The Unemployed Prince Covets My Nephew - Chapter 13
* * *
Theo had a dream. He was trapped in a small space, unable to move.
He heard someone calling him from outside. There were strange, unintelligible voices as well.
He tried to shout, asking who it was and begging for help, but no sound came out. He woke up with a start.
“Mm…”
His mouth was gagged with cloth, so he couldn’t speak, and it was so dark around him that he couldn’t see anything.
Was it not a dream?
Theo was trapped somewhere. It was so narrow that he couldn’t even move his body.
A small sliver of light seeped through a crack in front of him.
He tried to move his hands, but they didn’t budge, as if they were tied.
Theo twisted his wrists desperately. Luckily, one of his thin wrists slipped free.
He managed to lift one hand and pull down the cloth covering his mouth.
“Phew.”
He needed to get out of there. But he had no idea how to escape.
He was too small and weak. He wished a hero from a fairy tale would come to rescue him.
‘I need to get out, but should I scream? No. What if those scary people do something worse if I scream?’
Theo recalled the conversations he had with Hailey in the past.
‘I will always protect you, but if something happens to me…’
‘H, Hailey…’
‘Just in case. If something happens to me, you need to stay calm and think about what you can do to get out of that situation.’
‘Is there anything I can do? I’m not a giant; I’m weak…’
‘Of course. If you wish sincerely, God will give you strength. You can become stronger than a giant. Your heart is so strong and sturdy!’
It was a conversation they had after reading a fairy tale about a little dragon who lost his mother, met a monster, and prayed earnestly to God, becoming a mighty dragon to defeat the monster and find his mother.
‘Please help me. Give me strength.’
Theo clasped his hands together in prayer, tears streaming down his face. Then he slowly opened his eyes and cautiously pushed the solid iron lid with his hand.
“Ugh…”
Unsurprisingly, the firmly closed lid didn’t budge.
“Huff, huff…”
Theo’s breathing grew ragged.
Tears of frustration and longing for Hailey streamed down his face as he stared through the crack.
At that moment, he suddenly felt a sensation as if his eyes were burning.
Strangely, it was hot but not painful. He only felt a tingling sensation in his body, not pain.
After the sensation stopped, Theo pushed the lid with both hands again, even though he knew it wouldn’t open.
“It, it opened…! Shh.”
Miraculously, the lid opened.
Theo quickly climbed out of the box.
Having been trapped in the narrow space for so long, his legs gave out, and he fell to the ground, but he bit his lip to keep from making a sound.
Looking around the box, he saw a large iron lock lying on the floor. It was about half the size of Theo’s face and heavy for a five-year-old to lift.
‘How did this happen?’
Theo was bewildered. He couldn’t understand what had happened.
Knowing he needed to escape, Theo quickly closed the box and locked it again, as if nothing had happened. The lock clicked shut.
‘Wow! Amazing!’
Only then did Theo look around. It seemed like some kind of shabby warehouse.
The air was filled with the stench of fish and rotting meat, so Theo covered his nose with his small hand.
There were many similar boxes around, most of them filled with fish or meat.
Theo cautiously walked through the warehouse, looking for an exit.
‘There’s the entrance! But it’s locked. How do I open it? Oh! Maybe…’
Theo looked up at the large door again. He stared at it earnestly, just like before.
This time, he felt not only his eyes but also his entire body heating up. It was a very strange sensation.
‘It’s hot, but it doesn’t hurt.’
The sensation of heat swirling inside his body was even stronger than before, like a fish swimming in water.
Miraculously, the large door creaked open without Theo even touching it, just enough for him to slip through.
Theo squeezed his body through the gap and escaped.
“Wow…”
Stepping outside, he saw the sea in front of him.
Excited by the sight of the sea for the first time, Theo quickly hid behind a pillar when he saw people approaching from a distance.
His small frame was well-hidden behind the pillar.
‘Hailey…’
Theo covered his mouth with both hands, trembling with fear that even a small sound might give him away.
He needed to find Hailey without being caught, but he had no idea where he was.
Having only been outside once, he didn’t know any places.
Most importantly, Hailey was likely at the royal palace, but Theo didn’t know where that was.
Crying silently, Theo closed his eyes.
‘Please let me meet Hailey.’
Theo instinctively directed his heartfelt plea to the hot ‘feeling’ swirling inside him.
Not knowing what he was doing, he earnestly wished.
‘Please don’t let those people catch me. Help me escape from here.’
Miraculously, a dark red aura flared up around Theo, and he disappeared from behind the pillar.
Theo fainted once again.
* * *
“Why did you attempt to set sail when I ordered the ports to be closed?”
“Well, we didn’t receive the carrier pigeon….”
They almost missed them by just a little delay.
Due to the poor handling by the Lint Port immigration officer, no closure measures were implemented, and when the Eligos Knights arrived, there was a ship with sailors boarding for departure.
The knights quickly halted the departure, dragged off the captain and the crew, and bound them.
The immigration officer stammered nervously as he answered the knight commander’s questions.
Axel gestured to the knight commander.
“Strip him.”
The officer protested, claiming it was unfair to blame him for not seeing the carrier pigeon, but he was soon stripped down to his underwear by the knights.
A crumpled letter containing the royal’s immediate orders fell to the ground.
“How dare you lie about not seeing this!”
“I’m innocent! I swear I’m innocent!”
Axel waved his hand dismissively, ordering the officer to be taken away.
The Eligos knights, after inspecting the three ships currently docked at Lint Port, rushed to Axel.
“There were three ships scheduled to depart between tonight and early morning. Two of them were headed to Winchester, expected to bring back minerals from Winchester, so they were empty, and both captains were confirmed to be Winchester residents. The remaining one…”
“It was bound for Vasa, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. According to them, they are seafood importers.”
Vasa was a country adjacent to the sea. It was strange that they would import seafood from Zenovia when they had plenty themselves.
“Why go out of their way? And at this hour, not coming in but going out? Interesting.”
Hailey, standing a little way off, anxiously watched the Eligos knights unloading large crates from a large ship onto the shore. The closer they got, the more anxious she became.
“Our knights have checked the interior of the ship while moving the crates to land, but found nothing.”
“What about the warehouses where the crates were stored?”
“We checked all the warehouses around Lint Port, and they were also empty. There was nothing, and no sign of the child.”
“…Open all the crates and bring those men to me.”
Hailey’s heart seemed to stop.
‘Nothing? Could they have already done something to Theo?’
The Vasa merchants, forcibly dragged by the knights, resisted irritably. The man who appeared to be their leader glared fiercely at Axel.
“Are you the leader?”
“Release us. You cannot hold us like this.”
Vasa was a vassal state of Zenovia. It was unlikely that a Vasa native wouldn’t recognize Axel von Otte, the prince of Zenovia, yet his attitude was blatantly insolent.
“Show respect to the prince! How dare the people of Vasa look directly at the small sun of Zenovia!”
The Eligos knights forced the man to kneel.
Even with a sword at his throat, the man did not avert his gaze from Axel.
“We are merely fishmongers bringing Zenovia’s fish to Vasa. We have all the trade permits issued by the King of Vasa. We’ve done nothing wrong, so why should we bow our heads?”
“Ridiculous. Are you saying the permits issued by the King of Vasa take precedence over the orders of the Zenovia royal family?”
[email protected]
A criança está com o poder do protagonismo desde cedo
Thanks for the update 🇧🇷 😸 🥰