How would you live your life?

The night has passed while the morning dawns swept, slowly engulfing the darkness with its light. As the sunlight slowly rose on the horizon, cast a golden ray through the leaves of the trees creating a soothing sight. Up in the air, the bird began to chirp as it traversed through the morning mist. A sense of peace and tranquility enveloped the stillness of the morning. Leonard lay asleep on the ground, surrounded by the tombstones, as if he was part of them, waiting for the dawn to rise.

After almost two weeks of restless sleep. For once, he was finally able to sleep soundly through the night. The nightmare was no more at least for that night. As the sunlight reached his sleeping face, he mumbled to himself. "Five more minutes Anne!" realized by what he said, Leonard opened his eyes, he caught himself glancing at the warm golden sky with its light scattered among the clouds.

“Anne…” his voice was soft as he called her name, as if his eyes would cry at any minute. He shook his head. He rose from the ground and looked at his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was the remnants from last night’s battle as the barrier no longer visible, only left a circular mark on the ground and the creature had turned into dust; scattered around the ground. A smile was seen through his face as his face turned bright. As he looked at the bright side. He finally did it, he defeated the monster. It's been a long time since he felt happy about something. He stretched his arm in the air and took a long breath.

People say a child's first battle is always the most memorable. At least it was what Anne used to say to him while narrating a story in the book, Leonard thought. His heart ached a bit when he remembered about Anne, wondering what she was up to now. He shook his head, tried brushing it off. As for now, he tried his best to adapt to his new life.

"I wish I could tell you about this Anne," he glanced to the sky as his eyes glimmered with hope.

Footsteps trampled on the dry leaves were heard, followed by a snarky voice pierced through the stillness of the morning. It was Oskari, though he looked a bit dull and an annoyed look was seen all over his face.

“YOU finally woke up!” approached Oskari, and seemed to be irritated by him.

“O-oskari!” Leonard turned towards Oskari and waved awkwardly with a smile. “Sleep tight I assumed? eheh,” he said jokingly, trying to ease the situation.

“Why didn’t you wake me up! arrrgh…” he said out of frustration while he put his hand on his hips.

As Leonard opened his mouth, he tried to speak but he was abruptly interrupted by Oskari.

“Forget it, at least you are able to defeat the creature. Besides, now you owe me something!” Oskari took a seat on the dead trunk.

"Huh? What do I owe you?" Leonard inquired, a bit confused.

“First, you didn’t wake me up,” Oskari reached out his hand, pointing his finger at Leonard. “Second, you took the vial from me!”

Leonard's jaw dropped as he heard that. “Really Oskari?” he chuckled a bit. “Let’s say, first, you climbed to my back,” he added. “Second, I literally saved us both from the creature. That makes us even!”

Oskari sighed a bit as he tried to ease himself. “Alright we are even now.” As usual, he pulled up his book from within his robe, engrossed in his reading.

As time passed, Oskari remained engrossed in his reading, engulfed with his own world. Like any children would do when they got bored. As Leonard wandered around, he noticed some sticks scattered on the ground. Reflexively, he grabbed one, hoping to distract Oskari from his book. However, Oskari remained persistent with his reading, unwilling to be disturbed by Leonard’s doing.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, Leonard grew frustrated. “Oi Oskari! Are we going to stay all day here?” But Oskari remained silent. Felt defeated, Leonard gave up his antics as he lay on the ground.

“Count the tombstones,” uttered Oskari, breaking his silence.

“W-what?” surprised Leonard when he heard that. “Are you serious?”

“Dead serious, when you're done with it I’ll show you where I found you!”

Out of nowhere, he rose himself from the ground. Leonard started counting the tombstones. For a good couple of minutes he immersed himself with counting the tombstones.

"25... 26... 27," with every number increasing, his voice grew louder and more irritated, hoping to distract Oskari from his reading again.

“...42 …43 …44!” He shouted as he finished with the counting. He looked back to where he started and Oskari stayed still aloof with his surroundings, reading his book. "That goblin!" Leonard mouthed to himself and furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Oskari.

As he approached him, Leonard's feet stumbled into one of the tombstones, causing him to fall into the grave hole. "Atatata…" he grunted while trying to rub the dirt off his shirt.

“Looks like you found the way in!” Oskari stood on top of the grave, blocking the light.

Leonard glared up to him, while still brushing off dirt from his shirt. Looking annoyed with a frown in his face and puffed cheeks.

Oskari chuckled maniacally. “Ahahah… Now that we are even!” He pulled a rope from his robe and tied it into one of the tombstones as he descended into the grave. His small feet touched the damp dirt.

“Seriously Oskari, you're still into that," Leonard raised his hand, with all his might, he flicked his finger into Oskari's forehead.

“Eeeeek… What's that for?” He rubbed his forehead to ease the pain.

They both went silent for a moment as they faced the pitch-dark chamber. They looked into each other and nodded in agreement without any words coming out from their mouths. Oskari reached into his robe and grabbed a match.

He flicked the match, revealing a dimly lit chamber full of cobwebs. He lit the torch attached to the wall. As they navigated through the chamber, the air became more suffocating and damp. Their footsteps echoed, creating a jarring sound as they walked on.

As they went deeper, they found themselves in a large, dark room. Oskari lit the brazier in the middle of the hall. As the fire touched the brazier, it slowly revealed a grand hall lavished with exquisite ornaments on its four sided walls. The stone carved sarcophagi were covered by lavish tapestries, adorned with intricate detail with each tapestry illustrated with the dead’s family crest. Many great kings and queens, and also quite often their family members from all over the continent were buried in the Sanctuary. For such, it was quite an honor to be buried under the hallowed ground of the Sanctuary.

"The Royal Crypt" Leonard murmured.

"You know it?" Oskari asked.

"I've been here before," he gulped as his face turned blank, void of any expression, as if something had struck him. He wandered a bit, checking the sarcophagi one by one as he reminisced about his old memories, memories that he had tried to bury forever. With only a faint recollection, he was forced to remember as he walked.

One of the sarcophagi caught his eye. Besides the larger one, two smaller sarcophagi were laid between the larger one, all embellished with purple tapestries featuring a swan crest, his own family crest. Leonard placed his hand on the top of one of the sarcophagi. For good minutes, he bowed his head and closed his eyes as he paid respect to whoever was buried there. Oskari watched him silently from behind, allowing him to take his time.

Leonard turned his body and sighed a heavy breath; a subtle change was seen on his face. He glanced and smiled at Oskari, but his expression was short-lived and immediately subdued. However, he quickly regained control of his emotions, pulled his mouth into a forced smile, and chuckled a bit.

"Come on Oskari, why do you look so grim?" said Leonard as he put his hand on Oskari's shoulder. Oskari deeply looked at him, he knew that Leonard was bad at hiding his feelings. But he tagged along with him and continued their walk.

They walked deeper into the crypt, Leonard's heart thudded faster as he got closer to finding the truth.

"Hey Oskari, do you truly believe I'm the prince?"

"Ehhhh... I want to believe you but at the same time I don't have much evidence."

"Is this the reason why you agreed to take me here too?"

"Well, I'm kind of intrigued too." he added, "At the first time I found you I thought you were some kind of a grave robber.”

Leonard squinted his eyes as he looked at him.

“Hey don’t look at me like that, it's only natural if I thought you were a grave robber, who else is going to wander around in the creepy crypt anyway, other than a grave robber,” he continued. “Besides, when I first found you were soaked in blood. So, I brought you to my dorm.”

Oskari lit another brazier, revealing another hall, though it was a little bit smaller but it's a well-maintained room. In front of them stood an altar. Although he hated being a monk, as a monk, he always felt obliged to pray at the altar every time he encountered one. He grabbed an incense from the container on the table and burned it on the golden censer. Then, he hung the censer on the hanger atop the altar and began to pray. As he prayed, he rang the bell on top of the altar thrice, filling the hall with a tranquil sound.

The smell of the fragrance swirled up in the air, it somewhat gave him a soothing feeling when Leonard breathed it in.

“No one comes down here often; the last person down here was probably me when I found you,” said Oskari while cleaning the altar from dust. “Come now," he said as soon as he finished with the cleaning.

"I thought you hated being a monk, but you always prayed upon the altar," asked Leonard.

"I always prayed to Gods to end my misery as a monk," exclaimed Oskari. "That's the only prayer that I had."

They walked to the east side of the room, and he lit another brazier, revealing another room. “The Hall of the Kings,” remarked Oskari.

“This is where I found you," Oskari pointed his hand to one specific location on the marble floor, which still had traces of blood lying around. Not far from it, a wooden coffin lay on a raised ground. On top of the coffin, the same tapestry was placed, the purple tapestry with the swan crest.

Oskari walked into the raised platform.

"I should've done this from the start!" he laid his hand upon the coffin and tried to open it. To his utter surprise, Oskari fell down from the raised ground. Shocked face was seen throughout his face.

"Y-you are truly the P-prince!" he pointed his hand to Leonard. "The coffin is empty!" his voice trembled in disbelief.

But Leonard didn’t seem to care about it, his eyes were locked on into the surrounding object of the coffin. His world suddenly became dark. It was only him and the coffin that matters.

The coffin was surrounded by dried red spider lilies and memorabilia. As Leonard approached it, he could see a portrait of himself placed on a small table beside it. His heart raced, and cold sweat came out from his body, but he tried to remain steadfast. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes.

He took a closer look at the coffin and noticed a shiny object reflecting the light from the brazier. Upon closer inspection, he recognized the object. It was a rounded badge with a swan crest carved into it. It was the badge that Anne gave to him during the Rite. As he picked it up, his hand started to tremble. His heart pounded fast and his breath became short as if he were suffocated.

“No, stay focused, Leonard.” he thought, trying to control himself. He clutched the badge close to his heart. He felt the cold metal of the badge into his warm body. His eyes started to well up but he tried to rub it off. “No, no, no I don’t want to cry again..” he murmured as he tried to hold himself together.

A piece of paper fell out from behind the badge. It was not something he expected. With all his might, he opened it.

As he opened the letter, a flower fell from it; a vibrant blue five petaled flower with a yellow center. Forget-me-not.

He grabbed the flower and trying to read what was written on the paper:

“Hey Prince.

I know we just barely know each other, but you are at least the only person who would be willing to hear my mumbling about things. I’m glad I took that chance with you. You know what? guess it. I got the Divine Tribunal as my Blessing. I guess the Gods hear my prayer wahahah but it's not as exciting without you here but I wonder what you would get. I hope it is the same as mine so we could practice together sometimes but I don't think it's possible now.

Also!

Anne told me a lot about you, especially about your dreams, surprise surprise, you seem to dream about the night sky a lot. I love the night sky too, you know. She said that you want to venture out to the outside world only to see the night stars around the continent. I would imagine that you will be the first prince that's traveled around the world. That would be big news around the continent. I wonder if that's how would you live your life Leonard?

So! I’ve decided and told my parents that I would travel around the world in your stead. I'll become an adventurer! They were angry at first, but they now understand my reason and I’ll write a book about it just like the book Anne told about ‘Traveling around the Occidant continent in something something years' I forgot. Sorry I haven't read it though, maybe one day I promise!

I wish I could say one last goodbye when you were here. We could’ve been best friends, you know? I'm sorry that the first time we met that I’ve been kinda arrogant with you, I'm sorry that I pushed you so hard, I'm sorry that I never was a good friend to you.

I'm sorry that because of my actions, I made Anne sad. If only I followed what you said, you might still be here and we could be good friends.

I’m sorry… I'm really sorry

Goodbye, Prince.”