"Kōsoku, change into appropriate attire for a child of your status, your father requests your presence in the gardens." Rod Reiss sternly said before turning around and leaving Kōsoku's room.

It took the young royal a moment to process what his uncle had just said. He was sitting at a desk that was recently installed at the end of his bed, reading over documentations of battles from thousands of years ago and strategising what he would've done differently had he been in the commanders of the losing side's situation.

But his train of thought was redirected into a brick wall by his uncle. His father. Recently he had started to suspect that his father didn't know of his existence but Rod's statement implied that he was aware and was just a neglectful parent.

After Kōsoku organised his thoughts and emotions he walked out of his room and into the hallway of portraits. As he walked he studied the portraits as he normally would until he reached the end of the hallway. Suddenly a feeling of dread flood into him as he saw his father's portrait.

Uri Reiss

829-842

'Why did he show up this year of all times, I have a bad feeling about this.' Kōsoku's eyes widening as he hoped his sudden appearance was a coincidence.

Once he slightly opened the glass door at the back of the house that lead to the garden, a warm gust of wind furiously attacked him, attempting to push him back inside until suddenly the wind stopped. The halt of the wind was shortly followed by the glass door shattering in front of him, shards of glass catching him on their descent to the ground. The glass opened up a wound on his cheek that drew blood that rolled down his face before embracing its fall from grace. The drops of blood were absorbed by a lone daisy that had been blown to his feet from the wind.

A daisy, the flower that symbolises innocence and purity had been tainted by his blood, his blood had taken the innocence of a daisy and was now resembling a petunia, the flower of resentment and anger. It hated him, it hated his blood, and he didn't blame it.

Despite all of the bad omens he was intent on meeting his father. He ventured through the garden that was easily the size of a football field to retrieve the answers that he wanted. The garden nursed every species of flower within the walls, Kōsoku didn't know why their family did that, originally he thought that noble families did it to show off their wealth but he had seen his cousins Florian and Abel tend to the garden numerous times so maybe all women liked gardens, he didn't know.

He walked through the maze like garden without taking notice of any of the flora until he saw a bush full of daisies looking towards him, however as soon as he turned to look back at them a gust of wind hit them making them face the other way looking as if they were either ashamed to look at him after he tainted their friend or they feared him for what he had done.

Looking ashamed, Kōsoku kept walking until he found the centre of the garden. The centre of the garden was a large circular shape that was separated from the rest of the garden by an old stone wall that would probably collapse like a tower of cards if you looked at it the wrong way. The northern half of the centre had a pond that sheltered a few lily pads on its left side. A bright green coloured frog with white dots peppered on his back lay down on the only lily pad concealed by the shade of the large sessile oak tree. On the north side was a large stone table with four wooden ladder back chairs on each side as well as one on each side of the table. He remembered having to sit at that table for hours during the day during events such as his cousins' birthdays. The south side also harboured multiple flower bushes while the north side didn't have a single one. The last object of significance inside the central border of the garden was an old wooden bench that used to be a dark green colour but the only remnant of that was left over shards of paint on the underside or the bench. The bench was positioned in the centre of the area facing towards the lake so that anyone who wanted to sit there had a nice view. On that bench sat a man who looked like an older version of the portrait of his father. His hair had lost most of its colour and his features looked like they had seen better days. He even had a walking stick resting on his right shoulder showing Kōsoku how old he was.

Pawn E4

Kōsoku understood what his father wanted, so he walked towards the bench feeling like he was on the final stretch of a marathon that began when he was younger and first learnt about his father. He sat down on his left and took notice to how his father continued to look out over the lake not acknowledging his presence.

Pawn D5

"You've grown." Uri spoke after what felt like days of waiting in silence. This comment took Kōsoku completely of guard, he had never met his father so unless he was comparing his current size to his size when he was born then Uri must have seen him without him knowing. After studying strategy for the last two years Kōsoku had started viewing conversations as games of chess, information could easily be extracted from the way someone talked, acted or sounded during a conversation so he tried to dig for as much information as possible during casual conversations and thought that he was an expert at it. Kōsoku knew that Uri's start to the conversation was meant to get him to slip up, Uri was testing him but Kōsoku wasn't going to lose.

Bishop B5 Check

"Does uncle Rod send you sketches of me or do you have all seeing eyes because I've never noticed you before." Kōsoku responded as calmly as he could trying to not let Uri know that his opening line threw him through a loop.

Pawn C6

"Urklyn draws a sketch of you every year on your birthday and gives it to me." Uri replies defensively, however he was not as defensive as Kōsoku wanted him to be. He was lying through his teeth and it was obvious, Urklyn is the only one in the family who can't draw to save themselves, it was like Uri wanted him to know that he was lying.

Bishop A4

"Say father, why did you decide to meet with me now, is 842 a favourite number of yours? Or did your busy schedule only open up a free spot today?" It was Kōsoku's turn to play aggressive and try to surprise his father.

Queen A5

"I lost my key to the house thirteen years ago and only found it today so I thought I would come and give you a visit." Uri responded, countering his advance perfectly, Kōsoku looked at URI's facial expression and noticed that it looked like he wasn't even trying, but he knew that wasn't the case. His words had revealed nothing and he didn't look like he was about to crack anytime soon

Knight C3

The conversation continued with the younger Reiss getting nowhere until eventually Kōsoku slipped.

Pawn E4

Knight E4

Queen E5

Knight H3

Knight F6

Pawn C3

Bishop G4

Rook F1

Queen E4 Check

Queen E2

Queen E2 Checkmate

Kōsoku had gotten no answers and Uri had somehow gathered all of the information that Kōsoku knew and kept repeating it to dodge questions. It was irritable.

"Kōsoku, you're a smart child, you should know how the theory of everything within the walls works. So tell me, what do you want? I'm not asking as an interrogator or as an opponent, I'm asking as your father." Kōsoku wasn't expecting his slacker of a father to care about his future, but something urged him to tell him the honest truth.

"I want to join the scouts." The words left Kōsoku's mouth without him being able to stop them. Suddenly there was complete silence and Kōsoku was expecting his father to start shouting at him. After two minutes of nothing happening but an unsettling silence, Kōsoku asked, "Aren't you going to scold me or something?" Kōsoku asked turning to his left and seeing his fathers lips morph into a smile.

"No, I'm happy that you want to join the military, because the reason I asked for your presence here today is because I'm giving you some advice that you should take." Uri told him before sitting in silence for a moment.

"Run. Pack your things and run as far as you can, forgot all about this family and disassociate yourself from it. If you can do that, you'll be able to live a long life." Uri spoke seriously, not in the laid back tone he was speaking in before. Kōsoku's eyes widened and he looked at his father for any signs of him joking but didn't find any. Kōsoku quickly stood up but before he could leave his father reached into his pocket and pulled out a white chess piece.

A knight.

"Why did you give me a knight?" Kōsoku asked, genuinely curious as to what the reason is.

"A knight isn't the strongest piece on the board, but it is unique and if used correctly can outsmart a stronger piece. From our conversation today I gathered that it suits you." Uri paused before continuing and stared at his son, "Are you going to stand there looking at me or are you going to run?"

Kōsoku didn't waste any time before running as fast as he could back through the garden and into his room intent on heeding his father's advice.

"Kenny, what do you want? Do you want to speak with me one last time?" Uri asked when he noticed Kenny's presence behind him.

"Nah, I was watching you when you were having a talk with your squirt and noticed that you didn't look at him once." Kenny informed him.

"I don't deserve to see what he looks like, I've not been a father, the only thing I did was curse him with royal blood." Uri said cheerlessly.

"Maybe so, but that was your last chance, you're passing it on tonight aren't you?" Kenny asked rhetorically earning a nod from his friend.

One week later

Kōsoku had rode all the way from the north of wall Sina to Trost on a horse that he stole from one of his family's carriages. He was wearing a white button up shirt and beige trousers. Along with a pair of black shoes and a backpack. He was glad to have made it to Trost without being approached by bandits because he was carrying a large amount of cash on him. He had enough money to pay for accomodation and meals in Trost for one week before the ninety-ninth cadet corps started and the rest hidden underneath a false bottom in his suitcase. His suitcase contained a chess board and as many books as he could fit into it. The backpack that he wore on his back contained a few changes of clothes and other clothing items.

He reached into his pocket and fiddled around for a moment before pulling out a piece of fabric that he had had for two years.

The wings of freedom.

Thanks for the reviews from the last chapterI really appreciate them. I know that the chess game wasn't very advanced because I was having a hard time figuring it out in my head and I'm not that great at chess. I will be updating this a minimum of once a week (maybe more than that if I have free time). If you liked it, please leave a review telling me what you liked and if you didn'tlike it tell me what I could improve on.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin