The Trap (2)

Seo-jun picked up the dishes on one of the tables before heading back to the kitchen. He was currently in Fillmont, the city right next to the capital.

"They have confirmation of Joshua Ashgrove crossing the border. They were unable to apprehend him and his party." Lucas whispered.

For the last few weeks, he and prince Lucas had been disguised as commoners while working in a tavern. It shocked Seo-jun at first when Lucas had decided to personally accompany Seo-jun on this mission, even more so than when Nathaniel had allowed Lianna to accompany Mikyle.

Lucas was currently wearing blue colored contacts and his hair was dyed a dirty yellow using the potion that Mikyle's alchemist had provided. He had been working as a dishwasher slash server while Seo-jun had been serving the customers.

They chose this tavern because it was quite popular amongst travelers from other kingdoms. It was their plan that someone from Shigaron would recognize Seo-jun's starry-like black hair and become suspicious of the fact that there were hints of blue in it. Yep, Seo-jun couldn't dye his hair for this step in their plan and had been trying to show off that he was a dual wielder without being overly obvious.

Seo-jun put the dirty dishes into the sink. He then went over to the water spigot and filled up the bucket beside. "When is his estimated arrival?" Seo-jun asked as he handed the fresh bucket of water to prince Lucas. It was still a strange sight for Seo-jun to see a prince washing dishes.

"Later tonight."

He nodded to show that he understood before heading back out to finish cleaning the tables. The owner of the tavern was a former knights captain, another reason why this place was chosen, and was currently escorting some drunk and unruly customers home.

Finally. This farce was coming to a close. He couldn't wait to see Mikyle again. They had been separated for a month and Seo-jun was itching to see him again.

They did keep in contact to keep each side updated about the progress but it was minimal at best. They had opted for minimal contact because crown Prince Nathaniel went slightly overboard in the beginning when contacting Lianna.

Seo-jun chuckled silently at the memory that thought brought to his mind.

When they were in the beginning stages of planning and Seo-jun was still trying to convince Mikyle that he would be fine on his own, Lianna dropped the bomb. She volunteered herself to go with Mikyle arguing that her power would come in handy and would increase the chances of pulling the rescue off successfully.

He had thought that Mikyle was being stubborn until this happened. Nathaniel had made Mikyle look like an adorable puppy compared to how he behaved. Nathaniel had tried everything he could think of to stop Lianna from going.

In the end, Lianna got what she wanted. As well as Seo-jun. Mikyle had stopped trying to convince him after witnessing that fiasco.

With a small smile, Seo-jun finished clearing the tables before setting off to clean them. The owner eventually came back and helped him finish cleaning the front of the store before seeing if Lucas needed any help.

Lucas was rubbing his shoulder as the two of them walked back to the inn they were staying in. The moon was high in the sky and the street lamps were on, lighting their way. "I will take sword practice over that any day." Lucas found out the hard way that manual labor could be more stressful on the body than one would have thought.

Seo-jun let out a chuckle. "At least you're still young." Seo-jun had worked as a server and dishwasher in his old life while going through high school and college, so he could sympathize with Lucas.

Lucas shot him a glare. "There is not much difference between our ages." He let out a sigh before he moved on to rubbing his other shoulder. "There really needs to be a better way of completing these menial tasks. This kind of work cannot be good for the body."

"Maybe you can team up with Mikyle's alchemist and an inventor and try to come up with something. I'm sure the common folk would be thankful towards you and it could help in your role towards becoming an advisor."

Before all of this had begun, Lucas had been fighting with his brother Nathaniel for the throne. But after seeing everything Nathaniel had pulled behind the curtains, Lucas had decided to give up on the throne and work towards becoming his eldest brother's advisor. A hard task indeed since Nathaniel already seems to have a fine one beside him.

They entered into the inn and went into Seo-jun's room instead of going their separate ways. Seo-jun sat down on the bed instead of washing up like he normally did. There was no point in it if there was going to be a fight later in the night.

"Are you sure he'll attack tonight, instead of canvassing the area for a few days?"

Lucas nodded his head at Seo-jun's question. "Reports indicate that Queen Blythe is becoming more agitated and desperate. She'll want this finished as quickly as possible to have one less worry."

Before Seo-jun could say anything, the communication mirror lit up and started vibrating from Lucas' inner coat pocket. Lucas pulled the device out and answered it before sitting down on the bed beside Seo-jun.

"We have confirmation that the rebel guild has successfully killed Blythe Shigaron and her most loyal retainers, which weren't many but still around half." Nathaniel's voice flowed out of the voice, sounding both tired and yet rejuvenating at the same time. An unusual skill that seemed to fit the situation.

Seo-jun released a sigh of relief. One of the biggest threats to his life was out of the way, now there was just one left.

"What about Mikyle and my parents?"

A grin morphed onto prince Nathaniel's handsome yet haggard features. "Lianna called to confirm their safety. They had just reached the designated inn." Lucas and Seo-jun both smiled with the news, having at least one weight lifted off their heavy chests. That was until Nathaniel spoke his next words. "We have also affirmed that Joshua will be arriving to your location in approximately two hours."

Seo-jun's smile morphed into a grimace. This was their last major hurdle and he was not looking forward to it.

They finished up their conversation with prince Nathaniel before hanging up. Lucas placed the communication mirror back into his inner jacket pocket.

Seo-jun got up off the bed and went over to the dresser. Sitting on top of it was a silver platter with a glass water pitcher and a glass cup. He poured himself a drink to quench his dry mouth.

He wasn't going to lie, he was super nervous. Joshua Ashgrove was a ranked knight who was capable of implanting his element into aura slash.

It was something that only the best.of knights who have trained for a very long time. It was a destructive move that used a part of the person's soul energy. Combine it with their elemental ability, then that move becomes downright deadly.

"Do you want to get some rest?" Lucas asked.

Seo-jun shook his head. "I'll rest once all of this is over, and I'm pretty sure I'm the one who should be asking you that."

A small yet confident smile pulled at Lucas' lips, his red eyes shining. "I'm alright. I'm not tired and I can perfectly fight when the time comes. Besides, my brother is far scarier than Commander Ashgrove."

"Nathaniel?" Yeah, Seo-jun could see it. The crown Prince could probably be pretty terrifying when he needed to be, he certainly was during the lake incident.

Lucas shook his head. "Nathaniel is capable but I was referring to Kyle."

"Kyle!?" The only thing scary about him was his stamina. Hmm, and maybe his teasing. . .though that's probably more annoying than scary.

Lucas shook his head with a laugh. "He'll probably kill me if he finds out I told you, but yeah. I caught him practicing late at night when I was younger. Kyle was only twelve then but he had already mastered aura slash. I'm pretty sure he is also efficient with most combatant weapons."

Seo-jun's jaw dropped open. There was no way. Lucas had to be pulling his leg. Aura slash at the age of twelve? And he supposedly knew how to use weap-wait, didn't he teach Seo-jun how to use the bow during the festival? He also won at all those games which most were weapon based or at least needed good hand and eye coordination.

". . . You're not joking are you?"

Lucas shook his head. "I confessed to my mother about what I saw. I later learned that the Queen Consort was proficient in combat thanks to her father and she personally trained Kyle at an early age."

"Oh." And now Seo-jun really wanted to see Mikyle practicing the sword. Preferably shirtless. He could practically see the sweat rolling off that perfect body of his. Seo-jun felt his mouth go dry.

He banged his head against the pillow with a groan, the water splashing out of his forgotten cup. It had been one month! He was seriously Mikyle deprived!

"Are you okay?" Lucas' face was morphed into concern, having never seen his brother-in-law act like this.

Seo-jun lifted his face up with a groan. "Just peachy," he said through clenched teeth. He looked down at the glass in his hand and downed what little of the water remained. He then pulled himself together. "I don't see how that information would cost you your life," Seo-jun finally said.

It took a few seconds before Lucas answered. "That part shouldn't. The reason why it was necessary for him to learn and what he has done with that knowledge will, so I left that part out."

Seo-jun nodded with a furrow in his brows. He could already guess the reasons. Being a young child who was royal couldn't have been safe. There had probably been multiple attempts on the princes' lives as they grew up.

Lucas looked down at his pocket watch. "We should probably start preparing."

With an affirmative nod, Seo-jun stood up. He placed the empty glass back onto the dresser before heading back to the bed. He stuffed some of his clothing and an extra bed sheet underneath to make it look like someone was sleeping underneath the blanket.

As he was doing this, Lucas set up a small barbed wire going across both the window and the door.

Once the two of them were done, they moved to the free standing wardrobe cabinet that was beside the bed up against the wall. The inside of it was empty except for a few hanging shirts. The back wall was missing and there was a portion of the wall behind it cut out, leading to the room next to it, or more specifically, the wardrobe cabinet in that room.

It had been Seo-jun's idea in case they needed a quick escape and couldn't get to the door. It was only possible thanks to Nathaniel's generous donation to the inn's owner.

The two of them crawled inside one at a time until they reached the inside of Lucas' room.

"I don't think I'll ever get tired of that," Lucas muttered. He then grabbed his sword which was leaning against the wall beside the cabinet still in its sheath. He then opened up a drawer on the dresser and handed a dagger to Seo-jun. "Hopefully, you won't actually need this."

Seo-jun gratefully took the dagger. He definitely didn't want to go through this empty handed.

It was before long that they heard a small crash and some swearing from the room on the other side.

Lucas unsheathed his sword and slowly walked out into the hallway. He then motioned for Seo-jun to follow him and then had him go as quietly as he could to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. Lucas didn't want to send Seo-jun downstairs just in case there were intruders down there.

Lucas then made his way to the door that led to Seo-jun's room and opened it. The first thing he saw was a large man with a buzz cut hairstyle. The moon behind him illuminated his features enough for Lucas to know that this man was Joshua, the feared commander of the Shigaron Kingdom. He was standing over top of a slashed bed before he slowly looked over at the open door.

"What do we have here? A trap?" Joshua's lips curled up in a sneer as he laughed.

Lucas tightened the grip on his sword. This would be a new experience for him, fighting in such enclosed quarters.

Joshua leaped at him, easily closing in the distance while missing the trip wire at the door. Lucas just barely managed to dodge, automatically bringing up his sword to block the incoming attack.

He parried against the oncoming attacks, feeling each blow in his wrists. His legs were tense as he tried to keep his stance, holding his ground with each ground breaking slash.

Joshua's sword began to glow yellow with his earth element.

Lucas jumped back and called forth his fire element and quickly put up a protective barrier. The wall of fire reverberated as something slammed against it, but it managed to stay intact.

Then a second and third slash struck against the reddish-orange fire wall. A rumbling sound filled his ears. It was all too late. The ground beneath Lucas' feet shattered and he fell down to the first floor.

Joshua sneered down at him before jumping down. The ground shook when he landed.

Lucas scrambled up to his feet, a small sting piercing his shoulder but his grip still firm on his sword.

Joshua lunged forward. Lucas brought his sword up and blocked the attack. He feet slid across the floor with the impact. Before he could readjust his stance, Joshua lunged forward again, bringing his sword down.

Lucas brought his own sword up to block the attack that was aimed for his head. The two swords struck against each other in a bone jarring hit, the distinct ring of metal against metal rang out in the otherwise quiet inn. Lucas re-tightened his grip on his sword and lunged forward.

He was growing tired of Joshua always making the first move. He fell back before following it up with a feint attack and slashed his sword against Joshua's left calf, but at the cost of his injured arm being cut. The sting of pain the fresh cut brought was brushed off. Lucas jumped back. With a quick glance to his arm, without taking his full attention off his opponent, he checked the cut to make sure it wasn't too deep.

He saw Joshua raise his sword and bend his legs for another attack. . .only it didn't come. A silvery string of water was wrapped around the knight commander's ankles, stopping him from moving.

Lucas looked to find Seo-jun looking down at him through the hole while holding a pitcher of water. That glance only took a second before Lucas took action and lunged at Joshua, bringing his sword across the distracted man's neck. The man fell down as his head rolled off and onto the floor. Lucas put his blade down and lowered his head as he took in quick breaths. The sound of someone running down the stairs alerted him to Seo-jun's arrival.

Seo-jun saw the scene before him as soon as his feet landed on the first floor. The moonlight illuminated the terrible visage that littered the floor. He averted his eyes as he felt bile rise up the back of his throat.

"Are you alright?" Seo-jun asked Lucas, who was leaning over his sword looking all pale and sweaty.

Lucas looked up at him. "Yeah. That is definitely not a fight I ever want to do again."

Just then, the front door of the inn burst open. Nathaniel, followed by two knights, entered the room, his eyes filled with relief when he saw Seo-jun and Lucas.

Nathaniel walked over to them, not even bothering to look at the body on the floor. "We've captured the others alive, that way we can have a justifiable hearing." Nathaniel then put a hand on Lucas' shoulder, "Good job, little brother. Now, let's get you taken care of."

As soon as he said that, a knight came over to guide Lucas outside so that he could treat his wounds. Seo-jun and Nathaniel followed close behind while the other knight stayed to canvas off the body of the former Shigaron Knight's captain.