Paralyzed (Tboah!AlbeCale)

28) memory loss go brrrr

Alberu, despite his high place in the hierarchy of nobility, felt less annoyed at Cale's tone than he should've. It felt similar to a breath of fresh air amongst the smog which was everyone else.

Cale, who had been following behind Alberu who was heading towards the door, froze at the prince's next words.

"The dungeon."

'What the fuck?! Did he lie?! Whatever crime I committed by sharing that, he promised to pardon me!'

"U, uh... Why there...?"

Alberu, who was going through multiple plans at once and had no clue as to what he had just said, blinked back at Cale. He was wondering why Cale's confident bravado dwindled for a moment.

'Is he afraid of the dark? But there are torches...'

"To go identify the voice. I'm sure you don't remember the person who looks just like your deputy butler Hans, but he is currently under suspicion of working with Baron Crassterd. Both of them are locked away, although they will be taken to other prisons depending on their sentence. I suspect the voice will match the Hans lookalike."

"..."

Cale returned to his natural walking pace, but his mind was full of even more questions.

'Why would they be locked in the palace dungeon in the first place when this has nothing to do with royalty affairs? Shouldn't the Henituse take care of this matter? Why is this person doing everything when he will gain close to nothing for it?'

It made no sense. Sure, royalty would have to discipline a baron for kidnapping a count's son, but that was it. Nothing more had to be done on their part, so why was everything happening only after Cale offered his side of the story?

It felt so foreign to him for somebody to go out of their way to ask what he thought, and not just jump to conclusions.

'He couldn't have known about the voice which seemed to have a strange obsession with him... so why? It is suspicious.'

Cale's lips ticked downwards. He didn't like this strange feeling.

'Just why is he helping me? Is it to sway the Henituse's neutral stance in his favor?'

He felt like he was missing some big detail, and it made his gut twist uncomfortably.

"Watch your head."

They had walked quite a ways while Cale had been overthinking everything he possibly could, and had reached a large iron door which was a little shorter than the average.

Cale ducked a bit and continued down the steps, noticing the natural light start to fade away and become replaced with torch light or occasional magic lamps. As they walked further in, the nice marble flooring became stone, and the crisp walls turned into rough rock, as if it was carved out.

The stairway was quite loud despite the isolated feel, since each footstep echoed loudly, bouncing around the walls and ceiling.

Cale felt his heartbeat quicken up at the sound.

Why did echoing footsteps seem so familiar?

"Hah...hah..."

His breathing was getting heavier.

The dark lighting, short ceiling, stone surroundings, echoing footsteps...

'What's going on?'

It was to the point where Alberu had noticed, even though Cale was trying his best to hide his growing panic.

"Are you alright?"

"... Yeah, so just keep walking."

His neutral and bored tone had taken a more aggressive form as well, thanks to it being his default mode for when he was in a panic.