He had always used this method, forcing himself to fall asleep. "Forget it. I might as well take a walk around the Imperial Palace. I'm already inside it anyway." Uchiha Hikaru had never experienced the other parts of the place; he could only access a small portion of the Imperial Palace.
He was still very curious about it. He had heard the Second Prince and First Prince describe how magnificent this place was, yet now that he had finally arrived, he had not had a larger area to explore.
He stepped outside. The lights at night were even dimmer, yet they did not make him sleepy at all. He had not expected bright lights to make him feel tired, but that was not something he could change now.
"How strange. Why is it like this? Could it be that my body is naturally different from everyone else's?" Uchiha Hikaru stopped dwelling on it and spotted a spiral staircase.
Slowly, he made his way to the edge of the stairs. When he looked up, he found them stretching into immense darkness. The topmost floor was probably where the First Prince stayed.
Yet when he lowered his head, he found the space below equally hollow, like a bottomless abyss. He had no idea how many levels lay beneath the Imperial Palace.
"It's already so late. If I climb up, I probably won't find anything, and I might wake the First Prince and ruin his day tomorrow." Uchiha Hikaru decided to head down and investigate.
"Hey, Uchiha Hikaru, what are you doing?" The moment he stepped onto the first stair, a voice came from behind him and nearly scared him to death, though it did not really stop him.
When he turned around, he found the Second Prince standing there, staring blankly at