Chapter 23 - The Throwing Knife Again

As soon as the knights entered the establishment. Max was already readied as he heard the commotion from outside his window. Although he kept the curtain down to avoid being seen, the window was slightly open which allowed him to hear any activity downstairs.

Expecting for his room to be search, Max quickly cleaned his room and sat at a corner waiting for the right time to use the artefact around his neck.

As soon as he heard the key being used on his door, Max activated the artefact praying that it works properly and that the knights would leave soon.

A knight then entered and filled the room with light so that he could see properly. After checking the bathroom and seeing the empty room as noted by the barkeeper of the inn, the knight left the room to continue his search.

Max only let out his breath after confirming that the knight has left his room closing the door leaving him in the darkness.

After hearing them leave the inn through the window did Max relaxed and went back to bed falling asleep immediately.

Waking up the next day, Theo looked at the other side of his room where Max would be at usually and got up.

Sensing some eyes on him, he got ready for class and head to one of the teacher in charge of the student boarding. Like a normal student would, he informed the teacher that he hadn't seen "Terrance" the whole night and that he was worried as it has never happened before.

Unsurprisingly, Theo was informed that something came up and "Terrance" had to return to his territory, dropping out of the academy late last night.

Acting relieved that his roomate was safe, Theo then went to class. To avoid the suspicion of the people under the crown prince following him, Theo didn't activate his Fade out skill.

Theo tried to blend in and act invisible like he would with the skill. He sat the a corner at the back of the class with his head down reading his textbook.

Acting like he is concentrating on the book, Theo listened in on his classmates.

As he has expected, they were discussing about the assassination, the 2nd Prince and his escape there were a few discussing about Indra and his dissapearance as well.

A few students noticed Theo at a corner looking at a book and didn't think much of it continued with their conversation.

Theo continued his day avoiding as much attention as possible. Unfortunately for him, he could hear some classmates discussing about him.

"Wowww, since when did we have such a hottie in our class?"

"Ash White hair, it must be the younger Ashwell. I heard that the older brother graduated last year."

"I don't think I've seen him this whole year. I bet he is comming in since it's almost the end of the year and the finals are comming up soon." One of the girls laughed.

"Thanks to that we got a proper look at the hottie."

'Hahh, I can't help that I'm so good looking' Theo thought with a smug.

[Host should be informed that it is the inner beauty that matters]

The system suddenly sounded in his mind.

'Here I thought you have stopped going against me.' Theo replied.

[Host has become lazier. Other than completing the quest system provided. Host should pick up more skills and practise as well as gain experience in real fights]

The system advised Theo.

'Should I try using the axe as a weapon next or maybe dual swordsmanship?'

Thinking about it, Theo didn't really feel like picking up something new. He felt that improving and increasing the mastery levels of his current skills should be enough.

However, since the system mentioned it, he would maybe give more thoughts on it and decide what skill he could pick up without buying from the store next.

In the palace,

Feeling anxious and frustrated at the same time for losing Max, Caleb asked his subordinates, "What have you found so far?".

"In the training room where we found the 2nd Prince, we found this throwing knife among the items he left behind." The subordinate presented the throwing knife Theo gave Max to the crown prince. "The shape doesn't look like an ordinary throwing knife. It might lead us to who had taken him."

As Max promised Theo, he kept the throwing knife with him at all times except during his training. As it would be dangerous to have it kept on him when he is training vigorously, he would leave it together with his outer wear in the room while he trained.

Max didn't have the time to grab it nor did he remember of the throwing knife when everything came crashing down on him leaving it to be discovered by Caleb's men.

The crown prince then took the throwing knife and studied it. "I don't remember Max using nor keeping throwing knives. Check where it came from and who gave it to him."

Unknown to Caleb, one of the people in the room is a local subordinate of the king. He had been ordered to be a spy under the crown prince by the king.

He recognised the knife as the king has been asking around about the same throwing knive when the academy class just started.

He then took the information to his captain who served under the king in the shadows unknown to the public as well as the crown prince.

The captain was coincidentally the knight guard originally in charge of protecting Prince Maximilian in the academy, Haiz. Having seen the throwing knife in action and made no progress in its origin nor owner.

He asked excitedly, "Are you sure they found it among Prince Max's belongings?"

With the king bedridden and isolated with Caleb's men guarding. Many of the King's men were in hiding planing their move.

They were most worried for Prince Max as it wasn't just Caleb who was looking for him. They too didn't know who grabbed Max right in front of Caleb's man.

"Yes I'm sure, it looked like the 2nd prince cherished it as it was found on the breast pocket of his outerwear left behind." The subordinate informed him.

"Alright, return before you are discovered. Inform me immediately if Caleb discover anything of the throwing knife."

Thinking of the information given, Haiz started to have some idea of who had taken the 2nd Prince.

'Seeing that Prince Max had the throwing knife the mysterious expert used, he must have been protecting the prince when he acted that day' Seeing such an obvious reason as to why the expert acted that night but refusing to believe, Haiz hit his forehead thinking that the expert killed the assassins sent for Max just because he was disturbed before. 'Seeing how quick and skilled the person who took Prince Max acted, he should be working with the expert.'

He immediately head to the secret base to inform them of his finding.

In the secret base, the King's local subordinate agreed that they should contact the expert. It would be more efficient to join hands and work together as they believed the expert's aim was to protect the prince.

The problem was how they were going to contact the expert?

Many were left scratching their heads.