"Prince Wilder had a bit of an attitude problem."
"Or maybe a lot."
Sir Richard said as he imagined Wilder in his majestic form simply walking on his own, looking as cold as usual with his entire black outfit, especially the fur coat he usually wore, with his hair parted to the side, almost covering his right eye, and looking like a wicked bandit leader.
It was always difficult to tell he was of royal blood by the way he dressed.
"As much as people feared him, they all thought he had the qualities of a leader. He could save the kingdom from any kind of war. He knew not how to solve problems if it wasn't through violence."
Even though decades had passed, he still shivered when he remembered him. How Wilder would casually walk into the royal court during a morning assembly, and even the king couldn't stop.
Sir Richard had been one of the guards in the royal court who was present during meetings. So he knew it. He knew it all.
The grand door was pushed open in the middle of a serious conversation, and as they all expected, the one who had joined them was none other than Prince Wilder.
The assembly had only a few noblemen. Meetings like this were usually held when they were plotting something.
All eyes turned to him, with people shaking uncomfortably in their positions. The last time he joined them, one of their noblemen had died.
And no, he hadn't simply stabbed him as a lesson to the man so he would heal up and continue being a nuisance to him. He had simply gone for his throat.
Everyone knew that was Prince Wilder's favourite spot.
"What are you here for? Again?" The King, his father, asked him. The king looked even worse than he did the previous day. It seemed like he had been afflicted with something worse than the headache but was still trying so hard to prove a point that he was a tough king.
"If you are so worried about the witches retaliating, why not go after them and get rid of them first?" Prince Wilder suggested, going straight to the point.
"What? That is wrong!" Prince Eli, who was standing in his spot beside the King, said with a frown.
"Wrong?" Wilder asked, letting out a laugh.
"It's kill or be killed, little brother. The more you spend time deliberating on this every day, the more they are probably going to strike up a plan to get rid of the Moon Kingdom. Do you think we stand any chance against a proper plot of witches?"
"But attacking them is wrong--"
"He is right! It's also what I have been thinking about." Sir Zealot said, cutting off Prince Eli.
One would think Wilder would be happy that someone as powerful as Sir Zealot was taking his side, but he simply looked at the man with disgust.
Everyone knew how much he hated the man's guts. And ever since they got related through marriage, he's hated him even more.
Wilder turned his attention towards the royal physician, who was shaking with his head down; unfortunately for the man, Wilder had set his eyes on him.
With every step Wilder took towards him, he shook in fear but could not move an inch. It was always a mistake to run away from Wilder. A big taboo.
To all their surprise, or maybe not, he grabbed a fistful of the man's hair, and he let out a painful scream.
"What were you thinking preparing such a potion? You and your father who wrote it must have been crazy." He said as his grip around the man's hair tightened, pulling so much that some of his hair began to fall off his head.
"I... I was wrong." The man cried.
"No. You are mad." He suddenly scoffed in amusement. "Yet you look so innocent."
"Enough, Wilder!" The king yelled.
Wilder smiled in amusement before he let go of the man's hair and slapped the man's face, even though the man was at least twice his age of twenty.
"Your idea can only work if we know the exact location of witches. Rumours have it that they cast a spell to hide from the rest of the world."
"It doesn't matter if they have a spell around them or not. We will always find a scapegoat that will lead us to others. Where did you find the last one?"
Prince Eli started, "My King, isn't that too--"
"At the outskirts of the kingdom to the west." The king answered Wilder.
His answer was an obvious assignment to Wilder, which they all understood.
Wilder smiled his usual wicked smile and blinked at his brother, who was not hiding how furious he was.
"They do not have a smell."
"Got it!" Wilder said before he sauntered out of the room just like he had entered, winking at Richard on his way out while Richard rolled his eyes at the weirdo.
Sir Richard had followed him under the King's orders when he left the palace. Even though he had been instructed to simply watch him from the sides, it hadn't taken anything before he was caught by Prince Wilder.
"Did he send you because he thinks I won't kill you?" Wilder asked him.
Of course, that was the reason the king had done so. Every spy sent to tail Wilder for the past few years has not returned. Even though Richard was a little close to Prince Wilder, he had been reluctant to accept the King's orders to tail him because Wilder was unpredictable.
"Two heads are better than one."
"All heads roll," Wilder said uninterestedly before he began to move to where his horse was waiting.
That made Sir Richard sigh in relief, realizing Wilder was sparing his life.
He quickly opened the bag he had on him and took out a straw hat and cloak, along with a bottle of potion.
"If you are going to do this, you should hide your identity properly. I'm sure even witches know who you are and how you smell."
Wilder eyed the things before taking the potion.
"Scent mask?"
Richard nodded.
Wilder simply shrugged before he accepted them.
****
A/N
I won't lie, I've been demotivated. Many of you probably know how Webnovel's monetary policy is. Authors do their best writing and at the end of the month, the income is below what we expected.
I even used to think it was 30% for authors but just heard it was 23% which means when authors make $1000 for a book, we only get $230 while WN gets $770. Lol.
The worst part is, they increased the number of coins used in unlocking a chapter.
I have to finish this book tho. But I doubt I'll continue writing here in the future.
Fighting!
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om