Carlos felt at ease as the next day after he’d risen from the blank night, he’d finally got to hear Ruel.

It was early in the morning and the daylight hadn’t even broken from the eastern horizon that Carlos woke up to Ruel’s voice.

Carlos was disoriented for a while, despite Ocean’s warning, Carlos had removed the pendant and placed it on the bedside table just so that Ruel could come back and they could talk about what happened the other night.

He was so anxious about it that he kept zoning out even during his meals with Nyx.

"I’ve made a deal with Ocean Ryujin," Ruel said.

Carlos felt his throat going dry, making a deal with that man...

"What kind of a deal?" Carlos asked.

"You don’t get it, son. The one who will take the throne was long decided and you are only a pawn. If I don’t make sure you’re alive, everything is done." Ruel said and Carlos felt a chill run down his spine.

"Wh-What are you talking about? My mother has been planning to make me the King for so long then how could Eric-"

"Yet, your own mother threw you away the moment she realised you couldn’t do anything on your own." Ruel said and Carlos fell silent.

"In this game, you aren’t the one with power Carlos so, you have to lay low... At least till the time you gather enough power."

Carlos hung his head, he couldn’t understand how things changed so much. Till the time when he was dragged to the warzone he believed blindly that he would be the King but Eric gathered so much power out of nowhere that he didn’t even see when his sandcastle was washed away.

"I always thought I was born to be the King... And I was so powerful that Eric is just a big that I can crush any time..." Carlos mumbled.

Ruel was quiet for a moment before he said, "You can do the same."

"I can’t!" Carlos almost shouted.

"You have me, son." Ruel simply said.

"And what can you do Ruel? You made a deal with the man who will make Eric the King... I’ll be slaughtered the moment he becomes the King."

"It’s precisely because of this that I made this deal, son. If you die, I die and I don’t want that... Not after coming back after so long..." Ruel said, there was a strange tone in his voice which almost touched on the border of madness.

"What can we do?"

"Keep our head down and wait. Ocean Ryujin won’t turn his eyes from us any time so, we have to be careful of not doing anything that would invite any more of his attention." Ruel said and then led Carlos to the window opening the curtains that he always kept drawn.

The sky outside was still dark with not even a single star in sight.

"What’s-"

"He’s added another person to the surveillance." Ruel said, "I can sense their bloodlust from all the way here... One wrong move from us and Trials aside, we’ll be taken out."

Carlos’s blood ran cold and he stiffened, he hadn’t thought much about the people whom Ocean had assigned to keep an eye on him, but now to send someone who could kill him. That was going too far.

"H-He can’t do that..." Carlos spoke quickly drawing the curtains back on.

"He will be in deep trouble or even tried for treason and be executed or exiled if something happened to me." Carlos said, mostly trying to reassure himself.

He heard Ruel scoff, "You think he cares about that?"

Carlos opened his mouth to tell Ruel about how serious it was.

"Ocean Ryujin is beyond your mother’s reach, son. That person is so powerful that he could destroy this whole kingdom and not even a brick would be left behind... All of it in a single night if he snapped."

Carlos shuddered, he recalled the immense power that nearly sucked the life out of him when Ocean had intimidated him. He felt like he would die right then and there without Ocean even lifting a finger.

Carlos always thought there was something about Ocean Ryujin that triggered his deep, primal instinct as a human. The fear of death.

"You have seen it too," Ruel pointed it out, "it better to not make an enemy out of him just yet. If we play our cards safely then he will be the one to protect us."

"But why would be protect us?!"

"Because he wouldn’t want unnecessary trouble." Ruel said, "We need to make sure we stay out of his way and quietly amass our own worth with that we can achieve what we want."

"And what is that?" Carlos asked, "You said Eric is already decided to be the King then what about me? What will I do? How will I even live in the kingdom? And what about Nyx?"

"Have patience," Ruel said, "We will reclaim everything that belongs to us. Meanwhile, survival comes first."

Carlos pursed his lips, he now had to become like a dead mouse. How the mighty fall!

He felt hateful of his life, he was born in the lap of royalty, he had all the power to even humiliate Eric in front of everyone and yet, now he had to keep his head down and watch the same Eric take his place.

Why was it that he was chosen in the first place? And who chose him? Who was that powerful-

The thoughts came to a halt on a single name.

"Ruel," Carlos spoke, his heart hammering at the thought, "do you think that... Ocean Ryujin is currently controlling everything in this kingdom... Including who gets on the throne."

Ruel didn’t say anything for a few seconds but then he said, "About time you realised that."

Carlos felt his body going ice cold, he had been fooled all along. Ocean Ryujin claimed neutrality and yet, he was the one that was paving a path for Eric to take the throne.

"I can’t believe this..." Carlos ran a hand through his hair.

"What if I tell my father about it? Ocean Ryujin may be smart but he wouldn’t do anything against the royal order!" Carlos suggested.

"You think everything is going without your father’s knowledge?" Ruel asked.

Carlos’s jaw dropped.

"Y-You mean father knows about it?"

Ruel scoffed, "Not everything, just enough to think that Ocean is his ally. But don’t think that your father can in any way do anything against him. Even if he were the King of Emperor, he’s powerless, he’s also just another pawn in the game."

There was silence for a long time, Carlos felt as if everything that he had been seeing and believing for all his life was crumbling away. He knew nobles could be powerful than royal family but royal word was absolute like the God’s word. But now that he’s learning that Ocean Ryujin was beyond that. It was like his whole life was a lie.

Carlos remained in the state of shock and disbelief for a long period of time just thinking and thinking about everything and then feeling his thoughts and memories crumble and fade away.

"Hey, Ruel..." Carlos started, "I... fixed the problem of this territory, haven’t I?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Yes,"

"Will that be enough to get me acknowledged?" Carlos asked.

"By who?"

Carlos didn’t answer that, he didn’t know who should acknowledge him, he knew his mother would never say a word of praise for him unless he sat on that throne but even that seemed a farfetched dream so, he just needed acknowledgement from just anyone.

"Do you acknowledge me?" Carlos asked.

"I do."

"Why?"

"You’re the soft clay I have to shape," Ruel simply said.

Carlos didn’t understand what he meant by that but he felt a tiny bit better.

"Do you think Nyx acknowledges me?" Carlos asked.

"She likes you." Ruel corrected, "and love makes one see past the flaws of the person of interest."

Carlos lowered his eyes, his thoughts now drifting over to Eric.

"He... must have fixed the issue on his side quite quickly, right? The people would be busy worshipping him by now."

"Probably."

Carlos let out a deep sigh and walked back towards his bed. Only two days remained now till the Trials ended. Carlos task was to fix the issue of this territory’s finances, and he did so by exposing Earl Kirkland and making Nyx the Baroness of the territory. She was excellent at managing everything already without having much power, now that she was the ruler she could do everything smoothly and he could have the credit for it. Moreover, he took out both the men that could have posed any threat to Nyx later so, it was all done cleanly.

But, Carlos kept thinking of how Eric had performed in the past two Trials while he had failed so royally. Eric naturally was loved by all and everyone wanted him to be the King, Carlos could remember the reverberations in his chest when everyone in the huge amphitheatre shouted Eric’s name. It was as if they had already chosen him to be their King.

So, how was Ruel going to beat that?

Carlos felt the tightening in his chest and he felt his stomach churning painfully as he recalled Eric’s smiling face from that day.

He just wondered or rather hoped that Eric would also face the hard time, he would also feel this uncertainty that Carlos was feeling now. The kind of crushing despair that made him realise that he was nothing but a pawn in someone else’s game. A pawn that could be discarded easily.