Luck’s descent (BL)

Shane wasn't surprised that the castle had separate tailoring rooms, but he was surprised by every quality type of fabric they offered. Shane got measured and after saying that the color didn't matter and staying in the tailoring room with just the guard, he tried to find out at least the basics. Especially cause the guard didn't look like he belonged to Nielle.

"Can I ask something?" He said politely, as he would appreciate the man's cooperation.

"I can't help you with transferring to someone else, sorry," the guy said calmly.

"No need, I just wanted to know how it is possible that Prince Nielle talks to Iuwin in a different way than to other Lacrisans. It seems to me that there is some enmity between them, but at the same time he speaks to him more politely than to others," He clarified.

The man laughed softly: "Of course, Prince Louis wouldn't allow him to speak disrespectfully to him, and although Prince Nielle won't confess to anyone, he doesn't want to repeat his mistake and its consequences."

,,Consequences? Did something special happen between them?" Shane wondered.

The man sighed, "I'll tell you because it's not a secret, but don't tell Prince Nielle anyway," he said, "when Nielle was fifteen he caught Iuwin. Prince Louis always relied on him and didn't let anyone, especially his brother even touch him. However, Prince Nielle isn´t one to listen anyone, so he caught him once and took his luck by force. It wouldn't be the first or the last such thing he did and usually no one dealt with it. But with Iuwin, the situation was different."

"Has Prince Louise complained to the king?" Shane wondered.

"Of course not," the guy shook his head, "Iuwin himself went to complain. Prince Louis didn't complain, he punched Nielle directly."

"Lacrisan went to complain," Shane was surprised.

"Prince Nielle was also surprised, the king had him punished quite harshly, Prince Louis didn't speak to him for half a year, and Iuwin ensured his own safety," He said.

"The whole situation doesn't make sense to me. How could the king punished the prince because of the servant?" Shane clarified.

The guard laughed softly: "You've only been here for a while, so you probably don't know, but Prince Nielle is not in the king's favor, everyone knows that the king will find any opportunity to tame him. However, Prince Nielle doesn't seem like the king's methods are working on him. He doesn't spend much time in the palace though…I guess because of the king's displeasure with his behavior." He said.

"Hm," Shane mused, "so the king doesn't like Prince Nielle."

"No one will tell you this out loud, but everyone knows it," He clarified.

"I didn't know you had similar problems in Rinsel in the royal family," He said.

"I wouldn't call them problems, it's Prince Nielle's problem...if he didn't have his people, he'd be-" he continued as the tailor slapped him roughly on the back.

"When you value your life, keep your mouth shut and don't slander the royal family, it's not your first day here, do you want to end up on the prince's list? And what if the king doesn't favor him, he holds similar power to Prince Louis...if he visits you at home with his men, will you still be talking smart?" He reminded him of how dangerous backbiting was in the palace.

Shane looked at the man, "My fault...I don't know what's going on in the palace, I wanted to at least find out the basics," He clarified.

"If you don't want to get in trouble, do your duty and hope you stop entertaining the prince," He clarified, handing him clothes that should fit Shane.

Shane looked at the black-white and black-yellow robes he had obtained and thanked him. He changed his clothes and went with the guard to the place where they were to meet the prince. As they walked through the castle, Shane tried:

"There's one more thing I'm not clear on," he began, "only Prince Louis can meet women privately, right?"

"That's right, like in Lacris, only the crown prince has a fiancee...in case something happens to Prince Louis, she goes to Prince Brelle," He clarified.

"Ah," Shane mused, "So I should keep quiet about things like that if I don't want to cause conflict." He nodded to himself.

However, the guard was interested: "What kind of things?"

"None, you just said that we shouldn't slander the royal family, let's not have problems. I just came, I don't want to annoy Prince Nielle right away." he lied.

"I didn't say anything like that, some are unnecessarily frightened, I love gossips, I won't tell anyone anything," he promised.

"If you mean it, I'd just like to consult," He began.

"Available," The guard laughed and stopped, looked around, and leaned over to Shane.

"On the way to the palace, Prince Nielle stopped at a village, I asked the guards in black why he was staying so long and I heard something about a woman...I wanted to ask Prince Nielle directly, but I don't know if he'll leave me alone if he finds out that I know about it, if it were true." He lied.

The guy looked at him in shock: "Woman? Prince Nielle?" He didn't believe, "Holy shit...he wouldn´t dare."

"I'm not saying it's true, I just heard it," Shane shrugged his shoulders, "Don't tell anyone, I don't know whether to ask the prince or not." He clarified.

"Don't ask anything." He knew it wasn't the best idea.

"You're right, I don't know anything," He nodded and continued down the corridors with the guard.

They left without a word, as if the guy was thinking about the things Shane had said and couldn't figure out whether or not to verify them. However, it didn't matter to Shane, it was enough that he mentioned a suspicion to someone. And his revenge against Nielle could begin. After all, it was the prince's fault that he didn´t accept his proposal for a pleasant cohabitation.

***

When they arrived at the part of town where the night's murder had taken place, Nielle's first glimpse was of an interested crowd. Fortunately, his mere presence was enough to gain privacy. A pair of members of his Black guard stood by the bodies, covered with sheets, waiting for his arrival. As soon as they spotted him, they bowed politely and began to explain the situation to Nielle.

"According to the information, these are the employees of the gambling hall, the owner found them during the opening, the last time he saw them was yesterday after the last game, they went for a break just after dark and he hasn´t see them since."

"What about witnesses?" Nielle asked .

"None."

"The cause?" He wondered.

"The killer beheaded them, it looks like they didn't defend themselves much, but their weapons were drawn, maybe there was some effort, but we don't know," They clarified.

Nielle looked at the white sheets with bloodstains and slowly bent down to them, "Clean" He examined the neck of one of the guys, severed in one swing.

"The other one looks identical," one of Nielle's guards said.

The prince just looked at the gash for a moment and wondered what he didn't like about it. It looked really clean, as if it had been made with a freshly sharpened sword, but there was something about it that was different from what he normally saw. But before the guards could ask him if he had come up with anything, Nielle asked for a handkerchief and ran its white surface over the bloody wound.

The entire edge of the wound looked black, not so different from the dried blood, but enough for anyone to notice after a while. Nielle looked at the handkerchief, where nothing black remained, and after a moment he sighed deeply.

"Did you find their compasses?" He wondered.

"Yes, sir," The guard nodded and handed Nielle pocket compasses, telling the state of luck of the victims.

"It doesn't look like they were short." Nielle looked at the orange colored stones in the compasses and assessed that although they didn't have the most of luck, they clearly hadn't reached the stage where their body would be overflowing with pitch.

"Did they have any black stones?" He wondered.

"Only clean one," The guard said.

Nielle looked at a few clean stones that the men hadn't had time to use, just to confirm that they weren't so unlucky as to turn their skin black. There were a number of things that could happen when the Rinselan's luck ran out. Either the individual ended up under the nearest tree, randomly flying axes, tripped and smashed his head on a rock, slipped into the water, or some other kind of inconvenience was found for him, which usually ended up like these two guys on the ground.

However, when a person managed to avoid all things, a different situation arose. After a while, black spots began to appear on their skin. They used to be painful and no one really knew what they were, but they meant that a person didn't have a shred of luck left, that the only thing left was bad luck.

Of course, to prevent anything like this from happening, people carried clean stones with them, which could absorb bad luck during periods of lack of luck and thus keep the individual alive until he replenished it.

"If they had enough luck, why are there black spots on them?" Nielle asked, intrigued by something that didn't make sense, and he gently ran the handkerchief over the black wound from the weapon again.

"It looks like someone drained luck from them…or a weapon…can a weapon drain luck?" Nielle laughed to himself, the curiosity suddenly filled him.

He just watched the two men in front of him with interest before he stood up and looked behind him, "Iuwin," he smiled, "since you've come all the way here and are spying for Louis, come closer so you can tell him the details." He laughed.

Iuwin sighed and walked closer, "You must be clear that Prince Louise isn´t the one who ordered your control. He has enough of his responsibilities and I would be more comfortable with him than in the city with you," He explained.

"Of course, but seeing how excited you are, it's more fun to put you to work," he said, "so take the bodies with my new Lacrisan to Elyan, have him inspect them and report back to me." He clarified.

Iuwin sighed deeply, "Since I'm supposed to watch over you, it's not logical to go somewhere else and leave you here alone, don't you think?"

"I don't know you're spying on me," Nielle pointed out, "Louis gave you to me as help, I could use your help... so take them and don't let me see you until the evening." He waved and went elsewhere with his two guards.

Iuwin looked at him unsurprised, as if he knew something like this would happen. He looked at Shane, who didn't feel like spending time with Nielle, so he was fine with the situation.

"Can you take one of them?" Iuwin asked.

Shane nodded, "They're usually carried on carriages in Lacris," he explained, slung one of the guys over his shoulder. The man wasn't the lightest, so he had a bit of trouble carrying him. His injuries that he picked up yesterday didn't help and Shane stopped for a moment, as he felt like he was going to topple over. Iuwine held the guy up for him at the last moment and when Shane nodded he took his and stepped forward.

"I know, when I came here, I thought they only had backward rules...over time I got used to the fact that they have everything the same as we do, they just don't make it easy for us. If we weren't here, these guys will be brought to the prince's doctor by soldiers on a chariot." he said.

Shane didn't even find it surprising. He just walked for a while before asking, "Is Prince Louis better than Prince Nielle?"

"It depends in what," Iuwin clarified.

"In dealing with people," Shane set an example.

"Definitely...better with people, better at dueling, better at responsibility and general duties...when you think of a prototype for a king, you see Prince Louis," Iuwine said.

"So he's better at everything," Shane reasoned.

"I don't think so, each of the princes has something different," he said, "Louis will be king, of course he has the most aptitude for the best things...but without Prince Nielle, he wouldn't be seen in such a good light as he has been all his life. A good individual is commonly valued only when people have someone to compare him to." He clarified.

"So Prince Nielle has no good qualities," He mused.

"Not really, he behaves inappropriately towards the Lacrisans, but overall he's really capable... the king just doesn't know how to appreciate him, which is partly the prince's fault, but if the king behaved less one-sidedly, maybe Nielle wouldn't behave the way he does." He clarified.

Shane looked at Iuwin through the guy on his back, "You've been living with them for a really long time, haven't you?"

"Yes, almost my whole life, so believe me when I tell you, don't cause any trouble," Iuwin said.

"Me?" Shane wasn't surprised.

"I know you've just come from Lacrisand the new country seems disgusting to you, but after longer state here you'll understand that all countries are the same, and no matter how much you think that Lacris deserves more, it doesn't," he clarified, ,,in the end it will be better for both Lacris and Rinsel if you do nothing at all, so don't make trouble for whatever reason you're here," he added, "I came here today especially to tell you."

"In the name of Prince Louis?" Shane didn't understand.

"On behalf of everyone you see."