Kidnapping (Marquis Williams)

The Vulpis Palace was one of the most famous places in the Revilon Empire's Capital, up there with the Royal Academy and the Adventurer's Headquarters. It was a place where few could enter unless invited, and invitations were rare. Rarer than a blue moon unless you were a high noble or an Adept.

I was a high noble, a marquis and only one step below a duke, the highest noble title. And this was still my first time entering the palace.

While I might hold the title of marquis, that was only because of my great-grandfather who had been a great knight who sacrificed himself in the last crusade to save the empress. My house had been promoted to marquis and we had been given a generous amount of land in the north-east of Revilon.

Under my grandfather's reign, my house had flourished. Although he was not the excellent warrior his father had been, he had been at least somewhat competent. With the rich lands given to us, it would have been difficult for any man to not become rich. Over the next half-century, my family became one of the richest in the entire empire, with the exception of the richest merchants, the dukes and the royal family.

That had all been brought to ruin by my sore excuse for a father. He spent far more than we made, throwing money on extravagant food, exotic alcohol and exorbitant women, to the point where my family became riddled in enough debt to bankrupt a duke.

Of course, growing up I had not known about the debt. It was only after my father's death, when I had already grown lazy and fat that I inherited the house as his firstborn legitimate child and learnt of the disaster he had left behind. Even if my family sold everything, we would not be able to pay even ten percent of it back.

And so, I did what I had to, for the sake of my mother and siblings. Becoming a slave trader wasn't my desired job, but it was an easy choice compared to becoming a slave myself. Capturing and selling slaves was one of the easiest ways to make money as a person with low-levelled skills and a subpar rank.

At first, I started by capturing slaves in my land, mainly targeting villages with only a few dozen citizens. I gathered my most trusted soldiers as we disguised ourselves as bandits and captured the poor young men and women. Then, I shipped them over to the Anos Empire where slavery was accepted in the south. Virgin women sold for the most, the prettiest ones netting me a few gold each.

But there were many problems I faced. The Anos Empire was far away from my lands, and I had to ship the slaves over quite a few territories owned by other lords. Not only that, the Anos Empire also refused to take human slaves, despite a quarter of my citizens being human. Finally, the border between Revilon and Anos was heavily guarded, and it cost quite a lot to bribe the soldiers on both sides to look the other way.

So instead of going west, I looked north, to the land of demons. My territory was already located near the Chaos Peaks so it wasn't that difficult to reach the passes. Getting through the mountains was another thing entirely, and it took me a while to find the commonly used passes. And even longer to find people willing to take me through.

But eventually I began a trade route between my territory and the north. Slaves sold for more than five times the price there, compared to in the south, so the cost of transportation and escorts was more than worth it.

After years of trading slaves, I eventually hooked in a big fish. The Demon Lord of Lust, Lilith Hadias. Not only did I offer her first choice of any goods I had, where she usually bought the most beautiful virgin women, but she also started buying information from me. After all, I was a marquis of Revilon and had a somewhat extensive network, which had only increased in the past few years.

She even gifted me a nice, enchanted wagon that helped me quite a bit. Quite kind of her.

Slowly, I started paying off my family's debt. After a few years of slave trading, making trips five or six times a year, I had made almost a quarter of the payments needed, after paying off the interest. While it was dangerous, slaves sold for quite a bit, especially when I began to focus on more premium merchandise. Higher ranked and exotic races sold for more.

It was after one trip when Lilith had come to me with an offer, to kidnap the darling princess of the Revilon Empire, Princess Adriel. Adriel often came to the northern wasteland to fight beasts, although she did have the protection of two adept. Not only that, she also had a teleportation artifact on her as well. The task was far from easy, and if we had failed and she escaped, my entire family would have been executed.

But the reward was too good to resist. A hundred platinums. Enough to pay off the rest of my debt. I could not refuse.

With the help of the Sadistic Knight, the crazy bitch, and some raiders sent by Lilith from the north, we easily managed to kill the princess' guards and capture her carriage. We had sealed off any teleportation using a special artifact so she could not escape. The plan went smoothly and we had easily captured the darling pink-haired princess.

Except inside was not the princess we had wanted, but her twin brother, Prince Adrian. Apparently, he had wanted to hunt in the north as well, feeling weak compared to his sister. Which was true, he was barely C-rank when we kidnapped him. But it had completely overturned our plans.

Fortunately, I was still paid for the endeavour. Although Lilith had been irritated that we captured the wrong-gendered twin, it was hardly a complete loss for her. She had been willing to buy young men in the past year to try her new blessing on, one that changed a person's gender. Even if all her past attempts had ended up in…failure, she was still happy that we at least caught the prince so she could try it on him. I was just content to get my money.

After one more trip to the north to gather the rest of the funds needed, I had decided to come to the capitol immediately to pay off my debt. What I hadn't expected was for the empress to hold a banquet welcoming her new daughter. As a marquis in the capitol, I really had no choice but to attend, lest I slight the empress.

A sudden announcement rang out from one of the guards.

"The empress, Aviana Vulpis and her daughters Princess Aurelia, Princess Adriel and Princess Adrianna have arrived!"

After hearing the words, the guests went silent as they all turned towards the entrance, where their attention remained fixed. Their expressions were all serious, waiting to see this new princess.

A few seconds later, a beautiful red fox woman arrived in the courtyard. She looked exceptionally sharp and oppressive; her aura strong enough to suppress even the adepts in attendance. Despite having the entire attention of the courtyard, her stance was firm, her chin raised as she met each and every stare. This was the empress, a sovereign.

Beside the empress was a younger, and less brilliant, copy of herself, the empress' firstborn daughter and the heir to the throne, Princess Aurelia. I could tell she was a little nervous, although she hid it quite well under her expressionless mask.

Princess Adriel walked next to Aurelia, a short distance away from the rest of the group. Some could argue she might be as stunning as her mother, if she decided to dress the part. Which she didn't. The young princess looked completely disinterested with the event taking place, her cold eyes piercing any who dared to gaze her way.

That was different. Although I had never seen Adriel before tonight, I had heard rumours that she was quite lively even if she never acted like a princess.

However, I was left completely shocked by the last member of the group, like everyone else who had seen the new princess. The muttering around me began to grow as more people noticed the last girl.

"Hey, why are their two Princess Adriel's?"

"M-My heart… I think I just fell in love."

"S-so cute. I just want to cuddle her~"

"Hey, do you think I have a chance of marrying her?"

"….you're a woman…and already married at that."

On the other side of the empress was the star of tonight, Princess Adrianna. Everything from her face and hair colour to her body shape were identical to Princess Adriel. The only thing that was different was her red and white dress and her curled hairstyle.

She looked beautiful even when standing next to empress, although in more of cute than sexy way. She was like a pure angel, as she did her best to smile at the crowd. I had met plenty of beautiful young women as a slave trader, but none of them had been able to charm me like this girl could.

The young princess was obviously nervous, her pale face and constant fidgeting just made her even more adorable. And being much less cold than the other three gorgeous ladies, who might actually kill you if you stared to long, made her the centre of attentions for most men, and women as well. After all, who didn't like staring at pretty ladies. I'm fairly certain most of the young man at the banquet were now aspiring to be her husband.

But that wasn't the only reason that I was staring. It was because I knew this girl.

She was the girl that had travelled with me from the south, along with that elf. After they had been taken by the royal knights, I hadn't even thought about the two since. To think that girl was a princess.

But why was a princess escaping from the north? Where did she even com from? Unless…

Could Lilith have succeeded in that curse of hers? Could this princess actually be Prince Adrian?

But if that were the case, I would have already been executed. The prince had most definitely seen my face. But that still left the question of where this princess had come from.

I took out my handkerchief and wiped the sweat off my forehead. This was going to be a long banquet.