If I Could Live Again

CHAPTER 8

The day was greeted with a cold breeze as clouds began to be painted with gray streaks. A small town a few meters away from the palace gate was bustling with people preparing for the upcoming frost. Two people were heading towards the grave site as the temperature begins to drop.

“Have you halted the burial of Elin, Rand?”, a man dressed plainly with hood covering his head seem to be wary of his surrounding.  

Edric tried to keep a low profile eventhough he was using a drop earring to change his identity.

His bright golden hair that shines like the dazzling sun turned to caramel brown that peeked out from his hood and his scarlet red eyes that glow like a blazing inferno changed to marble gray. Scarlet eyes were a unique characteristic of a Royalty.

“Don’t worry, Edric. I already did that even if you didn’t tell me beforehand”, Rand followed behind him trying to hide their tracks.

Edric stood still has they arrived at their destination where a coffin was waiting at the middle of the cemetery. Rand opened the casket and revealed a horrid looking corpse.

“Rand, why didn’t you stop my brother?”, the prince said while clenching his teeth at the sight of his friend burnt down from head to toe.

“You know I cannot do that, Edric. I do not have the power and authority to do so”, Rand was saddened by the fact that he let Prince Ansel do what he wants.

“They didn’t even perform a proper burial”, Edric said with a mournful face. He touched the area where the sword of Orcus pierced her flesh.

The Prince winced at the sight of the wound. Its damage was so deep that the sword seemingly pulled the flesh apart looking for more blood to spill.

However, it wasn’t the depth of the wound that disturbed him. That deep wound he saw was just a normal wound and not a wound pierced by the sword of Orcus.

Whenever the sword pierces an individual, it leaves a mark when a person dies. A pattern of a tree will appear when someone injects his mana unto the wound. Its glow screams both of victory and sorrow. For the earth replenished your body and your body shall return back to earth as the cycle of life will move forward.

“It’s not her”, the prince stood up and his eyes shined with hope.

“It’s not her!”, he repeated while his smile radiated happiness.

“If it’s not her, then where is she?”, Edric was perplexed by the sudden realization.

“She gave me a letter saying goodbye. Did she knew such event concerning my brother will happen for sure?”, Edric seemed to have more questions in his head than answers he can come up with. He stared at Rand for some advice.

“Yes, yes. I know what you’re thinking. We’re going to look for her. I think she’s still here in the Kingdom hiding unless she had her ways to our neighbors”, Rand just sighed at the thought of searching the whole place just to look for Lady Elin.

“I knew I could count on you”, Edric put his arms around the back of Rand’s neck as they left the place. The prince seemed to be overjoyed as he was lost in thought while grinning from ear to ear.

“Where do you think you’re going?”, Rand was baffled as the Prince led the way.

“To look for Elin”, Edric smiled as if it was a common thing to do.

“NO! NO! NO! I only cleared up your schedule for just a few hours. You still have a lot of paperworks and meetings to deal with. The nobles are eager to do business with the palace. An envoy just arrived from the Kingdom you just visited. We still need to control the rumours of Lady Elin’s death within the palace. AND, we do not even know where to begin with. So, let us look for her a few days from now. We can’t just aimlessly search for the Lady. Now, come along!”, Rand grabbed Edric’s arm and dragged him back to the palace.

“Fine! If I’ll be able to finish early, then we’ll look for her immediately”, Edric grumbled as they went back home.

They began to walk towards the secret passage they always use to go out without anyone noticing.

“Why did you leave me, Elin?

Why?

I thought I told you that I will be with you even if the world becomes my enemy. So why did you still leave?”, Edric thought to himself as he kept on remembering the letter Elin gave to him.

“I will definitely search for you

and when the time comes that I will see your face again, I will hold you tight and never let you go

even if it means locking you up in my room”, the Crown prince smiled as he thought of Elin getting flustered with her cute expression and cherry red face as he daydreamed of pinning her down.

Edric stopped for a moment as he face his aide. He gave him instructions in preparation for 'The Grand Search for His Femme Fatale'.

“Rand, I’ll be fine dealing with the matters in the palace. Just go and look for some information about the whereabouts of Elin. Be inconspicuous as possible. We don’t want to alarm my brother, do we? He’s been very active at keeping us under surveillance lately. Does he want the crown so much?”, Edric snickered at the thought of his greedy brother.

“Yes, Your Highness”, Rand replied

“Alright then, BROTHER. You seized what was supposed to be mine before. Now, you dared to exploit my beloved. 

If you really want to play the tug-of-war that much,

then a Real WAR. You. Shall. Receive”, he mumbled to himself as his expression turned hostile while oozing a threatening aura.