I'm Trapped Inside a Prince as the Most Powerful Entity-Chapter 62: Questions

Alina took a steadying breath, pushing down her own fear and confusion. The powerful, terrifying being called Adam was gone. Prince Eric was back – the Prince who seemed weak and unsure, but also somehow... kinder. She looked around the dimly lit, bloody corridor.

They were deep inside a hidden enemy base, the Spider Syndicate’s main headquarters, given what Adam had implied before he vanished and Eric returned. Staying here was not an option.

"Come on," Alina said, her voice surprisingly firm. She started walking cautiously down the corridor, peering into the shadows ahead. She didn’t know this place, but she knew they had to keep moving, find a way out, and somehow, find her parents.

Eric trailed hesitantly behind her, his golden eyes wide as he took in the gruesome scene. The corridor was littered with bodies, the air thick with the smell of blood. He felt nauseous and scared.

He didn’t recognize this place at all. One moment he was in the Baron’s courtyard, the next... here. It was disorienting and terrifying.

"Alina, wait," Eric called out, his voice echoing faintly in the stone-walled passage. "At least tell me where we are exactly. What happened? How did we get here?" He had so many questions, but the overwhelming one was about their location.

Hearing his question, Alina paused briefly in her advance. She turned back to glance at him, her expression a mixture of impatience and something else he couldn’t quite read. For a fleeting moment, the image of Adam – powerful, decisive, terrifyingly competent – flashed in her mind, and she couldn’t help but compare him to the nervous, uncertain Prince standing before her now.

But she quickly pushed the thought away. Adam was gone. Eric was here. And they were in incredible danger.

She shook her head slightly, dismissing the distracting comparison. She resumed walking.

"I don’t have time to explain everything right now, Your Highness," she said sharply, her voice a little harsher than she intended. "We need to keep moving. And stop following behind me like a lost puppy; walk beside me." She looked at him, a new, almost challenging glint in her eye. "Third Prince, you’re going to have to protect me."

Eric felt a jolt of confusion at her words. Protect her? He looked down at his own hands, then at the simple training clothes he still wore.

He didn’t even have his wooden practice sword anymore; he must have dropped it back at the Baron’s mansion when he was... when system had taken over. His expression shifted uneasily, reflecting the anxiety churning inside him.

Protect her? How? Every time that System, that... that thing took control of his body, something unexpected and often terrifying happened. His mind flashed back to the last clear memory he had before blacking out at the Baron’s estate – the burning rage he had felt, the desperate command he had given the System: kill them all.

He hadn’t seen what happened next, but a deep, chilling pang of regret settled into his chest. He could only imagine the unintended, horrifying consequences of such a command.

He hadn’t wanted anyone to die, not really. He had just been so angry, so helpless. What had the System done in his name?

They continued forward cautiously, Alina now slightly ahead, Eric walking somewhat reluctantly beside her, his eyes darting nervously into every shadow. As they rounded another bend in the corridor, Eric’s heart sank further, a gasp catching in his throat.

The scene before them was even more horrific than what they had already passed. Bodies littered this section of the corridor as well, clear evidence of a brutal, one-sided conflict. But these weren’t just the rough-looking thugs of the Spider Syndicate.

Scattered among the Syndicate dead, unmistakably, were soldiers wearing the distinctive red and gold armor of the Roland Kingdom. Their polished helmets lay dented on the floor, their swords still clutched in lifeless hands.

Eric halted abruptly, his eyes widening in shock and disbelief. He stared at the fallen knights. "These... these are knights from the Roland Kingdom!" he stammered, his voice trembling.

The sight was horrifying. He knew his kingdom and Roland were rivals, often on the brink of open conflict. To see their knights slaughtered like this... "What are they doing here? And... and where exactly is here?" The horror was evident in his voice; this was far beyond anything he could have imagined.

Alina, who had continued a few steps before realizing Eric had stopped, spun around abruptly. Her own fear and tension were clearly wearing thin. Frustration flared in her eyes as she looked at his shocked, bewildered face.

"You’re the one who brought me here!" she snapped sharply, her voice echoing in the quiet, bloody corridor. "And now you’re asking me where we are?!" She threw her hands up in exasperation.

Her angry words, though harsh, cut through Eric’s confusion like a knife. He brought her here? But he hadn’t done anything. He had blacked out after giving that terrible command to the System. That could only mean one thing.

The System... , as it had called itself before he lost consciousness again... had transported them here. To this place. Directly into enemy territory, a land hostile to his own kingdom, apparently deep inside a hidden base filled with dead Roland Kingdom knights.

The realization sent a bone-deep chill through him. Dread pooled in his stomach, cold and heavy. Fearful thoughts raced through his mind. He was no longer within the relative safety of his own kingdom, not even within the dubious protection of the Baron’s lands.

He was trapped, deep inside a rival nation, surrounded by death and unknown dangers. He was completely out of his depth.

He slowly drew level with Alina, who was still glaring at him, though some of the anger in her eyes had faded, replaced by a wary uncertainty.

Eric cast a sidelong glance in her direction, his voice barely a whisper, hesitant and filled with a sickening premonition as he voiced the question that had been haunting him since he woke up in this strange, bloody place.

"Alina," he began, his throat dry, "back at the Baron’s... the Baron’s palace... all those soldiers... were they all... were they really killed?"

Alina paused, startled by his question. She stopped glaring, her expression shifting to one of genuine astonishment. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she studied him carefully, really looked at him, perhaps noticing the fear and genuine confusion in his golden eyes for the first time since he had ’woken up’.

"So," she said slowly, her voice much quieter now, "that really... that really wasn’t you back there? The one who... who did all those things?"

Her surprised tone, the way she phrased the question, confirmed Eric’s deepest fear. The System – had indeed carried out his earlier, rage-filled command. It had resulted in a massacre.

The full weight of that knowledge, the responsibility for those deaths, even if he hadn’t directly wielded the power himself, crushed Eric’s spirit further. His shoulders sagged under the invisible burden of his guilt. He felt sick. He had caused so much death, even if unintentionally.

Alina watched the play of emotions on his face – the shock, the dawning horror, the crushing guilt. She saw the genuine distress in his eyes.

Breaking the tense, heavy silence that had fallen between them, she spoke again, her voice softer now, but edged with a serious, probing tone.

"Then... you are aware, aren’t you? That someone else... or maybe... something else... takes control of your body sometimes?"

Eric nodded solemnly, his face pale and drawn. He couldn’t meet her eyes. He looked down at the bloodstained floor of the corridor. "Yes," he replied quietly, his voice barely audible, anxiety etched deeply into every line of his face.

"Yes, I know. And... and it terrifies me every single time." He finally looked up at her, his golden eyes filled with a mixture of fear, shame, and a desperate plea for understanding. "I don’t know...I don’t know how to control it. It just... happens."

For a long moment, the two of them just stood there in the dim, flickering torchlight of the bloody corridor, a silent understanding passing between them. She, the girl who had seen an impossible power unleashed.

He, the Prince who was a vessel for that power, but also its terrified, unwilling host. The shadows cast by the torches danced ominously on the stone walls around them, seeming to writhe and mock their fear.

Then, without another word, knowing that standing still was not an option, they moved forward together, side by side this time.