What We Left Behind

Chapter Fourteen: Eric Committs A Grave Mistake

The doppelganger was in the bath.

The man had gathered this much from the guards stationed outside his chambers.
He scoffed. As if that kid even deserved some guards to look after him. That kid needed to be given a taste of his medicine, he needed to be tucked into bed.

Someone should probably just tell him to sleep and when he wakes up, he won't be the king anymore.

His name was Erix, or so he claimed.

One more preposterous thing he claimed was that he was here to take after the king's throne.

Even thinking about succeeding the Great Ruler Drystan was a crime, and only the true heir Prince Sorin deserved to commit that and not have a rebellion wake up against him.

Anyone else should be hanged.

Though hanging a kid was not really a part of the man's values, he still decided that he would scare the kid away into believing that he wasn't a fit for the kingdom. The kingdom was already meeting its downfall, no one wanted a wannabe ruler to lead it to its doom.

That was why the man walked into Erix' chambers with an air of authority. No one stopped him.

Everyone knew who he was.

Except Erix. He was going to soon enough.

The man decided that no matter how big a traitor and liar, everyone deserves privacy, so he didn't sneak in the bath, not that he had planned to anyway.

He waited outside for Erix to walk out.

While doing so he looked around the room and noticed Erix's things lying around here and there. They looked like Erix' things, weird like him. A black thin rectangle, those rubber sandals that weren't like anything he had seen before, a cape-like thing that was shorter and made of some puffy material.

The one question the man couldn't help but wonder was, where exactly had Erix come from?

Why did Lady Ludivine bring him here? What was she even thinking? It wasn't like she had nothing to do with the kingdom; she had grown up here and her friend Maeve had been born into the royal family. Why would Ludivine do anything that wasn't beneficial for the kingdom?

He didn't let this doubt faze him, though.

Maybe Lady Ludivine had had a misconception that this fantasy creature Erix was real. Maybe she had just been wrong in examining Erix's genuinity.

The man snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the door opening.

Out walked Erix.

He was dressed in royal clothes.

The man gritted his teeth, furious that Erix was trying so hard to build his reputation around here and to blend in somewhere he didn't belong in the first place. This was it.

Erix's focus was on drying his hair with a cloth as he walked over to his bedside table. He picked up the black rectangle.

Did something on it with his back to the man.

Now or never, in a few seconds, he would look up from beneath the cloth draped over his head and he would notice that he wasn't alone.

Now or never.

The man sneaked forward on light footsteps, his sandals making no sound on the carpeted floor. His heart beat faster the closer he got to Erix. He was really doing this.

He was trying to attack a kid who was his daughter's age.

But it was necessary for the kingdom, he assured himself. This was for the kingdom. Here goes nothing.