[Chapter Size: 2400 Words.]
Third Person POV
Cintra, northern kingdoms.
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Madara continued reading his book with the girl beside him, while she unexpectedly helped him with some of the more difficult words. As time passed, the afternoon was quickly coming to an end, with Madara never failing to glance at the disguised princess.
"You shouldn't be here, I bet your disappearance has already been noticed and people are searching for you," Madara commented.
"Well, maybe. But it's not like it's the first time I've done something like this..." She shrugged.
"And you always get grounded." A new voice emerged, and Queen Calanthe herself approached, flanked by Eist and Mousesack, who looked on with amused smiles similar to Eist's. But the queen herself had a look of disapproval, more for Cirilla than for Madara.
"Grandma!" Cirilla immediately exclaimed, looking as though she had been caught in her childish mischief.
"Yes, your grandma, Cirilla," Calanthe said in a tone almost rolling her eyes at her granddaughter's obvious statement, "Now let's go back, seeing you dressed like this makes me want to throw you in that lake," she said, after all, she didn't like to see her granddaughter so poorly dressed.
"But grandma..." Cirilla was going to continue, but Calanthe cut her off again.
"No buts, you are coming back with me young lady, I want to have dinner with you after a little chat about you shirking your duties as the princess of this kingdom," she commented with the same tone, displeased with her mischievous granddaughter.
Of course, the news of her granddaughter's disappearance had arrived, forcing her to interrupt her audiences with the nobles to place guards around the castle. It was only after a while, with no success in the search, that she had to resort to Mousesack.
He used a spell to search not for Cirilla, but for Madara, as it was indeed possible she was with him at that moment. And he was not mistaken. While identifying him in the Royal Garden, there was another child beside him, thus going to the location with the queen herself, leaving her guards aside. After all, they might disapprove of Madara being with the princess while he was just a new resident of the castle.
Of course, Calanthe did not like the fact that Madara was here, but she kept it to herself, already knowing there were no limits for the boy as long as he was not a threat. And today, in particular, she was in a good mood since the news of him saving a noble in the south reached the court.
Hearing this, Cirilla, pouting, had to stand up. "Then I shall begin to take my leave..." she said, looking at Madara and bidding him farewell. "Goodbye, Madara. We'll meet again tomorrow," she spoke as if she was certain that would happen, leaving Calanthe with a frown on her forehead, annoyed by her granddaughter's rebelliousness and audacity.
Madara closed the book and looked at Mousesack, who was still waiting, but it was Eist Tuirseach who spoke, due to the fight the boy had with the lord commander the day before. "Boy, we'll fight tomorrow early in the courtyard. Meet me there. I'll be sharpening my axe for an epic battle that will be written about in the books of this kingdom," he decided to propose a training session, as if a small fight in the courtyard could become something incredible and historic.
Madara merely nodded, not much concerned with this man's exaggeration, and turned his attention back to Mousesack, knowing that the mage wanted to talk to him about something.
"Well, I'd like to talk to you about your investigation yesterday, since I had to be in the audience chamber all day. Follow me," he said.
The boy stood up, while the royal family exited the Garden by the side, Mousesack used his magic to open a portal. And Madara, having heard many stories about nausea in these portals, still saw the mage crossing and ended up going through as well.
After entering the energy space that warped space, upon passing through, he found himself in Mousesack's laboratory in the upper floors, finding it quite useful, until a strong nausea hit him, feeling the space distortion, he knelt down almost vomiting, fighting to not let it out there.
Mousesack, who was a bit ahead, looked back at Madara with an apologetic look, "I know, it's tough. The first few times are horrible for everyone," Mousesack commented, looking at the boy having some difficulty while kneeling on the floor.
"Remind me to never do this again," Madara spoke, he never wanted to enter a portal again after this. He felt like Geralt commented in the games, it was indeed a dreadful experience, and he preferred wall-jumping over doing this again.
"I'll remember that..." the man spoke, but he didn't blame Madara.
"Well..." Madara held back his vomit and got back to his feet, recovering a bit. "You want to know what I discovered yesterday." Madara resumed speaking.
"Yes, if possible." He said, and Madara didn't respond with words but instead took a map out of his pocket, marked with all the hideouts he had found.
Mousesack unfolded the sheet and saw with satisfaction. "This is good, there are some here that were already on our radar, but there are 5 we didn't know existed. This is great," he said.
"How much longer do you need?" Madara asked.
"Lord Commander Varys wants you to gather all the evidence and find all the gang locations within a week. We are pulling guards off the streets due to suspicions of gang bribes, now we are counting on you to get everything we need, as we plan to launch an attack on all the places in the city. Do you think you can do it, Madara?" Mousesack asked.
"Yes, it won't be difficult. I'll also get the necessary proofs within this time," Madara said with a confident look, and Mousesack nodded, satisfied.
"Good, that's great. I'll pass your information on to our Lord Commander, and remember, we have a lesson tomorrow, so I'll be waiting for you here, possibly with the princess." With that, Madara nodded and began to leave the room, heading to the servants' kitchen, after all, he hadn't eaten all day, entering the place a moment later while many cast looks and gossiped about the boy.
Madara again didn't care about that, grabbing something to eat, even if it was simple, and sat down in a spot to eat his meal alone. He returned to his room again and prepared his tools before starting to leave the castle again to resume his investigation, exiting more cautiously this time to not be seen by any servant, avoiding rumors of them seeing shadows in the castle.
He quickly left the place and passed through the sentries on the walls, reaching the city's rooftops, heading towards the eastern area again. He spent the rest of the night just following gang members in areas they hadn't been to on that side, finding more than 20 gang hideouts. He decided to explore some of the more structured ones, with some appearing larger and more important than others, easily entering one of the higher windows using his chakra feet and searching for any documents, it was in a hidden spot that he found some papers with signatures.
"I can't read this as well as I'd like, but it certainly looks like a contract, I'm surprised they can read and write, so there are some literate among them..." Madara murmured, and the door began to open at that moment.
Entering were 3 people, with 2 looking disheveled while the last appeared better off than the three. "Damn, I want to drink a bit!" one of the men said.
"I'll join you, after all, it's been so boring these last weeks, we have to stay hidden all the time!" complained the second.
"You know the boss's orders, we have to keep a low profile, you saw what happened to 2 of the gangs in the city." The more tidy man spoke.
"Screw the other gangs, they died because they were weak, that's better for us, more territories for us to conquer and no one in our way." One of them spoke while grabbing a bottle of drink.
They didn't notice anything wrong, after all, Madara had placed the hiding spot as he found it and was on the ceiling listening to the men with the papers in his hand.
"You know it's not that simple, everyone talks about a monster boy with red eyes." The other said.
"Yes, that he has wings and spits fire, banal stories." The tidier man spoke. He went to the hidden spot on the wall and started to open it, taking out the box that Madara had seen.
"Hm? Where are the militia documents..." He questioned, frowning. "Did I leave them somewhere else, how strange." He spoke, trying to search for the papers, but there was nothing there.
A sound came from the ceiling, and one of the men looked up while drinking his alcoholic beverage. "These damn bats, getting all worked up at night, we should change this dump." He complained, while not seeing anything but hearing the sound of bats in the attic, no sign of Madara there.
Madara heard the sound of the animals and quickly disappeared silently, exiting through the window and returning to the rooftops. Madara had finished and returned to the castle with the papers. Entering the castle as he reached his bed and lay down, sleeping at least a few hours before sunrise, until someone called for him again, knocking on the door.
"Yes?" Madara opened the door and looked at the man, a castle guard who sized him up for a moment before responding.
"Lord Eist requests your presence in the training yard; he asked me to call you," he said, not seeming very respectful, with some disdain for the child in front of him.
"Yes." Madara nodded and closed the door in front of the man, while he began to put on better clothing.
He opened the door not caring about the guard, who was not pleased with his attitude, and began to walk, ignoring the guard.
"How do you have the attention of Lord Eist, the queen, and the mage?" the man suddenly asked as they walked.
"..." Madara didn't respond.
"Listen here, child! You better answer me, because I have no patience for low-born children," he spoke angrily, wanting to know why Madara had so much attention from such powerful people when he was just a child.
He had heard about Madara fighting Lord Varys in a quite impressive fight and didn't believe that a child around 7 years old could do that. He had a certain disdain for servants and didn't accept the treatment Madara received.
He tried to grab Madara by the clothes, but the boy quickly caught his arm, twisting it with a strength no child should have, causing the man to be surprised as he knelt down with Madara twisting his arm in pain.
"AHH, that hurts!" He complained and looked at Madara with a certain fear as everyone passing in the corridor at that moment was surprised by this.
"Bother me again or try to touch me, and a twisted arm will be the simplest thing I will do to you," Madara spoke in a neutral tone, but he was a bit angry at presumptuous people.
He twisted the man's arm a bit more, as he writhed in pain and then let him go, making him fall to the ground. "I'll go alone from now on, complain to whoever you want about this," Madara spoke and then, calmly, went to the location.
Nobody stopped him, even the guards looked cautiously at Madara as he went on his way and went to help the man holding his forearm from the pain Madara caused.
Despite not having slept properly in 2 days, his body was in good condition, and he entered the training yard, finding Eist sharpening his axe while some royal guards fought each other off their shift.
He saw Madara approaching and opened a big smile. "Look who's here, the child who is a powerful warrior. Today you will face my axe," he shouted, drawing the attention of everyone as they saw Madara approaching.
Eist liked to show off, and today was no different, fighting against the child he always wanted to face. He wanted to prove all the skills the boy possessed that he had always heard about and witnessed yesterday.
Ciri was also already at the location after hearing about the fight yesterday, she quickly went to the yard with her royal guard and maid in tow. "Go, Madara, kick his butt!" She yelled childishly.
Eist heard this and began to smile, "Oh, shoot, it seems my opponent has the favor of a princess. Little Cirilla, I thought you were going to cheer for me," the man said, pretending to be disappointed at the girl, while the girl stuck out her tongue at him and yelled.
"I'm cheering for Madara, he's going to kick your butt!" She screamed excitedly.
"Princess, you must be careful with your words," the maid tried to scold the girl, but Cirilla just shrugged.
"It doesn't matter, the important thing is that Madara is going to kick Eist's butt. I want to see him in the mud. Go, Madara! Go, Madara! Go!" She yelled, jumping while the maid just sighed and the man began to laugh at the little girl.
He turned his attention back to the child, "Well, and you, are you going to disappoint the princess?" He said, looking at Madara, while the latter just shrugged.
Racoon here:
I know I detail situations that don't affect the story itself, like the example with the guard, but I think it's impossible not to have such reactions from the surroundings with a stranger entering the castle and getting attention from the queen and important people without anyone explaining where this child living with the servants comes from.