Riku was lazing around on one of the beds in the guest rooms as he racked his brain to try and think of a way to get the key from Haru. Brute force is a terrible idea, I'll be killed immediately. He looked out the window to see that the sky was beginning to change into a dark blue hue. I just need to stay hidden, get the keys from somewhere, maybe find Sou along the way, then get the guys out and drink that potion to pretend to be dead while hoping the others find Soraru and bring them back and then wait for them to come find me. In his mind he could think of many possibilities where the plan could go totally wrong but he tried to remain hopeful that things will work out in the end.

He got up after spending a few more minutes going back and forth, opening the door and carefully looking around the halls he could see the occasional knights that were still trying to find information about the incident or the princes' whereabouts. He exited the room and just casually walked around to not raise suspicion of anyone. Though the feeling of uneasiness crept on him due to the quietness of the halls, aside from the sounds of knights' footsteps, it made him feel like he was being watched, well he was but the atmosphere made it seem like he'd get caught almost immediately doing something.

If I was Haru where would I keep the keys? Well, most likely it'll be on him... Riku was frowning as he worked on thinking how he would accomplish this if that was the case, he didn't have any powers so trying to overpower the black haired male wouldn't be the case, plus the male could just easily get it back and possibly do something to him which then makes the rest of the plan fall completely.

Riku sighed as he paced around the halls, each step slowly making him think that he couldn't and wouldn't be able to pull it off. But if I fail then they'll be the ones to suffer... I have to manage this somehow.

He paused as he saw Haru up ahead, the black haired male noticed his presence and smiled, teleporting himself next to him.

"How's walking around doing for ya~"

"Great," was the sarcastic response given.

"Hey, at least you aren't locked up like Soraru and Shima," Haru grinned as the indigo haired male just frowned at him, "you get to feel like a prince and they become the peasants."

"You're only able to do this because I was friends with you and the others," Riku narrowed his eyes at the male as his tone became sharp, "if I had left you to die back then and had not tried to befriend you then you wouldn't have been here."

"Well you can thank your kind heart because that's what led to this." Haru taunted, "seeing me back then reminded you of when you first met Senra and that made you want to help me out~"

"But, oh well can't change the past," Haru then dangled an earring in front of the male, Riku paled slightly once he realized it was the one Sou had. "I took this from your brother when he wasn't looking and fixed it~ even put the spell that Hana gave it, aren't I such a great friend?"

"Why?" Riku was worried about it. There has to be a catch to this.

"You can give it to him and tell him that you found someone to fix it~" the black haired male handed the earring to him, a sinister smile on his face, "you can already guess what'll happen if you tell him the actual truth."

"You wouldn't be able to know if I did or not." Riku retorted, "it's not like you can see if we're lying or not."

"Well if he isn't wearing it then I'll obviously know why," Haru patted the male's head, "be a good puppet and do what I say. Can't risk the chance of something bad happening to you or Sou~" and with that the male disappeared, leaving Riku hesitating on what to do.

He had to have done something else to it, no way would he put the prevention spell and not add anything else. He could already image the chances of the male putting a tracker spell on it but there were possibility of other worse things that could've been added. I could just tell him but still make him wear it to pretend I didn't but we can get unlucky and they end up finding out.

He sighed as he stared at the earring, the urge to break it was strong but that would just make it even more obvious for Haru to realize, thus probably worsening their situation. All Riku could do now is hope that once things go smoothly that Hana can do something to get rid of anything else on the earring.

Putting the earring into his pocket he thought back to his interaction with the black haired male. He didn't seem to have the key, though it could be in his pocket or somewhere else hidden on him. He was slightly wishing he would get lucky and the black haired male didn't have the keys.

So when he spotted something out of the corner of his eyes he considered himself very lucky and mentally thanked whoever he could.

He saw a guard just closing the door that led to where Soraru and the other two were kept it, taking note of the key being used to lock the door. He hid behind the corner of the wall as he watched the guard start to walk away. Riku glanced a room close by with the door slightly open, a small vase could be seen in it. Guess that'll do. He stared at it for a few seconds before nodding to himself and entered the room, grabbing the vase before smashing it as hard as he can on the floor, hoping it'd be loud enough for the guard to hear it. Waiting for a couple of seconds he slightly frowned as no footsteps were approaching the room.

Guess I'll have to be more aggressive. He grabbed a large shard of the vase and left the room, silently following the guard and once they were in a more secluded area he quickened his pace and stealthy covered the guards mouth before stabbing him with the shard.

He smiled as he heard the keys fall to the ground before the guards turned into a black mist. Riku picked up the keys and sighed in relief. I'm glad the guard was an illusion and I didn't just actually harm someone. Makes sense when I think about it, no one else knows what's going on so they need to make sure they have a way to hide things.

Riku then quickly ran back to the room, making sure to look back and see if anyone was following him, as he got closer to where Shima and the others were trapped he got nervous, afraid something would happen and the whole plan falls apart.

He immediately perked up as he saw the door leading towards the basement, once he entered he grinned and dangled the keys in front of him.

"Look what I got."

Soraru and Shima smiled triumphantly once they saw what was in the male's hand. Yuuto immediately snatched them from his hands and went to open the cell. The male then used the key to unlock the collar on him, smiling as it fell and hit the floor before stomping on it, breaking it completely.

"I'm not going to look like someone's pet. Next person to put a collar on me is going to visit their grave." Yuuto threateningly muttered as Riku rolled his eyes.

"Sounded a bit like Urata there."

"Good. I learned from the best~"

"Finally!" Shima shouted in excitement before lowering his voice once he realized, "uh I mean, oh shit we're still stuck in prison."

"Way to just yell out and announce that we're free." Soraru sarcastically said as the purple haired sheepishly smiled.

"Alright so we leave while you stay here," Yuuto returned the keys to Riku, "make sure to just take a small sip of the potion."

"Actually I have an idea." Riku said as he took out the earring, "but first this is Sou's, I'm positive they did something else to it while they fixed it."

Soraru gave him a worried looked, "well obviously you won't give it to him."

"Yeah but Haru kinda threatened me so I can't really risk not giving it to Sou." Riku frowned, "the best I can do is just tell him and make him be careful as he wears it."

"Should we try to give it to him?" Shima asked, "like make it seem like we took it from you thinking it'd help us."

"What good would that do?" Yuuto questioned the male, "if they did something to it then it might just make them realize we left and such."

"Well they're going to realize that eventually," Soraru stated as he gave Shima a curious look, "though what exactly are you thinking of?"

"We take it, then once we find Hana have her make a new one that we give to Sou. They might end up thinking it's the one they fixed while we have it and break it or toss it somewhere." Shima explained, "that way if they find it broken they'll just assume that we realized it might've been dangerous and destroyed it while Sou has one that protects him."

"But if it's destroyed wouldn't they find it weird that he's wearing one not destroyed?" Riku rose his eyebrow as Shima rubbed his neck.

"We'll just have to find a way to keep it hidden, maybe like an illusion or spell that makes it look like it isn't there."

"We'll think about that later, for now let's focus on getting out." Soraru said as he began to head to the door before stopping, looking back at Riku, "you said you had an idea."

"Yep, I broke a vase in a room to grab a shard to attack a guard—"

"Wait—"

"Don't worry about it, they were just an illusion," Shima let out his breath in relief while Riku continued, "I could head to that room and then drink the poison. Have it look like you guys or someone knocked me unconscious with the vase."

"That might be a good idea but wouldn't we just look even worse for attacking you." Yuuto mentioned as Riku shrugged.

"Who knows, anyways let's go." Riku carefully led them out of the basement, making sure to look around the corners in the hall to be sure that no one would notice them.

He closed the door once they entered the room with the broken vase and locked it. Soraru glanced out of the window, seeing that it faced towards a forest.

"We can leave from here and then try to head to the old building. If the others came then we'll end up bumping into them along the way." Soraru said as Shima slightly groaned.

"Wish we had something like Mafuteru so we can have it look for the others and tell them what's happening."

"We just have to hope that we find each other and don't end up running into a problem," Yuuto said as he took the earring from Riku, "if we see Sou we'll go with your plan and just give it to him and tell him, but if we don't then we'll do Shima's plan."

"That works," Riku took out the small bottle, looking at it a bit uneasily, "so uh....am I just gonna collapse the moment I take a sip or...."

"Don't know, you'll figure that out once you do it." The teal haired said casually, he gave him a childish grin, "tell us how it feels to be dead once we come get you later."

"How about we don't say things like that," Riku glared at the male before reassuring himself and taking a small sip from the bottle.

He felt dizzy, slowly finding it hard to breathe before ending up falling, Shima quickly caught him to make sure he didn't hit the ground. The purple haired looked a bit uncomfortable holding his friends unconscious body.

"Can we just leave now? I feel uneasy seeing Riku like that..."

Soraru grabbed the bottle from the male's hand as Shima let him down on the ground. Yuuto gave the raven-haired a curious look.

"You're going to take it?"

"They'll figure out the trick if they find the bottle," Soraru said as he put it away in his pocket, "plus it might be useful to us later so may as well keep it just in case."

"Alright now we leave before it's too late," Yuuto stated as he opened the balcony window, the others following behind, as they carefully made their way to the ground.

Soraru glanced back at the unconscious indigo haired male before closing the curtains and window. Good luck.

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A/n

*slowly walks in* Hi guys.....w I finally have a new chapter up, sorry it took so long, the lack of motivation made me hit a roadblock but the story's back now :D
Thank you guys for being patient with this bean, I'm slowly getting back to writing

I definitely don't want to leave this book unfinished (I hope at least ww) so please wait for this author, she'll do her best!

Hope you guys enjoyed the long awaited chapter~