1 Aristide

GENOA ROYAL PALACE

The royal palace was engulfed in despair that night. The king and queen were sitting in the library, looking dejected. The voices coming from outside turned the queen's face pale.

Right now, the palace was under siege by the king's cousin, who wanted to overthrow him and took the throne. The palace's defenses was in a critical condition, and the king's only hope was for his trusted general, who was on his way to bring reinforcements.

"Soon the palace will fall ... he must be evacuated immediately," muttered the king with a flat expression. The queen's tears flowed even more profusely when she heard her husband's words.

"I .. I can't bear to be separated from him. Oh, my son ..." The beautiful woman's face was wet with tears. Her husband squeezed her hand and pulled the queen into his arms. He then rubbed his wife's back.

"We have to send him away, so they won't kill Aristide ..." said the king softly. "He is the crown prince. If the palace falls, they will immediately kill him so that the people will not revolt."

Queen finally nodded while sobbing. "I .. I will not cry in front of him."

The beautiful woman tried to brace herself. The king felt the same pain, but as a man who used to not showing his feelings, he still looked calm on the surface.

"Antoine will be here soon," he whispered. The king then stroked his wife's hair. This royal couple was still young, but they had suffered so many trials since they got married ten years ago. However, this time, it was the toughest.

The door to the library opened from the outside and entered a 20-year-old girl and a young boy. They bowed respectfully to the king and queen.

"Your Majesty wants to talk to us?" asked Antoine in a low voice.

The beautiful girl was the queen's younger sister. Her skin was smooth and silky, her hair hung down to her waist like silver strands, and her face had a distinctive beauty with round, sparkling eyes. Those two eyes looked very worried.

"As I said before, if there was an attack on the royal palace, you must get Aristide out of here. You can follow the secret passage under the dungeon. Go to Myreen disguised as commoners and meet Count Rafael in the capital. He will take you to the king and queen of Myreen. Aristide is their daughter's fiancé. They will protect him and help Aristide take back the throne after I die," said the king with great calm.

Antoine gasped when she heard the instruction. Aristide, however, was too young to understand the gravity of their situation.

The king gave various detailed instructions to Antoine who listened to them all with tears streaming down her eyes. The girl still tried to look calm, so as not to worry the boy in her arms.

"No matter what happens, please save the crown prince of Genoa," said the king again.

His voice sounded flat. Meanwhile, the queen didn't say anything. She kept looking down. The woman was afraid that if she lifted her face and looked at her son, her determination would waver. She might grab her son and refuse to let him out of her sight.

Oh, God ... my son is only five years old ... she cried silently.

My poor, poor son…

Prince Aristide didn't understand what was happening. His handsome face was adorned with a happy expression and his eyes looked excited.

His silver hair, just like her mother's, flowed down all the way to his neck. His eyes were blue like topaz and filled with excitement. He was a very good looking boy with good nature and could easily make people like him.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I will do anything to protect the crown prince," said Antoine respectfully. The girl was silent for a moment. She glanced at Prince Aristide, who had inherited his father's composure. "Let us go, Your Highness."

"Where are we going, Auntie?" Aristide touched his mother's hand, then asked innocently, "Mother, aren't you coming with us?"

"Tell you what ... We will play a game, Your Highness. Come on. Do you want to play?"

"Ah, alright. I want to play!" Aristide smiled broadly and nodded.

With those words, Antoine could convince her nephew to let his mother's hand go.

"Tell your parents goodbye," said Antoine again.

"Goodbye, father and mother."

Antoine and Aristide left the library. It was then that the queen rushed to the closed door and burst into tears.

"Your Majesty... I have a terrible feeling," the queen cried. Her legs suddenly turned weak and she almost lost her balance when her husband grabbed her body and quickly carried her to a chair.

The king shook his head, trying to comfort his wife. "Aristide's a good kid. Your sister, Antoine, is also very smart. They'll be fine."

There was no answer from the queen.

***

Antoine had put a lot of money in her travel pouch and some cheap clothes. She also brought a small document to prove their identity and hid it properly under her clothes.

She was wearing a cheap dress commonly worn by poor travelers. Aristide was the same. They must disguise themselves so that the enemy would not recognize them. After passing through a secret passage in the dungeon, Antoine managed to get Aristide to the port on a farmer's cart.

They boarded a merchant ship that left for Myreen at dawn. By paying two gold coins, Antoine managed to get a room for the two of them. For three days, she and Aristide rarely went out.

Several days passed and Myreen was already on the horizon.

That night, Antoine could not close her eyes. She could faintly hear the commotion on the deck of the ship. Curiosity made her go up on deck to see what was going on.

Antoine was really shocked when she arrived at the deck and found the ship crew was in the middle of an intense fight with a lot of scary-looking men. Antoine heard them mention pirates. Anxiety immediately flashed across her face.

Gosh... if she and Aristide were caught, what would be the fate of the crown prince?

Antoine quickly woke up Aristide. She brought their travel pouch and then tiptoed away from the battle area, holding Aristide tightly.

"Your Highness, please hide here. I will hide in that corner over there. Let's play hide and seek. Don't come out until I call you. You should only listen to my voice. Do you promise?"

"I promise," said Aristide with a firm voice.

"Good." Antoine let out a sigh.

She quickly lifted the boy and put him inside a barrel of apples while Antoine covered herself with the sailcloth stacked in the corner of the deck. She was so nervous and could barely breathe.

The battle moved closer to them. Several pirates were seen running towards them with loot. Not paying much attention to where he was going, one of the pirates tripped over the sailcloth and saw Antoine curled up in a corner.

"Ahhh ... f*ck f*ck... !! Who put is this stupid thing here?!! Eh ..?" The pirate's eyes flickered when he caught sight of Antoine, who was crying in fear. "Hehehe .. don't cry, sweetie .. I won't hurt you ..."

He threw away his loot and caught Antoine.

"No! Help !! Hey, let me go! Help ... !!!" Antoine struggled with all her might ... but she was helpless. The pirate man pulled her to the crossing board between the merchant ship and the pirate ship.

"Come on, sweetie .. don't keep struggling. You will fall into the sea ..."

Antoine kept struggling, then on the crossing board, she bit the pirate's arm as hard as she could.

"Aaaaahhh...!!!" The pirate screamed in pain and reflexively slapped Antoine very hard. The girl staggered and fell into the sea.

SPLASH!

For a moment the man was shocked. He tried to observe the sea to see if Antoine would reappear. However, until five minutes later, there was no sign of the girl's presence.

"You stupid girl! It's your fault that you fell into the sea ...!" The pirate scolded Antoine and then yelled at his men to carry the loot from the merchant ship. "What are you looking at?? Hurry up and get the goods onto our ship!"

His men hastily obeyed the pirate's orders and carried the loot from the merchant ship. When they saw the barrel filled with apples, the two pirates looked at each other and gestured to take them along.

"Let's take this all to our ship," said the first man, lifting the edge of the barrel at the other end.

His friend nodded and immediately lifted the other side of the barrel. The two of them carried the apple barrel containing Aristide to the pirate ship, and then they came back to get the rest of the loot.

The boy didn't dare to make a sound or come out of the barrel as he remembered Antoine told him to only listen to her voice.

.

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>>>

From the author:

Welcome to my new book. I actually wrote this book 20 years ago, but I never had the courage to publish it. Now, I think it is time for the story to see the light of day.

By the way, if you see the similarities in the names with my other book, "The Cursed Prince", I would like to say that this story may or may not be related to that book.

The thing is, I suddenly got the idea to write "The Cursed Prince" on October 10, 2020. At that time, I didn't have names for the characters. I decided to use the names from the novel I have left unwritten for 20 years since the story may never be published anyway.

I thought those names would be wasted if I didn't use them. That's how "The Cursed Prince" has the male lead named "Mars" and the female lead named "Emmelyn".

Well, when I shared the story of "The Pirate Prince" to the readers of "The Cursed Prince" to give them the background on how I was inspired to write the book, many readers were excited and urged me to write "The Pirate Prince". Some even asked me to use the original names.

So, we'll see... if I'm gonna keep the names or if I will find new names for our main characters here. By the way, what do you think? Should I use the same name? Or should I work my brain and find new names for the main characters in "The Pirate Prince"?

I hope you will enjoy this one. Let me know your thoughts and ideas in the comment. xx