Chapter 2: Court The Prince?!

I headed out of the cabin in the woods and with a different outfit to make sure I'm not detected by any of the town's folk since after that incident with the stealing magic crystals, I didn't exactly have the best reputation to just be aimlessly walking around town like that.

With a few twists and turns, I was able to make it into the black market. A remote part of the town where everyone of very questionable backgrounds flocks to. The smell of different potions drifted in the air as they were made to allure people to buy to them. Mostly they sell love potions, poisons, and other things that are considered illegal in the town area.

I sorta find this place home since no one is against me here and believe it or not, nobody performs petty thievery here since everyone knows each other, and pissing off one of them isn't really going to be the best course of action.

After a few minutes of walking, I finally reached where I needed to go. A bar in the middle of the black market where all high-profile criminals come to. The Foxy Sip bar. I told my friend that the name was stupid but she insisted that it was fine.

I then nonchalantly opened the doors to the bar to be greeted by my friend at the island table who's the owner of the bar.

"Look who finally made it! I've been expecting you dearly." The bartender gave me a cheeky little smile as she flickered her fox ears and tail.

"Oh hi, Luna. How's your bar doing? It has fewer people today, that's strange. Usually, when I come around this time, everyone is getting a taste of your alcohol." I looked around confused as to why the bar was less busy today.

This is Luna. She's a half-beast, half-human. We met when I was roaming around the black market almost about to get killed by gangsters since they didn't take it well when I scammed them off of their money but she was there to protect me and unlike me who barely can use magic, she's actually pretty good at it. She's also one of the high-ranking profiles in the black market since she's related to the king of the kingdom nearby called Beastia.

"Actually, the reason is apparently the Khisfirean Royalty released out some letters to young maidens around the kingdom. It's a pretty big event actually." She explains to me as she clapped her hands.

Suddenly, all the bottles and any glass type of material floated to form some sort of line to head straight to the recycling bin. It's as if all of them were performing a parade with them falling into the garbage at the end.

"Don't you have people that work for you? Why are you using your magic to clean up the messes?" I asked her, making her chuckle.

"It's about the letters that the king released. When they saw that, they decided to prepare for it." Luna replied.

"What is the letter about? It must be really important for them to just cancel on the job when this job literally pays a lot of money." I shook my head in bewilderment.

"Apparently." She fiddled with her ears playfully. "The king is looking for heirs to the throne and they decided to call upon the high profile maidens in the kingdom to try to court the prince. Though I don't really think it's a good idea since that prince is sort of an arse.."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he wasn't exactly the warmest person you'll meet since he has a habit of being really cruel to those he sees. In fact, the woman that was said to marry him. All wanted to quit because of how he treats them. Too bad though since he is pretty hot like, very attractive." Her mouth started to drool, imagining about the prince. Making me flick her in the wrists.

"Earth to Luna! I am guessing you got invited too since you are one of the high-profile women right?" I snapped her out of her little trance.

"Oh yes. I did get a letter, though I heard from the other women that he can be pretty cruel when assessing them, especially there is some sort of screening process to know who they should keep or not." She explains to me. "Though honestly, most of the women that court him just want to get a spot in the royal kingdom. Not only he is handsome, but he's also rich and powerful so I guess dealing with a bit of an attitude is enough to compensate for that. I mean if he's ugly and has a bad attitude. No one would try to get with him." She chuckled, smacking her hands on the desk.

"I suppose so." I was a bit lost for words about what she said. I guess she is a bit of a gold digger from what I remember her. She tends to hang around rich and handsome men even if their personalities were terrible.

"By the way! How is Chloe, is your sister okay? Has she woken up yet?" She changed the topic to my sister, making me frown to give her the bad news.

"No. Sadly she hasn't woken up. The magic crystals do keep her alive since they give her mana but I think I need something that requires a lot of money to do just to finally wake her up." I responded, pondering to myself that if only I had just the money, I would be able to finally wake up my sister and we'll be together again.

"Hmmm.." She thought for a moment before a lightbulb appeared on her head. Oh boy. I can feel that she has some sort of shenanigans again. "How about you try courting the prince! I think it'll be a good idea too!" She suggested making my eyes widen.

ME? Court the prince?! Has this girl lost it?!