Salvation of The Scum Fifth Prince

[44 - captured; a known dilemma]

Sometimes, there were hidden truths placed easily in plain sight one could never discover.

Perhaps, so long as it remained a secret, the despairing weight of reality wouldn't crash down.

But life didn't work in ways we want it to.

Brioc's entire body chilled over in frosty understanding, his face paling under the echoing words which surrounded them in the narrow passage. It settled in his mind, draping over it in its horrors.

The magician didn't need to see it, not when he could clearly see the dreadful glow reflecting off Soren's pale blue eyes.

He choked out a laugh. "You're kidding?"

But no laughter followed him and his smile grew strained, violet eyes darkening with desperation.

"Hahaha... what a joke." muttered Brioc in a complex confusion, brows tightly furrowed together. "What absolute stupidity."

"That foolish old man, what sort of crazy idiocy did he force upon me?" 

The air, suffocating in the narrow space, seemed to leave his lungs.

He'd been free.

In the past years, he had thought he was free. Away from the nonsense of the Haze Kingdom, living his own life. It hadn't been easy, sure. Yet all these struggles were marked into his bone — and it was something he was willing to do a million times over, just to be free.

It had all been a lie. A farce that he stupidly believed in. The prince was right, how could the king let him escape so easily?

"Brioc." called Raphael in a soothing tone, voice coiled with deep emotion that made Brioc pause. "Breathe."

"Hahaha, I'm breathing just fine, thanks." said Brioc chokingly.

"Stop laughing." said Soren suddenly, narrowing his gaze. "It's annoying."

Brioc blinked several times, turning his head to face the seeping darkness ahead. "Wow Renren, you're really not taking it easy on me despite everything."

"You're annoying usually, but it is more annoying when it's forced out like that."

"...ah?"

Soren scowled. He wasn't empathetic, not at all. But he'd tolerated Brioc all this time, this crazy magician he'd read about in a book. Perhaps he wouldn't have cared in the beginning, but after all this time, watching such a strained laugh was... unpleasant.

"..." Brioc found himself speechless once again. He pressed his lips together, nibbling at the edge of his stress before saying, "He can find me. As long as I'm here, the mission will end as a failure, if it hasn't already."

"And?" asked Soren impatiently.

"Well..? It's be wise to have me leave first, act as a distraction. The king wouldn't kill me."

"Don't speak nonsense."

"What?" Brioc frowned in complete confusion. "I haven't lied, for once, you know?"

There was a teaching installed in his mind from childhood. The weak would die, and failure was intolerable.

If Brioc was marked by the King, he would only be a hinderance that should be disposed of. Regardless of his light-hearted, unexplainable personality, this was a harsh fact he believed in.

It was simple, really.

"Move." was the reply that drummed in Brioc's mind. "A sacrifice isn't necessary."