Pretending To Be Gilead's Prince and Master Wizard

The much-awaited exams that would determine my fate whether I will be exempted for the winter classes and go apply as a chambermaid all throughout my holiday break or I would freeze to death walking in the sidewalks as I go to school for the winter classes has already come. 

Since this is such a big deal to me, I really, really study hard for this exam for the past few days. I didn't even know that there would even come a time in my life where my fate would actually depend on my intellectual capacity… but yes, never have I started this hard for my entire life just to be exempted in winter class sessions, not even once.

I was walking down the hallways, my mind chanting all the terminologies that I managed to memorize inside my head when I accidentally bumped into somebody that made me totally lose my focus and almost lose my balance but I managed to straighten up right away.

Nooooo…. My terminologies! I worked so hard to have all of them memorized inside my head!

"Watch where you're going, will you?" A girl suddenly snapped right at me, which made me almost raise my right eyebrow as I looked up to know who it was.

I literally froze for a moment as I finally saw the pretty face of the girl who was also looking right back at me with a hint of amusement and curiosity in those pair of olive green eyes of hers….like she knows me or something.

"Forget it. You don't even remember who I am anyway," I noticed her now smirking at me, which I got so confused about, especially with what she just said. However, before I could even ask her what she meant by that, the girl smirked for the last time and walked past me for as far as she can.

Alright… what just happened? I'm still lost.

By the time that weird girl left, I now saw my friend Maggie walking towards me with a hint of concern flashing on her face, like she is concerned with my well-being or something.

"Oh my gosh, are you alright? Did that mean girl hit you or slap you in the face or what?" she asks, checking my body parts if it is still intact.

I looked at her in disbelief. "Yeah, sure, I am totally fine. Why are you overreacting like this all of a sudden?"

Maggie now stops checking me from head to toe and looks at me as if I am the weirdest person she has ever seen in her entire life.

"Don't you have any idea who that girl you bumped with is?" 

I casually shrugged. "I'm still lost, so obviously… I don't know her."

Maggie lightly swats me in my shoulder and says this in a reprimanding kind of way, "Girl, you start to read your lifestyle magazines and lead local news to keep yourself up to date with the famous people and events. "

I gave him the look that says, "Come on, you know me," just to remind her as one of my closest friends that I don't do that kind of stuff. It's not like princes and princesses are the ones who set food on my table and bring money to my wallet. Nope, they don't contribute any part of my life… so why bother myself to read about them and their shitty lives? 

"That was Princess Marionette of Cordova, my friend. One of the richest princesses that exist in the modern times." Maggie finally spills the tea after quitting chastising me for a moment.

This may sound odd... but the name does indeed ring a bell in my head. Not just because she is widely famous, but deep down inside my core memory... I am getting this intuition that I was able to chat with her in the past.

Could it be possible we were friends a long time ago that became distant? I paused for a moment and remembered how she had treated me earlier, her immature behavior. Nope, impossible, as impossible as a crow would ever change into white.

"Earth to Kris… earth to Kris!" Maggie is now waving her hands off in front of me, and I was instantly back to reality. "Why do you always have this bad habit of spacing out in the middle of nowhere?"

I shrugged, "I don't have any idea either and I'm so sorry for that. Anyway, you were saying?"

"I said it is time for us to go inside the classroom, or else we will be late for the exams."

Instinctively, my mind became alert once again after mentioning the word 'exam'.

"Right. Exam."

My classmates, including Joe Curry, who is known for being always late, are already here at eight in the morning as Maggie pushed the door to open it.

"This is a very rare occurrence," I told Maggie which she only chuckled at.

Mr. Pumpkin shortly arrives after the clock exactly strikes eight-thirty in the morning with a pile of test papers in both hands as he walks in the classroom. These test papers then get to be distributed from the ones sitting in the front up towards the students who were seated on the back.

Once I was able to receive my copy of the test paper, that's when the game officially begins. Taking out a pen right in front of my ear lobe, I slowly pulled it out, like a warrior preparing for battle, and let out a dramatic sigh... as if I were actually caught up in some kind of battle at the moment. 

Stretching my palms and doing some light exercising with my head, I started answering the questions on the test paper.

Oh boy… I better pass my exam, or I will never have my chance to talk to the captain ever again.

***

-THIRD PERSON-

Meanwhile at the Enchanted Forest near the borderlines of Gilead…

Hundreds of knights were deployed out here in the woods and were scattered in all reachable parts of the forest to conduct their usual manhunt search for the prince and master wizard of Gilead.

It's not like any other ordinary hopeless day like they've ever had because today...they actually got a tip from a local resident who usually goes hunting for food in this part of the forest. It's not reliable, but they still try it anyway.

Among all the hoping knights that are present this morning, Alexander Crimson, famously known to be Gilead's captain of the magic army, now leads the team searching for the missing prince.

He is now the one standing beside their witness as they lead them into the position where he claims he has seen his unconscious body. Alex has already pondered this matter a lot, wondering if they would trust him or if he is luring them into some kind of a trap. But then here he is, taking all the chances and all the risks just to find his long-lost friend.

"There! Over there! I think that would be the place where I saw him lying unconsciously on the ground!"

To their surprise, the man now starts to bellow as he points towards the direction of a large pile of Sycamore trees lined up across from each other. In between two of these trees, Alex could visibly see a figure of a guy wrapped with an enormous pile of leaves and branches that makes it so hard for him to exactly know who is it at first.

However… That height and body frame… He can't be mistaken…

"Y-Your Highness!" Alex exclaims in both horror and delight as he scurries right towards the branch-covered man in front of them.

Some were just about to warn him of the possible consequences of falling into some kind of trap but Alex didn't take heed. Swiftly, he cuts through all the branches, leaves, and a few twigs that now covers this guy using a terrain spell.

After, who the heck knows how much time it took for him to remove all of that, the unconscious figure of the prince sends Alex and his team in a state of panic and bewilderment as some of them now rushes to his aid and carries the body for Alex.

The very first thing Alex checks out is his pulse. Definitely no pulse, so Alex starts to panic somehow. The next thing he checks is his body temperature, and his skin is surprisingly as cold as ice and as pale as snow.

Tears from the corner of his eyes threaten to come out, which Alex fought the urge to cry in front of his men.

When he sticks his fingers into the corner of his right eye and snaps it open, it reveals itself to be a hollowed-out eye with no color on it at all... It is as if the prince's life was literally sucked away from him.

Whoever did this horrible thing must have been truly finished with him already that they decided to throw him out in the open just like this!

Alex's right hand forms into a fist as he now witnesses what happened to his dear friend. If only he knew who caused this misfortune to fall upon the prince, he would immediately make them pay for it with their own lives!

Shaking, one soldier taps his hand on the distracted captain and asks, "Now that we know what happened to the prince… What should we do now, captain?"

Alex, who is now back to his own senses, casts his head downwards as he thinks of something to answer his soldier's question.

"Well… The public deserves to know, at least. And I guess, we have to prepare ourselves for a possible incoming war if the news is to be spread forth across all nations and continents."