Felix's POV:
"Mr. Felix Chase, I thought I'll welcome you as a fellow doctor, not as a burnt patient and that on your very first day in the university."
Steve aka Dr. Steven Kaiser, the head of the medical department remarked with a deep frown while wrapping my right hand with a smooth, soft and thin silk bandage.
"Steve, I swear Nick didn't do it intentionally, he just didn't watch out Jeremy's leg and tripped over it."
I hurriedly explained, desperately eyeing the mentioned male for help and he did.
"Steve, it's true that he didn't watch out but at the same time it was my fault too I shouldn't have stretched out my legs...."
"What?! Jeremy, no! That....."
Seeing Jeremy taking all the blame over himself, I immediately tried to interfere, however I was interrupted too by the same known voice which still makes me feel troubled.
"Felix!"
Matthew was still panting when he grabbed me gently, taking me into an one-sided hug, carefully avoiding my overall right side. Eyeing my right hand, he asked with the same deep frown Steve had "it doesn't hurt too much, right?"
With a soft smile, I shook my head as my eyes darted to the other two newcomers, Connor and Julian with a tray; and that really made Steve's personal chamber a little bit cramped.
It was the doctor who broke the intense stare of my brother "all of you guys, please sit down and Hanson, is that Felix's dinner?"
As Julian nodded in affirmation, he continued "then will you please help him to eat? He can't use his hand, and I just dressed the wound."
Enthusiastically, Jules nodded and started feeding me, Connor and Matthew was secretly glancing over the other two older males, who were hovering over the table where Steve was writing down my prescription and by the grimace he was giving away, I knew it wasn't anything good.
A few minutes later when I was done eating and Julian helped me cleaning up, Steve came to me with the prescription and keeping his professional look on, he started "Felix, it's a burn injury so you know that you can't keep it bandaged always, still for hygiene issues, use soft, thin materials and don't ever try to extract force from that hand or it'll start bleeding again, and the bristles will automatically dissolve so don't mind them, however once they're gone, your hand will be extremely itchy as it'll start it's healing process so you'll have to bear with it. I've given a cooling gel ointment, it'll quicken the healing. Stop bandaging it once the itching is gone."
Heaving a long sigh, he paused and suddenly all of our eyes were more focused on him.
Looking at me with a worried expression, he continued "however, it'll still take almost one month and while healing, you're prohibited to use your right hand. So as per my class rules I can't allow you attending any patients here."
My eyes widened in shock, so much for my hardworks! I was already late for almost two weeks and now this stupid injury! How much points will it be deducting already?!
Knowing my dilemma, the doctor assuredly continued yet again "but, you can attend the theory classes if you still have the habit to write and sketch with your left hand and of course you can attend the practical classes too but only to watch, and I think that'll be the best solution for now."
As I nodded my head vigorously in appreciation, Matthew interfered yet again "if he can't use his right hand, then he'll be needing help in everything. How is he going to manage that?"
"About that..."
As I wanted to answer my older brother, someone's footsteps were heard in the corridor and after few strides Henry barged in, carrying all my luggages, for the second time in that night.
"Henry? Where did you get my luggages? I sent Simon over to fetch those..."
"And I met him just outside of your dorm, struggling with these. Seriously Felix? You think I'll take any risk right now to disclose your probable location."
He looked annoyed, definitely not happy with my decision. Can't blame him though, being the leader of The Knights is already tiresome and here I'm adding more trouble.
Knowing my thoughts too well, he didn't say anything about it again, instead turning to the other Lawrence members, he sternly stated "crown prince Matthew, we'll shift him to the safe-house for the meantime. Don't worry, his tracks will be strictly confidential. We'll let you know if something happens."
Matthew knew it was his cue to leave, he knew more or less about our mission for the past one year, and that's how he got records of my and the elder members' actions, that eventually saved Simon's and my life in the Gyanlo incident. However the location of the safe-house was a confidential information between the elder members and me and he never pried into those as his top priority always had been my safety and I'm actually glad to know that.
As the three left for their dorms, I also made my way through the small bushes trails, accompanied by Tristan who was carrying all of my luggages with ease.
Clearing his throat, he broke the silence "did you really think about telling Simon about it?"
Though he didn't look at me, I knew he was seriously asking this, "Tristan, it's not like I felt safe telling him, but for his safety, I need to keep it to myself."
"Good, that you know. You've already risked your life once to save him and I can't ask for more. Still I'm happy that you actually considered it." Slightly turning to me, he gave me a genuine relieved smile.
We were walking side by side as the bushes trails faded away, opening a clearly visible grassy footpath, surrounded by all types of thick long trees, a perfect camouflage.
Forwarding through the slightly steep rising of the hill, when I finally caught a glimpse of the small cottage, our safe-house, I decided to let him know my worry "Tristan, if I let Simon know the whole truth, there's a chance that he'll tell it to Nick since he is his closest friend, and that's the last thing we want!"
Nodding, he kept the trunk on the ground to open the main gate, opening to a small, clean, well nourished garden with various flowers decorating the stone paved row, leading to the cottage. The lights were still on inside, as we reached the one storey building, my mind automatically slipped through another character, a character whom I created to deceive a mother.
"What wil be she doing right now?" I wondered aloud as the older male unlocked the door with a spare key.
"She might be in the kitchen, either preparing food for dinner or washing the utensils. You go, meet her. I'll keep these in your room."
Pointing to my luggages, Tristan suggested and only when I nodded, he went to the attic, my emergency room here.
Heaving a long sigh, I cleared my throat and called for the mother inside the kitchen, "mom! I'm home."
Though I'm pretty much sure she already heard our footsteps, she might have thought that the elder members came to check up on her.
Just a mere second passed and her light footsteps were heard from the kitchen, and she immerged in the living space in her house gown, elegant and beautiful as ever, of course she is the Queen of the Kingdom of Hinoi, Queen Rebecca Hammond, mother of Nicholas Hammond, and the woman whom I've been calling mom for the past five years. For her, she is a single mother, the mother of Felix Chase and her name is Rebecca Chase. That's the best solution we all could have come up with when we rescued her from her dying state and her memory loss made it just the most convincing truth.
I hate this acting as hell, but I can't back out from it either, as I clearly know this is the best way to keep everyone safe, all of us worked so hard for this mission, I can't let it go in vein. Contemplating whether to approach her and act like her sweet, gentle son or wait for her to approach and finally make me do that, I stared at her approaching me.
She had a huge smile on her face, her eyes trembled almost spilling tears, then engulfing me in a warm embrace, she conveyed that she missed me.
"I missed you too."
Breaking the hug, I looked at her with a soft smile, however my heart felt immense guilt eating me up, was it really a wise choice to keep away a mother from her own son, hurting them both.
Her small gasp caught my attention, her eyes finally landed on my bandaged hand, looking at my eyes, she tried to provide the whirlwind of questions: what happened? How did it happen? How much am I hurt? And finally AGAIN?
Keeping my face as gentle as possible, I assured her "nothing serious mom, I just tripped and the hot soup spilled on my hand. Steve already has treated it."
Just then Tristan came down, bowing to mom, he spoke to me "I've settled everything in your room, and fixed your bed too. If you need help in anything else I will be outside, it's my watch hour. Have a good rest, tommorow gonna be hectic. And you too aunt Chase, he is gonna need your help in few things for this few weeks."
Nodding her head, mom gestured Tristan to wait, disappearing into the kitchen, only to come back in few seconds with a wooden box. Giving him the box, she conveyed her message through hand signs "enjoy these with the other six. Tell them, I'm grateful that they took good care of me and my son."
Giving a delighted smile, the crown prince of the Kaisers again bowed to her and left hurriedly.
Immediately a sweet vanilla scent invaded my sense, as I exclaimed "you made dessert?!"
With a wide grin, she nodded her head vigorously, as she dragged me towards the kitchen, I was actually amazed to see the kitchen neat and clean, despite the huge amount of vanilla and chocolate flavoured cupcakes she made.
As she handed me a plate, she waited in anticipation for my reaction and as usual my reaction was the same, totally melting into the delicious taste of chocolate, I closed my eyes into the feeling of mouthwatering taste. An airy squeal brought my attention back to her, giving me a sudden pang in my chest again, as I watched her cleaning a stain of chocolate on my jaw. The most beautiful thing I ever missed was her voice and high pitched, heartfelt laughter, the moment I came to know that she lost her voice too, I took the responsibility to teach her sign language. And over the five years the members also learned the language , only to understand her.
Quickly finishing the cakes, I excused myself from the kitchen, going straight to my room. With a bit difficulty, I changed my clothes into my much comfortable loose night dress and went straight to the bed, immediately succumbing to deep slumber and probably another nightmare.
As the seven males and I made our way through the backyards of the quarters of Crown Prince Christopher, Henry signalled us to go forward as Prince Christopher wasn't in the palace due to his studies and we were immensely thankful for that. Our next stop was the second prince, Nicholas Hammond's quarter, surprisingly he was on a night stroll with his friend Simon Kaiser, that let our two priorities taken care of. We were aware that the whole Hinoi Royal Palace was filled with numerous guests as it was the royal couple's marriage anniversary, many higher class personals were staying in the quarters.
As per our pre-planned strategy, Jeremy and Tristan advanced to the servants' quarters to gather them all in one place and team up with the remaining Hammond soldiers if there was any left, of course. According to our resources the assassin troop that was sent to invade the palace most likely had over 50 members and we were pretty much sure that getting any royal guard alive was a low chance. Still having no other choice, we had to let go Gregory and Howard to the King's quarters, which was most likely to be most important place to protect.
Henry and Steve already had taken down over 10 men of the group while Jace and I added more three, however it was getting hard gradually, the more we forwarded towards the Queen's quarters, the stronger their members were becoming. At a certain point we four had to finally split, Steve stayed behind first to make sure no strong force advanced through the central pavilion, while Henry took the entrance of the inner courtyard.
Jace was taking the front while I was watching the back, thus we kept advancing and the way we two faced more and more men coming to fight against us, oddly it seemed as if the queen was the main target all along. Moreover, their fighting style wasn't any near of the Hammonds, they were completely foreign, but not for me, I knew those moves too well and it didn't sit well with me. I wanted to inform the others, but we didn't have time to gather to create an alternative plan. Unfortunately Jace and I drifted too much ahead of the others, as we stood at the entrance of the corridor to the queen's room, four assassins surrounded us.
Just like before, Jace and I stuck together and kept them in a bay, however we soon realised our disadvantage; that was me, I might have known their techniques but I was lacking in strength. What can you expect from a just-turned-17 boy against some near Elite class assassins?! I was hardly managing defence against their every jab, cut, blow and slice, dragging down Jace's attacking spree.
Just as he sliced someone's throat, I noticed another one assassin coming from the other end of the corridor, heading to the queen's room. Jace might've seen that too, clearing a path for me to get out from the trap, he muttered "Lix! Go! Save her first!"
Without any hesitation, I charged towards the man, immediately piercing through his kidney, he stumbled on the ground, loosing blood, but I couldn't care about that. Immediately barged in the room, completely startling the queen and her personal maid. I had our group costume on me which was a complete set of black oversized yet comfortable clothes with a black cloth covering the hair and face, in short, only my eyes were visible. And I'm pretty much sure that I've got plenty of blood stains on it too, by the horrified look they had, I knew they thought that I was one of the assassins. So I did the most rational thing to gain their trust, I removed the covering black cloth and the queen gasped softly as she recognised me right away.
"Felix?!"