"You will teach me?"
The boy tilted his head with no specific reaction on his face. It wasn't that he didn't feel anything, but he was simply too stunned to show any expression.
When he was still in the castle, no matter what he did, not a single person paid attention. The only thing he remembered was being taught by the teachers his mother had chosen for him.
Sadly, those people never tried to teach him about magic. It was just literature, history, and other related things. Even being a prince, Adrienne had never held a weapon before.
Adrienne couldn't understand the motive the woman had behind making him stay there. He had one thing on his mind, and that was reporting what he had gone through to his parents.
"I can teach you. But only if you stay here for the next 5 years."
She said this while moving further away from him. The thoughts in her mind were progressing so fast that she could hear the sounds of her own heart thumping.
There were numerous questions on her mind. Adrienne's introduction made her feel absurdly confused. The prince with black hair and black eyes within the kingdom was unheard of.
Observing his tone, it didn't seem like he was lying. That ruled out the possibility of him being a liar. But then what did that imply?
The only possibility she could think of was that his existence itself was hidden for some reason. Maybe because he had someone endangering his life. Or maybe...
Those were her reasons for wanting to make him stay. If he were within the elven forest, she could've saved him whenever he was in danger. But outside of it? She couldn't have done anything.
"No thanks."
He felt no hesitation in rejecting her offer. Since the beginning, he has never intended to stay in the same place. There were more concerning matters he had to tend to.
"My parents will take care of everything."
The case of being attacked by the bunch who impersonated the guards was a matter he needed to report to his parents. It wouldn't take them time to figure out who the culprits were, given their positions.
The boy walked away with those thoughts on his mind, just to stop at the woman's words. His eyes widened, along with the sweat forming on his forehead.
"Then, how do you explain all those scars on your back?"
The tree vines had indeed healed the wounds on his body without leaving behind any traces. But it was only limited to fresh injuries, which he had not attained in the past.
When she took off his clothes to change them, she witnessed the scars on his back. Someone had been abusing the child for, who knows, how long.
From everything he had said until now, the woman had figured out the situation very well. She could feel goosebumps just imagining who might've been behind everything.
"Did your parents help you heal them...?"
The scars were large enough to be seen from a distance. If they had been treated properly, they would've been lighter.
They weren't ever healed by his parents or anyone else. It was, in fact, the mother who had inflicted such hideous scars on the back of the weak child. This was still unknown to the woman.
Adrienne didn't say a word. Was there even anything he could say when he himself had doubts about everything? The woman had finally hit the nail on the spot.
She understood his situation more than enough and just needed a gentle push. It wasn't certain whether she would succeed in it or not, which made her reveal her identity.
"Do you know who I am? Starcrest Yggdrasil. The world tree. You won't surely want to miss out on this chance."
The boy still had no expression on his face. He tilted his head, trying to remember where he had heard that name before.
His eyes, which had no glow in them a while ago, began sparkling brightly. He remembered studying about the world tree during history classes.
The world tree was quite famous for being the protector of humanity. The history had mentioned that the world tree had disappeared, but that wasn't true.
Her abilities, which she demonstrated earlier to heal Adrienne's wounds, ascertained that it was the truth. It looked like the most plausible explanation for what had happened.
"A-are you really the world tree?"
Adrienne didn't move close to her. What if she were lying? What if she were his enemy? He had taken that into consideration, but he couldn't think badly of her.
The gentle smile on her lips made the young boy believe her words. Despite being a child, Adrienne was smart enough to understand things.
The words he had listened to till now definitely had some hidden meaning behind them. The world tree wasn't a being who would harm a child for no particular reason.
'Is what she doing for my sake...? Or is she just like others...?'
Adrienne hesitated a lot before approaching her. His limbs shivered so lightly that it was almost unnoticeable. But he didn't stop walking towards her.
Holding her hand, Adrienne slowly spoke. Being nervous, one would've definitely stuttered. Adrienne spoke flawlessly with a soft voice.
"Then, is it ok for me to be here...?"
He was familiar with how people would behave when his existence was inconvenient for them. Either they would put a distance between them or put on a farce in front of him.
There was no ill-intent behind the woman's actions. Her smile was full of pure care for him. He couldn't understand her actions at all.
"It's ok for you to be here."
She patted his head before picking him up in her arms. His weight was too light for someone his age. Maybe he wasn't someone who ate much.
She gently placed him on the bed and walked towards the door. She didn't look behind, but the vines extending from the floor wrapped them around Adrienne's eyes, making him fall asleep.
The eyes that glistened blue just a while ago grew dull. She could feel an ominous feeling as she tried to connect all the points.
'I need to look into this properly...'
The light that fell on the floor through the gap in the open door soon disappeared.
----------------
-At Adrienne's castle-
"MOVE IT, MOVE IT!"
The man yelled while running with a barrel under his shoulder. The oil poured out of it, following the path he ran on.
He wasn't the only person doing that. More three people were helping him with the task. The main door to the huge mansion was open.
The liquid flowed down the stairs, making the red carpet spread across the floor darker. The whole building was already covered in oil.
The person wearing a cloak witnessed everything from a distance. This was the second and last destination she had asked the carriage owner to take her to.
She got down the carriage a bit away from there. After that, she trailed the path through shrubs that let her sneak to the spot she was standing at. By this point, the sun had begun to set.
But the darkness never spread around this area. The reason for that was the mansion that had started to get engulfed in the crimson flames.
'Ah~'
Witnessing the sight, her lips curled up to form a smile. She was the culprit behind the tragedy unfolding there. Soon, her smile faded away.
Just a bit further, a carriage was approaching the place that was lit ablaze. The empty red carriage with golden linings on its edges stopped before the woman.
Taking off the cloak she wore, her costly-looking, luxurious clothes were exposed. The jewellery she adorned herself with looked magnificent, adding to her beauty.
"Ah... No... Adrienne... My child..."
Tears rolled down her emerald eyes as she tried to approach the burning building. The sea of flames rose high to the sky, running rampant.
The blonde hair waved when the wind blew at a high speed. Her pretty face had turned peach-red from all the crying and sobbing.
Soon, a few more carriages arrived at the scene. A man wearing a formal tuxedo rushed out of it and pulled the woman. He hugged her tightly to prevent her from getting hurt.
"GET YOURSELF TOGETHER!"
The woman was startled at the sudden yell of the man. Her body loosened itself, and her eyes closed as if she had fainted.
"Your majesty!"
The maids ran while panicking to help the empress, who had passed out from witnessing the adversity. The man who held her was no one other than her husband, the emperor.
He let the maids take the woman away from the place. It was too dangerous to stay there. Then he signalled the guards that had come along with him to put out the fire as soon as they could.
Looking at the situation, it was sure that there would be no survivors. He should've been worried. Surely. But why... Why was he smiling...?
"Finally, all according to our plans... Big brother, it's my win..."
He mumbled while glancing behind at the empress, who had come back to her senses under the care of her maids. As their gazes met each other, they both tried to hold back their sinister grins.
The farce she had put up all this time was worth it. She was no other than the empress, who was revered by the citizens as a saint.
She could hear whispers from the maids around her. Their words seemed truly pleasant for her, who had just killed her son and orchestrated it as an unfortunate accident.
"Her majesty... Poor her... He wasn't even related by blood to her..."
Unlike the emperor and the empress, Adrienne didn't have a single feature identical to royalty. He had inherited black hair and eyes from his birth mother, who was a former princess of a far eastern land.
The current emperor, Calan Agustus, wasn't Adrienne's birth father either. He was the younger brother of the former emperor.
The rightful heir to the throne after Calan was actually supposed to be Adrienne, but they both wanted their son to become the next emperor. And that drove them to do such a cruel thing.
His caramel brown hair fluttered as he tried to act as if he were in great shock at witnessing his adopted son die. With his sorrowful, purple eyes fixed on the empress, he didn't say a word. In reality, these two people were rejoicing the most.
The night had fallen upon the place that was once glowing bright because of the flames. And the next day, the following news spread across the kingdom:
-The prince that was hidden from everyone for the past 10 years passed away due to an unfortunate accident.
Countless rumours and theories surfaced when the news began spreading everywhere. The one's targeting royalty disappeared without any traces.
Reading all the news articles, the two people who sat in the lounge room laughed loudly. They were the very people who had done some horrible things behind the scenes but got sympathy, praise and condolences instead.
Of course, Adrienne wasn't aware of their true nature. Let aside that, he wasn't even aware of who his birth parents were. All his life, he had lived as the treasured son of his enemies.
"What a fool he was."
He snickered as he threw the newspaper onto the table. The sunlight fell through the window, making the two people inside the room visible.
"To think he never realised that we just wanted to torment him."
They laughed at the kid they taught to be pathetic for believing their words and doing whatever they asked for. Adrienne had no way of knowing that the people after his life were his own parents.
Maybe luck was on his side when the world tree stopped him from returning. Or is this what one calls 'fate'?