73 A Weapon of Mass Destruction (2/2)

Reed rubbed the tears out his eyes and said, ”You're a pretty nice guy… for a prince.”

”You're a pretty decent guy, too. And what do you mean, 'for a prince,' you're a prince too now!”

Violett and Lu'um stared at the irredeemable pair and wondered how they had bonded so... easily. Just like that. With a couple of jokes and laughs.

Men really are simple-minded idiots no matter the origin…

Men really are narrow-minded fools no matter the origin…

An astute observation, but it would never be revealed to the oblivious duo. It was a truth that only the ladies would have the privilege of knowing.

”So why did you two really come here? If you wanted to take me back, she would have been enough,” said Reed as he looked at Lu'um. ”I don't think that the two of you would have come here just for me…”

Haydn shook his head and said, ”You're not valuing yourself enough, Reed. We knew what the general situation was when we detected an intrusion in our network, trying to access our restricted archives. We traced the intrusion back to a known, identified spy that belonged to the East…”

Violett took over and said, ”The spy was looking for restricted information about someone who fit the description of a young man in his late teens. The number of people who fit such a description are so few that left little room for interpretation. Add your sudden disappearance and news of a young, human prince being crowned in the East...”

Oh, for fuck's sake... Then I never had a chance in the first place. I lost the second I let myself get captured in Rosenfield...

I lost the moment I stepped into the East!! God. Fucking. Dammit!!

Reed face-palmed, groaned in embarrassment and said, ”I don't want to live anymore… someone put me out my misery…!” He wanted nothing more than to go back in time and beat himself up.

Lu'um rubbed his back and said, ”You fooled me, you know. …Well, until I heard the new about a human being crowned prince in the East. Come on, keep your chin up, okay?”

Reed let out soft grunt in agreement and then said, ”What now, then? There's no going back now that I'm a prince here. …Not that I hate it or anything. What will become of my status in North?”

Violett scratched her head and said, ”That's the complicated bit. You're still the Lord of Evergreen, which traditionally was a title only reserved for royalty in the North. When I gave you the title that made you sort of pseudo-royal in terms of lineage, something I struggled a lot to achieve. Had to  really convince Father which was no small feat, I can assure you…”

”And now, you're a prince in the East! But you're also still Lord of Evergreen and we can't just take that title from you because it mean the same as forsaking you to the East, something we want to desperately avoid at all costs. If that ever happened, the East would use your disownment as proof of racial discrimination towards an Avunian, since you are technically an Avunian now…” said Haydn in a grave tone.

”Not only that, but they'd also push the narrative that we disowned you because you became prince here — that the North's filled with heartless monsters incapable of empathy or understanding. That they, the East would gladly take you, a human outcast, as one of their own with compassion and kindness,” said Violett.

Haydn bitterly chuckled and said, ”If we let you go, they'd smear us as heartless fiends… and if they let you go, we'd call them out for the same thing. Do you see the situation now? Whoever lets you go will be called a terrible, selfish nation filled with shameless hypocrites. In this modern era, our wars are mainly fought with words and not with swords. And you, my dear friend, are now a living weapon of mass destruction for either side.”

”Oh.”

Reed twiddled his fingers and said, ”So I'm essentially going to be stuck with both titles from now on, right? Won't that make, you know, royalty in two different empires in a sense?”

Violett sighed deeply and said, ”Yes, and that's the problem. This unprecedented and I mean it. Something like this has never happened before, ever. There has never been a prince that belonged to two empires at once and that's what makes you so important and… dangerous now.”

Haydn grinned and said, ”Simply put, you are threatening the balance of peace in this world… just by existing. You've entangled yourself and two empires in ball of yarn that no one can fix anymore…”

”Oh…”

It seemed things were going to get much more complicated from now on in ways Reed had not expected...