In Another Era

Chapter 14: Friendly Competition

Chapter 14: Friendly Competition

Archie stayed in his room.

Almost everyone that could take time away was out of the castle, they were at the public square where the guard that had let Edgar escape was being executed.

Everyone was told that Edgar died in his attempt to run away, which was why he was not the one at the guillotine. But Archie knew that was not the truth. Only his shoulder was injured and unless the wound caught some nasty infection...it would not have been enough to kill him.

Archie wondered if Edgar's sudden and mysterious death had anything to do with the prince. He had woken up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat. When he stood up and looked over at the bed— Kenric was not there. Archie had then laid back down and stayed awake until Kenric returned, which was just before the sun was about to rise.

Kenric had stripped down his clothes before he climbed into bed. When Archie was leaving the next morning, he noticed the unmistakable crimson liquid coating the clothes that were carelessly thrown in a pile at the foot of the bed. That blood was not on Kenric before.

Archie could not help but wonder why Kenric would kill Edgar when the criminal was supposed to get executed anyway. Maybe Kenric wanted to prevent him from running away again. Maybe he just did not want to risk it?

That had to be it.

"Knew you would be in here," Sammy said as he walked inside Archie's room as if it was his own.

"You are here," Archie paused, "again."

"Before you scold me, Noami and the others are at the square. I saw them before making my way here," Sammy held his hands up in defense.

"Why are you not there?" Archie asked as he sat up, looking at his friend.

"Can you really blame me for not wanting to watch a man get his head chopped off?" Sammy retorted, making Archie raise a questioning brow.

"That has never bothered you before," Archie said, and Sammy shrugged in response.

"Guess I have just grown a weak stomach, the sight of blood makes me sick now," Sammy replied. "Also I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to sneak in and not be noticed by Noami and her henchmen."

"Right..." Archie furrowed his eyebrows, feeling a bit suspicious of his nonchalant friend. But then once again, Sammy had too many layers for even Archie to be able to uncover them.

Sammy did not stay for long, as soon as Archie started working and asked Sammy if he would lend a hand...the man grinned sheepishly before making an excuse about his father wanting him home early. Archie simply rolled his eyes at the obvious lie but said nothing as his friend left.

A couple of hours passed, and Archie was humming as he got lost in his work.

All of a sudden Archie felt someone's presence behind him, and he flinched when a hand touched his shoulder. Archie used the broom in his hand as he turned around and tried to strike the culprit that had snuck up on him.

Kenric was caught off-guard, but he was quick with his reflexes as he grabbed hold of the stick before it could hit him in the face. Archie stared in horror at the dark-haired man, he could not believe that he had almost struck the prince in the face with a broom. The fucking warrior prince.

"Sire... I... I apologize. I did not— I did not mean to..." Archie stumbled on his words as he bowed down and stared at the ground.

He was expecting Kenric to yell at him. To ask him how dare he try to hit the prince. Archie closed his eyes shut, ready to accept whatever punishment the other man saw fit for his crime. To say that Archie was tremendously shocked when he heard Kenric laugh instead of shout would have been an understatement.