Seeing the young lady face him, Darian felt so small. Clearly the girl was younger than him but she's more capable. Suddenly, she yanked him up and began to drag him away.
"Wait, wait, we can't just leave the old lady alone" he tried to stop her.
Ember looked at him as if seeing a retard.
"Clearly you're dumb and stupid. The old lady left a while ago" Ember rolled her eyes.
Darian looked around and true enough the old lady he almost risked his life saving was nowhere to be found. He felt betrayed and really stupid that he didn't even mind her calling him such.
"You don't have to feel bad. Although what you did is really stupid but you grew up in a place that blinded you from seeing such things. However, you should learn that in this kind of place, people care about their lives the most and despise nobles, they won't respect your person, even if you're the prince" Ember said coldly but somehow Darian was comforted by it. Then Darian realized something.
"How did you know I'm the prince?" he can't believe that someone recognized him. He spent most of his life inside the palace and rarely interacted with other people but this young lady from the slums actually knew him.
"Could you be here to assassinate me?" horror dawned on him. He knew that he got a death threat but he still risked experiencing a life of a normal person so he insisted on going outside the palace. Then he saw the old lady being harassed by those thugs and so, he sneaked out from his guards, followed the group, and ended up in the slums.
Now that he think about it, this lady, although she's wearing ragged clothes simply doesn't belong to this place. She got the same temperament as him but something else, something sharp and deadly was mixed in. The way she handled those thugs a while ago was so professional that she might really been hired to kill him. But still looking at her young age, he can't help but admire her.
"I assure you that if I had come to assassinate you, you wouldn't be here thinking about such ridiculous things. Now, I'm going back and if you wanted to leave this place then follow me" she said helplessly. She looked down on this prince who seem to know nothing of the world at the same time pity him because he was reduced to this state by the people who surrounded him.
Realizing his mistake, Darian followed the lady obediently.
She already informed her team that she found the prince and they asked her to escort him back to the palace. At the front of the gate, the prince's personal assistant was anxiously waiting. His eyes lit up when he saw the prince coming but he didn't miss the prince messy appearance and that clouded his initial happiness.
"I humbly apologize for my carelessness Prince Darian. I will accept any punishment you deem appropriate for this irresponsible servant" the assistant immediately bowed waiting for his judgement. The group of Royal guard responsible for the prince's safety lowered their heads.
"There's no need to apologize, it's my fault anyway. I'm just sorry I had you go through all this trouble" Darian felt really bad about the trouble he brought them, at the same time he didn't regret going through that ordeal since he learned a glimpse of reality.
"Thank you for your grace your highness" the personal assistant can't help but sigh in relief. Had thing thing happened to another royal, he's sure his minimum punishment is being locked up in jail, worse is getting his skin stripped off. The rest of the royal guards was grateful as well. They decided to dedicate their lives protecting the prince, if before they're just fulfilling their duties, now they're doing it wholeheartedly.
This is an unexpected windfall for Darian.
"Prince Darian, please have your injuries treated" the assistant led him inside.
"No, wait, someone entertain the young lady who brought me here" Darian commanded. But he saw their strange expressions, he looked back and saw the girl no more, just like the old woman, she vanished without his knowledge.
"Never mind what I said" then he walked inside with different thoughts running inside his head.
...
The moment she saw the prince reach the palace gates she already went back to their hideout.
The next day, the prince departed from the city. According to their intelligence, the group that wanted to assassinate the prince planned to take action on the black road, a few kilometers away from the border of the country of Dewe.
They didn't allow air flights from outside the country and therefore, they have to travel on the road which makes them more vulnerable to ambushes.
Team Chaos was assigned to cover the back of the prince's protective formation while Bloody Clown's team already arrived in advance at the possible enemy ambush point.
Team Chaos was separated into two. She was together with Jac and Big Sis Koala, taking the left flank while Yogi and Black Panda took the right one.
The travel had been going smoothly but everyone knows that the smoother it gets the higher the level of danger it pose. No one is letting their guard down.
While she's observing the road, she noticed that two of the cars in front of them suddenly slowed down. Jac also noticed the abnormality and tried to overtake the cars but they didn't give them the chance to do so. The cars in front of them tried to grind them to the side of the road. Koala, with her gun, shoot the the people in the other car. She managed to take three of them down but the driver suddenly sped up and managed to avoid the rest of the bullets.
Jac didn't let them get away easily. He maneuvered the car more skillfully than a professional racer and slammed the hood to the back of the enemy's car, but while they're busy dealing with the enemy at the front, a motorcycle suddenly appeared from the side of the road and moving in parallel with the car where the prince is.
She didn't care if the car is still moving, but she jumped along with her customized skateboard and made her way to the prince's car.