Chance woke up and found himself in the middle of a great number of books, realizing that he had fallen asleep from reading, "Crap, how long was I reading?" he muttered.
"It is six in the evening, Your Highness." a voice answered.
He turned his head and followed the direction of the voice he heard and saw his knight, Alec, standing straight beside him. He looked at him with slightly parted lips, it came into him that he was actually there from the moment he started reading until he fell asleep. "How long were you standing there?"
"About five hours, Your Highness." the knight responded as if it was nothing to him, Chance blinked, mouth agape in incredulity. "What?!" he exclaimed, making Alec surprised. His gaze went down to his legs, "Are you okay?" he said with worry and sat down on the floor.
"Seriously! You could have taken advantage of sitting while I was asleep. It is not like I will see you!" he scolded. The Valorian knight looked down at the Crown Prince that was sitting on the ground, stunned. 'W-what is he doing?'
He became even more flustered inside as he felt the prince pressing the muscles of the back of his legs. He put his sword away and bent down to his level to grab both of Charles's hands. "A Crown Prince should never lower himself to anyone."
Chance was gazing down at his leg when Alec grabbed his hands, after hearing those words he immediately raised his head, forgetting that he was a royal.
But at the moment he looked up, he met the knight's gaze with the light from the window reflecting in his empty, crimson eyes that have met blood all his life, his usual blank face turned serious as he looked at him. "You do not have to worry about me, Your Highness. I should be the one to worry, that is my duty." he said.
He noticed every bit of his fine features, from his chestnut hair to his lips that were always shut tight, not uttering a word that is unnecessary. Why is it that when he starts to speak, he tells words that could make others tense and flustered inside?
But the way Chance felt at that moment was different from whenever he sees the mysterious man in the cafe.
Alec makes him feel comfortable and secure, sometimes nervous.
But the emotions he felt when he met the man, was something Chance could not explain. But among those emotions, one stood out the most, "It was painful." he muttered.
Surprised by his words, Alec removed his grasp on his hands in an instant. "Does it hurt?" he asked, putting his eyes on his wrist, "Forgive me, Your Highness, I di—
Chance took his hand away from him, "No, no. I am fine." he said, not able to say that it was not him that he was talking about.
He could still remember the words that came out of the knight's lips, earlier.
"If ever you are having a problem or in a difficult situation, please do not hesitate to tell me." he said. "No matter how bad it is, I'll stand by your side."
He stared at him, feeling guilty for hiding the truth. A knight stands by his words, he thought that maybe if he tells him, he would understand. "Alec," he called out to the knight. Alec did not remove his gaze and waited for the prince to continue his words.
"Alec, listen. I am..."
SLAM!
Both of them turned their head at the same time and saw the librarian placing plenty of books onto the table. Nervous, he turned to Alec to tell him to stand up, but his eyes were still on him. Chance did not get to speak as it was awkward so he stood up alone.
The librarian was startled to see him in a sudden, then followed by the knight who also stood up. "Your Highness, Sir Alec, what were you two doing on the floor?" he asked. The two of them glanced at each other and Chance looked away.
Chance looked at the tall man with a thin build, his long gray hair tied in a low ponytail. The round of his eyes were dark, like someone lacking sleep, but it was a natural smokey eyes. "Edmund! You are still collecting books? You can rest, I will take it from here." he said.
The librarian shook his head and smiled, "I am not tired at all, Your Highness. No one comes here often so I rest all the time. I am more than glad to serve you here." he responded. His voice was like boy's and slow enough to make you sleepy.
Chance glanced at the books then back to Edmund, "I have gone through a lot of books, how come I have never read about the past Howard rulers?" he asked, confused about why it was mostly about Charles's family. Especially the current King Cadell.
The atmosphere became odd and the two were silent. A little while later, Edmund spoke, "His Majesty has ordered us to remove anything about the other rulers before him. The reason was unknown, but since his enragement, no one dared to bring the topic up." he looked at the prince in confusion, "Why would you want to know about it, Your Highness?"
"It is nothing. You can take your leave now, Edmund. I will call you if there is something I need." he commanded. The librarian bowed his head and went back to his spot.
"What were you about to say, Your Highness?" Alec asked, Chance thought he would forgot about it, but he still remembered. "Oh, I am..." he paused, hesitating to tell him. "I am...going back to reading." in the end, he was not able to say it.
Alec did not answer and let him go back to researching. Chance sat down and sighed as he opened the book, It is all mostly about the King's partners, children and achievements. He has no need to learn about etiquette since he was taught about it in his school. He had already read about the responsibilities and duties. There was more about Antares that he had not read about yet, but his eyes found its way to another book.
Star Kingdom Canopus.
He closed the book that he was reading and grabbed the book that he saw. 'Oh, screw it, I am curious.' he said in his mind and pushed away the unfinished book to start reading the new one.
While he was scanning the words and flipping the pages he noticed the book beginning to glow. 'Is it just me?' he thought and rubbed his eyes. The page suddenly had a text that was not there before.
I am Fate.
He gasped internally and glanced at Alec to see if he noticed anything. He closed the book and mixed it among other books on the table. "Alec, can you leave me alone for a moment? I cannot seem to focus." he said as an excuse. "And oh, take Edmund with you outside." he added.
Chance was sure that the knight was curious, but he did not question him and did as he ordered. The two of them talked from afar and glanced at Chance. For a few seconds, they went outside and shut the door to not let anyone interrupt the prince.
Seeing that they left, Chance hurriedly grabbed the book, "Fate, finally you came!" he exclaimed, glad to see that he will not go through all the trouble in this century by himself. The glow left the book and became a light, floating spirit.
"I came by to inform you about my rules." it said.
"What rules are you talking about?" Chance asked, perplexed.
"In your stay in this century, there is something you must abide by so that you could get the information that you want. If not, then you will never be able to know how the king died." Fate said, making him all tense.
'I hope it will not be hard.' Chance wished in his mind. "So what is it?"
"Sooner or later, you will start to have strange dreams. Those dreams are an important scenarios that will happen to Charles." the light stated while Chance stared, listening carefully. "First rule, You must do exactly everything that happened or was shown in the dream."
'That is easy, Like a script you need to follow.' he thought.
"Second, You must not do anything opposite or against the dream."
'Of course. Everything will change and I will not be able to get accurate information about my, I mean, Charles's death.' he said in his mind while writing what Fate was saying in a paper.
"Third, Refrain from trying to change a person's fate, for it is destined." Fate stated, its tone was different from usual, it was more emphasized. Chance stopped, "Why would I want to change someone's fate?" he whispered, waiting for Fate to continue its words.
"For the fourth one, You must not try to get yourself attached to this period." it stated, "It will just be trouble if you decide to stay here." it added, making Chance nod.
"Just to remind you, if you change a fate and want to stay here, you will still end up dying. And will not be able to return to your own time." Fate said as a warning to Chance. He gulped, 'A dangerous rule.' he reminded himself and wrote it beside the fourth rule.
"Lastly," it muttered. "You must find out the reason why you were named as 'Chance'."
Chance stopped writing and looked at the light.
"My name?"