Chapter 22 - Hidden

"WHAT!?" Julius yelled out on anger.

"How dare that old man leave me behind? I don't even know how long he'll be gone for. That's it, I'll get my revenge on him. He'll pay for this," said Julius out loud although he wanted to keep some of the things he said to himself as he planned to actually take out revenge on Jun.

"Sorry, I forgot to ask your name, so.. what can I call you?" Julius asked his butler.

"I go by the name of Steve," said the butler.

"Okay then Steve, I'll be leaving the castle to go explore a the kingdom a little. I would like you to stay here though. I don't want anyone following me," said Julius.

"I cannot allow you to do that prince Julius, it is against every unwritten law to allow someone of your status to be left unattended," said Steve.

"This is not a request but an order. I would like to make things clear, I have a clear objective in mind and I'll accomplish it so don't get in my way," said Julius with his death filled eyes. While it may have looked like a pure exchange between a child and an adult, in Steve's eyes, Julius was the grim reaper.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. You're a really nice person, I'll make sure Mary knows how well you've treated me so far. Lastly, I would like to get 200 gold coins so I can go buy something for myself, I'll inform my father to repay it later of course," said Julius.

Steve nodded and headed off somewhere to get the gold coins. As for Julius he went back into his room and began to get prepared to leave for his day out of the castle.

...

Shortly after, Steve returned to Julius with the gold coins he asked for in a brown pouch and handed them to him which Julius then placed into his pocket.

...

"Be safe prince Julius," said Steve as he watched Julius walk out of the castle. Once he was far away, Steve went to one of the guards which was stationed outside the castle's entrance and spoke to him.

"Sent out the secret force," said Steve in a whisper. Hearing those words, the guard quickly rushed off somewhere to relay the news to the person that needed to hear them.

As for Julius, he was finally free of being locked up in a castle. It was one of the few times he was even outside the castle but the one thing which was different was that it was the first time he'd been outside alone.

"The outside world isn't even that bad, I don't know why father and mother never allowed me to go out on my own," Julius pondered.

Julius went by many stores and homes as he looked at the joyful faces of all the people who went by with their families and friends. It brought happiness to Julius that the other kingdoms were prosperous just like his one.

After walking straight forwards for nearly 2 hours, Julius was met with a large wall which looked to be the end of the kingdom but Julius wasn't done exploring so he wanted to go outside the kingdom and see what was really outside the kingdom. However at the only gate which led outside the kingdom were two guards.

"Hey boy, move along, this isn't a place you wanna be at at," said the guards which Julius just replied to with a cold look.

"How much gold coins for me to be able to pass through?" Julius asked.

"Kids like you aren't allowed to pass through no matter how much they have. However, if you're daddy or mommy wants to pass by, it'll be 10 silver coins," one of the guards said as he completely didn't hear the fact that Julius offered gold coins and only told him what the actual cost was so that they could earn some money in the form of tips which acted as passing through fees.

Hearing their words, Julius pulled out 20 gold coins from his pocket and threw them on the ground with a smug look on his face.

"Now open the gate right now," said Julius which angered one of the guards to the point where he was about to hit Julius but he was held back by the other guard.

"Calm down now, if he had the power to throw gold coins away just like that, he's got to be related to a powerful individual. Just let it go. Let us let him pass through and get our gold coins. We'll be set for a whole month or two with this. And plus, he'll learn why we told him not to go there soon enough," said the other guard to the one who was trying to hit Julius.

Hearing his comrade's words, the guard calmed himself down and began to open the gate just as Julius asked of them. When the people around the area saw what they were doing, they quickly hid for some odd reason.

"Thank you.." said Julius as we walked through the gate and it got closed behind him. While at first it irritated Julius, he just figured that he'd pay them more gold coins to let him back later on.

...

When Julius looked at what was in-front of him, he gasped in fear and disgust. The area which he was in now was just as big, if not bigger than the kingdom but the state of it was world's apart from the kingdom. It was a land in which the stores where made of dirty wood and cardboard. All they sold were parts of random things which looked to picked up garbage itself.

As Julius walked by the many stores, he finally found one which sold fruits and vegetables however each of them looked to be bruised and dirty. The most disturbing thing was that the number of the people that lived there was much greater than the ones which lived in the kingdom.

"What is this place?...."