Diary 6:
"You should go now," I said.
"Uhm…."
"What is wrong?" I turned and asked.
"I don't have a place to stay…" Van Kiep said it softly while looking at the ground.
I facepalmed myself, "Of course. She just escaped from slavery. How can she find a place to stay?" but then I realized, "But I don't have money either," I looked at her and swallowed nervously.
"My prince… Can I sleep here tonight?" I could barely hear her.
"What should I do now?" I asked myself while panicking. "Well, I couldn't just tell her 'No' and kick her out of the room. She doesn't have money to rent a room and neither do I."
"Alright then," I answered. "You can sleep on the bed, and I will sleep on the ground."
"Oh no! I can not just enjoy the comfort of the bed while you have to face the stone cold ground," Van Kiep quickly refused. "My prince, please sleep on the bed, it is my honor to sleep on the ground next to you," she was genuinely happy when saying that.
"I can not just let a girl suffer like that," I said.
"Please don't worry about me," she smiled.
After some thought, I finally to gave up on trying to convince her. "Alright. Van Kiep, come here," I called.
She reacted fast and walked to me.
"Listen, since you don't want to sleep on the ground and I don't want you too either, let's divide the bed into halves. I will sleep in one half and you will get the other," I said.
"Are you sure that is fine?" did you guys notice that she didn't refuse?
"I should be the person to ask you that," I responded.
"I… I am fine as long as you are ok with it my prince," I thought I saw she was blushing back then, but again, too dark to tell.
Without saying a word, I got into the bed and left half for Van Kiep. She hesitated but finally lay down as well.
Even though I was the one who came up with this idea and had prepared myself mentally, my heart still couldn't keep calm. Laying next to Van Kiep, I could not sleep so the whole night, my eyes were looking at the ceiling.
"My prince," Van Kiep called me. She sounded half asleep already so I didn't respond to her. "Part of me is glad that you became this way."
"Ok… why is that?" I was asking myself but Van Kiep was fully in her dreams when I turned to look at her. That full night, the ceiling became my best friend.
When the next morning came, I was finally slowly going to sleep, but the sudden banging on the door didn't let me.
"Din! Wake up! We need to meet up with the troop!" Long Dao voice behind the door.
"If she enters, then she will see Van Kiep!" I quickly noticed the urgent situation.
I jumped out of the bed and went to open the door immediately. Luckily I didn't change clothe from last night.
"Hi there general," I acted tired when opening the door.
"Go down and eat breakfast. We only have a small amount of time left," Long Dao said.
"Let me wash my face, and then I'll come down," I told her. Long Dao can not see Van Kiep or else I'm f*cked.
As though the sound of Long Dao and me was disturbing her dreams, Van Kiep woke up and Long Dao heard creaking noise from the bed.
"What was that?" Long Dao asked.
"Probably just some mouse," I smiled nervously.
"Let me see," she didn't wait for me to answer and just entered my room.
"Oh no!" I closed my eyes, expecting the worst outcome.
"I don't see any mouse. And why are you closing your eyes?"
"Huh?" I was asking myself. "Did Long Dao not see Van Kiep?"
I slowly opened my eyes and almost fell out of shock. Van Kiep was still on the bed and was waving at me. She put her finger on her mouth, signaling me to be quiet.
"What is wrong?" Long Dao caught me from falling.
"Thank you. I am not very stable during the early morning," I made up an excuse.
"How can you even survive in my troop like this? Anyway, be hurry. I will be waiting downstairs," Long Dao finished and walked out of the room.
I patiently waited for a few seconds after Long Dao left and immediately closed the door.
"Woooh," I took a deep breath, then turned to Van Kiep, "How did she not see you?"
"I used a simple spell to cover her eyes from seeing me. The spell doesn't need too much energy to cast so she didn't sense it," Van Kiep explained.
"Thank god there is magic in this world," I thought to myself. "Stay here, I will go down and bring some food for us to eat," I ordered.
"Yes my prince," Van Kiep smiled innocently.
I don't want to bore you with things after that so here is a brief description. We ate and Van Kiep followed me because she could hide herself using her spell. Our troops went out of the city and headed to the capital again. On the days marching, Van Kiep had enough time to tell me the story of her prince, Hoa Sa Ma.
So from this point on, this will be about the prince:
Hoa Sa Ma is the prince of Hoa, but his mother is just a maid so even though he is a prince, no one in the palace respects him, not even his father, the king.
But Hoa Sa Ma wasn't the only child, his mother pregnancy was a triplet. So along with Hoa Sa Ma, he had a bigger brother and a younger sister. The three were only seconds apart.
His mom, the maid, was later poisoned when he turned five by the king's other wives. They were jealous of his mother giving birth to not one, but two princes. With the mother gone, the triplet was sent to the queen because she didn't have any children. Luckily for the siblings, the queen later grew fond of his brother because of his genius brain, so Hoa Sa Ma and his sister had an easier time to live.
But that didn't last long. Fifteen years ago, when Lan was conquering Lai and Hoa, an agreement of all three kings was made to end the pointless war. The agreement was, "Each nation will choose two royal family members and send them to the two other nations. They will be kept as hostages for ten years."
With that, because the triplets didn't have any power to protest, Hoa Sa Ma was sent to Lai, and his sister was sent to Lan. As for the older brother, he was able to stay because the queen liked him.
"So where did I stay during that time?" I asked Van Kiep.
"My prince, you were under chancellor Quy's supervision."