Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ LI. CHIRO ❆ ❆

Chiro wakes up the next morning and he's already sure something's going to go wrong.

Maybe it's the fact that when he went to greet Kumari with a good morning, he discovered that said princess is gone. Just... Gone. Not in her room.

Or maybe, it's not just that, but rather that it's coupled with Prince Alexei being missing as well. On second thought, Chiro figures it's probably that.

"WHERE is my SON!" The king booms, stamping his foot down in the throne room.

"Your son?" Jae snarls. "Where's our princess!"

"I bet they took him!" One of the guards points her spear at Jae. "They came here to kidnap him!"

"W-wait!" Chiro puts his hands up, in a gesture of innocence. "We wouldn't do that. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't do that to our friend."

"Alexei's not allowed to leave," the king puts his hand to his forehead. "He knows that. So why is he not anywhere in the castle?"

"He must've... Left," Jae says, deep in thought.

"But he's not allowed to."

Chiro and Jae look at each other, and Chiro gets the feeling that they both already know what's going on.

"Are you sure... You checked their rooms?" Jae says, slowly.

"Of COURSE we did," another guard snorts. "We're not fools, we looked there first when they didn't arrive to breakfast."

"You should check again," Chiro says. "I wouldn't be surprised if they just... Showed up."

"Preposterous!" The king says at first, but then he furrows his brow. "Or... Perhaps you're right. Guard, go look in their rooms again."

"But we—"

"You heard my orders. Dare to disobey your king?"

"No, never, your Highness. We'll be on our way."

"We'll go check in on Kumari while we're at it," Chiro says, beckoning Jae over to his side, the boy nodding and both heading up the stairs to where they've been told Kumari's room is.

Racing up the steps, they skid to a stop to where her room is, and pushing it open, Chiro steps inside first, Jae close behind.

"Kumari?" Chiro asks, and then gasps when he sees her hanging out of her window.

"Hi Chiro!" She chirps, then falls into the room with a thud, making upset noises from the pain of impact.

"I knew it," Jae sighs, laughing lightly as he rushes over to her side, helping her up to stand. "You snuck out, didn't you?"

"And you weren't alone," Chiro says, as he too joins Jae in assisting Kumari to her feet.

She shakes her head, and small droplets of water flick away from her hair as she does so — she must've been playing in the snow.

"I was with Alexei," Kumari replies, confirming their suspicions. "I helped him out of the castle and took him to the market."

"Huh," Jae's grinning. "You have learned well, young apprentice."

"You made it back just in time," Chiro frowns. "King Korol's going crazy that we've kidnapped his son."

"And we were going pretty crazy that his son has kidnapped you," Jae chuckles.

"We kidnapped ourselves," Kumari giggles. "But uh-huh uh-huh, let's just play it natural... I didn't mean to take so long, but I felt bad when Alexei begged me to stay."