Dance With Darkness And Light - Chapter 17 Wine Improves With Age. The Older I Get The Better I Like I

Bazuul and Karim sneaked out of the castle so as to avoid the king from sending a troop for protection. Both of them seemingly did not notice that they had been watched the moment they left Bazuul’s chamber.

Aurelius, stood around a corner watching both of them leave with a cold glint in his eyes. He had hoped that his father’s attempts at saving this little brother of his would fail. That was also the reason why he never even attempted to help his father, mother, and eldest brother. Causing his father, the king, to be highly discontented with both Aurelius and Karon.

Aurelius was fuming because of this. “Has my father become demented?” He thought.

Eventually, in the coming fight for the throne, most princes would die anyway. In his mind, he was only trying to weaken the first prince’s position by killing an insignificant silkpants prince. One that had tainted many maidens already, and constantly disgraced the name of the royal family. In his mind there was nothing wrong with that. He was only working toward his future while throwing out the trash.

One month ago, with the help of a minister, they forced – a now missing maid to poison the food of his youngest brother. As expected, Bazuul Ylvazad, fourth prince of Ralun, died. Only to return from the dead two days later. Not only that, at the dinner their eldest brother held after his return, he basically spat in his face only to slap it a moment later. Then he killed Chief Thousand Flowers and even uprooted all of his businesses. These businesses, unbeknownst to Bazuul, belonged to the minister that helped him, Minister Kern. Minister of Finance for the western city. Thus he of course also damaged the economic wealth of the western city. Aurelius’s wealth.

Exasperated, Aurelius had a hard time feeling comfortable these days. But to his delight, he heard his father’s call to assist him in “rescuing” his youngest brother. With no intention of heeding his royal father’s call, he merely sent a guard to get pieces of information on the situation.

Yet, much to his dismay, his youngest brother came out alive once more. “Was he really human or was he a cockroach? Why wouldn’t he just die and leave him in peace?” he thought to himself.

The fact that he was now going out and meeting with the other silkpants of the kingdom was the perfect opportunity to finally kill him once and for all. This time he would not stop before he had his head. Immediately he informed his servant to arrange assassins in and outside the tavern.

~~~

Bazuul and Karim paced through the streets of the central city with their horses in the true fashion of domineering young masters. Yet, it still took them thirty minutes to arrive at the Tavern of Unending Springs. The guards at the entrance made way the moment they recognized that a VIP customer had finally returned to receive their service, prince Bazuul.

“These subjects greet your Highness!” both greeted in unison, ignoring Karim. He didn’t really care, he was used to it by now and it was also to be expected that a member of the royal family outshone the second young master of a merchant family and financial magnate.

“Catch!” Bazuul said with a smile on his face as he winked with one eye and flicked two gold coins toward them. As one gold coin landed in their hands, their eyes were filled with gratitude. Truly the bearing of a prince, a silver coin alone was already enough to feed their families for two to three days. One gold coin could easily do the same, but for a month.

“His Highness is magnanimous! These subjects thank your Highness!” they said as they bowed.

Bazuul and Karim entered and went straight for the gardens their brothers reserved for the feast. The tavern was bustling with rich people and beautiful women entertaining them as the half-naked dancers were performing on the stage. They quickly passed all of this and left the building entering the garden.

Dim red lights hung everywhere, helping the moon enlighten the scene. The garden was full of many types of flowers, Bazuul and Karim followed the path alongside a little creek toward a table near a small man-made waterfall. There sat three individuals that were accompanied by six stunning women, but two seats were still empty.

They barely reached the table when one of the silkpants seated spotted them.

“Aaah look at that. Karim has brought his Highness with him!”

The others and the women also turned toward the two and greeted them.

“Welcome your Highness, greetings second young master Rashad!”

Bazuul laughed and spread both his arms in confidence and said: “Hey, hey, hey brothers, no need to stand on ceremony haha!”

They proceeded to eat large amounts of dishes, drink good wine, converse about the women they’ve recently conquered and laughed throughout the night when Bazuul suddenly asked.

“By the way Eren, how is your uncle? It has been a while since I played some tricks on him hic”

Krum, Shu Huang, and Karim almost choked on their wine while Eren’s face froze for a second. Bazuul was obviously talking about Hanzu that accompanied him with Kadi on his first trip to the eastern city after transmigrating into this world. Hanzu, Hanzu Stark to be exact, was the third in command of the Moon Guard. One of two elite troops in the kingdom, and as the third in command he was also one of the strongest existences in the kingdom.

All of them thought the same, “Playing tricks on him? On the third in command of the Moon Guard?” Truly, only a prince could be so daring as to play tricks on such a highly respected individual. Even Eren, as his nephew, would receive a heavy beating if he dared not listen to his advice. Much less if he dared play tricks on him.

“He…he is fine I guess…hic, you should know that he is a martial maniac. Always…hic…training without end. Even my father, the head of our house, rarely gets…hic…to see him nowadays.” Eren responded but couldn’t really control his speech as he was already too drunk to do so.

“By the way brother, this year you will take part in the hidden dragon trials, and possibly in the royal tournament. Are you excited to finally meet your fiance? I heard the second princess from the Kingdom of Ibera, though young, is already a country toppling beauty.” Shu Huang asked seemingly out of nowhere, and in contrast to Eren, without any hiccups. As if he wasn’t drunk at all.

Bazuul was stunned for a second not knowing how to answer. “My fiance?” he thought. Sorting through the memories of the old Bazuul he realized that was really the case, he truly already had a fiance. Apparently, his father had good relations with the late King of Ibera, as such, they agreed on it when both children of them were still growing in the bellies of their mothers.

“Ha ha…ha, you must be joking brother, how would I care about one maiden when I can have them all,” Bazuul answered with an awkward smile on his face. Luckily it was dark enough and the intoxicated silkpants around him were not able to notice this bit.

One of the female entertainers though, chuckled a bit as if she understood. She had been keeping an eye on him the whole time since he entered with Karim.

After a couple more rounds of wine, all of them took off and so did Bazuul. Outside, he was not able to find his horse. He licked his lips in anticipation. It was clear that someone was trying to get to him, as no one would dare to even touch the horse of someone from the royal court. As he swayed through the street in the middle of the night, acting as if he was heavily drunk, he could feel a couple of figures following him behind in the shadows. Chuckling in a drunken fashion, he thought, “You wanna play with me? In the dark? Hahaha, hilarious!”

He entered a dark alley and completely melded in with the shadows, literally becoming one with them. The followers silently dashed after him only to find the dark alley empty before an ominous chuckle echoed through it.