Chapter 169: Reminiscences
In front of one of the rooms in the castle of the kingdom of Erela, Leal knocked on the door and remained silent as he waited for the person on the other side to open it for him. His eyes dwelled on the wooden sign hanging at the door with a name written on it that said 'Lei'. After a few repetitions, he slowly spun the golden doorknob of the door and gently opened it while sticking his head into the room.
After a few seconds of looking around, he exhaled as he gently closed the door. "Kuro is not here."
He walked away from the room and walked down the corridor while expressing a stoic expression on his beautiful face. After a few minutes, he reached the exit of the castle and roamed toward the capital of the kingdom. As he walked around, his stoic expression remained despite the disdainful gazes that he was receiving from the citizens of the kingdom he passed through.
"The treacherous prince." Said one of the elven citizens while staring at Leal with disdain on her face.
"Former prince." Said the other one correcting what just said.
However, Leal did not even show any reaction to what he just heard and continued walking on his path as if he did not hear anything. Without saying a word or even batting an eye he just walked through the waves of people towards the boundary of the kingdom and the great forest of Fiora.
At the very edge of the kingdom where nothing could be found but the thick forest, where the nearest infrastructure was very far and without any person walking around.
He stayed lying on the floor while staring at the ceiling of the cave that had a lot of spider webs in it. Total silence occurred and the only thing that could be heard was the gentle wind outside. He closed his eyes and fell asleep while being lullabied by the gentle hymns of the forest. The moment he opened his eyes again, it had been hours. As he woke up, he walked out of the cave and walked back to where he came from.
However, before he turned in the direction of the stiff cliff towards the capital of the kingdom. He walked further towards the edge of the cliff next to the waterfall. It's the same cliff that could be seen back then when he was with Casimir. Leal stood right at the edge of the cliff that had not even a single grass in it, just shiny and slippery stones. He looked down and stared beneath, a very high cliff that had nothing but spiky stones at the very bottom guiding the falling water on its route. And also, dangerous enough to instantly kill anyone unfortunate enough to fall in it.
Leal's gentle smile became much softer as he stared at the cliff. "This is where it's all started." He said in a very soft manner, with a tone filled with tenderness.
He shifted his gaze to the part of the cliff next to him. And saw a certain memory in the past.
An image of a beautiful girl with long black hair and dazzling pair of jet-black eyes handing her hand to an aristocratic blonde-haired boy struggling while hanging at the edge of the cliff with his hands. Screaming hateful words and looking at her with disgust while ignoring her hand.
Then... the girl screamed with a voice filled with irritation.
"Listen to me, you annoying, awful prince!"