WHO MADE ME A PRINCE
chapter thirteen - gunther.

ONE WEEK LATER. Claude kept coming every night to check on Arius. During the past week Arius noticed Claude was looking at his room with disgust.

He thought Claude might finally change his and Athanasia's residence to another Palace. He did change the story so it might happen earlier than expected. But Claude never said anything about it. Maybe Arius was being too hopeful.

The time had come. Arius was planning on doing this peacefully but seeing as how Claude had been pretty strict with him not leaving Palace Grounds.

Arius decided to leave in secret. He had been meditating with his mana and had a basic control of it. He learned teleportation on his own. And now he wanted to leave the Palace.

He made a detailed and well-timed plan. He planned the perfect time to leave and come back without anyone finding out about his little escape. And when the time was right.

Poof!

He teleported himself into an alley. He cast magic to change his eyes and make him somewhat taller. He had learned the art of making fake money and so you can guess he had one hell of a time in the markets.

He would've always dreamed of actually exploring Kingdoms when he used to just read about them from his phone screen and now being reincarnated in those era's made him pretty happy.

Time flew by and before he knew it , it was time to go back. He teleported back and as he had planned, no one found out.

This became a daily routine. He would always leave the Palace at his time and return accordingly.

One day as he was enjoying the food stalls and looking at the lively city , his eyes fell upon a group of children, in ragged clothing , who seemed to be professional street thieves.

'Now being a good prince of this empire , I should catch these thieves!.... As.If. Who the hell said I'm good? Instead they seem fun , should I be friends with them?'

The children who had by now stolen fruits from the stalls and some money from the passersby ran into an alley. Arius being the curious kid he is, went after them carefully concealing his presence.

The children were pretty fast and swiftly moved from alley to alley. Arius tried keeping up but lost them at one point.

He gave up and tried to leave that maze of alleys, when suddenly he had a blade being pointed at his neck. It was one of the children, a boy with dirty brown hair, green eyes and ragged clothing.

"Well? you've been following us. What do you want?"

Arius was quite amused to see they noticed. Normally children their age wouldn't.

"Uh, Hello..." Arius said as he held both his hands high in the air to show he had no weapons and did not mean harm.

"....." The boy with the brown hair just glared at him. Suddenly a girl hit the brown-haired boy in the head from behind.

"Jeez! don't you see he has no weapons. You're gonna make him start crying!" The girl scolded the boy who was groaning while holding his head tightly in pain.

"Hello, I'm Lifa , What's your name?" The girl spoke as she came near Arius. The girl also had the same hair color as the boy , her hair was long to her stomach. She had blue eyes.

"I'm Arion.." Arius made a fake name on the spot.

"Please don't mind my brother's rudeness. Say Arion , did you get separated from your parents?"

"I.... don't have any parents."

"An orphan , huh?" The boy said.

"...But then where did all that money come from? You. You're a noble right?" Lifa questioned.

Arius flinched.

'Damn. My clothes were definitely simple and commoner-like , but seeing as how they're wearing ragged ones , of course they'd think I'm not an orphan. Plus they probably saw me buying food from the stalls the past week. Damn , what do I do now?...'

"..GUYS!" A shout from behind the end of the alley.

"Tch, what is it!?" The boy shouted back.

"IT'S AN EMERGENCY, HURRY UP!!!"

The brunette expression darkened. They quickly ran through the alleys. Arius was also quite worried and so ran behind them.

But of course he lost them and now he was lost, sitting in a dark alley filled with rats.

'Ugh. I should prepare an excuse to tell them about the money. But I wonder what kind of emergency happened...Did one of the kids get caught stealing?'

Arius was in deep thought when suddenly a tall dark figure approached him.

"Hey kid, are you lost? " A deep voice asked.

Arius raised his head to see a man with a black robe on. He was grinning. The man extended his hand to Arius and said

"Come with me. I'll take you to your parents."

Arius stood up.

"No need." He said with a cold glare. There was something about this man that didn't seem right. Arius thought it would be best to stay away from him.

"Well.. that's too bad..." The man said and suddenly grabbed Arius's arm tightly.

"Ugh, LET GO OF ME!" Arius shouted at the man.

"Shut up kid. Today's my lucky day to find two brats simply lying on the streets. Plus with a pretty face such as yours , we'll earn a lot!"

Arius bit that man's hand. The man out of pain threw him back to the wall. He hit the wall and groaned in pain.

"YA LITTLE BRAT!"

The man said in anger as he was about to hit Arius.

Arius froze.

This sight of being hit reminded him of his past life. The way his 'father' beat him up. He closed his eyes and began shaking.

'..Please...don't..hurt me.'  he thought to himself as he shivered upon the sound of the man's fist getting closer.

Bam!

Arius tightly shut his eyes.

'...Huh...I don't feel pain...'

Suddenly he felt someone grab his wrist.

"HURRY UP DAMMIT!!" A tall boy with green hair shouted at him as he began to run holding his wrist. Arius looked back to see the man on the ground groaning and then getting up with his eyes fuming in anger.

"OI YOU BRATS HOW DARE YOU HIT ME!!"

'Hit?' Arius wondered. He then saw the green haired boy holding a wooden bat in his right hand.

The man was running after them and Arius still couldn't stop slightly trembling over the shouts that man kept giving them as they ran.

He just allowed the green haired boy to lead the way and he followed him running as fast as he could.

5 minutes later

They had now run into an abandoned building. Both of them were on the ground catching their breaths.

"Phew!! That was close!!"

Arius was still slightly trembling.

"So..What's your name? "

"Arion.."

"I'm Gunther , but my friends call me Gun for short."

"It's dangerous to wander alone in the streets. There have been slave traders out there recently. They've been kidnapping children mostly so be careful."

'..What...Slave traders. But didn't Dad say Felix would deal with them. It's been more than a week now. They're still not arrested?'

"Where are we?"

"Oh this? This is our base."

"Our?"

"Yep! me and my friends, we're all orphans , so we stay here together! "

'Oh , I think I know where this is going.'

"It'll be dark soon. I'll take you back to your parents. Come on! "said Gunther as he stood up and walked over to Arius.

"I don't have any parents.."

"..So that's why..." Gunther mumbled.

"So! Would you like to stay here!" Gunther beamed.

"Uh..I don't have parents. But I have to go somewhere... "

"Oh...Then I'll take you there!! It's dangerous alone."

"No, it's fine. I may not look at it but I can defend myself."

"Pfft--Yeah I saw." Arius pouted.

"How old are you?" Arius asked.

"Eleven." Gunther replied and gave him a look that said 'You?'

"Si-Ten" Arius stuttered.

'Damn , I almost forgot I'm taller because of magic. So I'm ten right now. He's five years older than me..'

Suddenly footsteps were heard. The sound of someone sobbing and running. Gunther signaled Arius to hide, which he did.

The door opened and in came seven children. Three girls and four boys. A girl with red hair and a boy with dirty blonde hair were crying.

The other five children had a sad and pained expression on their faces. Two of these children were the ones Arius had encountered previously. Gunther's expression turned grim in a matter of seconds.

"..Where is Mia?"

The boy whom Arius had previously met came up to Gunther and put a hand on his shoulder. He whispered in his ears.

"I'm sorry." Was the only thing Arius could hear from his distance. Time was running out , he had to go back or else Claude would notice. So he teleported himself back.