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Chapter Twenty-One

The room was tense, as the beastmen and knights were in a standoff. The wild princess had made a move, and both sides were waiting to see who would make the second move.

Ghajs eyes had been narrowed and were now wide with surprise. I kept my blade hand steady, secretly desiring to take one of his eyes with me. "I beg you to make a quick choice for me, Sir; your men are growing tense, as are mine."

My words shook him from the shock of my title, and he growled, baring his sharp canines at me. "Your choice, pretty girl, but I'll take my pound of flesh from your face when you're through."

I smiled and, withdrawing my blade, I brought it down, slamming it into his shoulder. "I see. Then it would be foolish of me to let you out of this place alive."

"Stop," Kal shouted, trying to break past my wall of knights. "Please, let my brother go. Have grace, Your Highness," he cried.

I twisted the knife in Ghaj's shoulder and leaned in. "And why should I do that?"

A large hand shot up and grabbed my wrist so tight it felt like it would break, but I refused to retreat. "Give me a good reason to forgive your flea-bitten brother, wolf boy!"

"I-I," he fumbled over his words trying to find something.

I smirked, and I leaned in, ignoring the pain in my wrist. Ghaj's eyes dilated as he caught the malice in my eyes. "I guess I'll take both of your golden orbs for my desk."

"Wait! Wait, please. I-I offer myself; I'll give myself instead of my brother," Kal shouted, fighting against Dalton, who kept him back.

I brought my knee up and hit Ghaj in the sweet spot the minute he said this. A sharp exhale told me I'd hit my mark, and the rough hand gripping my wrist loosened. Yanking the knife out of his shoulder, I spun around and widened my arms with a foolish grin.

"Ah, exactly what I wanted." With a short laugh, I walked over to Daltons' side and looked up at the alcohol-soaked wolf beast men and his bleary gaze. "Since you've offered yourself to me, there won't be any takebacks. But in celebration of you becoming my new pet, what gift do you want? It can be anything."

While the rude Ghaj leaned against the wall, trying to recover from the pain in his balls and shoulder, his men hurried to his side, seeking to offer help.

Kal stared down at me ( he is very tall), those sharp brown eyes darkening before he finally said what I'd hoped he would say. "You're a princess; that's a higher rank than a lord, right?"

I flicked the blood on my blade off and shoved it in my boot with a callous laziness. "Of course, a lord could only dream of meeting me, especially one from this far away duchy,"

"Then," he paused, biting his lower lips. "Then, in favor of becoming your ...pet, could you help me save my son?'

"Are you sure that's what you want? Me, to save your son? What if I decide if I like him more than you?"

He shuddered butt when he glanced at Baros, Dalton, and Cirilo, refacing me, his expression hardened. "You don't seem to treat your pets wrong; I much rather my son be a groomed and well-taken care of dog than a beaten and humiliated wolf."

I smirked, "Then, I'll take your deal. You and your son will become mine."

LK

With a bit of fighting and some softening of hate (Ghaj hatred) with gold and a promise to care for his brother and nephew, my ragtag band all got aboard my carriage and returned to the academy.

"Y-your majesty, how are you planning to retrieve my son from the Lord Bariels hands? He's a cruel Count with a penchant for twisted games. From what I've heard, he has ties with your third brother, the prince."

I leaned back and crossed my arms. From Kal's words, it was clear that word of my third brother's downfall hadn't spread yet, which probably had something to do with the father emperor keeping everything hush. So those with ties to my brother, especially the nobles who ate the crumbs of those in the capital, hadn't heard anything yet.

Still, the Bailes family wasn't easy to deal with due to their waterways monopoly. The empire depended on those waterways for trade and travel, and since the Bailes family ancestors had constructed and implemented them, the family enjoyed gold from the royal families' pockets to keep those waterways working.

In my memories, those same waterways were used by an enemy nation to invade; luckily or unluckily, depending on who you spoke to, my dear saint bitch of sister and her rag-tag group of heroes stemmed this attack defeating the invaders long before they reached the capital or any significant damage was done. This was mostly because they brokered a deal with Bailes, which later, I learned, was to give prime land that had once belonged to a man who'd been desperate to sell it to save his sister.

I tapped my lower lip and smiled.

I ignored the way everyone in the carriage tensed up. "I have a question for you, my dear Kal."

"She's going to something evil again, " Baros muttered.

I pointedly ignored him. "You've ever wanted to own a waterway?"

"What?" Kal confused stared at her blankly. "I-, no."

"Hmm, well, that's a shame because there soon will be one up for sale. You see, the Bailes have control of most of the waterways here in this Duchy, but one piece will be selling soon," she grinned. "I'm thinking it will be how we start going about rescuing your dear little boy, but first, we'll need to assure ourselves he's well."

LK

Sena and Amoux stood across from me the next day after class, wearing dark looks on their faces.

"So, I heard you both were invited to Lord Bailes's house for a party?"

Amoux frowned, "Not going."

"He's a shit person; I wasn't planning on going," Sena said, adding his two cents.

I glared at them, "You two cannot survive being lone wolves. You need to make friends."

"I have friends," Amoux argued.

"I don't need friends," Sena added, snorting. "Plus, look around. What other mad noble do you know is making friends with commoners besides you."

I pursed my lips, "I have seen a few."

"A few," Sean repeated, amused. "Name them."

How dare he doubt my obvious lie! I hadn't seen many nobles interacting with the less fortunate students. Aside from the children of families associated with the church or the magic tower families, the nobles wouldn't lower themselves to interact with them.

I cleared my throat, "Since both of you are my pets, I'm ordering you to go to this party and...take me with you."

Sena groaned, "Why do you want to go to Bailes party? He's a pompous piece of shit who likes to slobber over every higher noble's hands. I'm sure this party will be filled with stiff kissing."

"I don't want to," Amoux said, pulling at his collard, clearly disgruntled. "Waste of time."

I shouldn't—I really shouldn't—but accompanying these two to the party would give me access to Bailes' party without letting anyone else know. An Argyos begging for an invitation—ugh, I'd make them pay for it later.

"...I'll give you one wish, not! Freedom."

Amoux's excited expression fell.

"If you both escort me to the party, I promise to fulfill one wish for you both."

Something told me I was going to regret this.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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