The Scarlet Phoenix and the Prince of Winter

Chapter Nineteen

When we came back to the castle I thought that that was it, that it was the end of the beautiful connection between me and the Crown Prince. I did not know that he will still be the person that he was when we were together. That surprised me a lot.

Even Madame Morris was wondering what on earth was happening between the Crown Prince and me. It turns out that she only knew that the Prince wanted to talk to my Aunt but she was not aware why the Crown Prince will go out of his way to come to our house and talk with my father's younger sister.

That is why she interrogated me after Prince Kao left. She could not believe that I was already that close to him. But I could not blame her because that's what I was feeling right now too. "You are hiding something from don't you?" she said to me sternly as we walked back to our headquarters. "Rainha, you have to tell me what is going on."

I shook my head. "I am so sorry, Madame Morris. But the Crown Prince forbid me to tell anyone about what he is up to."

She took a deep breath when I said that and it was obvious that she did not like the fact that she is not allowed to know something about the Crown Prince that I do. And it was very much understandable because Madame Morris is used to be the one that only knows what is really going on with the Crown Prince. And now someone lower than her status knows something that she doesn't. Of course, it was enough to drive her nuts.

"Okay, you may not be allowed to tell everyone about it, but it's not like I will betray him. Do you think I can betray him? I am practically his mother."

That was true. She cared for him and did everything for him. The only thing that stops her from becoming his mother was the fact that Prince Kao has a birth mother. But other than that, what she was saying was true. Madame Morris is just like his own mother.

But I have to stand to my principles. I could not tell her. Because what would that make me? he would think that I could not be trusted. Which is entirely not true. "I'm really sorry, Madame Morris. The Crown Prince will kill me if he finds out that I told you what happened. But to make it less harder for you to guess what happened, let us just say that it was something about his fondness for literature."

Her eyebrows arched by that. "Literature? He is not into that kind of thing. He reads the laws and the history of our kingdom---" she stopped in mid-sentence because she finally got what I was trying to say to her. "Oh. so it is about that thing. About the legends."

Again, I did not say a word so that I will not confirm or deny anything. I had decided to stay firm on my loyalty to the Crown Prince even if it means that my superior will get mad or jealous of me.

She took a deep breath and sighed before speaking to me again. "Okay, fine. That's alright if you don't want to tell me. I can't blame you for that. Plus, I like how you protect him by doing this. I just hope that you have the same firmness when it comes to others."

I smiled at her. "Thank you, Madame morris. Don't you worry. I have no intentions in selling out the Crown Prince."

"As you should, Rainha. Remember that he is the one that feeds you and makes you warm. You have to protect him at all cost, even his secrets."

"Yes, I will."

"And when I say, 'at all cost' that includes your friend, Rainha."

"Friend? You mean, Jang?"

She nods and eyed me like she was already sensing that I was going to tell my best friend everything. Which was probably what would have happened, to be honest, if she did not warn me now.

"Yes. Her. I hope that you find it easy in your heart to restrain yourself from telling her about anything that the Crown Prince did not want you to tell others. If you could not tell it to me then you should also not tell it to her or else what's the point in keeping it secret from me?"

I nodded because I get what she was saying. "Of course, Madame Morris. I will not do such a thing."

She did not look convinced, but she also did not say anything more than that. I guess I'll take it as a warning from her because she has made quite the point. But I think they are having the wrong idea about what the Crown Prince did while he was with me outside. I think Madame Morris thinks that Prince Kao did something out of his status that will get him into a scandal if it ever gets out to the public, which was not what happened.

The only reason that he forbid me to tell anyone about anything that happened was the fact that he became emotional when he discovered the real cause of the death of his mother. He made it quite clear to me that he did not want anybody else to know that he now knows what exactly happened to his mother back then.

So when I finally saw Jang I was having a hard time NOT telling her everything that had happened. It was like resisting a frost fever that I knew I could do nothing but to let it subside, but I knew that this feeling is not subsiding any time soon.

She asked me about what happened to me and my Aunt because she found out about her disappearance. And when I asked her how did she know about Aunt Milca disappearing, she told me that she ran into Calyx at Aurville when she was heading back here and it was him who told her about everything.

I blushed hard when she told me this because that only meant one thing. If Calyx told her everything, then she probably now have an idea that I was with the Crown Prince. But surprisingly, she did not mention anything about him which secretly shocked me. She was just silently listening to what I was telling her, about how the men tried to take me too and how I went to Kaylie's grandmother to hide. I did not mention anyone else and it was surprising to me that she was still not asking about the identity of the person who I was with.

So the night came and it was time for me to go to the Crown Prince's room. It was not hard getting away from Jang, since Madame Morris was helping me make excuses. She asked me to do chores but it was actually my cue to go to the Crown Prince. I went there stealthily like a thief and it scared me for a bit because what if a Royal Guard sees me and think that I was doing something unruly? I don't think I would be brave enough to fight back so I have to be very careful.

"You're here," he greeted when he opened his door for me. He let me in immediately and closed the door again. "What took you so long?"

"Oh, I have to actually do the chore that Madame Morris assigned me to so that the other Court Servants don't get suspicious."

"I see. But you did not have to do that."

"That's alright, Your Highness. It is my job anyway."

He frowned at me when I said that, then returned to his study table and started flipping through the pages of the book that he was probably reading before I came here. "I told you to just call me Prince Kao when it is just the two of us."

My heart stopped from beating at that. "I--- I forgot. I'm sorry, P-Prince Kao."

He smiled. "That's better. Please have a seat," he added and pointed to a chair in front of his desk. I did take the seat but it was weird that a desk was in between us. It feels like I was back at school and he was a teacher there that was going to scold me for some reason.

"Err... Why did you ask me to come here anyway, if I can ask you that casually?"

"Well, I need to tell you several things," he replied and I wish my damn brain would not make its version of this because I was already drowning from my own illusion that one of the things that he was going to tell me was that he was actually secretly in love with me. That would probably kill me if that is what would actually happen. And the cause of my death would be from forgetting how to breathe.

"W-What is it?"

"First, I wanted to update you of what is the status of the search of our Aunt," he said. That made me feel anxious. "As I promised, I sent a couple of people to assess the situation. They are now hunting down those men who tried to abduct you. There is also a separate group that searches for your Aunt. I think they will be going to Kajos next, probably tomorrow"

"T-Thank you for doing that, Prince Kao..." I said earnestly. Kajos is the northern town where my father and Aunt Milca were born so I get why they want to search there too. "You don't have to do that. That's very kind of you."

"I have yet to talk to your Aunt, remember? And that's not all. Someone is also guarding your house too, as they might come back there. As of now, we haven't found out the identities of those men yet so you will have to wait a little bit more."

"It's okay, Prince Kao, I am not forcing you to make it fast---"

"But we have to make it fast, Rainha. The longer that your Aunt is gone, the higher the chance of her not being safe, so it will be better if we find her quickly."

I nodded and I was again on the verge of tears for it just hit me that my Aunt's absence could also mean that well... she is already dead. And don't want that. Even though she did not treat me well as she should, I still want her alive as she is still my family.

"T-Thank you..."

"You're welcome. And you don't have to cry about it yet, since we have yet to find her."

I nodded. He's right. Crying now would be useless as it won't help us in the slightest. So I tried my best to restore the calm in my heart that I had a while back. I was doing great about controlling my emotions before Prince Kao told me about the possibility of her being dead if she was not found immediately.

"So about the other things that I want to tell you, one of them is about the rumors that have been spreading around."

"Rumors? What rumors?"

He smiled again at me as if he was amused that I did not know what he was saying. But it was true. I do not know any rumors that are flying around the castle.

"It is about me having a girlfriend."

My heart sank when I heard that. "G-Girlfriend? You have a girlfriend?" I covered my mouth just after I asked that because I just so happen to raise my voice at him when I said that.

And that's not good. Who would have the audacity to raise their voice to the Crown Prince? I think it's just me.

"I'm sorry, Prince Kao! I was just shocked!"

He nodded while laughing. "I know. Even I was shocked. I don't know how the hell that rumor started, and who spread it, but it already happened."

I gasped. "Oh no. Then I should have not gone here in the first place! There is a chance that they would see me coming here and that would become a very huge scandal!"

He waved his hands in front of me to reassure me. "Don't worry about that. I have Madame Morris and a couple of trusted Royal Guards to guard this room and monitor what is happening outside while we are here."

"But they will think----"

"I explained to them that this has nothing to do about us getting romantically involved, so don't you worry about that. But I'm sorry if this will give you inconvenience."

"Oh. Right. It's o-okay..."

But my mind was not okay because he just said that this was something unromantic. That was true, of course, but still, it was almost painful to actually hear it from him. It's like he just shut the last door of possibility between us.

'So the rumor that is going on is that someone saw me go out of the castle with a girl."

"What? But that could be me?"

"It is you, he said chuckling. "Someone saw us went outside last night. So now everybody thinks that it was my girlfriend."

"But I'm not," I told him hotly, but for different reasons than what he was thinking about now. I know that he thinks that I am very opposed to the idea that we were together because of how I was responding to him right now, but that's just my facade. I was actually enjoying every moment of this.

"But they do think that it is like that," Prince Kao answered. "And it reached my father already, so that means that we have to hide your identity to make you safe."

I suddenly felt threatened. Why did I forget about the King? Mitaur had already warned me about him. She told me already how he still wants to be on the throne for a long time so he would probably kill any woman who clings to his son, because that would force him to acknowledge that his son was ready to replace him. And now if the King finds out that it was me, the girl who they think was Prince Kao's girlfriend, I will certainly be dead meat.

I clapped my hands to my forehead. "Good gracious. What kind of danger had I invited to come to my life? I don't want to slander your father, Prince Kao but he will surely kill me once he finds out about me."

"Exactly. That's why you have to be careful not to tell everyone about what happened between the two of us."

"I promise. Not a single soul will know about what we did."

"Very good, Rainha. I had also denied it when my father asked me about the issue, but I could not lie to him that I went out last night. So what everyone thinks is that I was lying."

"And that you were actually out with a girl?"

"Yes."

"But that's not true!" I protested. "Can you not clear it to them that it was me, but you just asked me for my help?"

He looked at me with such intensity that it made me drop my gaze. "As much as I am deeply touched that you are willing to risk your life for me, that would not work. We have to hide your identity, Rainha."

"Alright. I guess that would be the best option we had."

"Yeah. But it sucks," he admitted, which made me want to do cartwheels in front of him. "It sucks that I have to hide our connection."