The Crown Prince In Hiding

Though the manner of the hand-off felt like a soldier delivering a report to a commanding officer, he would let that pass for now.

The forbidden book of Professor Darwin C.

Bird of Paradise

Dan slowly picked it up, glancing back and forth between it and Rafinya's face.

The work of a departed intellectual who had dared to rise and challenge the dominance of the CIS religion across the world's most powerful lands.

A book recording his ways of thinking and his discovery of the finches, describing in meticulous detail everything Darwin encountered throughout his journey exploring the world.

When the royal vessel anchored off the isolated shores of the archipelago, what Darwin encountered was not a lush paradise, but a volcanic land that seemed to have escaped straight from a primordial age. Dark, black earth stretched to the horizon, thick with the smell of sulfur and heat rising from the cracks in the lava rock. But amid the brutality of this environment lived strange creatures that no one had ever encountered before in the wider world.

Darwin's eyes went wide as he beheld the coastal rocks ahead, covered in marine iguanas. They were jet-black reptiles, like tiny dragons. And most remarkably of all, they were the only lizard-type reptile in the world capable of diving underwater.

This ability was beyond even the fierce dragon Iskaryx, or the closely related creatures that had evolved alongside it.

The book did not speak only of finches. It also addressed the shells of giant tortoises, which differed in their curves and contours from island to island.

Tortoises from humid islands had domed, rounded shells because they fed on ground-level vegetation. Those from arid islands had shells that curved upward at the neck like a saddle, allowing them to stretch their long necks up to reach and eat the cactus leaves growing higher above.

And many more creatures... along with their adaptations. All of it was recorded here.

This book may not have offered new ideas that answered Fury's questions, but it was a meticulous record of Professor Darwin's observations, documenting hundreds of species from those islands.

Whether ordinary creatures or rock-shelled crabs capable of channeling magical currents to develop heat resistance in their own shells, surviving amid sulfurous volcanic fumes — all of them followed the same pattern.

"Adaptation" for survival.

That word had passed before his eyes hundreds of times by now.

Life is a slate wiped clean and written anew, over and over again. It drives the world forward through time without end.

Those were the closing words of the book, which Prince Fury had read all the way to the end.

And that led Fury to a new question.

A question from the perspective of "destruction."

In what ways had the world changed, that it caused "them" — those who had once ruled this world — to vanish and perish entirely?

Until now, Fury had only been focused on learning who had existed in those ancient days.

But now he found himself asking another question: what caused "them" to all die out, down to the very last?

"Wiping something to extinction is something even I have never managed to accomplish..."

Cutting back, Dan was speaking to both girls at a campfire late at night.

"Even when I intended to wipe out the Shadow faction, some escaped... I understand better than anyone how difficult it is. So what mechanism did nature use to sweep 'them' away down to the very last one?"

The more he thought, the further he spiraled.

Rafinya and Princess Nora Ophilis offered no comment. They simply sat quietly eating skewered meat, while Dan stared into the fire, turning a small stone over and over in his hand.

He drew a long, slow breath and opened his eyes.

"Let's set that aside for now. Wait for Thomasin to come back with the books."

"You've already read every book in the Sheffield library then?"

"I've read them all... and I need more."

He pressed the stack of papers together.

"So what will you do next, Mr. Fury?"

"When Thomasin gets back, I'll handle it from there."

Just then,

the sound of footsteps drew near from the forest behind, and Zeedee emerged still in her school uniform, bag still on her back — as though she had stopped somewhere else before coming here.

"What's this... the nuisances are back lurking around our place again..."

Her face and tone carried the same air of disinterest as always.

"Freya, where have you been?"

"I went to the post office."

"What were you doing there?"

Zeedee ignored Nora's question. She walked around the campfire toward Fury, pulled something out, and held it out to him in front of both girls.

A white envelope. An ordinary sealed letter with no magical encoding, addressed clearly to Dan Burn.

Dan took it and unsealed it.

He read what was inside.

Nora/Rafinya: "..."

And then they watched as Dan's eyes slowly widened.

He said nothing, but his gaze drifted somewhere distant. They couldn't help but wonder.

So Nora asked,

"Mr. Fury... what is it?"

"A report from Livramento."

'!'

That name had nearly fallen off Nora's radar entirely.

Livramento, who had been sent to Zentinel — the one Fury had trusted to carry out a "rather personal" mission.

Rafinya had never met him, so it was no surprise that she would wonder when exactly Fury had sent someone to Zentinel.

Nora still remembered.

"What does it say?"

"He's found the cult of that man."

But Rafinya asked,

"What cult?"

It didn't take long to fill Rafinya in on the story of the clergyman from Zentinel — someone who appeared to be of deep personal significance to Prince Fury.

"Mr. Fury, it's not easy to track someone down in Zentinel."

Rafinya said.

"I know... but I've made a vow to myself. I will find my way back to him no matter what."

Even if it was the largest continent in the world.

Even if only a grave remained.

"Let Mr. Fury enjoy a peaceful retirement."

"I haven't retired yet."

Dan raised his spoon to tap Nora on the head again. The Princess moved to dodge.

"Compare me to the lineup of heroes and I'm the youngest of them all."

"Is President Fofana older than you?"

"By several years... did you just find that out?"

Nora/Rafinya: They looked at each other.

"HEY 💢"

Dan folded the letter that had traveled many miles to reach him and handed it to Zeedee.

It was getting late. Tomorrow Nora had her magic class, and Rafinya had practice in preparation for an upcoming competition.

Both got to their feet, preparing to head back.

"Oh, one more thing."

Both turned to look, question marks practically visible on their faces.

Dan sat poking the embers in the fire, Zeedee having just settled back down.

"Tomorrow, expect big news. And I want to talk to all of you about it."

"Huh?"

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