Yelli's Number

Ambai yawned as she walked through the busy corridor. Weirdly so, that day the entire palace seemed busy with something, the maid were in a constant state of panic, the servants and guards were murmuring amongst themselves.

But Ambai could pay them little heed. Her head was throbbing and her fingertip was swollen and aching. It was the finger that got pricked by that green book.

And even weirder is that Little Fynn went to hibernation all of a sudden. When she woke up he had rolled up besides her and was snoring a storm. She had tried waking him up, but he was too deeply asleep.

'Maybe something is wrong with this book,' she thought, carefully lifting the little green book. They had both been pricked by it the day before. Wrapping it in a small cloth bag, she rushed over to meet the infamous Devil for answers.

Vera and Altair, this world's suns, were high in the sky, setting a golden glow onto the entire forest. She had skipped her training today. Her master was quite strict when it comes to this, so he will definitely rage on her like a bull. So in order to appease her Master's anger, she wanted to meet her father to convince to him.

Ambai yawned again and fixed her slipping veil firmly in place.

"Darn, I should have worn my mask," she mumbled as she walked towards the court room.

Just as she was passed though the corridor she heard a loud shout.

"You... You dare," a man raised his hands to slap sobbing Ms. Yelli. She had her head down and her shoulders were trembling.

'What the hell? Who is trying to hurt her?' she thought. From his sturdy back and his attire, he did not look like anyone from her kingdom. 'It is the hostage prince,' she thought and shouted, "Deric! Stop!!"

Darting to the offender, she stood in front of pitifully sobbing Yelli and guarded her with her body.

The hostage prince's eyes went wide and stopped mid air.

"Don't you dare try to hurt Ms. Yelli? She is like my mother," Ambai threatened.

But that hostage prince had a shocked expression on his face. Moment later he lowered his raised hand with a small smirk.

Ambai felt her courage whisk away. 'Eh, am I not scary enough? Why is that guy smirking?' she thought as she gazed at him with her eyes narrowed.

Standing behind her, Ms. Yelli held her shoulders. "Prince Erudite, please, let the prince hit me. I deserve to be hit. I should have noticed the traitor Julia in our midst's but… but I failed to," she cried.

Ambai saw realization drawn the hostage prince's face. 'Now, do you fear me? I am strong prince ah,' she thought, puffing her chest high.

But unexpectedly the prince did not seem to be scared he kept gazing deeply at her as if he was trying to see through her veil.

Yelli leaned softly against her back; she could even feel her hot tears running down her face.

'Poor Ms. Yelli, she is traumatized by this villain ah, I have to protect her,' she thought.

"It's not your fault, Ms. Yelli," Ambai said. "And you," she pointed to the hostage prince. "You stay away from her. Otherwise I will hurt you."

The man chuckled out loud again. He subtly arranged his long dark hair that was hanging near his ears and held his hand out.

"Greetings Young prince, I don't think we had the pleasure to meet. I am prince Deric from the kingdom, Lafta," Deric said.

Ambai did not even want to touch him. She huffed softly and whispered, "It's displeasure for me."

But behind her veil, Ambai peered at him with rapt attention. 'So he is the guy my dad is planning to marry me off to,' she thought. The shabby man she saw him when he arrived to the kingdom and the one standing in front of her was quite different.

She gazed at him in scrutiny.

He was taller than Zhong and had a warrior's build. His long black hair, meticulously combed without a hair astray, was tied up in a ponytail. His sea-blue eyes looked like it could see thought anything. And his forehead of course had the maliciously black 'Number One'.

From her observation, he had coarse hands similar to her master Huyt. She even saw a huge scar on his neck that ran from his back. It was still pink, like a freshly healed wound.

'So he is a warrior, but I thought he was a prince. Why is he hurt so much? Do they torture their own prince in Lafta?' she wondered.

Comparing to him, her situation was like heaven and hell. Her hands were always soft and maintained without even a small scar on his body. Her body, quite lanky because she skipped her training most of the time. All in all, she looked like a spoilt brat.

She softly bit her lips and shook her head. 'Why am I dissing myself?'

"Prince Erudite?" the hostage prince softly whispered.

"What?" she said impatiently.

His lips held a wide grin. "I was really is a pleasure to meet you. I…. I was thinking maybe we could be friends," he whispered softly.

Ambai narrowed her eyes and gazed at him vigilantly. 'What is this guy planning, ah?' she knew that the ones with numbers will cause harm, so she did not trust his intensions. 'But isn't it better to have your enemies closer? Maybe I should try that tactic,' she thought and nodded her head.

"Hmm," She hummed, gazing at the little cloth bag she carried in her hands.

"That's wonderful," he exclaimed.

"Hey, I still don't trus…" she looked up at him in shock.

He had the most dazzling smile she had ever seen, with his eyes crinkled in the corner. And the bright golden light cast on him only just amplified his beauty.

"Whoa," she whispered.

But she noticed something peculiar. The smoky black number on his forehead started to dissipate slowly.

'It's disappearing! The numbers can disappear? What made this change? Why did his number disappear?' she wondered.

Slowly under her scrutiny, the number dissipated into thin air. After which his body was softly enveloped by a golden layer.

Ambai just stood there frozen, gazing at his dazzling figure.

With hesitant hands, she softly caressed the golden layer around him. 'It…. It feels like silk. So smooth,' she thought and continued caressing it.

A strong hand grabbed her hand and firmly shook it.

"I am really happy that you accepted my request," Deric whispered shaking her hand firmly.

Ambai felt a small eclectic shock pass through her hands from their connected hands. She laughed awkwardly and pulled her hand away. 'Whoa, what the hell was that?' she thought.

The soft weight that pressed on her back suddenly disappeared. "Prince, I...I will get back to my room now," Ms. Yelli softly whispered.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. Are you hurt anywhere, Ms. Yelli?" Ambai said. 'Poor Ms. Yelli, she should have been so scared to sob like that. Maybe i should escort her to her room' she thought. "I will escor..." she stopped mid-sentence.

What she saw shook her to the core.

"Ahh," she screamed and stepped back further away from her as possible.

Ms. Yelli was completely surrounded by black mist, but unlike the hostage prince, her smoke had a sinister a pair of sinister red eyes staring directly at her.

Gazing up, Ms. Yelli wiped her wet cheeks. "Little Prince, what is wrong?" she softly whispered.

On the maid's soft forehead appeared a sinister looking red number four. The smoke oozing from it stretched out towards her as if trying to touch her head.

'Yelli has a number!'

Ambai leaned closer into the sturdy body behind her. "Ah.... a spider.... yes, there is a spider on your head," she mumbled awkwardly.

"Oh," Ms. Yelli touched her curly auburn hair. This agitated the smoky figure. It reached out its tentacle hands towards her even more.

"Mommy!" Ambai screamed and jumped onto Deric. Her heart raced as she clung to him like a little monkey. The sinister looking smoky shadow was moving closer and closer.

"Prince!" Deric exclaimed and held onto her. His eyes wide, he gazed at the delicate little person in his arms.

But Ambai was too busy dodging the smoky tentacle to even notice him.

Another tentacle reached out to her, trying to touch her feet. "EEP," she shouted and hugged his sturdy waist.

'Oh my god, is this tentacle play? I want nothing to do with this, ah!!' she mentally screamed. In reality, her body turned stiff as she gazed at Ms. Yelli. The smoky shadow swirled around her and tried to reach closer to her.

Ms. Yelli was gazing at her with an unknown look in her eyes. "Prince is the spider gone," she whispered in an eerie voice.

"Ah, oh... it's still there, ah. It's big with red eyes ah!!" Ambai exclaimed, hugging him.

A deep frown marred Prince Deric's forehead. He peered at the sneaky little maid in front of him, but he did not see any trace of the spider. But the prince in his arms was still stiff. Shoulders trembling softly, Prince Erudite gazed at the little maid in fear.

'Why does he fear her so much? Didn't he just now defend her? So why?' Deric wondered as he hugged the little bundle in his arms.

He hugged the prince's waist and hugged close. 'If the Erudite fears her so much there must be a reason,' he thought. Deric hugged the little prince with his sturdy hands.

By then Ambai also noticed a muscular hand snaking around her waist. 'Eh, why is he holding me so tight, ah? He might squeeze my inners,' she thought and struggled a little.

But Deric was too busy glaring at Ms. Yelli to notice her actions.

"Prince Deric," she whispered.

He snapped his head towards her and gazed at her with eyes wide open. Ambai wiggled around a little and coughed.

Arms that held her tightly loosened a little.

"I am sorry, I... I didn't mean to. It was just..." Deric whispered with a guilty look in his eyes.

"It's okay," Ambai whispered. 'But still you didn't have to hug me so tight.' She thought internally.

Deric let out a breath. "That's good." He said with a dazzling smile.

Ambai hid her face in her hands. Well, it's because... she could feel her face heat up abnormally. 'So bright. Why is he so bright, ah,' she internally squealed?

Just then a gust of wind whooshed through the corridor, making her translucent veil flutter. As it flew its intricate beadwork, got caught in the hostage prince's hair.

Initially her mother had gifted her a normal looking white veil. But just a month ago, her mother had gifted this veil that was beaded in the bottom. Its additional weight kept the veil from flying around so much. The downside was that it was little heavy, so it kept slipping off of her face.

"Oh, let me get that," she whispered and got to untangling it. One of the silver beads was firmly stuck in-between his hair strands.

All the while, Deric gazed at her unveiled face with relish. His heart stuttered. Bump bump.. Bump bump... His mouth went dry.

Miriafa's prince was so beautiful. Dazzling green eyes shone under Vera's natural light.

Deric tightened his hold. 'I want nothing more than just hold him forever,' he thought.

"Yes!! This person is yours," A sombre voice whispered in his ears. "YOURS ALONE," it whispered.

Deric was startled. 'It's the voice again' he thought as his eyes narrowed in concentration.

"THIS PERSON IS YOURS. YOURS! DON'T LET GO! DON'T LET GO!" the voice screamed in his ears. "YOURS! YOURS! YOURS! YOURS!" it echoed.

This voice had been with him since he was young. Helping him out when he was in deeply in danger. Lafta was not a peaceful country; on top of it, his father had a large harem with only him as the legitimate Crown prince. All the other concubines wanted their own child to occupy his position, so they schemed against him constantly. Poison, assassins, Kidnappers... he had seen it all. This mysterious voice protected him through all his storms.

He did not want to doubt this. This voice that whispered his deepest desires. He did not want to fight this desire anymore.

"Yes, mine," Deric softly whispered and hugged close.

Ambai was still busy untangling her veil when she heard his small whisper. "Hmm, what is it?" she whispered.

"Nothing dear prince," He said with a smirk.

'Dear? Yay don't use endearment, ah. It makes my heart flutter,' Ambai thought as she held her flat chest. 'Oh, I forgot. I am a man.' She pouted.

'Eh! If I have a boyfriend, then I will be Gay. If I have a girlfriend won't I be a lesbian?' she thought. That's when realization hit her hard. 'Oh god, I can't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend!! Am I gonna live the life of a eunuch?'

"What is going on here?" a shout was heard from the end of the corridor.

All three of them snapped their head towards the direction to find a fuming Zhong with his eyes narrowed at the little prince.