The crowds roared in happiness at the sight of Laplace. Laplace nervously waved back stiffly but happily at the citizens of Crystal. The crowd could tell he was nervous, sorry attempted to cheer him up.
"Is that the prince? It has to be him! He looks worthy. He has good looks! He's apart of the royal family, for sure!" The citizens spoke with eachother. Many other positive comments can be heard among the crowd.
It was completely different from Laplace's thoughts. I thought the crowd was going to be silent and just stare at me. This is such a relief. Laplace thought to himself joyfully.
Laplace sighed and put on a smile. He fixed his posture and stood up humbly.
His father looked at him and gave a cheerful laugh, patting his shoulder.
"You will get used to this! At one point, you will yearn for days like this!" The king quickly put on a serious face and asked Laplace: "Now, ready for your speech? No introduction is good without a speech." The King asked calmly, expecting Laplace to respond positively.
Laplace's face went from cheerful and joyful to a lifeless white. He was never informed about any speech, whatsoever. However, he had to keep calm and figure something out on the spot.
He subtly nodded and walked to the edge of the platform his family was on, standing in the citizens' reach. He took a moment to think of a speech that could satisfy the crowd. I guess I should introduce my self first, right? Yeah, that seems good.
The crowd quieted down as the prince cleared his throat and waited for silence. "Hello, citizens of Crystal. As you know, I am your prince. I promise to..." Laplace did not think this far enough. Promise to what?! Promise to keep them safe? Promise to grow up to be a good king?
Laplace swallowed hard and resumed his speech. "I promise to be a prince suited for this town, and a king who will always put the citizens above all else. From now to my death, I swear upon the royal family that I, Laplace Zi Ovi, will guide the kingdom of Crystal to a better and safer place than it ever was!" Laplace cleared his throat once again and waited nervously for the crowd's response.
It was not a surprise that the citizen's burst into an uproar of cheers and chants. "All hail the Great Crystal!" they chanted. Some citizens close to the platform attempted to grab Laplace's legs and lift him up into the air.
Laplace stepped multiple steps back, looked at the citizens near the platform, and looked up. He felt like a true prince. He felt like he could take upon the role of king right now!
The king walked up to the prince and put his hand on his shoulder. "That was well, son." The king had a pure smile on his face. He seemed proud of Laplace.
The king watched the roaring crowd, reminiscing about his first speech as a prince. His eyes suddenly squinted and his pupils moved rapidly as he watched multiple of what he thought to be citizens with black robes run around in an organized and planned order.
He placed his hands on Laplace's chest and gave him a little push back. "Laplace, order everyone to evacuate and you go inside too. There's something strange about this situation." He said calmly. He seemed somewhat irritated, as if he knew something like this would happen.
Laplace, nodded at the king's orders. He seemed very confused. The king and Laplace began to evacuate every citizen with the help of guards. The citizens, with minimal annoyance but curiosity, quickly left the parade grounds, some with small cuts and bruises from attacks inflicted too fast for the normal human eye to notice and too fast for the body's pain receptors to activate. Just as the King expected.
Laplace pondered while locking himself inside: Why are we evacuating? Has an unexpected emergency happened?
…
The king stood tall, and closed his eyes. "Show yourselves, you lowly assassins. How dare you attempt to cause a scene in such a big moment?"
The assassins made no move. They stayed hiding and watched the king from behind buildings and market stands.
The king sighed and gave a little chuckle. "Very well, if that's how you want it." He yelled out the sneaky assassins. He muttered under his breath, "Benevolent."
An angel flew to the king's side from thin air and wrapped it's hands around the king's neck. The angel whispered information to the king while pointing at buildings and walls: "One mouse behind that wall, another one beside that market stand, two of them are hiding behind the well."
The king chuckled, and yelled: "And so the game of cat and mouse begins."