"When you walk towards the edge of your own accord,

make sure that you are the only one to fall."

-Verse 2, Chrome Era

CHROME ERA 416

Prince Keith - a sight that drew the attention of all those who attended to him.

Born with flowing black hair and strange red eyes, it had seemed very frightening whenever he, during his childhood, had looked at someone directly; as he grew taller, his hair was styled to hide the left side of his face. The one red eye peeking out didn't bother anymore, much less intimidate the others.

Even so, to avoid that inconvenience, Prince Keith had adopted an unspoken rule of not looking a person in their eyes to avoid their chances of freaking out. Despite this, he couldn't help but unwittingly become the center of attention for one reason or another.

He sat down on the bed after waking up early in the morning, looking at the rising sun cross his window sill. His face scrunched in thought.

"One day has already gone, and I am no closer to finding whom I want to take with me..."

Ever since infancy, Keith had always been quite indecisive. It didn't stand out much in the eyes of others - since he was usually hidden away in the shadow of his father or invested in training for the development of his magical abilities.

The royals were supposedly the most powerful at using magic since they were related to King Chrome's bloodline. The current ruler, King Lucius VII, was the strongest mage in the whole of Selvesters whose natural power could only be rivaled by the one knight who had been imbued with the magic extracted from one of the captured Venefics.

Keith, on other hand, could just handle basic fire magic. Most of the mages regarded it as elementary and focused on other magical abilities in addition. In addition to fire, Keith did show some potential in lightning as well but was never able to harness it again after it had got out of control when he was seven and almost destroyed a flank of the battle stadium.

Even so, King Lucius had faith in Keith's abilities and that he would be able to harness magic soon enough. Few of the other mages held him in contempt but generally, he was respected by people for his kind and good nature. Even so, Keith felt like shouldering the responsibility of becoming someone who could command magic and lead an army would definitely be impossible.

Even so, Keith didn't want to let down the respect and faith that his father had in him and regarded the support given to him by others for all this time as his strength to move forward in this venture.

Still, the matter of choosing a partner remains unabsolved. Several girls of noble blood who were good at magic wanted to pair up with him but Keith knew that it was certainly not for that only - and he had no intention of squandering his time on the journey to flirt mindlessly rather than training to become stronger. That would simply be a betrayal of his duty as a royal.

As he walked in a corridor with a floor laden with a red carpet with walls on each side covered with paintings, he could hear whispers of ministers and officials around wondering aloud about 'who will Prince Keith choose?'

"I wish they would stop reminding me about that every second. I think a change of scenery might do me some good." Keith mentally sighed, hearing their chatter.

The royal palace lay at the center of Selvesters with big gardens around it and a space on the western side for the King to make announcements - where the subjects could all gather from their shops and marketplaces.

Prince Keith had only gone out once or twice outside the palace and that too when carried in a palanquin by guards. So he was quite sure that if he asked his father to go there alone, he would certainly not allow that. Thus, he sneaked out the back entrance of Palace through the garden route where only a few guards were there on watch and managed to avoid them by jumping over the fence... though his robe did get torn in the edges.

Keith wondered for once if he should lose the cape but then thought that the action would simply show the compass he was carrying and drew even more attention.

(At this time, no one in the Kingdom of Selvesters had any concept of an overcoat so a cape was more like a robe attached to their shoulders. Nobles especially used to wear them as a mark of their status.)

As he strolled around the town place, he was constantly amazed at the different kinds of shops and goods and commodities that were being sold and bought by numerous people. Even though it was a simple transaction, he hadn't witnessed it that much to get used to it yet.

"Hey! Did you hear the royal notice that was issued?"

"What notice?" Prince Keith who was mingled in the crowd heard few voices.

"It seems that King Lucius is sending Prince Keith away on a journey next week."

"Really! But would he even survive out there... he has been in the palace since his earliest days, hasn't he?" The man asked lightly.

"Those royals are strong as hell in magic unlike us. I am sure he will turn out to be fine. Or what is even his point of being royal then?" The other guy replied.

"You got that right?"

Prince Keith quickly walked away from there. No matter where he goes, it seems that this is the only talk that would follow him. He had no idea that the announcement of his departure was already made public. The King sure was fast. As he continued to think over the stuff, he noticed that there was some tension between guards at one corner.

"Isn't this the Sanctuary?" He thought as he glanced at the place.

The Sanctuary was a place where all the captured Venefics were kept and had their powers extracted from them. Since it was more likely to be attacked by ruffians in the kingdom who wanted the forbidden powers for themselves, they had several guards to keep it secure from letting extracted power fall into the hands of those.

There was only one Venefic left in Sanctuary so it became significantly even more important to guard it since his power couldn't be extracted. When Keith went over to them, the guards tightened their spears as if preparing to attack him if he made a move.

"Who are you?" One of the guards grumpily asked, probably due to exhaustion of work. Keith knew that simply telling them he was a noble wouldn't save him from the hassle he was about to get from them for this sudden intervention so he chose to reveal it by showing his royal compass assigned only to the King and Princes.

"I am Prince Keith."

The moments those words left, they eased up and looked as if ready to apologize for any rude behavior but Keith waved it off.

"I couldn't help but notice that something was troubling you two. I am curious as to what it is?"

"Well!..." The guard looked as if hesitant to tell.

"I will tell you." The other guard sighed looking at his partner. "It is just that lately the past few weeks, we have been hearing more and more scraping noises from inside - as if the Venefic inside that metal thing is getting restless and would break out any second - but since nothing happened, none of the mages took our concern seriously. When I came this morning, I could hear that there was total silence. I was quite relieved at first but just when I was starting to think everything went back to normal, the scraping noise intensified so much that the iron bars constricting the room started to shake. I tried to talk to Bruno now about what happened and then we had a disagreement over how to deal with it. I wanted to go to the mages again but Bruno thought that they would simply ignore us and it would be unwise to just leave one person in charge of Venefics in the case that it actually breaks out."

Keith grasped the information relayed to him as he pondered over the matter.

'How about I stay here while you inform the mages?" Keith offered.

"But I can't put you in greater danger than you already are by roaming around alone already and that is exactly what I will do if I left you in charge, Prince." Bruno shook his head.

"It is not if I have not thought of it. But as royalty, I am much more sensitive to changes in magic so if anything happens, I would be able to handle the Venefic better."

Keith assured the worried faces, even though it wasn't really the truth. Despite being royal, he was quite sure that his level of attack and defense wasn't as great as demanded of his status. But even so, he was still sure that he would be much better at handling the Venefic. It was a risky venture for him, but as a royal, it was his duty to protect lives even in minimal ways.

Bruno, after much convincing, agreed to leave as Prince Keith and the other guard Sternb were now waiting outside the gate.

The guard was quite nervous as he had never stood here with a royal present and this silence between them was quite erratic. It wasn't that he was expecting Prince to suddenly start a conversation but even so, the silence was uncanny.

Like a thread of thought snapping in instant, Sternb was thrown away to the wall by a force he couldn't even detect.

He managed to avoid any injuries as he fixated his balance on the ground with a spear. He looked around to see that Prince Keith was already away from there with his hands glowing in fire.

"So this was the magic that royals used ?" Stern muttered. This wasn't exactly how he wanted this silence to shatter - all of sudden, all of sudden when he was facing a broken wall, falling bricks with smoke filling the room out of nowhere with a Prince.

He glanced sideways as he could see commoners running away with a volley of screams.

Keith was quite surprised that he couldn't even detect any changes in magic and that attack, it just came as if melting into the air itself like a natural flow.

Just who was behind this smoke?

A teenage boy appearing to be the same age as him with blonde hair and black eyes appeared. He was bleeding from his leg, but it disappeared out of nowhere.

"Hey, you! What is your name?" The boy asked with his fingers pointing at Keith who just rolled his eyes.

Name...? Just what was this Venefic planning?!

"I am Keith." He answered still, as he saw no harm in telling him that information.

"You stay away from the Prince-" Sternb readied his spear, advancing a little towards the Venefic before the latter gave him a glare at which he was shaken to the core.

"You know that those tiny flames of yours are not even going to lit a fire in a chimney that you humans use, right?" The Venefic turned towards Keith.

"Is that so?"

Keith tried to remain calm. He had no idea what was the Venefic's objective. Still, whatever he had heard from his father, this Venefic was acting differently from that account. He wasn't simply attacking them when he was clearly capable of that, and for some reason, actually appeared to be interested in knowing about them.

"The mages will find you soon. You can't escape them. They caught you the first time..." Keith warned the Venefic.

"Boring. Let's have a chat. It is not like I am attacking you. So how about we call an armistice?"

"A chat?"

That is all.

Keith couldn't comprehend what he was thinking but if he was simply asking to talk, then he could avoid casualties that might happen if he resorted to violence especially in presence of this guard.

"Fine." Keith sighed putting out his flames as Sternb appeared surprised at his actions.

Just what was Prince thinking? It was quite clear that this Venefic must be planning to corner him by the idea of chat away from him so he could attack more openly.

But Keith told Sternb to stay put.

As they reached a vacant place, the Venefic gestured for Keith to sit down on a bench.

"What do I call you?" Keith asked.

"Hmm! Well.. particularly I don't have any name so..."

"Then how do you call your kind as an individual?"

"I don't know." He hitched his shoulders.

Keith rolled his eyes in disbelief but kept silent.

"So what do you want to talk about?"

"In a hurry, aren't we?" He chuckled as Keith made a face.

"Fine! Allow me to walk out of this palace and I won't kill everyone in this kingdom."

".....!"

"Are you out of your mind?!" Keith spoke at last.

"What is wrong? I don't see anything amiss that should be harmful ." His fist slightly tensed up.

"You do realize that the mages in the kingdom defeated you thirty years ago and captured you. You think you can be a match for them suddenly now."

"Tell me, Prince Keith! Do you know history?" He changed his expression to a serious one.

"I believe so," Keith replied.

Just what was the point of bringing up that now?

"Then you must have known that the kingdom of North was wiped out by a single Venefic. Now apparently, you managed to capture some - but do you really think that if you weren't able to extract my power, you truly defeated me?"

Keith's eyes widened.

"For the past thirty years, I have been collecting natural magic to grow more and more powerful while the human mages have either changed or died. You can suppose that it all might be a bluff - but can you really take that risk? You know very well that if you don't accept the deal, and I manage to overpower mages as I claim, your people would die." He calmly finished.

Prince Keith knew that he was put in a bind. He still had no idea as to why this Venefic decided to break out now especially when he was here. It might be possible for him to sense someone of royal blood. If that was the case, then he might have been waiting for the right moment when a royal would happen to pass by where he was imprisoned so he could make such a deal with them.

But... that also meant something else.

"Nope."

"I am sorry... what did you say?!" Venefic looked surprised.

"No! If you truly wanted to hurt people even if you are as capable as you say, then you wouldn't have waited so long and would have just destroyed the kingdom rather than asking for permission to walk out and bothering to make a deal with me. So I doubt that you are even thinking of making that choice" Keith smiled as the Venefic blinked.

"You are... annoying." He sighed, ruffling up his hair.

At The Royal Palace

King Lucius was alarmed at hearing that the Venefic had broken out. When he asked the guards as to who had witnessed it, he was certainly not expecting to hear that his son Keith would be there all of the places.

Sure, he had to set out on a journey not long after today - but still to go without any guard outside the palace, especially near that area...

"I hope he is fine." The Queen clutched her hands, worrying.

"I am not much surprised. To break decorum and not meet expectations is something that my bother excels in, after all." The eldest Prince Milan stated.

"You shouldn't talk about your brother like that now, Milan." Queen looked at him sharply.

"I was simply stating the facts..." Milan looked away.

The doors of the throne room, where King Lucius was currently setting out a mage squad to search for the Venefic and the Prince, opened as a guard came rushing in.

"Your Majesty! Prince... Prince Keith has returned ." He moved aside as Keith came into the room with all eyes staring at him.

He hastened his steps, then stopped to kneel down on one leg before the staircase leading to the throne where King Lucius was sitting.

Ministers, Queen, and eldest Prince, all eyes were on him.

"You know better than to go outside the Palace without permission, don't you?!" Keith raised his head at the King's angry voice.

"Yes, Father-"

"I am your King right now."

"Of... course. If I might be so bold - I have a request to make." Keith tightened his fists.

"Oh! It seems little brother isn't even thinking of giving an explanation for his unruly behavior..." Milan squinted his eyes.

"It is fine." King raised his hand as Milan fell silent.

"Speak."

Keith looked up, daring to make eye contact with the King for the outrageous thing he was going to ask next.

"I...I want that escaped Venefic as a partner for my next journey."

[E/N:

First off, in my personal opinion - this chapter was sooo good that I. Hate. You. For. It.

Great character descriptions (A bit sparse, though).

History's a mystery - except for the ones who went through it; for them, it was a nightmare.

Blondie's a nice chap.

Keith having too much attention to himself... I get how uncomfortable he must be feeling.

Milan's that jerk brother we always complain about (but maybe he's a caring guy on the inside...?)

Those who write history probably use mirrors - and write whatever they see and think is right - which is actually their own face reflected back.

The guard Bruno must be having an existential crisis as he tries to convince the mages XD

See you next chapter! Toodles~]