'Did they just call me, Prince Charles?' Chance thought, dumbfounded. The people around their area were still bowing their heads after so long.
The knight was staring blankly at Chance, noticing the stare, Chance also looked at him in confusion, 'Why are you staring at me?' he said to the knight but only in his mind.
The knight averted his gaze and faced the people who were bowing, "His highness orders you all to raise your head." he stated, making the escorts stand up straight again and the other civilian returned to what they were doing.
The group of men who chased Chance were about to raise their head but the others who were around who also looked like a knight kicked the back of the group's knees, making all of them kneel.
"You have no rights to raise your heads nor to stand up." Despite the blank expression that the knight puts on, his face was dark and his tone was authoritative.
The men kneeling trembled as they kept their head down, avoiding to meet the eyes of the knight and the crown prince. "Forgive us, Your Highness! Forgive us, Sir! We did not know that it was His Royal Highness who stayed in our brother's inn! Please let this pass just once, we really did not know!" the man begged, still not putting his hands down.
Even without looking up, they could feel the frightening aura from the knight, "When did we order you to explain? Did we ever give you permission to speak?" said the knight.
"You know that you should not beg His Highness to let you go! Instead, you should admit to your fault and accept the punishment!" the man from the carriage said.
The blank-faced knight nodded to the others and they grabbed the people involved in chasing Chance. "Take them to Tartaria."
"Wait!" Chance said, immediately stopping the knights from taking them away. "Let them go."
All of them turned to look at him with an obvious look of surprise. They let them go as it was a direct order. Even after letting go, the group of men didn't attempt to escape out of fright to get killed.
"It's my fault. I owe them, give them one sun as payment for my stay at their inn." Chance said. The men, shocked, got all flustered and bowed their heads, "No, No! It was never your fault! It was our fault for such ignorance!"
Chance shook his head, "No, please stand! It really is my fault so you don't hav—" Chance noticed the group of men sweating even more.
'Your Highness, take a hint! What you are blabbering will guarantee our death!' the man screamed in his mind.
"Nevermind, just let them go." Chance said, realizing that a royalty like Charles won't level himself with commoners. He just told the knights to let the men go, because nice words will bring them even more danger.
The men bowed their heads and raised their hands, "Blessings from the Goddess, Glory to Antares!" they said before leaving. They just walked casually, but after they got a bit far from them, they immediately ran back to the inn.
'I'm seriously fucked up, I'd be thankful to be in this century, but why the heck does it have to be in the body of Charles?!' it might not have been obvious, but deep inside he wants to cry. 'I don't know anything about the royal family, I don't even know what Charles is supposed to act like.' he said, internally freaking out.
He sighed and when he looked up, he saw the knight staring at him again, 'Crap, is he suspicious of me, now?' he thought.
"Why are you staring at me?" Chance asked, 'There I said it!' he thought.
The knight did not answer with words and just shook his head like saying it was nothing, the man from the carriage opened the door and the knight waited beside it.
"Are you my butler?" Chance asked, startling the man.
"I am but a servant, Your Highness. A messenger that the Royal Head Butler had sent." he bowed. Chance secretly glanced at the knight because he knows what he just said made him even more suspicious. He immediately looked away as he found the knight staring at him.
Chance went inside the carriage and took a seat, a little while the knight also comes inside and sat across him. The messenger closed the door and sat beside the carriage's coach.
Even after the horses were galloping, none of them spoke. The awkward silence made Chance avoid looking in his eyes that was piercing him since earlier.
"I am Your Highness's personal knight and the Captain of the Antares First Squad, Alec Valorian."
Chance turned to him, 'So his name is Alec, wait why did he introduce himself? Did he notice that I'm not his master?'
"I know, why are you telling me that?" Chance lied, the knight squinted his eyes, looking at him.
"I thought that maybe you had also forgotten about me, seeing that you did not know the messenger that you were always ordering around." he said.
Chance gulped, "I'm kind of getting headaches quite often that I had trouble remembering things." he said.
The knight seemed convinced after hearing what he said, "You did tell me about that. Are you still having those strange dreams?" he asked.
'Charles was having dreams before I came?' Chance thought, confused. It came to him that maybe those dreams were about how he died or maybe about the future where Chance lives. "Yes, I still keep on dreaming of a man I don't know and a...book."
"That is right, you stayed in that inn because you said you were following someone. Did you see who it was?" he asked.
'So Charles really did dream about me, but who was the person he was following?' Not knowing who he was talking about, he shook his head as an answer.
"I will send some of my men to investigate the inn with the description you gave me. For now, let's return to the palace." said the knight, Alec.
'How did I describe it?' That was what Chance wanted to ask, but he couldn't. He will just wait for a time where they find that person so he could see if for himself.
In every path that the carriages and the escorts took, the people would give them way and bow until the carriage was nowhere near their sight. 'Living a life of royalty, I wonder how that would be for me.'
He felt the horses stopped, so he took a peek outside and saw nothing but gold, 'Where is the house or mansion or whatever building we are in?' he thought.
The reason why he couldn't see anything yet was because of the enormous gate, 'Fucking royalty, this gate is a big as a normal house in my time. Would the bathroom be as big as my condominium unit?' he said in his mind, his mouth parted by amazement.
At the back of the knight's seat was a rectangular window, the plate slid and showed the eyes of the messenger, "Your Highness. Sir Alec. We have arrived at the palace." he informed.
"Open the gates, the Crown Prince has arrived!" he announced to the gatekeepers.
The gates opened and the carriage moved again, entering the open gates.
'I'm at the Howards' palace now.' he said in his mind. Nervous, he sighed and whispered,
"This is gonna be a difficult life."