The Call From His Butler

After almost 15 minutes of running, she stopped at a big building. She looked around. In the not-so-far distance, an equestrian arena is located. She was sure that it was for the horses as she saw those kinds of fences that were constructed like a wide cage in Darthill Village when a horse racing contest was made. But it is more shabby and cheap compared to the one she is looking at right now that seems to be made in high-class material. She mentally rolled her eyes. Why would a palace use cheap materials in the first place? she thought.

"What do you need?" a modulated voice from behind made her instantly turn her head.

A man in her age dressed in a black jumpsuit with a bored expression was looking at her.

"The pri—" Before she could finish, the man cut her off.

"Mr. Herman was not here, hack the horse yourself. I'm sure you know how to do that right" the man yawned; rubbed his eyes and walked away.

"Wait! I don't know how to do that!" She followed the man but the latter started to run. "Hey, wait!"

"I got something to do Miss! You can do it!" said the man, grinning.

"It's for the Prince. Hey!" She ran after the man but her shoes were making it hard for her to lessen the distance between her and the man. She stopped when he already passed on the bushes that were a few meters far from her. "Wah, that man really left me" she looked up at the vibrant ever blue sky; shutting her eyes promptly to calm herself. The man didn't even give any information about the horse of the nutty prince.

"You can do this Seira" she muttered to herself, moving with heavy and quick steps to the stable.

Her hands became cold along with her heart pounding against her chest. Who wouldn't when she was originally tasked to ask someone to ready a horse but ended up doing it herself? Someone who totally had any idea how the grounds of horses work.

A lot of horses with different colors, sizes, and bodies built were in the stable on their own stalls. She carefully entered the building; glancing around in the hope to spot a horse with an unusual and exquisite build that differs from the other equines.

Her eyebrows creased when she caught sight of two compartments with black and gold color of the door and had a golden metal attached to the wall of the compartment. It has the same design as what she saw on the gate in the Parverhill Fortress.

A symbol of a golden lion on the left and an eagle on the right with a shield in the middle that is defending the central point; a flower wreath in the bottom, and a royal crown in the top.

The horse inside of the gold-colored compartment has a slim, refined body, a head having the ears curved inwards and a high croup; the neck is slanted and it has a skewbald color. Its coat was made up of white patches on a reddish-brown coat of its body with a black point coloration of the mane, tail, and ear edges. It was a beautiful colt with a different aura from the rest of the horses in the stable.

She turned to her left to check out the other horse on the black-colored stall. A large, glossy black-coated horse with a thick muscular body was inside. It has a silky, long mane and tail that is almost dragged in the ground and long hair from the middle of his legs to feathers at the ankles on the lower legs. The horse has a long neck that arches with a well-defined small head with eyes spread apart and short ears. She slowly sauntered to the stall; staring at the colt. The animal was completely different from the skewbald horse. She couldn't point out but the animal gives off a natural elegance and a great presence although it was in the stall.

"Okay, so which one of you is the horse of the prince?" She looked side by side; pointing at the compartment while tapping her feet. She had no single clue about the horse of that man. All of a sudden, a thought came to her. His room was painted in red and black like his doors. Even the curtains and the bed were black. So it does make sense if he chose a black-coated horse. With that thought, she walked to the stall of the black horse.

She slowly unlocked the gate and tread carefully towards the horse; shakily extending her arm to reach for the bridle. Just as she was about to hold the buckled straps, the equine ran off; shoving her into the wall of the stall. "H-hey! Wa-wait up! Mr. Horse!" she got back on her feet hastily, noticing the black saddle with gold outlines on the skirt next to a gold-colored girth. If she was not mistaken, it was used to attach around the horse’s belly. She picked the stuff before following the trail of the horse.

"Stop!" she shouted while running after the black horse but the colt didn't halt its step. The horse was running leisurely and that somehow irritated her. All of a sudden, it stopped. "Thank goodness"

Seira rushed to the equine. She was just a few steps away when the horse started to run again. Appalled, she took a panic step, not noticing the bowl-shaped cavity in the ground. She fell to the ground with a loud thud. Her face contorted in a slight grimace as the pain in her knees started to emerge.

If earlier, she was not sure if the horse belonged to that crazy prince, now she was definitely convinced that he was the owner. They have the same behavior and attitude. The horse did look like it was waiting for her but as soon as she was a few steps away, the animal dashed off. She even saw how its head slightly turned in her direction.

With a groan, she ran off again.

…….

Kyrian looked at his own reflection in the bathroom mirror, moving his hand with a white cloth repeatedly back and forth on his hair to soak up the moisture. As he ran his hand across his hair, his eyes shifted to the fading skull engraved in his arm. Two swords were stabbed on each side of the bone structure with a crown on the top of the head. He had the mark since he was born. The black symbol embodies a destructive power and a constant reminder of his dark past.

'Prince of Death' was one way that many people would put it in his name and many names like a heartless and ruthless bastard and such. It was true though and Kyrian appreciated people knowing the truth. He always finds it entertaining when he meets people who tried so hard to maintain eye contact and talk straight to him. But the ones he enjoyed the most were the people smiling at him when he knew their true perception of him. It was amusing in his part of how good actors they can be.

The image of his personal servant suddenly appeared on his mind. The truth was he was shocked when the woman that kept on popping on his mind for the past days stood up in front of him wearing a maid uniform in exact appearance of a girl in his past. He wouldn't know if he would believe in coincidence. But he didn't expect that his confusion would make him ask the woman about her parents in order to settle his uneasiness. But the woman has the audacity to act like she didn't hear him. No one dared to do something like that to him. She was different… completely different from his other personal servants that always ended up dead. He clenched his jaw to the memory of the woman's face brimmed with tears and pain in her eyes as he forced her to look at him.

He could not point out a name but something in the woman was bothering him, something about the way she stared at him either of pure terror or fear was leaving an unsettling feeling……….. a confusing one.

Kyrian went straight to his closet. Different types of clothes and shoes lined up in the closet as well as his other accessories. In the corner near the door, formal clothes that are already matched are hanging that he knew his personal stylist for many years arranged for him every weekend.

He settled for the white long sleeve, black pants and long coat embroidered with gold linings on the lower edge of the sleeve then pulled out a black watch on one of the drawers.

All of a sudden, the telephone in his room rings.

"What is it?" Kyrian asked not bothering to question who was on the other line. There were only two people who knew the number of his personal telephone, his butler—Sebastian and his grandmother that seldom called him.

"The Belgravia Coven was still not agreeing to withhold the petition, Your Highness but the head mage told me to rely a message for you"