Chapter 42

42 The Palace Ball (Part 3)

The red hair crown prince was calling for his friends, he check the entrance of the maze to no avail.

“F*ck! I’m trapped.” Muttered Justice.

There’s nothing he can do besides waiting for Vale, with this high level of magica. Although he has a good amount, sadly, this is not his specialty. Justice look around the maze and decided to take a look inside it. The maze is imbued with magica, every hour the route to the exit will change into another pattern.

He curses a lot because of the imbue magica, he was raised at the palace, and he knows about the route inside the maze even if he wears a blindfold. Not for tonight, every corner and turn is changing, he got lost easily and still needs to be alert.

“Vale, you b*stard! Now, look what you have done, you prissy magi.”

Justice just couldn’t help himself to curse Vale, the fact that it was Vale’s idea to make the maze more interesting this year had backfired. Not only that he was trapped inside the maze, but he got lost and was also sure there was an evil entity inside the maze.

Justice needs to be careful, when he is getting further inside the maze, he also worried for the staff who was trapped inside the maze. Let out a sigh, he begins to walk while summoning his sword and his familiar.

“Kirara are you there?”

There’s no answer from his familiar.

.....

“Kirara?”

Another silence from his shadow, he was worried, Kirara always answered Justice’s calling. This is the first time she wasn’t answering his master’s call. Justice is giving up calling for Kirara, he couldn’t risk being exposed to whoever thing that was lurking inside the maze.

Slowly and carefully with his sword gripped tightly in his hand he walk further inside, hoping to see the servant before the monster.

“Help! Anyone?! I need to get out!”

It was the servant, the voice was a bit far than Justice anticipated, he begin to run while yelling at the voice.

“Hey! It’s Justice, where are you?!”

“Your majesty? Is that you?” Asked the servant.

“Yes! Where are you?! Quick give me your location.”

Justice yelled at him, he can feel something ominous getting closer to their place, he need to save the servant before the monster got him before he did.

“Your majesty... I... I don’t know, it was dark in here.” Answered the servant nervously.

Justice can feel his distress, he stop for a moment, and asked one more question, “Tried to see something, maybe feel something unfamiliar.”

“Uhm... I feel a stone, a wet stone, and... uhm... Oh, I hear something, your majesty.”

Justice gets tensed, and his grip on his weapon is getting tighter, “What did you hear?”

“A sound of running water, it was faint, but... wait... Your majesty, something is growling in here!”

“F*ck! It got him!” Cursed Justice, “Ugh, I hate to do this, but here I go.”

He called for Fire, and his sword transformed into a flame sword, his magica is strong in the fire element. With a seventy percent magica was twenty-five percent solely for fire element. With his flame sword and lit amber eyes, he cut every part of the maze and gets in time before the servant got attacked by a mysterious shadow.

Justice slashes the shadow, and with a wail, the shadow disperses in front of Justice and the servant. The orbs in the surrounding area finally lit again, Justice then turn his head to see the servant.

“Are you alright?”

The servant burst out in tears, he even embraced Justice’s feet, “Your majesty! Oh, it’s so good to see you...”

“Oh, my Gods! Alright, calm down... Uhm... you.” Justice awkwardly tried to release the servant’s grip on his feet.

“Ooooh, Gods! Thank you, thank you, your majesty, you saved me!”

“Alright, alright, please just stand up, for now, we need to get out of here as well!”

The servant wipe his tears and smiled bashfully at Justice, “Oh where is my manner, apology, your majesty.”

“It’s alright, what’s your name?”

“Harry, your majesty, my name is Harry.”

“Fine, then Harry, because of some *ss magi, we need to be careful walking inside the maze.”

Harry tilted his head, “*ss magi, your majesty?” He knows about Justice’s bad habit of cursing from the other servants.

“Yes, he was an *ss, now, are you okay to walk and run?”

“Yes? Walk and run, your majesty?” Asked Harry once more.

Justice glared at the young servant, “Are you going to ask a lot of questions? Or you could just follow me carefully from behind?”

Flustered by his remark, Harry just gave him a nod and said that he could walk or run. Justice begins to step away from the corner where Harry was, he looks into every side and corner and skillfully maps everything inside his head, although he wasn’t aware of the time limit before the maze changed its shape.

“Harry, let us walk carefully for now, but when I shouted run, you run as fast as you could, do you hear me?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“Good. Now, did you see the pathway on the left? We are going to run passing the shrubs and the fountain, and after, we are going to wait in the corner.”

Justice gave him a rough explanation for their escape plan, Harry just sat in silence and nodded his head. Satisfied by the obedient servant, he tightly holds to his sword once again, and begins to walk through the shrubs and the fountain. He glanced at the fountain and notice something is different about the fountain but he doesn’t know what is wrong with it.

“Hey, Harry, do you see something is wrong with the fountain?” Justice tried to ask Harry about the irregularity.

“The fountain? It’s just a regular fountain, your majesty.”

He abruptly stops and looks behind, “Regular fountain? Why do you...” Before Justice could complete his sentence, a tremor begin and shakes the inside of the maze, “F*ck! It’s changing shapes, Harry run!”

The two of them tried as fast as they can to reach the other end of the maze, Justice jumped and reach out to Harry before the shrubs closed the road, and they are inside another room of the maze. Justice stands up immediately, not because of the strangeness or unfamiliarity of the random maze. It was because there was a girl, a beautiful girl wearing a dress, her purple long hair is braided, adorned with a wildflower.

“Anne? What is she doing here?” Muttered Justice.

She looked lost and nervous, Justice then grab her shoulder to announce his presence. She turned around, her eyes widen, surprised by him.

“River Anne, what are you doing here?” Asked Justice, with a frown on his face, he couldn’t figure out how Anne could be inside the maze.

“Just... I mean your majesty, where am I?” Anne asked him back, she was totally confused about her surrounding.

“Wait, do you know about my identity?”

Anne glared at the crown prince, “That is not important right now? Where am I, and what are you doing here alone?!”

“What do you mean alone?! I was with Harry.”

Justice turned around to see there was no one around, the fact that he was actually alone with Anne right now. He was petrified, his head begin to throb.

“Impossible! Harry was with me for a while.”

“Harry? A man? But Justice, you’re alone the whole time I saw you.”

“F*ck! What is happening here?!” Cursed the crown prince.

Not only Harry wasn’t around, but there was also Anne in front of him, although he was happy to see her, the young girl doesn’t have power. Now, he needs to find Harry again, while protecting Anne, and also find the way out. Justice was lost, however, when he looks at how desperate Anne was right now, the crown prince took her hand and smiled.

“Don’t worry, I’m here with you.” he tried to calm her.

The warm words from Justice make her feel safe all of a sudden, “Thank you, your majesty.”

Somehow, Justice hates the way Anne calls him the way he is, although he doesn’t know how to express his objection towards Anne. Instead, while her hand was still being held by his hand and got pulled into the corner.

“Your majesty, why are you taking me here?”

“I need to ask you, how come you were able to enter the maze?”

There’s a doubt in her eyes, rather she doesn’t know how to explain the whole charade to Justice, “I’ll make it a simple one, I was chasing someone, and somehow ended up in here.”

“A portal, most likely a setup, I don’t know if the person intended to trap you or someone else though.”

Anne stared into him and asked him questions that he never answered properly. “Your majesty, may I ask you again about the person that...”

Suddenly, Justice put his hand into Anne’s mouth, his face was closer to her, and she could even feel his warm breath.

“Psst... There’s someone here!”

Her heart beat faster, their eyes met and she can feel his bated breath. He was nervous, not because of a potential threat, he can feel her lips on his palm. Justice got hypnotized, they were getting closer and closer. Until a gust of wind tore them away.

Anne was laying on the opposite side of Justice, she blinked rapidly while trying to see who was behind the wind earlier.

“Anne, take cover!”

Justice screamed at Anne, while he was slashing into the shrubbery in front of Anne, it wasn’t a shrubbery but a Dryad, a large tree monster with the power of ten strong men on their branches. She looks into Justice who’s trying so hard to fight the Dryad.

With his flame sword in his hand, Justice successfully split the tree monster into halves, but one of the roots pierced into the arm of the crown prince. He shouted in agony and fell. Anne catches his body before he dropped to the ground. He was unconscious while our heroine called his name with a backdrop of a flaming Dryad behind them