The Way Of A Leader

Chapter 54

~Alex Pov~

"Everyone, I need you all to be on your best behavior. Today a princess from a kingdom to our East is coming to visit. According to the king, their country was run down, but they managed to rebuild, so now we're establishing a small deal with them." A head guard tells us in the main hall.

'I'm glad that Zalk's here with me, without his help, I think I would've missed my chance to slip the letter to the King.' Speaking of which, Zalk- or should I call him Linel?- is standing beside me keeping a calm face. Probably eyeing me in case I go haywire.

"She'll be arriving in an hour or so, so now I'll be handing out schedules on his majesty's orders." We stand still unless we're given a piece of paper. Once everyone had their schedules and were dismissed, I ran up to Zalk and snatched his schedule.

"Calm down Alex, we have to keep this cover going, and you can't just snatch things without permission." He scolds me while grabbing his schedule back. "Besides, if everyone is busy cleaning and distracted in trying to impress the 'princess' then we can sneak around." I nod and ask him if he knows how Aki and A.J are.

"Actually, I was planning on leaving this body until we really needed it. A.J might need my help in some situation or purely for scouting purposes. So you'll properly be alone for a while, Alex, we need you to focus on the task and not blow anything. You got that?" He sternly says.

"You can count on me, I promise I won't say anything about the crown or the plans." I close my eyes and smile. "What plans do you have that involve the crown Dagen" 'Lily pads, Zalk never uses that name.' "He-hey Linel. I- what do you mean?" Great, in the five seconds that Zalk was gone, I managed to mess up already.

"You said something about the crown. What exactly are you planning Dagen?" Linel stares me down, and my nerves are starting to get to me. "Uhh..." I see no one around to hear our conversation. "Follow me and make sure no one suspects anything," I whisper and walk away.

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"So now that we're alone in the room, what exactly are you planning?" Linel sits down at his bed while I lean against the door. "Look, you're genuinely a nice guy, but my team and I have things to do and we don't need anyone getting in the way of things." I look into his eyes while going over to my bag.

I could sense his uneasiness towards my actions. "What do you mean, team? Based off the information you gave us, you had no one else besides us!" I continued to search through my bag, looking for a specific item. I hear him get up and walk towards me.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I shoot a comment as I hear his movement stopped. "Yeah, and what are you going to do about it? You're just a weak kid." He scoffs, and I just sigh. 'A.J told me this could've happened.'

I grab a shoe and throw it at the back of his head. "Between me and my team, there are only two people you need to worry about- technically they count as one person, but separated they're two. You already met one, and if you think he's scary, our leader won't hesitate to do anything."

Linel blinks and pales, hearing the words coming out of my mouth. "You mean- you knew! You know that- that... thing? How can anyone handle that." He starts to panic and pace around the room. "I'm alerting the guards. Besides, what're you gonna do about it." He mocks pushing me away from the door.

"You just need to take a nap." I blew some sleeping powder in his direction and waited for it to kick in. Linel looks confused before fumbling with the doorknob. "...your team, is... be stopped." With that, he fell to the floor, leaving me to come up with a new plan.

"Okay, just don't mention anything to A.J, and you'll live Alex," I told myself, trying to convince myself of some hope.

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I successfully dragged Linel to his bed and under the covers. "Why do you have to be heavy?" I calm my nerves and leave the room. 'Time to get this show on the road.' I head towards the main doors waiting for A.J and Aki to arrive, I was lucky to be on the welcoming group, so that gave us some time to go over our plan.

"Hey Dagen!" I turned around and saw André walking towards me. "Have you seen Lin? He was supposed to help me put the dishes out in the dining room." 'I can't let him suspect anything.'

I give André a small smile. "Yeah, he looked paler than usual, so I led him back to the room and put him to bed. I think he got sick." I say as calmly as I could. "I could help you if you want? But after all my own things of course." I say.

André thanks me and waves me goodbye before going into the kitchen. "Oh geez, that actually worked." I wheezed out once he was gone. 'I felt like I was about to explode. My body can't handle this stress.'

"C'mon Dagen," A head guard ushers me to the doors. "The Princess is almost here." I nod and get in line, along with the others. "Introducing the royal family. Prince Amir, Queen Juno, and King Heinrich."

The royal announcer bows followed by all of us, and we see them gather near the doors. 'I think this is my first time properly seeing the royal family. Wait, if they're all wearing crowns...whose crown do we even have?' I continue to stare at their crowns, not noticing a pair of eyes staring at me.

The doors open, and in came an armored knight followed by a princess behind them. "May I introduce her royal highness, Princess Kyra." We all bow and Aki can definitely rock that dress, heels and wig. A.J stands next to Aki with their hands in fists at their side. I see A.J subtly put down two fingers. 'So we have two hours to complete this mission and get out of here.'

I nod back, but to others, it still looks like a bow. 'I think it's time for me to check on Linel while everyone is talking.' I slowly inch away from the crowd and run off to the quarters, locking my door once I get in. 'C'mon Zalk; we don't have much time for this.'

"Why is he in bed and not outside working?" There he is. I see him get out of the bed and look at me. "Well...he might be onto us, so I put him to sleep. Never mind that, do you have the crown?" I quickly asked. Zalk goes to a dark corner and pulls out a shadow crown. "I'll materialize it when we find the crown room until then we have to act natural."

I nod and follow his lead. 'Do we have to get rid of Linel now that he knows of the plans? Wait, does this mean I get fired?'