The Crown cannot Help You

Chapter 42: The Stepfather

The first guard never saw it coming. Audelia was too quick as she leapt up off the floor and used the wall to clatter her knee into his face.

His head bumped against the wall, and he slumped to the floor.

Audelia bent down to touch his neck and check he was okay, which stopped her from seeing the second guard who was now charging towards her.

Flynn hurdled over her and launched his feet into the guard's chest. The guard stumbled to the ground, her armour clanging together as she did. Flynn then ripped off her helmet and gathered her neck into a hold that left her unconscious after a minute.

"I was quicker." Audelia spat as she ran past him.

Flynn gently placed the now unconscious guard on the floor and chased after her. "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were supposed to be gentle—not quick."

Audelia let out a small laugh. "Can't you do both?" She turned left as the corridor reached a splitting point. "Because I can."

"So, it's like that then," Flynn said as he caught up with her.

"Don't be too sad that I'm better than you."

Flynn let out a laugh as they turned another corner. "You are insufferable."

Audelia stopped in front of a small door in the middle of a darker corridor. She tilted her head, directing Flynn to follow her as she nudged open the door. Audelia then slowly crept inside, and Flynn moved in after her.

This corridor was cramped and darker. There were no windows and no decoration. It was just a tunnel that hid those Audelia's mother deemed inferior while letting them move about the house.

Audelia had to keep her neck tilted forward, being that she couldn't fully fit inside. She turned to look at Flynn, who was quite a bit taller than her, only to see his head being crushed against the ceiling despite his knees being bent, and his back being hunched.

"Who built this?" Flynn growled as he stepped forward.

"My father," Audelia answered, suppressing a small laugh at Flynn's face.

"And did he not think to make the ceiling high enough to fit a normal human in?"

Audelia shrugged her shoulders as she led them further down. "They didn't want to spend much money on making the servant's corridors."

Flynn made a disapproving grunt which went in time with him hitting his head on a light.

"I'll get rid of them and start paying the people that work here more."

Flynn went to say something supportive, but instead, he felt the pain of hitting another light exploding across his head. "This is torture."

Audelia didn't laugh. Some people had been working here all their lives. They'd been forced to walk in these corridors, forced to work in poor conditions for little money because the other choice was being thrown out and face starving to death. Or maybe they'd get recruited to become an assassin.

And this wasn't something that had finished with her father, her people had been living this reality the whole time Audelia had been away. She had wasted time she could have spent helping them, time the crown could have spent helping people.

"Princess?" Flynn called out from behind her.

She turned to meet Flynn's curious eyes.

Flynn had felt the change in mood. He thought he'd loosened her back into herself whilst they were hiding amongst the roses, but Audelia was adamant about acting like an assassin.