Carlos was soon drifting through the flatlands with ease as he made his way into the nearest town based on the signs he saw.
Soon, Carlos could see outlines of mutiple buildings and people rushing around, he rode his horse over cautiously and pulled down his hood lower and kept his head down. He knew he looked suspicious but it would be even worse if these people figured out who he was.
Riding on the pavement, Carlos soon reach the Town supposedly named after a man named Volde. Everyone could be seen with either a unhappy expression or a emotionless one.
Feeling uncomfortable with the sudden change in environment, Carlos hopped off his horse and blended in with the villagers. He then followed even more signs to a nearby inn that was rather big but ancient looking, cracks in the building could be seen along with cobwebs.
Carlos walked over to the inn but suddenly stopped and stared at his horse. "A stable." he immediately said, looking around for one, to his relief there was one quite nearby.
After making sure that his horse was safe and sound in the stable, Carlos entered the inn as the door creaked loudly. "Excuse..me?" he said politely.
"A kid?" a person with a deep voice said, his eyebrows raising.
Carlos started coughing when he had breathed in air full of smoke. "I need a room for 5 days." he gasped out, making sure not to breathe in too deeply.
"Name?" the person with the deep voice at the counter said.
"Ca- Calix." he stummered, realizing that it wouldn't be wise to mention his real name.
"Calix, your room is on level 2, the keys are here. The fee is 10 bronze coins." the man said, ignoring the suspicious stammering. There were many people around here who used alias so he wasn't too bothered. The only thing surprising was that a kid was here at such a suspicious town.
The town was full of danger, even in daytime. Drugs dealer, kidnappers, serial killers, gamblers, robbers and everything bad you could think of. It was basically a paradise for people hunting for prey or running away from debt.
When Carlos was about to walk past the counter, the man stopped him and whispered, "Don't sleep too tight tonight or you might just wake up in a whole different place." he warned with a smile.
"What do yo-" Carlos was stopped by the sound of the door being slammed open by a vulgar man who was spitting out curses and insults every second, stomping into the inn.
"Leave." the man at the counter gestured to Carlos and forced a smile to the newly arrived customer.
With no other choice, Carlos took his leave and headed for his room. "It smells terrible in here.." he mumured.
Sometimes, when Carlos walked pass rooms, he swore he could hear muffled screams from some of the rooms. Some door rooms were even stained with a mysterious red color.
"I might just have stepped into a hellhole." Carlos concluded after he had made sense of all the madness around him. "Doesn't make a difference anyway.." he mumbled before taking a step into his room.
A revolting odour filled Carlos's nostrils, making him hold his breath. He then realized what it smelled like as he recalled his past memories. "Decaying Bodies." he said with disgust.
Carlo's father was known for being picky and strict, if things weren't done his way, he would either take out his anger on the person who did it or a servant nearest to him if he couldn't suppress the anger.
It didn't matter where or when, even infront of his children, the king doesn't hesitate to show them some extremely violent and gory scenes. Heads being ripped off, chests being punctured with ice spikes, body being crushed by a heavy weight.
Every killing method that was known to mankind, all the children of Vuiton knew them very well, having seen them being performed on numerous people before.
Sometimes, when dead bodies were left alone for a long time in a certain part of the castle, the smell would linger around, causing everyone massive discomfort and them growing familiar to the revolting smell.
Carlos knew this smell fairly well, he ignored the atrocious smell and sighed. "I knew what was coming. Now when should I return..?" he wondered as his mind went through many scenarios of his father raging and causing havoc if he had not return.
"I.. wanna see the world for a little more. Even if this isn't the most pleasant place, I'm sure there's more to see." he convinced himself while unpacking his items.
Feeling exhausted due to traveling all day, Carlos decided to take a nap in the afternoon and woke up in the midst of the night. "Time..?" he mumured, turning his head to look at the clock but was distracted by the revolting odor growing stronger.
"That smell.. isn't from my room." Carlos knew as the scent when he entered his room was way lighter than this, the scent right now was stronger and much more dense.
"Next..door?" he gulped and wondered if he should just leave the problem alone. "It's not really my business.." he said.
Carlos started laughing slightly, "When did I become such a coward?" he pondered before standing up and opening the door. "Guess I was right, it is from next..door."
"Do I tell the counter person..?" he mumured looking down at the stairs to only hear footsteps getting louder, revealing a familiar figure.
"Oh the kid." the man with the deep voice said in surprised when he saw the child from earlier Except this time, the child's hair was revealed, beautiful diamond like hair strands glowed brilliantly in the night light. The child's blue eyes glowed dazzlingly bright, blinding the man.
"The..prince-" he was stopped by ice forming around his lips.
"So-sorry." Carlos apologized frantically, panicking as his cover was being blown. He rushed inside his room and grabbed his bag swiftly.
Carlos bit his lips as he freezed the limbs of the man, making him incapable of moving. "I'll leave right now, I- I'm sorry!" he apologized once again, he slapped his hand over his mouth when he realized he was out of character.
Before leaving, Carlos turned back and bended down to the man's eye level, his eyes glowing brighter than usual. "You'll forget everything about me." he said.
The man started nodding robotically, his eyelid slowly closing.
Carlos than rushed down the stairs and undid his ice and left the inn, not forgetting to pull his hood over his head even though it proabably wouldn't help much in the night hue.
Going to the stable, Carlos ran into the alleyway but was stopped by hysterical laughters that echoed throughout the whole valley. "Look at her crying." one said.
"Should we just do it here?"
"It's abit dirty here but I can't hold back anymore." the voice before said.
"HEL-hmmmphh" a female voice yelled out but her voice soon became muffled.
"Hey, don't joke with me." Carlos said with a shaky tone, his eyes looking at the attacker with killing intent.
"What's a kid like you doing here, tryna find papa and being a hero now?" the man said, still pushing the crying woman down, not bothering to look at the kid in the eyes and identifying him as one due to the small size of his shadow.
"People like you, are the worst." Carlos mumbled, recalling the terrible memories he had seen before. To him, this was much worst than murder as it stayed with the victim forever.
Carlos forgot everything about his escape while his eyes burned with hostility.