19 days after the explosion - duke's villa

The staffs inside the mansion were expecting them and like the laboratory, they were treating them like important nobles instead of the crown prince. Since the prince didn't want rumors of him leaving the palace to start spreading around, and he find it annoying the "special treatment" royals usually get, since the suck up is super extra and it's always to get something from him.Well, since they were important guest, the staff did treat them like royalty

Still, the villa was almost big enough to be a small mansion and had 20 people working there. 10 guards, 2 chefs and 4 maids and butlers. It seems the duke have this place fully staff for parties, and when he wanted to please important guest(like the prince) since it had a lake, was pretty far from any city and the view was excellent. Besides, it had a wonderful hunting place for sports, without any dangerous monsters around(in theory)

The reason it had so many guards was to create a perimeter so dangerous monsters don't get inside the hunting grounds, and for protection when the duke wanted to throw a party

The staff inside the place told him all this, but the prince wasn't really interested in hunting and they were leaving the next day, so he didn't particularly care. They also showed him around the villa, including their rooms for the day, the dinner, the recreation room and the communications room. Lina Aria and the personal maid stayed inside the recreation room and Susan used the communications room since a maid told her that her father wanted to speak with her a minute

The prince did find it interesting that the duke had a communication room, but he didn't find it weird. The item was useful but expensive and hard to manage. It was really useful since it allowed to speak in real-time within two people from far away places, but it only worked as a set, meaning that you needed 2 items, and they only worked with each other.

The kingdom had a room with a hundred of those that were connected to each fort, so they could get regular reports in the capital, and most rich nobles had a similar set up. So when he heard that the duke had one communication tool here, he wasn't surprised since he had the money, but it also mean that this place was important enough for the duke to include it in his network

The prince also asked about the basement, since it was the only place they haven't seen but the butler that was showing him around told him that they keep important stuff there so guest weren't allow to visit. The prince hoped that the duke use the basement for the nasty and naughty stuff, but he wouldn't be surprised if it was

Since he wasn't interested in find out the dukes little secrets, he went back to the recreation room and started to play some of the games they had there with the three girls

19 days after the explosion - Dinner

it wasn't until dinner that they saw Susan again. Shew as pale as a sheet, and looked really ill, so when they saw her, all of them got really worried

"are you ok Susan?"(Aria)showed a concern expression in her face, something the prince rarely saw

"why do you ask?"(Susan) grabbed a chair in the table, but the sudden question surprised her

"You look really pale, are you sick?"(Aria)

Susan took out of her pocket a small mirror she kept around(something her mother demanded she always carry) and took a look at her face. What she saw in the mirror shocked her, since she really looked sick, even if she didn't notice until it was point out

"see?"(aria) pointing with her index finger at her face

They waited a couple of second until she finish checking herself, but since she didn't tell them the reason the prince decided to ask

"So? are you ok?"(prince) tried to get a response since she was to immerse in looking at the mirror

"uh? a yes, I was just shocked at the news I got from the duke"(Susan) blurred out in response

"What did he said?"(prince) got curious, but at the same time Susan went a little paler

"Something personal, I prefer not to say it"(Susan)

"Fine, just take care of yourself"(prince) got a little annoyed but decided not to press the matter

"Come on, can't you tell us? it looks pretty important"(Aria)

"Sorry, I don't want you guys to worry"(Susan)

"We are already worried, just tell us"(Aria)

Susan hesitated a little, since it looked like she really didn't want to talk about it but in the end

"It's just that the duke informed me that my mother was sick. She should be fine now, but it was a close call"(Susan)

"oooh"(aria)said with a dejected tone

"So, are you going back? be should be fine with just Aria"(prince)

"no, my mother wouldn't like it if I leave my duty, she is really strict"(Susan)

"are you sure? I don't mind"(prince)

"It's fine, that's why I didn't want to worry you guys"(Susan)said with a dejected smile, looking even worst than before

The rest didn't believe her after seen that smile, but since it didn't look likes they could change her mind, and pressing her on would only make it worst, they didn't press on the matter

So, they kept eating their dinner while changing the subject but Susan barely eat, even refusing the desert. The others were a little worried about her, but since the desert was pudding and looked delicious, none of them refuse it and gladly enjoyed every bite

And that was the last thing they remember

20 days after the explosion - ????

When he woke up the next day, he found himself in a dark room with his hand tied. The last thing he remembers was eating the pudding and suddenly feeling really sleepy. Before falling asleep, he saw that Aria and Lina were already sleeping on the table and Susan looking at them with a pained face. He could guess for the situation that both him, Aria and lina had been caught and the maid and guard were either in a cell or dead since they weren't baluable hostages

He knew what this meant, or probably meant. For the looks of it the duke caught them for unknown reasons with the help of Susan and the working staff. If the prince had to be honest, he purposely lowered his guard so if they tried to do something, he would get caught instead of killed since he did have some value as a hostage, but he didn't expect for the duke to be so bolt to go with it

For now, he would play the poor and clueless hostage until and see what's really going on

Note: 2 chapters today since I couldn't upload yesterday, careful with the mix up

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