Chapter 157 - You Thief!

“Make sure to come back before dinner time.”

Once we started with the plan, I began feeling nervous. We decided to first check the equipment we had brought along.

Yuri had a cool slingshot, a yo-yo, and a pack of gum.

I thought Danyl hadn’t brought anything, but to our surprise, he had a very impressive pocket watch.

I was impressed, but Yuri immediately made a face.

“Are you an idiot? Where are you going to use a watch?!”

“Where? To check the time!”

“Don’t you dare blame us if you lose it! Do you have the guts to steal your Dad’s watch for this childish adventure?”

“Hmph, I didn’t steal it! I just wanted to play with it for a bit!”

“That’s just the point, you thief!”

Honestly, I didn’t know Danyl had such courage.

This incident made me see Danyl in a new light. He might turn out to be an unexpectedly great adventure partner.

I was about to say something like that, but Danyl suddenly slapped Yuri’s face with all his might.

I was genuinely taken aback.

Yuri seemed so surprised that he forgot to get angry.

However, Danyl burst into tears as if he had received a blow.

While crying, he swore on the grave of the director who had taken care of him as a baby, that he had never stolen anything in his life.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure if Danyl even remembered what the man looked like.

Anyway, I felt uncomfortable and reluctantly changed the topic.

“Prince, are you fine?”

Since I wasn’t okay, I suggested we play hide and seek together.

The guards scratched their heads and left, after saying that something urgent had come up.

A while later, the three of us were opening the door leading to the secret passage and descending the stairs.

To be honest, I had imagined the underground sewer to be incredibly dark and eerie.

I thought it would be full of spider webs and that ghostly figures might jump out any moment, a place like that.

After all, wasn’t that what secret passages were like?

However, when I actually saw it, it was beyond my imagination, and I felt a sudden rush of excitement.

The underground sewer wasn’t as dark as I thought. It was because of the lights on the walls.

The passage was wide and clean, and I didn’t really feel like I was on an adventure.

Well, Father wouldn’t go to dirty and unpleasant places when he was on a date with Mother, right?

After all, Father always liked to pretend to be very cool.

“But is this the right direction?”

“We’re going according to the map, so it should be.”

“What do you think will be there if we go that way?”

“It’s just a dead end, isn’t it? There’s nothing marked there.”

I noticed that Yuri and Danyl seemed as disappointed as I was.

As I held the map and was about to lead, a good idea suddenly struck me, causing me to stop in my tracks.

Considering that they might realize we’re missing by now and even come looking for us, it would be better to leave quickly.

“Hey, you at the back, slowpoke!”

“You, don’t be mean!”

After shouting like that, we started running again, and the two of them also joined in the excitement.

Thump thump thump.

Come to think of it, even here, our footsteps echoed loudly.

It seemed even louder than in the secret warehouse.

“Woahhh!”

“Aaahhh!”

We shouted and ran, jumped, walked, and ran again.

I don’t know how long we did that, but eventually, the passage ended, revealing a large chamber-like space.

“Wow, what’s that?”

Danyl exclaimed in amazement.

Stairs again?

Of course, I had never seen such big stairs before in my life.

They weren’t as tall as the ones in the palace, but they were still impressively high.

Starting from in front of us and extending all the way up to the seemingly distant ceiling, they were winding and curving.

Yuri, who had been looking up at the ceiling, let out a whistle.

“It looks like a snake.”

“No, it’s a whirlpool.”

“It’s a snake!”

“It’s a whirlpool!”

“Hey, you guys, it’s just a staircase!”

When I intervened with a loud voice, both Yuri and Danyl stopped their silly argument.

Gradually, we started running up the stairs in a rush.

I tried to go up in one go, but it was more tiring than I thought, so I had to take breaks now and then.

We were all sweating and thirsty, so we shared the candy I had brought one by one.

Next time, I should definitely bring a bottle or something like that. Because then, I could collect water when there’s some… But can we drink the water from the sewer?

“Aaah!”

Finally, as we reached the top, we all collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

We felt exhausted, but since adventures are supposed to be challenging, I felt a sense of accomplishment.

“Look at that, we climbed all the way up there!”

For a moment, we revelled in our victory, looking down together.

Looking at it like this, it didn’t seem all that gigantic.

But then Danyl suddenly began to act like he was about to fall down and started whining.

He complained that he wanted to go home now.

Before I could say anything, Yuri abruptly stood up and grabbed Danyl by the collar.

Yuri seemed thoroughly enraged.

“If you want to go, go alone, you cowardly traitor! After this, I’ll make sure to cut ties with you!”

“But, you said he won’t cut ties…”

“That was the scene from before you messed up our adventure! From now on, I won’t play with you, won’t attend classes with you, won’t pretend to know you, and I won’t take your side! Instead, I’ll be friends with your brother!”

Even if the sky were falling, I had no intention of playing with Danyl’s boring little brother.

And the same must have been true for Yuri.

He had a knack for acting all mature, making you want to punch him.

On top of that, he was even worse of a crybaby than his brother.

But adults mostly liked him.

Adults were foolish.

Anyway, Danyl didn’t want to go home anymore.

I lightly tapped Yuri’s still sulking shoulder.

“Look at that.”

There was a large, round door on the wall ahead, visible from quite a distance.

Gradually, everyone stopped bickering and approached the door together.

What awaited us outside the door?

My heart started pounding again.

I looked back at Danyl.

“You open it.”

“Me, me?”

“Because that way, you won’t betray us again.”

Yuri chimed in, agreeing with my words.

Danyl placed his hand on the doorknob and tightly closed his eyes.

Then he took a deep breath several times and pulled hard.

“Whoa…!”

A cool wind hit our faces.

We blinked our eyes for a moment and looked around.

Everything was covered in tall trees.

They were so tall that the sky was barely visible.

Right in front of us, there were hills covered with unfamiliar flowers and fruits, as well as a small path.

We exchanged glances, swallowing our saliva.

Could this possibly be the ‘hideout’?

“Shall we see what’s over there…?”

As we followed the path through the hills, none of us said a word.

If this is the end of the adventure, I would be so disappointed.

After climbing all those stairs, was this really what we were going to see? Does that make any sense?

The nameless wildflowers didn’t seem interesting or exciting at all.

I’d rather be in the gardens of my palace, they must be much grander than this.

“Suddenly, I smell something delicious.”

As I was trying not to be disheartened, Yuri suddenly claimed to smell the scent of a sandwich from somewhere.

He also complained that he was hungry.

I was about to tell him to stop talking nonsense, but for some reason, it sounded like he was telling the truth.

“Maybe there are fruits here that emit a delicious smell.”

“No, this is definitely the smell of turkey sandwiches. And I also smell roasted apples.”

Now Yuri was claiming to smell not only sandwiches and roasted apples but also chocolate and the strange drink his father drinks.

Because of his words, both Danyl and I became hungry.

Finally, Danyl snapped like an angry dog, telling Yuri to stop whimpering like a wet dog.

Yuri retorted that Danyl was the real liar and accused him of farting.

Danyl confronted Yuri.

“Cancel it right now!”

“Don’t make me laugh!”

“Stop it, you two idiots…! Ugh!”

Trying to calm them down, I ended up getting tangled in their fight and falling to the ground with them.

We rolled around, shouting and pushing each other.

Suddenly, we tumbled down the hill on the other side.

“Aaah!”

It didn’t hurt much, but I felt dizzy, to the point of almost vomiting.

As soon as we stopped rolling down, Yuri started coughing as if he were about to die, calling for his mother.

Because of that, I also felt a strong desire to see my own mother.

Danyl said his clothes were torn, his voice trembling as he asked what to do.

“What to do? You’re so troublesome, you crybaby!”

“…Wha, Prince?”

Right after he exclaimed boldly, I heard strange sounds from somewhere.

We were all taken aback and raised our heads in surprise.

And then we froze.

Because right in front of us, we saw giant shoes.

Even the men sitting on long chairs eating sandwiches seemed frozen, just like us.

There were real sandwiches!

Even though we had not eaten lunch long ago, my stomach growled, but that wasn’t the issue here.

Oh my goodness, these are adults! And they’re wearing black armor!

The worst part was that one of the men, who was staring at us blankly, looked quite familiar.

It couldn’t be helped, because he was someone we all knew very well.

He was our fathers’ friend.

The man who dropped his sandwich on the floor and stood up slowly approached us.

I could sense Danyl starting to tremble.

I was trembling too.

We’re doomed.

Did we mess up?

“Everyone, what is this…”

“Uwaaaah, run away! It’s the Horse butt guy!”

2 to “What did you say?!”

The next moment, we started sprinting for our lives between the legs of the “Horse butt guy.”

We ran like crazy, and from behind us, we could hear the men swearing and cursing.

We dashed into the bushes without any sense of direction.

And into the dark forest, fleeing in any direction.