Chapter 6

"Your Highness, I am not worthy of your apology." The knight Johnson hurriedly shouted as sweat started to form on his forehead.

"Are you not accepting, my apology." Alex caught the knight who fell because of whipping and whispered in his ears,

The knight's body trembled in anger as he hurriedly shook his head.

"So, you accept it," Alex whispered again.

'Like I have no choice but to endure it.' Johnson hurriedly nodded his head while venom filled his eyes.

The feeling of guilt that weighed down on his heart like a boulder vanished as soon as the knight accepted his apology.

'That guy didn't have any other choice anyway.' Alex thought as he looked towards the knight who accepted his apology forcefully.

Meanwhile, the punishers and the palace knight were astonished by Alex's open apology.

'A prince apologized to a lowly knight publically. This news is huge." All the punishers and knights standing there thought as they pinched themselves to confirm they were not dreaming.

After Alex left the scene, the Vice Commander of Palace Knight ( Seth ) pondered out loud,

"He is trying to play the role of a kind prince but apologizing in public will only affect his image negatively."

"It all depends on a person's perspective. People like you will think of this as bad due to your ego but from that knight's perspective his action was extremely humble." Commander of Palace Knights Gerald voiced his opinion.

"But we can't join any faction so it's pointless for us to have this kind of discussion," Seth spoke as he cleaned his ears with his fingers.

'But you were the one who started it.' Gerald thought inwardly.

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While rumors of Alex apologizing were flying around, Amelia was huffing and panting while lying on practice ground Chelsey.

"Looks like I have to increase your stamina and speed," Chelsey spoke as she wrote an exercise regime on paper.

Forget Amelia even an athlete or gym freak would be panting if they had to run

straight for an hour at full speed with little to no break while holding a spear.

"Your break time will finish in 50 minutes. After that, I will teach you the basics of spears." Chelsey looked satisfied seeing no objection from Amelia while the truth was she didn't have enough energy to refute her.

An hour later,

Amelia stood up unsteady on her feet to practice despite the protest of her body. Chelsey who was standing in front of her with a spear hand-tossed Amelia a spear as soon as she stabilized herself.

"I thought you were going to sleep there today." Sara joked to lighten the atmosphere but got ignored brutally by both of them.

"Spread your legs width shoulders apart. Grab the spear with your dominant hand and thrust." Chelsey told Amelia as she demonstrated the thrust in slow motion. Her second thrust was lightning quick nobody knowing when she pushed her spear forward and when she retracted it.

"Your goal is to achieve this speed and surpass it. Now let me see how you thrust." Chelsey said with a serene expression that vanished a moment.

Due to exhaustion, Amelia wasn't able to hold the spear properly causing Chelsey to sigh.

"You are still far from becoming a warrior. Just rest for today." Chelsey spoke as she demonstrated some other basic spear-fighting techniques.

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The rumors of Alex apologizing to a knight spread like wildfire and reached Duke Anthony's ears.

"The book chose that savage as his successor. Unbelievable!." A man clad in black exclaimed as he came out of Anthony's shadow.

"Pay attention to your words Anti." Anthony rebuked him as he flicked Anti stomach.

"Ouch! But I wonder even if the book worked how can he change so much that he apologized in public." Anti spoke as he rubbed his stomach.

"That book is magical. It engraves itself in the mind of its successors and about his apology why don't you ask him." Anthony said as he leisurely stretched himself.

"Cough. ahem." Anti cleared his throat as he approached the gate.

"Men, Bring Alex here," Anti ordered the knight in a perfectly mimicked voice of Anthony.

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Alex entered his grandfather's room while scratching his head,

"Why did you call me Gramps? I was helping Luther."

Anthony sighed while Anti's eyebrow twitched at Alex's unprincely behavior.

'You need an etiquette teacher.' Anthony thought as he remembered Alex's barbaric act of punching him.

"We heard you apologized. There's no need for apologizing as long as you know your mistake."

"Shouldn't you apologize if you did something wrong," Alex said as he tilted his head innocently.

"Do you even know what you did wrong? Cause We remembered you didn't understand anything when We rebuked you." Anthony said as his lips started to twitch.

"Yeah, I understood my mistake after reading the book you gave me. Bang!." Just as Alex finished speaking the door was violently pushed open by Chelsey.

"It was her request father." Chelsey hurriedly pushed the blame after seeing Anthony glare.

Ignoring Alex who was frozen stiff Amelia spoke to her gramps, "Is it true that he apologized."

"Yeah, he apologized as he knew what he did was wrong," Anthony said proudly of Alex's action.

"Are you sure that my brother whose head stays in the sky apologized," Amelia said as she remembered the number of times he apologized could be counted on one hand.

"He did and left all of you except you Alex."

Anthony said in a deadpan voice.

"Just what was that book and what did it do to my mind," Alex said as killing intent started to ooze out of him causing every person present in Anthony's quarters to stiffen.

'I remembered clearly when I finished reading that page I was suddenly gripped with guilt. That book just tempered with my mind." Alex thought as his eyes slowly turned red in anger.

"Calm down, my son. That book is a family heirloom and it means you no harm, its only objective is to make its successor a better ruler." Anthony said as he restrained Anti by stepping on his own shadow.

"Calm down and let me handle this," Anthony whispered to Anti.

"Bang." The knight standing outside the room hurriedly entered the room in formation and started encircling Alex.

"What are you guys doing," Amelia screamed as tried to force her way inside.

"A knight who knew Amelia's identity placed her sword on Amelia's neck to threaten Alex but before she or Anthony could say anything her eye was pierced by a dagger.

"If anyone dares to lay one finger on her, I will take you down with me," Alex said in an expressionless tone.

"Stop, all of you, and leave us alone." The knights who had Alex surrounded didn't budge from their place ignoring Anthony's order causing his expression to darken.

"Don't make us say it again," Anthony shouted in a deep voice. The knights hesitated for a moment before they decided to leave but they all stood at the entrance of the room ready to pounce on at any moment.

"You won't settle this without a fight," Anthony said to Alex as he cracked his neck sideways.

Alex waited for his grandfather to complete the warm-up cause he knew it wouldn't matter who attacked first.

"You need to get punished for betraying me," Alex said as he readied himself for the coming tough fight.

'If I drank that medicine I will win for sure." Alex thought as he clenched his fist.

"Anthony attacked first as he faked a jab and at the last moment, he threw sand in Alex's eye. Seeing Anthony's dirty move Anti and the knights stiffened.

'How the fuck a Duke can fight this dirty.' Alex thought as he focused his senses to hear any voice when he felt his clothes getting wet.

'Fuck, Why am I wet.'