Chapter 44: The Prince

Prince Marcus Aurelius sat boredly in his throne waiting for the next noble lady to arrive and present herself. As far as he knows, there's a line of them stretching from the hall down to the reception area which is five levels down from where he is right now making him scowl sourly in his seat. There are certainly more pleasing things he should be doing instead of entertaining these brats but his parents and sister saw it fit to make him suffer under prolonged hours of speaking with these bitches. And right now another one arrived.

"It's a pleasure basking in your presence my prince." greeted a beautiful woman with strawberry blonde hair wearing a pristine white dress.

"I am Princess Clara Cygne of the Kingdom of Azure." the maiden introduced.

The prince she addresses looked at her with disinterest before placing his chin over his hand as he scrutinized her.

"Hello, Clara. Cygne is the family that was formerly a small house in the empire, right?" he inquired with a bit of edge to his tone but the lady seemed to miss the small tint of sarcasm in his words.

"Oh yes, my prince. We started from humble beginnings and then rose to the top like a small grain of sand that turned into a pearl." she replied with a proud smile.

"A very expensive and beautiful pearl at that." he commented, flattering the lady and making her blush.

"I'm very grateful for your kind words. I think that his highness is also very good looking like the prince in all the beautiful fairy tale stories. You're so dashing and mighty. Just seeing you assures me already that the empire is in excellent hands. The Cygne family is extremely happy to be your ally."

Disgusting. Another power hungry bitch sent by her family. He thought but only replied with a wider smile of fake appreciation.

"Thank you. Oh, quick question. Your mama and papa suddenly got the balls and the money to buy a large land in the western part of the empire, built a castle on it, and suddenly you are calling yourselves royalty. Wow. How did your family pull that off especially when you're only scraping pennies from the tax of the people?" Aurelius inquired with a snake smile, mischief glinting from the corners of his eyes.

"Or could they have found something that doesn't belong to them? Like the sword of King Arthur and sold it back to its true owners."

"I don't know anything about that. Mom and dad said that we reached who we are today because they worked hard to achieve their dreams" she replied with a clueless smile.

"So you only eat the food they shove in your mouth and never question it? You know a smart woman who finds out things for herself and doesn't just believe everything told to her is something I greatly admire."

"Oh, I'm also that type of woman. When I didn't know what came first, the egg or the chicken I raised a whole farm of them and checked out which came from which. I figured that the egg came first before the chicken because like a pearl everything starts from something smaller. However, chickens are not as elegant as swans but at least they're very delicious." this time Aurelius wasn't able to hide his clear distaste for her absurdity

"Anyways what do you think about making peace with the Chasm demons? Do you think that we should stop the fighting and start befriending them to advocate world peace or should we kill all of them?" the prince asked, changing the subject.

"I think we should give them a second chance because they're people too, I guess. We should welcome them with open arms and gift baskets." Aurelius nearly rolled his eyes due to her naivety. Her ignorance and stupidity are making him annoyed by merely looking at her face.

"Say, Princess Clara." he started, pronouncing her name with a mocking end.

"Do you like spiders?" he directed her a smirk with an underlying danger.

"Not really. Those things are terrifying." answered the girl with a bright smile.

"Oh, yeah? I think there's one now crawling up your hair." he mused pointing to her head.

"What?" Clara asked before noticing the black object crawling upon her head. An ear-splitting scream erupted from her lips at the realization making her bolt out of her seat and throw her head around to remove the thing while the prince only laughed at her idiotic behavior. The toy spider fell on the table separating them and tears burst out from her eyes in the realization that she'd been pranked for the prince's amusement. She looked at him with a betrayed expression on the brink of crying.

"This is not amusing. I hope you had your fun, I thank you kindly for your time but I hope that you realize how childish you are." she stammered sarcastically before running out of the room crying. Aurelius only cackled as she left, slamming his fist over the table as he replayed the hilarious face the princess made.

"Brother what did you do to her this time? Is it a snake? A rat or what now? That is the fifth princess you've sent running away while crying. Aurelius, please treat women with respect especially these ones. They're very important for our alliance with the other families." Sylvia reprimanded as she entered the room with a disappointed crease of her brow.

"I know, I know but some of them are too weak and innocent like docile rabbits, while some are whores who will throw their legs open for me without a second thought, some are just plain stupid and most of them are entitled brats. I'm not interested in any of them, they're too boring and annoying." Aurelius complained slumping his back on his throne and resting his chin on his balled fists.

He flipped through the papers containing the information regarding the noble ladies and princesses. He crumpled each and every one of them before throwing them over his shoulders until he came across one that piqued his interest. Someone who seems familiar, reminding him of red, cold, wolf, winter, and the most curious girl he had ever seen in his entire life.

"Sister, send Ruby Pendragon inside. I want to meet her." he requested reading her file carefully paying close attention to every single detail about her.

"Ruby of House Pendragon? Sorry, brother but she's not here. Maybe you could choose someone else. Perhaps Guinevere Bellthorne will be good since you seem quite taken by blonde girls. I heard she's into fencing and mage craft."

"Already met her, she's a brat, all posh talking and whorey. Send this Pendragon girl a raven. She's the only one interesting in this pile. I want to try a date with her."

"That will be unacceptable. You see Lady Ruby is already engaged with Lady Carmilla of House Karstein. They've been engaged since Ruby was still being conceived. They are having a very affectionate relationship and they seem to be completely in love with each other. Some of the nobility are calling their relationship as the Love Between Midnight and Daylight, or Romance of Luna and Sol since they look completely opposite as well as their personalities like the sun and the moon. Perhaps the arrangement party made a mistake. They didn't background check if some of the ladies are already engaged."

"What a disappointment. It says here that she's a powerful fighter. A prodigy who mastered the scythe and sword at such a young age. I'm not particularly inclined to make her my lover. She seems too bright and hopefully, like sunshine, rainbows, and cupcakes with a huge tinge of naiveness and childish idealism. But her skill set is impressive. She may be a worthy opponent to give me a good fight." he mused with a smirk of mischief.

"Please refrain from the thought of bullying a little girl. You won't be getting anywhere near her even if father himself writes them a letter. The Pendragon House is an independent faction living peacefully in the north. Other than that they are a powerful military family. Combined with the Karstein riches, they're almost like another set of royalty. Lady Althreya, Ruby's mother, isn't much inclined to intermingle with the empire. She sends help to the people, doing a lot of charity, and giving a hand with pushing back the demon's but other than that they don't socialize much with the other nobility."

"Such a shame. Sister, send those girls back to their homes. I don't want any of them. I'm going out to hunt. This dating selection thing is so boring." He complained as he pushed himself off his throne and wrapped his cloak over his shoulders.

"But Aurelius, this is necessary to find your future queen who will accompany you in ruling over the empire! And hunting is very dangerous especially in the northern part of the empire! Wild beowolves prowl about even in daylight! Didn't you hear what happened to the daughter of the Pendragon family? Didn't her story become a child's tale to keep the children from playing in the forest? She nearly got gobbled alive by the monsters in the forest while the old couple died a brutal death!" Sylvia reasoned frowning at her brother. Aurelius only directed her a bored look while scoffing.

"But didn't she wipe them out even though she's just fourteen? If a little boobless brat can do it, surely a great prince like me can do it too but much better. You don't need to worry about my safety. I spent a decade in Pandora's Chasm, remember? I've been trained by Neherra and Thanatos and fought terrifying demons since I learned how to walk. I just want to feel the rush of adrenaline from combat. None of our soldiers or heroes can fight on par with me that's why I'll seek monsters instead." Aurelius noticed the disturbed look on his sister's face due to the mention of the Infernal fiends and that wretched place.

"That might be true but..." Sylvia trailed with creased brows but Aurelius quickly interrupted her to amend his statement.

"Don't take it as a praise to them. Don't worry, I'm fine now I'm never coming back to that place. I'm Aurelius II, Prince of Neo Macedonia and the little brother of the greatest female knight, Sylvia. I'm no longer Dyrrus the Infernal Prince. I'm only Aurelius now." He reassured, raising his hands on the air to show no harm or ill will. An inaudible sigh escaped Sylvia's lips as her frown was replaced by a small smile.

"Very well. I shall cover for you. But make sure that you return in one piece and don't get yourself in trouble, okay?" Sylvia replied, taking the papers from his desk containing the information of the princesses.

"Yeah! Thanks, sis!" The prince cheered before bolting out of the room and going to the stables to get his horse. He saddled his steed before mounting him and leading him to go north of the palace where the Igraine Woods lay in all its monster den glory.