PeaceMaker

The question in Dominic's mind was spoken out as the thought came to him. He flinched for a second, wondering if he had randomly spat that out before realizing that it wasn't his voice.

"Huh?" Axel asked, his eyes skirting and locking on Desilva with a perplexed expression on his calm face, "what do you mean?"

Desilva locked eyes with Axel's impatient eyes and then turned to Dominic as he laid in silence like he was expecting her to explain. She nervously scratched her head and fiddled with a flower.

"I mean… he doesn't have a good background right? He comes from a place far below even the title of a palace maid, right?" Desilva prompted.

"Yes. Seeing as he had to be picked out from the streets to be put into the palace, He must have not been in a good spot," Axel nodded his head in agreement.

"But then all of a sudden he is piggy-back ridden into one of the top positions in the palace just because the prince picked him up," Desilva continued, carefully laying down her thoughts as the silence from Dominic seemed to rattle her.

"Hmm," Axel nodded and waved his hand in a circular motion, prompting her to quickly explain as he was getting irritated at her slow pace.

Desilva ignored him.

"Wouldn't the people at the bottom with him soon grow to hate him?" Desilva muttered, finally saying to point of her explaining.

Axel still looked at her with confusion. The issue itself wasn't hard to understand, but Axel's mind didn't seem to want to understand. He had been hated most of his life too, but for reasons that were blatantly yelled at him when others spat at his sight. Although he was a quick thinker, things that weren't given to him straightforwardly at the beginning gave him trouble understanding as there was never a time when someone hid why they hated him.

"He suddenly got a boost from the top royalty in the kingdom and left everyone at the bottom behind to pursue his new life. To them it must have looked like he abandoned them for a better life and didn't look back," Desilva explained. There was a slight pause in her words before she nervously glanced at Dominic and added, "but I'm sure he didn't mean for that."

"Ah! That makes sense," Aexl nodded in realization, "in that case, wouldn't the people in the palace hate him too? To them it may have looked like a dog beneath them suddenly grew human legs and took a position that was 'made' for them."

"Right, they'd hate him because of jealousy. The fact that someone so low could easily replace them would have been a huge hit to their ego and mindset that they might start blaming his highness's personal guard for everything," Desilva smiled, exchanging a sense of enlightenment between her and Axel.

"So then he's hated by both crucial parts in a kingdom. One, his upbringing, and the other the life that he had adapted into living. Which is literally the worst place to be in," Axel sighed, "he has nowhere to go if he were to be kicked out of the palace as the palace people and his people have rejected him."

"Right… hopefully, he isn't in a really high position right now or else his safety would be endangered as he might be attacked by rebellious royals or workers and wouldn't have a place to run to," Desilva added.

Axel stared at Desilva, a small smile sneaking into his face, "Wow… this is the first time I've agreed with you on something," he teased, a wide smirk on his face.

"Same to you," Desilva retorted with a less forced smile.

"Then…" Dominic began, grabbing Axel and Desilva's attention off each other and onto him, "if..he happened to be chosen as a substitute king in my place, what might happen to him?"

Axel and Desilva exchanged blank stares. "Death maybe," they replied in unison.

"If it's not death, he'll probably get attacked when there's no one around as a near-death experience," Axel expanded on his answer with Desilva.

"Right, since the palace people or royals have probably gotten sick of watching him get away in high positions in the castle and making him substitute king would be like the icing on their fury," Desilva nodded at Axel's reply, further expanding on it, "they are most likely to attack him after that. It will be hard to defend himself if he's attacked when he's alone though."

"Resulting in death or severe injury," Axel finished off.

He and Desilva exchange glances again in surprise.

"Wow… we keep agreeing… today must be a day to go down in history," Axel teased.

"Pfft, not sure they'll accept our petty arguments earlier worth going down in history nevertheless us finally agreeing on something," Desilva giggled.

"We can try," Axel shrugged, before laughing with Desilva. They stopped after noticing their prince's unusual silence.

"Forgive me if I am wrong but… you didn't make his substitute king, did you your highness?" Axel carefully approached.

Dominic couldn't even form a reply as his head was already being flooded with thoughts. 'What have I done…?' he asked himself as the words Desilva and Axel said slowly seeped in, 'I put him in danger… again. And now I left him alone to fend for himself while I stay miles away from him on this battlefield.'

The words Boris had said before Dominic left started to ring in his head. The reluctance in his voice when he finally accepted Dominic's position after many attempts to refuse it and his saddened face as he watched Dominic leave for battle. 'Was this why he was so worried?' Dominic asked himself, further stressing himself as he already knew the answer to that question. He had forced Boris to become a substitute without weighing the right or wrongs of his decision and then went through these months with a light mind, thinking he made the right decision. 'How foolish was I…?'

But the worst part of it all, to add to his foolish and childish decisions was the fact that two outsiders looking in on his decision would spot the fault immediately, while he just went on with his days thinking he made an exceptional decision.. 'What if something happened to him?' Dominic pondered, 'what if he was attacked when he was alone with no one to save him and I returned to a ruined kingdom without Boris even being alive?' The longer he thought about it, the more he realized how much of a mistake he had made.