31 Searching for a mysterious girl

"The talk with the inn owner did not help. He did see the girl but the things he said were not much to lead us to who and where she is now." Niro said.

They were talking about their interrogation with the owner of the inn after they had just exited the place. They looked around and started walking the streets. The horses they brought with them were tied up far from where they were to avoid attention.

If the people around the place saw three people who own such beautiful high-quality horses, rumors will eventually be passed around.

The only people they know who rides them are the princes and knights as other nobles prefer to ride a carriage. If they were to ride it now in front of many people, they would get curious and the King might hear a rumor.

"Be careful, the King was not informed that Canopus people crossed his kingdom. It would be bad if rumors started." Sherin was reminded with a blank face.

Niro looked at her and snorted, "Are you seriously saying that, after you caused a scene and threatened a man in front of many people?" He asked followed by a small chuckle, "The man was about to die out of fright."

"I did not do much, I just made his forehead bleed a bit." She said with a straight face.

Niro just sighed and shook his head with a smile, he was getting used to Sherin, although sometimes he cannot follow her pattern of mood. 'I even doubt that she has a pattern. It is so random.'

He put his focus back to walking while still looking around for their safety. While observing people, his gaze stopped at Caliber, who looked so deep in his thoughts. "Your Highness?" he asked, 'It must be troubling him.'

Although he called out to his master, Caliber's mind was too far away for him to notice that his aide was calling. "Distracted." Sherin muttered. Looks like even the female aide noticed their prince thinking too much about the search.

"Your Highness." Niro called again and there was still no response. "Your highnes--" he cut himself off, he cannot yell the honorifics out loud as the other people in the place might hear.

He gulped, "Lawrence!" he yelled close to the prince's ears and suddenly grabbed his arm. 'Holy Goddess, I did it.' he thought. Nervous because of what he had done but Caliber finally snapped out of his daze.

"What did you call me?" the prince asked with furrowed brows.

Sherin could not hold back her giggles and finally laughed, seeing both the Canopus Prince and Niro's reactions. "You two are really fun to watch." she said with a smile.

Niro stared at her with a bored face, "If you were not my friend, I would think you are really creepy." he said. "You are the weird one here, suddenly changing mood." he added. Seeing her suddenly laughing creeps him out.

Sherin stopped laughing and glared at him, causing the male knight to look away from her. 'How could one's mood change so easily?' he thought.

He turned to Caliber who was looking at him with folded arms, he laughed sheepishly, "Do not be mad, I had a reason to do so." he said and acted cute to make the prince forgive him for shouting his name.

Not only that he called him by name, but also because Caliber does not like to be called by his second name.

Caliber just snorted with a smile and shook his head, he ignored him and put his gaze back in front of him and started walking again. 

The two aides kept glancing at their prince, there was something that Niro wanted to ask but was afraid that he would be too nosy. Well, he is nosy, that is a fact but the thing he wanted to ask looks serious since even the prince is getting troubled. 

Worried but he could not hold his curiosity anymore, "Your Highness, if it is all right, can I ask--

"It is not all right." Caliber immediately said that cut him off. The knight frowned, "Not a word yet said and I was stopped." he muttered and pretended that he was about to cry.

"Not a good actor." Sherin whispered.

"It was on purpose." Niro immediately said.

Niro turned to Caliber, "Let us set the jokes aside, I really want to ask why you are trying to find her." he said in a serious tone, there was no more hint of his usual joking aura. He looked like he really just wanted to know.

Caliber stopped walking and so did the other two. His expression turned gloomy and looked like he was once again about to drown in thoughts. "Your Highness, since we are helping you in the search, I think it is also proper for us to know." he added.

The Prince looked at them and was hesitating whether to tell them or not about the girl they were searching for. 

"That inn is cursed, without a doubt." a man sitting comfortably with his one arm up said to his companions and their laughters were so distracting that it reached the three royals who were having a serious conversion.

In the end, Caliber still did not get to tell his two aides about the identity of the girl.

"Did you not know? The one who was inside his inn earlier is a prince." he said and his pig-like laugh was heard again and it made the people with him interested. Some could not believe it and some kept asking many questions.

The three looked at them from afar and Sherin pushed his sword up slightly with her thumb, "Needs to be silenced." she said firmly with no hesitation.

Niro grabbed her arm, "Calm yourself."

"I am calm." Sherin responded.

"That dumb owner is a magnet of bad luck, just a few days back he offended the Crown prince and now even the prince of Canopus." he said and laughed again.

As he drank in joy, the others wanted to join in laughing but their color was drained from their faces as they were covered in shadows. The man was confused why it suddenly became dark but found the Canopus prince beside him, blocking the light of the sun.

He looked up and saw the prince looking down at him and before he could react, Niro grabbed his neck from behind and he could feel something sharp from his hands that was ready to move and slit his neck. It was a hidden blade from Niro's ring, Hawk's claw.

"Y-y-your Highness..!" he said, trembling in both surprise and fear to see the one he was talking about was just right beside him.

The prince's face was blank, "Why am I wearing this?" he asked the man, while pointing at the cloak he was wearing. 

"To h-hide yourself, Your Highness!"

"Why must I hide myself?" he asked again and the man gulped from the nervousness he was feeling under the pressure that he might get killed. 

"Because you are a prince, you must hide yourself to avoid attention and rumors!"

"And what did you do earlier?"

"What do you mean, Your Highness? What did I--"

The man felt the blade pushed even more in his neck and any moment of his stupidity might make him bleed, "I...I told them that a prince from Canopus was inside the inn!" he answered and closed his eyes out of fear.

Niro hid the blade back to the ring and grabbed his neck even tighter, "You knew the purpose and yet you were trying to spread it. Are you seeking death or are you really just stupid?" he said.

'Tss, you told me to calm myself and yet there you are.' Sherin thought while watching. 

The man used both of his hands and he was trying to remove Niro's hand from choking him, "I-I'm..!!" he tried to speak but he couldn't.

The other men that were with him looked terrified and wanted to escape but they saw a woman near where they were. Standing still, doing nothing. 

"What are you waiting for?" one of them asked, "That is just a woman and she is just standing there. Just go!" he yelled.

The man was about to run but another man grabbed them. They looked at him and he shook his head with his sweat dripping down his head. With that, they knew what he meant. Their attempt failed and just stayed in their seat to avoid trouble.

'Good boys, less work for me.' Sherin thought. 

Niro loosened and the man immediately gasped for air. He removed his hand and the man bent down while grabbing his throat. He coughed and gasped again, not even able to speak for now because of what Niro did.

Niro smiled, "You are lucky that there are many people, if not then you could have gotten it much worse than that." he said.

"Keep this a secret, if we found out that it was spread, we will come again to hunt you." Caliber said and walked away.

The two aides looked at them for the last time before following their master.

While walking, Caliber remembered what they were talking about, 'Offended the crown prince, was he pertaining to Charles?' he thought. 

He was too focused on thinking about the girl they were searching for that it made him forget Chance. "Let us go back to the kingdom for now." he ordered and they nodded as a response.

"I want to hurry and see him." he whispered.

The two aides looked at each other, 'him?' they both thought and just shrugged since none of them knew who the prince was talking about.

Niro didn't really plan to hurt the man, he was just going to threaten him with the blade but he was too pissed that their conversation was interrupted because of him.

'I guess this is not the time for me to know.' he thought.