While the tense exchange was taking place between Mathazar and the assassin, another cloaked figure made its way down the dark streets of the Dainia’s slum district and into a notorious tavern known for its devious patrons who offered shady deals and accepted bribes. Even the tavern’s own staff members were involved in such trades. The loud, rowdy crowd barely took notice of the figure as it walked right through the establishment and out the back door into an alleyway that was deserted, save for a sharp young man known in the area as the eldest child of the tavern owners.

The dark-haired youth took a puff of the cigar between his fingers, his eyes locked on the cloaked figure as it approached him. “What do you want from me?”

“What do you know about the battle in the Wynton Forest during the Dainia-Lunar Dispute?” The figure began.

His lips widened into a smirk. “There is some word still going around, regarding the subject. I could provide you with the details, but it will cost you, unfortunately.”

“Name your price,” came the reply.

The man’s eyes then widened as he continued to stare at the figure, as if coming to a sudden realization. He swiftly reached up and pulled the individual’s hood back before shoving him against the wall of the alley. “There is a certain air that one of royal upbringing simply cannot hide, [i]Your Highness[/i]. I am not certain if you are aware of how many inside the building would thank me if I were to slit your throat right here and now.”

Eliezer could feel the stinging blade edge of a dagger pressed against the flesh of his neck and fought to keep his composure as he assessed the situation, beginning to think that this was another big mistake. It would seem that he had been making too many of them ever since he had met Raven, but had they really been the wrong decisions to make? The lady had practically opened his mind to things he would have never considered on his own, and as the line between right and wrong continued to be further blurred, he could not help but concur that ignorance truly was bliss. However, knowledge was necessary, was it not? Regardless, there was no turning back for him.

“Would what you have just said continue to be the case if I am the only member of the royal family who would care to offer aid to you and the patrons of your family’s business?” The crown prince enquired as he made a conscious effort to hide his fear.

Suddenly, the back door opened and a female called out to the young man. “Warin, are you finished with- Oh, what do we have here?”

“Apparently, His Highness is here to help, Natalia,” Warin told the woman in a sardonic tone as she stepped out to join them.

Natalia shook her head. “So, it’s the other one this time. The King and Queen truly are too occupied with being aggressors to realize that their boys have too much time on their hands.”

Eliezer was distracted from his fear as he looked to her in confusion. “The other one? What do you mean?”

“You really were not aware, were you?” She responded with a scoff. “Your brother was here some nights ago, announced who he was out loud like a fool. He wouldn’t have walked out alive if not for that fierce tigress of a lass he approached keeping the brutes away – dark hair, rather easy on the eyes, but I wouldn’t get in her way. Don’t ask what they were speaking about, we could not hear them.”

Mathazar… was here? Eliezer knew that his brother had the habit of leaving the palace without informing anybody, but this tavern was one place he would have never expected him to be at during his time out. He was unsure if Natalia was simply attempting to turn him against his brother, but that could be addressed at another time, for Warin had started to speak to him again.

“Look, I know you are here for information on the whereabouts of the true heir to the throne of Lunar. That is something that none of us know, and would not tell you even if we did.”

That statement confused Eliezer even more. “The heir to Lunar’s throne is missing? I would not even have known to ask about such a thing. I have only come because I was told that the people here were the residents of the Wynton Forest who had survived the battle over territory. I desire to know what truly took place.”

Warin and Natalia glanced at each other, the both of them eventually convinced that this puppet of the king honestly knew nothing. He released Eliezer and put the dagger away.

“A territorial dispute. Is that all you know the event to be? You believe all that took place in that forest was a battle between Dainia and Lunar troops, do you not?” Warin shook his head. “Or rather, that was what you were taught to believe, and you are here now because you doubt it. You are right to do so, Your Highness. You see, what we witnessed was not a battle, but a raid. Yes, a raid on the Wynton Forest and its residents. Dainia troops destroyed homes and murdered peaceful civilians, forcing the survivors to flee to this miserable place. This was done in search of the heir to Lunar, for the King of Dainia desires to put an end to the bloodline of Lunar’s royal family. We do not know the reason why, but word is going around that the King is searching for the heir even to this day.”

His words caused Eliezer to recall something that Raven had said to him during their day out in the village.

[i]“Do you know many have claimed that he has sent guards into the night to kill innocent people in their homes and burn them to the ground to try to hide evidence or get rid of witnesses?”[/i]

It would seem that she was right about the claims of the brutality of the Dainia troops. Was Raven a survivor of the Wynton Forest Raid? It was all coming together. She had mentioned that her father had left his family, which he assumed was a noble one of Lunar from the heirloom she had shown him, and settled in the forest. That would mean that her parents were killed by order of his family. Logically, after suspecting such a case, her motive for getting close to him should be questioned, though, her display of sincerity had convinced him that her feelings for him were there. All she had said and done for him… could not have been a lie, could it? He could only hope in all honestly that it was not. Besides, there was no reason why she would tell him all of this if her intention was truly malicious.

Confounded by the details that had just been made known to him, Eliezer managed to mutter a word of thanks to the two who had provided him with such information and toss them a bag of coins before promptly taking his leave.

“I cannot help but feel that this was a waste of an opportunity,” Natalia admitted when the prince was out of sight. “Was it the right decision to let him go?”

“We may never know,” responded Warin, throwing and catching the coin bag in his hand. “But as for now, nobody is to know that he was even here tonight.”