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NANEK POV
The prince looked at the meal set before him. Skewered tentacles, seaweed wraps, jagged oyster shells, lunaris and so on, all in bountiful amounts. He felt like gagging from the mere scent of the food. Nanek never liked such food, and as such this was strictly removed from the meals his siblings served him regularly.
This event was different. It was before the entire city and it was a meal that the goddess had chosen for this year’s feast. Him not eating it was an insult to the goddess and would make the people think less of him.
He looked at his mother, the priestess, sitting blindly next to the king and being fed her meal by some of her personal assistants. She had no concern whatsoever when it came to this and he found it terrifying, since he had been told by the older generation that she hated these kinds of meals.
Several years in service to the goddess must have changed her. Maybe if he spent several years trying to overcome his distaste for the meal, he would overcome it. And that always started with the first bite, he told himself.
He grabbed one of the skewered tentacles and looked at it objectively, scanning for any blemishes to the food. Nanek was of the belief that good food should have absolutely no flaws appearance-wise. During his investigation, he concluded that the tentacle wasn’t the right one.
He dropped it to pick up a new one.
“Your highness.”
Randy, his saviour came through. He quickly turned around to face her with an uncharacteristically wide smile.
“Randy!”
“Um, yes?”
She was confused by the sudden shout and cocked her head. Nanek sensed the gazes of the other candidates on him and dropped his smile. He cleared his throat in an attempt to salvage his dignity.
“What is it?”
“We have a problem.”
“A problem?”
He looked at Elriek and she was enjoying her meal while having a conversation with her servant, Osveta. He looked all around her, checking for her usual entourage, but found none of them around.
“Where are Sunalla and Hinotori?”
“That is the problem.”
Randy responded coldly. Nanek stood up and left the table, feeling a bit of anger welling up in his chest. It was a rude action on his part that could cause him to not win the throne, but if he also allowed his sister to do as she pleased, he was definitely not getting the throne.
“Talk as we move.”
He glanced at both of his older brothers, eating their meals quietly. They had both been ruined by Elriek and had already given up in the fight for the throne and were indirectly her subordinates. Publicly, he had the most backing from the palace, but in truth, Elriek was the most influential even if everyone in the castle also wanted to get rid of her.
It was the equivalent of having a merciless dictator you wish to dethrone, but was impervious to every sort of killing mechanism.
“Nanek.”
His father’s voice came into his ears. Immediately turning around like a soldier, he put his hands behind his back and stiffened up.
“Where are you going?”
Those close enough to see had their attention drawn to both of them. He peeked at Elriek again and she wore a cute confused expression. The lying twit!
“I am going to prepare my surprise for the feast.”
“Hoho? A surprise?”
The king sounded amused.
“Father, isn’t this great news? Brother Nanek has a surprise for us all. Shouldn’t we let the people know?”
Elriek entered the conversation, making a vein in Nanek’s head pop.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if they knew it was coming, isn’t that so?”
“But the surprise isn’t ruined as long as we don’t know what the surprise is. Even now I’m still curious as to what your surprise is. Father, I think we should do this to create suspense amongst the people rather than leave them confused like the Grand Court Mage almost did.”
Elriek made a point to their father. Nanek’s hands were shaking with visible rage and his eyes and hair were turning red.
“Excellent idea, Elri! Very well. People of Atlantis!”
The king, as obtrude as ever, decided to do what sounded fun in his ears.
“My son Nanek is preparing a gift for you all! Anticipate it! Hahaha!”
There was a cheer from the people after the announcement. Nanek calmed down and his hair returned to normal.
“Thank you for the suggestion, sister. If you will excuse me, father, I will be going now.”
“Of course. Just make sure it does not disappoint or you will be the biggest laughing stock in history. Hahaha!”
Nanek could feel his stomach churning. Once again, his sister had put him in a very precarious situation.
‘When would she stop harassing him?’, he wondered.
After the scene, he left quickly with Elriek. Once he vacated from the eyes of the people, his hair turned violent red as his eyes turned pitch black.
“That brat!”
He punched a wall in the palace, creating a hole in it to the other side, barely missing a guard’s head.
“Your highness, now is not the time.”
Randy reminded him. His eyes returned to normal, however his hair didn’t change colour
“What is the problem?”
“Your sister seems to have some plans. I spotted her spirit, Sunalla going towards the mage quarters.”
Having received the location, he started moving.
“And Hinotori?”
“I have not seen her, but that only makes it more suspicious that Elriek is behaving so casually.”
“She’s always casual.”
“Yes, but for her to not present Hinotori before the king? There is definitely something afoot.”
He listened to her logic and the water around him started to steam.
“Is that all?”
“Yes. The soldiers I sent out to scout the city for the bombs say they’ve been seeing moving shadows all around.”
“Moving shadows? As in hiding figures?”
“No… uh, as in literal shadows moving.”
“Are they alright in the head? Tell them to keep searching and they should also be on the lookout for Hinotori. If this is the end, I will be going ahead.”
“Very well.”
Randy stopped moving and bowed to him. Nanek swam his fastest towards the mage quarters. He didn’t have a weapon on hand, so he took a random one from one of the knight statues around the castle.
In no time, he managed to get to the mage quarters, where he sees Sunalla floating with her hands crossed.
“The prince!?”
She yelped once her eyes fell on him. Nanek charged at her, and she attempted to run away. With the [Sea-Curtain Technique], he managed to trap her leg and pull her closer to himself. He readied his spear for impaling her, but once he pierced her, she burst into bubbles.
“He actually fell for that?”
He turned around and saw Sunalla looking at him with a shocked expression and she wasn’t alone. To her side, his ditzy brother was staring at him with a bored expression.
“Of course, he did. I made that clone I will remind you.”
Nanek quickly processed everything and came to the conclusion that Elriek wanted him to come here.
‘A trap!’
His mind was on high alert. He looked around and saw that there weren’t anymore. His warrior side felt like it was simply right for him to enact justice for pranking him, but knowing his sister, this wasn’t a mere distraction.
“What’s happening here? Answer me now, both of you.”
Nanek glared at them, but his brother completely ignored it.
“Don’t glare at your older brother like that, brat.”
The bubbles from the clone formed a bondage around the prince and put his hands behind him.
“Huh?”
“It took you forever to get here. Do you know how long I had to wait? Elriek would kill me if she found out this was even a second late.”
“What are you planning?”
“You’ll find out in a bit, if you survive.”
“If I what?”
Everything was happening to quickly. From simply struggling to eat, to now being sucked into a portal he hadn’t seen in the first place.
“Nori!”
He yelled, but his loud cry fell on deaf years as he ascended. His eyes started to turn pitch black and his strength increased as he tried to break free of his bonds.
“Please. You’ve known me for several years now, Nanek. Have you ever seen me make a spell that can’t do what I intended it to?”
No matter how hard Nanek tried, he couldn’t break free.
“Anyhow, I’m done here. Tell Elriek to put in a good word with Hinotori for me.”
Nanek was swallowed up by the portal quickly and sent through a very rough and uncomfortable ride before being spat out into an endless blue.
Nori, one of the strongest Senior Court Mages in Atlantis and a potential candidate for the Grand Court Mage position. A person that none of the candidates for the throne could get on their side was working with his sister just so she helped him get a girl!?
The bubbles disappeared, leaving Nanek free. He looked up, but the portal was no longer there. The amount of rage he was feeling could not be contained any longer.
They had an agreement and she broke it. He had tried his best, but now if he ever crossed paths with Elriek, he would kill her.
His original intention was to kidnap Elriek and put her away till he got the throne, but now that this was the situation, he would kill her. Since he wasn’t there, she was definitely being announced the heir. If she died, the next in line would obviously be himself.
His thinking was interrupted by his instincts warning him that something dangerous was coming.
In front of him, from a distance, a black figure was flashing towards him. It looked like a shark-like monster he had never seen before. There was something familiar about it, but the aura it was releasing suggested that he’d never had the pleasure of encountering it before.
At least, now he had something to take his current anger out on.
<A/N: Who didn't see Elriek betraying Nanek, am I right? Welp, now he's going to take out his anger on a certain shark-like monster. Let's hope it's Jaws. Didn't expect Nanek's POV to be this long. Even had to cut out Hinotori's POV from this chapter or it would have been too long a chapter. Hmm, that's it from this chatty author. Please give me your power stones, reviews, comments and golden tickets!
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