any of this. And we know we can’t even pay this with our own lives.”

Prince Kija looked at the two. Seeing their pleas and expression, he knew too well that these two never wanted all these things to happen.

“If you say that it is your creation that led to this, then are you aware that the crown prince has been afflicted with that powder you said?”

“We are fully aware of it, Your Highness!” Both Dandras and Lamar said with their heads remaining down.

“I will create a special lab just for the two of you. Within two weeks, can you manage to create the medicine?”The two clinched their fists.

“We will, Your Highness.” Dandras and Lamar said again.”Thank you for giving us this chance, Your Highness.” Lamar said.’Two weeks is quite a short time. But given that the crown prince’s life is at stake here, this is the best Prince Kija could give them for a chance.’ Malaya looked at the two. ‘Well, I’ll just swift them away if something happens to them.’

“What else do you know about the red mask group?” The prince asked.”One of them can use high fire magic,” Malaya said. “He is that man who almost got us.”

“The one who spreads the powder has wind magic,” Dandras said. “There are still other two, but I don’t know their magic. But they all have eccentric and strange attitudes.” Lamar trembled as if he remembered something awful and frightening.

“Your Highness, I will cooperate with you but within two weeks or depending on the situation, it may be longer than that,” Malaya said. Everyone looked at her. While Oliver’s smile turned into a grin.’So she finally stepped in.'”There are also something I want to confirm with those red mask people after all.””Did they do something to Milady as well?”

“Nothing of sorts like that, Your Highness. I only have the feeling that if I didn’t deal with them sooner or later. I think that they will be one of the biggest problems in my journey.” Malaya said. “I adhere to the saying, while the problem is still a bud, we should already pluck it before it spreads its roots further and grows.”But to everyone’s dismay, the bud has long been grown now.

And an unexpected huge storm was approaching not only to the continent but also to the world.

***

Meanwhile, another hour later…

Sir Aston and the other knights and some of the mages who were with him, could finally see the entrance of the village. However, his brows creased when he saw the huge smoke.

“Everyone! Hurry!”

They hastened the horses and stopped at the village.

“Quickly put out the fire! And find survivors.” Aston screamed. All the knights and mages used their magic to put out the fire.

After half an hour, the fire in the village had been wiped out. However, nothing remained and since the houses were made of light materials and woods, nothing could be salvaged anymore. The knights failed to find any survivors either.”Sir! We can’t find anyone here!” One of the knights said.”

I can see that clearly,” Sir Aston looked at the burnt village. ‘It seems we can’t get any evidence with this. Whoever was behind this, they surely worked so fast that it was almost frightening seeing that those two just came right after being chased by them.’

“Sir Rodrick, remained here with half of the unit, to monitor the place. I’ll head back to the capital now and report to His Highness. Continue to search the area and send word right away, if you spotted some suspicious things.”

“Yes, Sir Aston!” Sir Roderick saluted.