Chapter Five; Preparations For The Voyage

I looked into the gigantic mirror in front of me in my dressing room. With me here are my special maidservants and my hairdresser. For the first nine years of my life, I had a near-invulnerable body. And so was my hair. I had to learn a special skill from my father to make my hair vulnerable. That way, my hairdresser would be capable of trimming my hair. I will be travelling to a whole new place soon, The Isles to be precise, so I asked my hairdresser to dye my hair black.

When I did so, she said; "Your Imperial Highness, if you dye your hair black, people will find it hard to notice who you are..."

While she was speaking I thought to myself, That's exactly what I want but I'm not going to say it out loud.

"... If someone disrespects you out of ignorance, it wouldn't be his fault but The Powstrava Empire will not rest until he and his family and maybe his nation are no more..."

Oh yes, disrespecting a Mitchell is cause for immediate execution. I can't forget, but my naivety makes me overlook certain things sometimes.

"If I may make a suggestion-"

"Do so. " I nonchalantly ordered.

"If you dyed the white hairs in your hair green, we will recognize you as a royal but not as 'Your Imperial Highness Prince Mitchell Powstrava Stravapo'. Of course, some would think you are impersonating a royal but they will tread carefully and as long as you are with other royals they will realize you are a Mitchell."

I fell back into my styling chair and said; "Okay, I understand." I don't want anyone to die because of me so I accepted. I waved my hand to show that she should get on with it. After she was done dyeing my hair, I set out to meet my father.

My father was listening to a report from Sir. Roderick about our growth, especially in The Arts of Magic and Spellcasting in the Throne Room. According to his report, my little brother, as young as he is has been showing a lot of promise when it comes to The Art of Magic whilst I, the elder son despite my feats in the first four years of my life, haven't used any magic recently.

When he got to this part of the report, my father said; "That's where you have mistaken. He used magic just a month ago. I'm disappointed you did notice not but… continue."

"Please forgive me Your Imperial Majesty" Sir Roderick pleaded and continued; "Putting his use of magic aside, we are yet to find a language he does understand not. For now, we have concluded that he naturally understands every language there is."

"That is good."

"If I may ask Your Imperial Majesty, which magic did he use the last time he used magic?"

The Emperor looked at him somehow disappointed and said; "He only used magic to lock away his immense power."

"What! I'm sorry Your Imperial Majesty, but that's a catastrophe."

Emperor Rava smiled and said; "He locked away his power because he had no use for it. To him, it is one of the reasons why the other children are so afraid to play with him. In addition, it may be a good thing he locked away his power. At least for now. His power grew so much that he could have destroyed the planet on a whim."

"But, Your Imperial Majesty, locking his power means he would be rendered powerless if a powerful enemy finds him and there is no one to defend him. And, can he unlock his power whenever he wishes?" Sir. Roderick Blurted out his thoughts before realizing his folly. Although the emperor had explicitly permitted him to speak casually with him, his conscience was against what he did so he asked for forgiveness once more.

"Unfortunately, he can't. Even I cannot unlock his power for him. However, He will be fine. He didn't lose all of his power though. He lost a little above ninety-nine per cent of his power which is bad but not the worst possible outcome."

"Your Imperial Highness, losing ninety-nine per cent of your power would mean you've lost literally all the power you have."

"One per cent of infinity is still infinity." Sir. Roderick showed a shocked expression on his face. "I'm joking, he is nowhere near infinity yet."

"Yet?" Sir. Roderick said silently to himself.

The fact that I sealed almost all of my power does not make me defenceless. I can still use magic. The unfortunate part is that my body was built for high output so when I cast the most basic fireball spell, it will drain all the mana I currently have access to and make a giant fireball. I am currently not aware though.

As they were talking, a eunuch rushed from the door to my father and announced; "Your Imperial Majesty, His Imperial Highness, The Crown prince has come to see you."

"Let him in." The eunuch rushed back to the door to invite me in. Father dismissed Sir Roderick before I came in so I met him when I was coming in.

I knelt down in front of my father and greeted him. "Imperial Father, Powstrava Stravapo Greets you." In private, I can address my father normally but when in The Throne Room or The Court, I have to show my manners. My father waved his hand and every servant and guard in The Throne Room left. Immediately after they left, I rushed to my father on the throne and jumped onto him.

He caught me and set me on his lap before asking; "How goes your preparations for the voyage?"

"I'm done, Father."

"I can see you've dyed your hair, are you planning on hiding your identity when we get there?

"Yes."

" ooOOoo"

"I want to make some friends over there."

"Of course. Good luck son."

"Father, can you tell me a little about my cousin and The Isles?"

"Of course, son. The Isles is a country made up of nine small islands. Twenty-three years ago, my brother, Mitchell Hertra chose to leave the empire to found his own nation. He went on a voyage and found nine separate tribes of fishermen on nine small islands. With the help of the king of The Poccatti Kingdom on the continent of Adazil, he united the nine islands and turned them into the country that we now call The Isles. He chose to let his nation be independent of the Empire so he chose to change his name from Mitchell Hertra to Albert Sam. Fourteen years later, he bore a son 3 months after your birth and named him Gill Sam. Gill is a cute boy like you, just slimmer. ..." Father and I kept on talking for a while and before I left he had told me almost everything I needed to know about The Isles and my cousin. I also told him what name I will be using once we get to The Isles before we finally brought our conversation to an end.

Nine years ago, when I was but a baby, I killed certain enemies of mine when I was having my naming ceremony. They tried to destroy me because I'm supposed to bring an end to their race according to a prophecy left behind by an ancestor of theirs. Unbeknownst to me some of them were planning their revenge on me so they went to their monarch, Demon Lord Ashkan Akbar to ask for permission. His wife and secretary, Jodhaa took from his subjects a scroll and read aloud its content.

She skipped the unnecessary parts and went to the important content which read, 'The Imperial Royal Family will be embarking on a voyage tomorrow. Because the Palace of Pride is nearly impenetrable we have concluded that if we used a surprise attack while they are cruising we would have a high possibility to take our revenge. ... Your Highness, Ashkan Akbar, we the Suicide Squad would like to take revenge on your brother's behalf.'

Akbar sat for a while on his throne before responding; "I have been spying on the prince for a while now and I can say for certain that the prince has somehow lost his power so if you can pull your surprise attack out he would be defenceless. For certain reasons, I can not take part in the attack. If I do, the emperor will not hold back and we will certainly fail. How well have you prepared?"

The Suicide Squad's commander replied; "We are well prepared. The scouts will scout to find out exactly when the prince separates himself from his father and relay it to Division One. Division One will attack from the front forcing them to bring their forces to face Division One. Immediately they do so, I'll lead Division Two to ambush and kill the prince."

"What if they leave some of their soldiers behind to protect the prince?"

"Then we will rather attack the remaining forces and let the assassins deal with the prince."

"It's a solid plan as long as the Emperor chooses to not use his immense power. Fortunately, he decided to not flaunt his power unless necessary. If he does decide to look into the future, your mission will most definitely fail."

"That's why we are The Suicide Squad. We don't mind dying."