Erica

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Walter was not happy. Not in the slightest. The two idiots had managed to ditch the poor man. They left him to wonder the streets of the busy capital all alone. Apparently, this was because he acted too much like a mother hen. It drove both Aleric and Louis close to insanity. His fretting had become painful to the extent that he would not let Aleric walk faster than a certain pace or let Louis drag him off somewhere. They were forced to move at a snail's pace and heaven help it if they complained. Walter had a long list of lectures lined up to reprimand them on 'safety' and such.

As much as they loved Walter, Aleric couldn't help but agree with Louis that the man was being too much. Aleric could however understand why Walter was acting all protective. He knew the man felt a great sense of guilt for something that was entirely not his fault, but his behaviour was just too much. Where was the fun Walter at? Now all they had was a threatening lecturer.

Aleric was more than delighted when he discovered that Louis had devised a brilliant plan to ditch the man as soon as they got a chance.

But in order for this plan to work they needed to make sure to divert Walter's attention. There was only one of him but there were two of them, so they had the advantage. Louis knew if they were to split up Walter would go after Aleric first. After all, Aleric was his greatest concern at the moment.

Louis purposefully led Aleric and Walter into the more crowded areas. When he thought that he had found the perfect spot he sent the subtle signal over to the crown prince who gave a barely noticeable nod.

Aleric dramatically clutched his side where the injury was stopping in his steps and panting alighting. Walter who had only been half focused on the man suddenly had all his attention on him.

He was muttering reprimands in order to hide his panicked self. Aleric felt guilty about doing something like this to Walter as he could sense his worry that he tried too hard to hide.

Allowing Walter and Louis to help him to a nearby bench, he tried to calm the man before him. Aleric mentioned that the pain wasn't so bad it was just a sharp jolt earlier and guiltily apologised for making them fret. His apology was aimed at Walter, but he addressed both him and Louis as to not give away anything.

After reassuring the commander that his wound had not opened again, he asked if Walter could just get him something to drink. Walter who was still worried was tempted to make Louis go instead but gave in when Aleric gave him a look that wouldn't let him back out.

After giving strict instructions to Louis not to leave Aleric's side the man rushed off. Louis smiled in success. Aleric was happy too but still felt slightly guilty for doing that to Walter. Louis suggested they split up for the time being and meet up at the bridge just as an extra precaution in the low chance Walter were to catch them. This, as he called it, would at least guarantee that one of them would manage to escape unharmed from the evil man and come back later to rescue the other. One would think Louis would not want to separate from his injured cousin's side due to the danger, but Louis was perfectly aware that Aleric was more than capable of handling himself if anything were to go wrong.

Aleric rolled his eyes in amusement at his cousin's way of thinking but agreed nonetheless with his plan. Louis gave a smile then turned his attention to the old lady who had just sat on the bench next to them.

Louis too felt a sense of guilt for making Walter worry but had the perfect idea to make sure that Walter wouldn't panic over their sudden disappearance. After giving the old lady a gold coin and asking her politely to relay a message to a certain man who he gave the clear description of. Aleric and Louis then disappeared into the crowd.

Walter was planning on numerous ways to kill them after he received the message from the old lady sitting when he returned. He wanted to torture both of them slowly before death and was thinking about all the ways he would deal with the consequences of murdering both the heirs to the crown and to the dukedom.

A wicked smile formed on his lips as he finished off the drink, he had purposefully gotten for the crown prince. He would make them pay.

Lost in his thoughts of mindless revenge, Walter was not paying much attention to his surroundings. This caused him to bump into someone.

Walter was about to apologise when the person took a few steps back and looked up at him. He immediately assumed that Erica was a young boy due to her outfit.

Walter was taken back at the familiarity of the boy's face. He recognised it but he could not seem to recall from where. Perhaps he was one of the servant boys from the castle.

Before Walter could ponder more on this thought or let alone even say anything, the 'boy' who had obviously recognised him ran off in a hurry. Walter clearly saw the fear on his features.

Strange.

Walter wanted to shake the encounter off but couldn't seem to. His gaze had turned into the direction that the 'boy' had run off in.

The boy had clearly recognised him and was afraid, but why? He did not recall ever hurting or doing something bad to him. If he had surely, he would remember.

Walter furrowed his eyebrows as his mind was trying to find reason. The boy had to be a servant who knew of his title as commander within the royal knights. This would justify the fear he had. Yes, that had to be it. For some reason that did not feel right, however. Walter tried to convince himself, but it did not work.

Who was that boy?

Where do I know that face?

Curiosity ate away at his mind. He couldn't help but chase after the boy. He needed to know. Something told him that that boy was someone important and Walter hated that he could not remember.