I held the journal with shaky hands while Minh paced around the room.
I dropped the journal on the table and stared at Minh, "Hey, so on a scale of one to ten, how screwed are we?" I asked.
Minh stopped in his tracks and locked eyes with me with a panicked expression and shaky hands. "There is no word on earth to describe how screwed we are," he answered, continuing to pace around the room.
I looked down at the journal again, I had so many questions.
What was the Golem?
Who is the person who wrote this?
And, more importantly, where are they now?
Does this mean we're gonna die? No, no, come on, stay positive. Maybe, they were talking about some different heroes. Yeah, probably. I look at Minh again; it's been a while since I've seen him this panicked; I would be making fun of him right now, but... never mind don't worry about it, not now.
I go over to Minh, placing my hand on his shoulder, "Minh let's calm down for a sec, maybe they're talking about some other heroes."
"I'm sorry? Last time I checked, the Golem was supposed to end the war, yet it's still going on!"
"Well, maybe it failed."
"Awfully positive aren't we?"
"Uh, um, maybe we could ask Althea and Eugene about it? They might be able to help." I suggested.
Minh slapped my hand away from him, I could tell he was mad at me.
"Help?! As far as I'm concerned, they are the enemy!"
"They're ur friends, not our enemies!"
"They're YOUR friends, not mine!" He argued, stepping back from me, "Althea is royalty, Eugene is her knight; if anything, they're probably going to be the first ones to throw us under the bus!"
"That's not true! Althea and Eugene are good people, they wouldn't try to hurt us."
"And how would you know that, ma'am?! We've only known these people for what, half a month?! How stupid do you have to be to trust practical strangers?!"
"They aren't strangers!"
"That's what YOU think! Maybe, it's just me, but I'm not gonna hinge my life on people I barely know and I'm not letting you do that either." he reasoned.
Damn it, I hate to say it, but he's making a point.
Every single time I try to make a point, he shuts me down, and we just go along with his plans. Why can't the world just let me win for once?! I groan.
I can't really argue with him, "Fine, what's the plan?"
Minh smiled, walking to the bookshelf with his scheming face. He took a few books and gave them to me, "First, information is key. We already know where our exit will be, so we'll need to figure out how to get there, undetected, and obviously work out logistics as well," he rambled on, walking in circles like some rabbit that's been still for too long; a habit I've seen too often.
I just sat on the table, books in hand, watching him think. This wouldn't be the first time I saw him like this. I've practically gotten used to it by now.
As he continued mumbling his schemes and plots, he turned to me for a second, "Do you know where Althea or Eugene are right now?" he asked.
I shook my head, "No, but I could ask around."
"Good, ask around and we'll go from there."
"'Kay," I say, getting off the table and walking out of the room. I looked back, seeing Minh still walking around the room, "You coming?"
"Not now, I'm conducting research."
Oh I get it, I'm doing the grunt work. Yay me!
I rolled my eyes and exited the basement. I walked around the castle, going up to every servant, butler, maid, and guard, asking where Althea was.
Why Althea? Because I just like talking to her more, plus I feel weird talking to Eugene. I was told that Althea was in the study, so I headed there.
After a minute or two and getting lost multiple times, I finally arrived at a big door, similar to that of the library. I was about to open the door before I stopped myself. I should knock first.
I knocked on the door, and then a voice came from inside, "You may enter". I pushed open the doors to see Althea sitting at a fancy chair and an even fancier desk.
I came in, looking around the room. The study was a small circular room with a reading corner near a bay window, a wall of numbered drawers across from it, and a dark wooden desk and chair with a big map above it across from the door. Everything was so shiny and clean, plus it smelled like flowers, too.
Althea looked up from her papers and gave me a smile, "Aliya, good to see you," she said, setting her papers aside and getting up from her desk.
"Hi, Althea, so uh, I came here to ask you something."
"Alright, what do you want to ask me?"
"Well, I was wondering..." I paused and waited a minute.
Minh didn't even tell me why I needed to find Althea in the first place! Shit what should I say?! Maybe I could say that I just wanted to see her? No, that's stupid; Althea is a princess, literally royalty. A pathetic excuse like that will make her think I'm annoying! No, I have to come up with a better reason than that. Come on brain, if an idiot like you can figure out algebra, then you can definitely make up a convincing excuse.
"Aliya?"
"Y-yes?!" I stuttered, realizing that Althea was now standing a few inches away from me.
"Are you okay?" she asked, looking concerned.
"I'm fine, just... thinking," What the fuck was that?! That was the worst response to a question if I ever did see one. I'm sorry Mẹ, you've raised a dumbass.
"Are you sure? It feels like you're hiding something."
"Hiding something? What's there to hide about? Nope, no hiding here," I quickly clarified. I know for a damn fact I look so suspicious right now, god I'm shit at lying.
"Are you sure you're not hiding anything from me?"
"Yup."
"Uh huh," Althea nodded, walking past me and closing the door.
She turned around, and came back to me, holding my hands in hers, "Aliya, I know you're hiding something from me. I don't know what it is, but I swear on my honor as the princess of Annferd, that you can trust me," she assured, "so please, tell me what's wrong."
I stayed silent for a moment, squeezing Althea's hands and looking down.
"That obvious?"
"Yes, very," she confirmed.
"Yeah, that checks out."
Should I tell her?
But what if she does betray me, and I end up dead with my corpse being used to power a giant machine? I looked up, locked eyes with her, and then quickly looked away. She must be so worried about me... maybe I should tell her, but what about Minh?
Wait a minute, when the fuck have I started to care about what Minh says? Most of the time he's an annoying paranoid bitch who bosses me around when he wants to do something with his life. Plus I doubt Althea would try to kill us. She's too nice for that.
I looked into Althea's eyes, took a deep breath, and spilled everything.
Althea's eyes widened in shock, "Pardon me, but, WHAT?!"
Understandable reaction.
"We were exploring the castle, and we found a journal about some type of machine that was supposed to end the war, but they didn't have enough power to make it work. The journal said that your dad was going to use us to power it," I explained, fiddling with my hands.
"Are you certain this is true?" Althea asked. I nodded, and she looked very upset, it makes sense. I mean I just told her that her dad was going to kill us. I wouldn't believe me either.
"I see; that sounds like something my father would do."
Wait wha?
"You actually believe me?"
"Yes, I know my father more than most. Unfortunately, this is something he would do," she explained. "To think he would go so far as to use Asteria's messengers for his own means," she mumbled, brows furrowed.
Guess she's got daddy issues.
I barely remember what my dad was like before he kicked the bucket. Well, at least I know he wasn't a bad person.
Althea groaned, shaking her head before turning to me, "Aliya, take me to where you found that journal."
"Sure, follow me," I agreed, taking her hand and leaving the study.
We went through the palace, got lost a few times due to my shitty sense of direction, but we made it back nonetheless. I led her to the room me and Minh found in the basement.
I opened the door to see that Minh had practically made the room his own. The potions were untouched, the plants were on the shelves with the books, which were organized by color, and the stray papers were neatly put into piles on the table in the middle of the room. The room was much cleaner than when I last saw it, even the stains on the wall were hardly visible. I entered the room with Althea, noticing that Minh was looking over some papers. I even saw a makeshift spreadsheet on the table.
This room looked more like some type of lab facility than the messy hovel that I saw, I think a few hours ago.
Holy shit, my clean freak of a brother has struck again.
"Could you not go one day without cleaning the life and soul out of something?"
"And could you not go one day without being the most unproductive person on the planet?" He shot back
"Touche," I shrugged
I watched Althea scanning the room; looks like she didn't know that this room was here. I knew she wasn't suspicious, take that, Idiot!
Minh looked up from his papers and stared at Althea, "Why is she here?"
"Because I brought her here."
"Don't be smart with me. Why is she here?" He asked again, more angry this time.
I rolled my eyes, I knew this would happen but it's still annoying, "I brought her here because I told her everything."
"YOU WHAT!?" he shouted
"I crack under pressure, you know this!" I shouted back
"Yeah, but I didn't think you'd be this weak!"
"Well, you thought wrong!"
"Ahem," Althea cleared her throat, "Aliya has explained the situation, I want to help."
Minh rolled his eyes, "Really now, and how on god's green earth are we supposed to trust you?"
"Minh, she's trying to help, just take it, damn it!" I argued.
I'm so sick of this, Minh's just being a paranoid bitch; Althea's done nothing wrong. She's trying to help, but for some reason, you can't trust her, and you're being an asshole about it! I was just this close to punching him when Althea stopped me.
She turned to Minh, switching to princess mode, "Angelo, I'm aware that your trust in me is strained, but I swear on my life, that I will not betray you."
Minh glared at Althea, his gaze going back and forth from Althea and me.
"Tch, fine."
"FUCK YEAH!" Once I said that, everyone turned to me, and I shut my mouth, I'm never talking again.
Althea smiled, "I'm glad you could put your trust in me."
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered before glaring at her again, "But I swear to my nonexistent god that if you backstab us, I will find you and kill you, understood?"
Althea's smile quickly faded as she silently nodded. Wow, way to be a douchebag Minh, great negotiating skills. Althea sighed, "I'll inform Eugene about this later. For now, I believe we should start planning."
"Agreed," Minh said, then explained what he had planned so far.
Side Story Dated - 10yrs
First Day
I sat in the corner of the classroom with Minh sitting next to me, all of our other classmates talking amongst themselves. Although I didn't know what they were saying, but they seemed to be having fun. I felt Minh grab my hand and squeeze it tightly.
I turned to him, "Anh muốn về nhà," he said, his eyes watering a little. I moved closer to him, wiping his tears before anyone saw them, and comforted him, "Chúng ta sẽ về nhà sớm thôi, hãy đợi nhé."
He smiled, resting his head on my shoulder.
After class was over, Mẹ picked us up, and we went home and ate hot pot for dinner. We had a little trouble with the homework since it was in English, but we did our best. Although the next day Minh didn't want to go back to school. I had to drag him out of the house to the bus, everyone was looking at us. It was really embarrassing. I never want to do this again.