色戒完整版

Chapter 7: Castle Part 2

George stood still for a while with his back still straight, looking down on both guards, his mind racing to come up with an explanation.

"Excellent." He replied.

The guards raised their eyebrows, confused by the one-word remark their \'Captain\' gave them, before looking at each other, not knowing how to respond.

George sighed, "You passed; I was testing the both of you to see whether you were still focusing. If you had left outside, I would have fired both of you. And don\'t worry about the King; he is in good hands." He said while looking up at the window, knowing full well that the real Captain was inside the room.

If Captain Roland were to show his face outside of the window, George\'s whole act would have been ruined.

"Ah, thank you, Captain!" The guards responded happily.

"Now go to the basement; I heard some noise from under there; check on it." He continued.

Both guards waited before one of them opened their mouths, "Is this a test?"

"No, it\'s not. Get your ass down there and get to work. NOW!" He snapped before the guards ran into the building, not questioning him anymore.

"Whoo… That\'s close." He said as he looked up into the window and morphed into the janitor.

As he started climbing, he could feel the cage hidden in his clothing heavy and disturbing him from climbing up comfortably, \'Dang, why on earth did I think that bringing pigeons in my clothing was a good idea….\' He thought before he climbed with his hands and his legs.

If he were as old as his original age, he would have cracked his back, fallen, and died on impact.

But here, he could climb up quickly, and since he had climbed the trees at the beaches of Florida when he was younger, climbing this pipe was not much of an issue either.

The real issue was whether he could reach the top before the guards returned.

Meanwhile, the King was looking at Michael sceptically, \'Would the great wizard really put a test on someone like me? And does he even put a test on anyone before meeting them?\'

The King had thought about this, and no matter how hard he tried reaching for the deepest part of his memory, he couldn\'t think of an incident or a rumour that suggested that Oz ever did something like this.

\'The first time I heard of the Great Wizard doing anything like this… is from Sir Michael…\' he thought while he started to get more distrustful of the words that came out of Michael\'s mouth.

There were some cases of advisors and Prime Ministers that have misused the name of their King for their own benefit, and this recurring theme made him more distrustful Michael\'Now the only question is., what does this monkey want from me?\'

The Captain walked into the room with the dessert in his hand before seeing the King with his eyes sharp on Michael.

He has been by King Adrian\'s side for far too long not to see what he was feeling. And even though no one else could see through the King\'s expression, he could, but just like everyone else, Michael was oblivious to what the King had in his mind.

The Captain halted his footsteps, \'What could the King be suspicious about?\' He thought before continuing towards Michael\'s direction and handing him the dessert.

"Thank you!" Michael said as he took the bowl of banana ice cream and started eating it slowly to delay the King\'s questioning and buy some time for Geroge to climb, he could hear some sound from the pipe, and it was only a matter of time before George arrived.

The King sighed, swallowing his saliva and preparing for the worst as he was about to do something that might potentially get him killed before he spoke, "Sir Michael, would you like me to tell you a story?"

Michael\'s eyes widened, \'More time? Sure!\' He thought merrily before nodding his furry head, "Sure."

"There was once a King who had always trusted his Prime Minister to do his active duties, and one of his main jobs was to meet with the Kings and officials of other countries. The Prime Minister had always done his job well and had gained the trust of the King. He did it so well that the King trusted him like his own friend. But when the King became ill, the Prime Minister hid this fact and started to go around across the Kingdoms and started using the King\'s power to do whatever he wanted… You could say that he pretended to be a King; does this sound familiar to you?" The King asked, waiting for a reaction.

As Michael heard this story, his heart stopped. But it wasn\'t because of the story in its entirety; it was the sentence at the end about the Prime Minister pretending to be the King. \'How did he know? How did he know that Oz had gone missing? And is he suggesting that Oz might have gone sick? And how did he know that someone was pretending to be him?"

Michael couldn\'t hide his expression and looked anxious.

\'I knew it!\' King Adrian thought before a grin appeared on his face, "As I thought, you came here to trick me", He said, controlling his anger and trying his very best to not punch the table.

"Leave, or I will have your head severed for the lions in my den. Don\'t you ever come to this castle or this kingdom ever again?" He continued irritatedly as he stood up and turned to face the door.

Now that Captain Roland had heard the entire story, he looked at Michael differently before scoffing and opening the door for the King.

Michael, however, was betting on George and the fact that King Adrian might be trying his luck just like them. "Wait!" he shouted daringly.

The King, one step away from exiting the room, stopped before turning to Michael, "If I hear one more word from you, I will severe your head myself."

Michael shook him, "No before you can do that, your entire kingdom will be destroyed, that I can swear upon. And if you leave, you will die, and you will see the true power of the Great Wizard."

The King chuckled as he sat back in front of Michael, "Why should I listen to a fraud like you?" Both the King and the guard were looking at Michael, scoffing at him; he couldn\'t believe that he even believed a word that came out of Michael\'s mouth.

"Because I said so." As everyone turned to see where the sound came from, a flock of pigeons flew towards them before revealing a man that stood stall with a powerful stance.

"That blue rob, that blue eyes… You\'re... You\'re Oz..."