The Perfect Prince and the Infamous Thief

Chapter 6

Jun was busy talking to Aiba and Ohno when Sho raised his arms in front of them. The three stopped at the sudden action as the knight moved his eyes around. Jun was utterly confused, but he saw the look of protection in Sho’s eyes. As soon as he spotted that look, the two knights were immediately surrounding him.

“Jun-sama,” Sho whispered his name and he looked at the buff knight, “Take that bastard with you and hide behind those bushes. I think they are here for him, not us.”

The Prince didn’t question who ‘they’ were as he slipped from the horse’s back and dragged both the animal and the thief towards the forest until they were completely hidden in the shadows. He was crouching down on the floor, but the thief refused to do the same. Ignoring him, he popped his head up from the bushes and was relieved when he saw the three sturdy knights from within the leaves that was covering them. However, Jun blinked once and the knights suddenly disappeared from his view.

Feeling worried and scared, he ducked down even further afraid that he might get caught because of carelessly showing his head. He waited for a while, hoping that the knights would come running towards him and asking him if he was ok. However, Jun felt like time was ticking by and all he could do was wait for them so he slipped even further into the mess of dried leaves and grass to be hidden even further in the shadows.

As they waited, the Prince did nothing but stare at the thief, afraid that he will just leave despite the tightly tied rope around his wrists. The thief’s eyes were on him too, as if he was trying to look for his weaknesses. Then he remembered. He never had anytime to talk to this thief since the three were always so protective around him. Despite telling the trusted knights the real reason for this venture, he still didn’t show them Nino’s picture since he didn’t want them to go look for him and cause troubles just because he was being selfish.

Using his free hand, he slipped it inside his tunic until he found the small painting he had of a smiling Nino. After taking it out, he unfolded the small painting an shoved it in front of the thief’s face so he could have a better look.

“Look here, you see the little boy in this painting? He’s the one I want you to look for.”

The thief was expectedly quiet. Jun half hoped that once they were alone, the thief can finally say something through his masked mouth. However, the thief did no such thing and Jun slipped the painting back inside his tunic angrily.

“What’s it going to take to make you talk, huh?” He asked him angrily, his voice barely a whisper. “Do you want more gold?! Because I have enough to make you talk!”

Standing up, he walked besides the horses body until he saw the pack he was looking for. He thrust his hand inside of the pack feeling a heavy pouch weigh in his hand. These golds were supposed to be for when they decided to stay at the villages. Since after catching that bastard, they didn’t need it anymore since he clearly told the knights to stay away from the villages so the news of catching the thief wouldn’t reach his father’s ears. He needed him before anyone else found out.

He turned his attention back to the infamous thief and threw the pouch of gold in his face with so much anger and rage. Despite the pouch being tightly tied around by the best rope his father can find, the gold spilled out of the pouch, some of them hitting the thief’s face and falling on the ground right after. He waited for the thief to bend down and grab all the gold and put it in his clothed body. However, the thief did no such thing as his eyes were still on his face.

“Then what do you want?!” He yelled, not caring if ‘they’ could hear him. “Why don’t you talk?!”

Just as Jun was about to send his foot flying on the masked face, a soft swoosh sounded behind him. He flinched back from the sound, thinking it was one of the knights coming to his rescue. He thought wrong when he saw a man dressed the same way as the thief, swiftly come in front of him without making a sound.