893: The Truth

The Truth

Rowena nearly flinched away when she realized that she was dealing with a prince. She batted her eyes in confusion, followed by shock.2

"What… What do you want from me? Is there a purpose for why you found me and then tricked me into thinking you were my friend? What are you after?"

Prince Liam didn't understand her sudden withdrawal from him, but then he smiled weakly.

"I simply wished to escape the palace and have some time for myself. With a lot of other princes and nobility traveling across to head into Ashland, I've been suggested to do the same but did not want to."

Rowena's heart pounded loudly in her chest as she heard his words.

"Did you seek me out?"

"No, of course not." Prince Liam insisted. "I simply saw someone who foolishly wanted to show off a Phoenix feather–well, I don't know whether you're lying or not, but others might have greedily plucked it for themselves and I wanted to stop you."

Rowena listened to the man and could tell that he was being genuine.

He sounded sincere and Rowena didn't exactly forget how the man acted yesterday. If he had any unsavory desires then he would have acted upon them and if he knew that she was the princess of Ashland, then she might have gotten captured.

More than anything though, she understood the desire to wish for leaving the palace more than anything.

The two of them were similar in this regard.

However, Rowena couldn't let her guard down unless she were to find Julian again.

"I'm sorry," Prince Liam said with a weak smile. "It was not my intention to deceive you, but I took advantage of Julian's identity to feel freedom. I understand why you are furious and I wish to make it up to you."

"Will you help me find Julian?" Rowena asked.

"I believe that he was the one who was found by my bodyguard yesterday, and if that truly is the case then he would be at the royal palace right now." Prince Liam explained. "Let me take you there."

The idea of heading to a royal palace, even not that of Ashland made Rowena's palm sweaty. She didn't want to return to a place that reminded her of her station, but because Julian was there and she'd never leave him behind, she nodded.

"Alright, do you have any plans? If they think Julian is the crown prince, then they won't simply let you in and I do not want to have to be introduced there either," Rowena said.

"There's actually a secret passageway that I use to leave the palace every now and then," Prince Liam admitted. "It's around the dungeon sewers, by the river and we can get back via there."

"So, this hasn't been the first time you left," Rowena said, a bit surprised. "But you keep returning back to the palace. You nearly left with me to head out of Dustfal though."

"Yeah, I wanted to see this Great Library–and I wanted to tell you the truth, I really did… but that doesn't matter right now. We have to retrieve your friend," Prince Liam said. "I hope that he's alright."

Rowena looked at Prince Liam not entirely trusting of him, but there was no other way to get to the palace. "I'll depend on you, for now, so lead the way."

***

The palace in Verona had an underground dungeon which was also connected to the sewer system they had which all flowed in the river and headed into a thick and lush forest. Prince Liam explained it to Rowena as they headed in that direction.

"Are we almost there yet?" Rowena asked.

"Yes, just a couple more minutes and then we'll get there." Prince Liam reassured her. "There are some metal bars that got a little rusty after all the water that flowed there, and I was able to sneak in via there."

"Huh, I didn't expect that you'd go through such lengths to escape." Rowena glanced over at Liam with some respect. "Going back and forth too."

"I just do what I do." Prince Liam sheepishly smiled. "It's really nothing impressive."

"So you say, but once I've managed to get past the fact that you've fooled me into thinking that you were Julian," Rowena smiled a little. "I have to say, you were incredibly brave to continue pretending to be him. You don't know what might have happened to you."

"Hah… it's more of me being a little stupid than anything," Prince Liam said. "It's hardly called bravery."

"Don't sell yourself short," Rowena told him. "I'm sure even Julian would be impressed to know that you fooled me for a day, regardless of everything. But I still can't believe he got himself dragged to the palace… There's no other explanation as to why he didn't return."

"Well, um… maybe he got into the luxury of being a prince?" Prince Liam shrugged. "If I were able to play to be someone else even for a single day, I would like to imagine I'd take advantage of every avenue I could experience. And well, I did."

"Hm... I can see him doing that," Rowena admitted as she thought of Julian being in the palace. "But I'm actually a bit worried that he might try to pull something off instead."

"Huh?" Prince Liam raised a brow.

"You don't have any valuables that he could steal in broad daylight, right?"

Prince Liam's eyes widened as he looked at her. "Wait, are the two of you thieves?"

Rowena looked at the man's face and couldn't help but laugh. "I placed a knife to your throat earlier. Have you… not considered what we do for a living? I mean, we're not actually thieves, but uh… he might get enticed if he sees anything valuable."

"Well, I can't say I'd blame him." Prince Liam ran his fingers through his head. "There's not much of an opportunity to steal, but ah, who knows? I'm just more impressed that you can guess what he'll do."

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