As we looked around for the prince, I tried to dig deeper into who this guy was, but he was too tight-lipped about everything to do with himself apart from his name. I slowly got frustrated and ended up outright asking him, "Can't I know anything more about you past your name?" He thought about it for a minute before smiling and saying, "But wouldn't that ruin the mystery?" His answer only frustrated me further, "Uh, you're just frustrating. Not everyone likes the mysterious type, you know..." "Then why can't you stop paying attention to me and asking me questions?" For some reason, I couldn't stop myself from blushing at his comment, "Don't get so full of yourself! I'm only curious! You're the only person here who somehow knows what the 3rd prince looks like, so it's only natural I want to know how." "But you didn't ask how I knew him. You only asked questions about me." I felt embarrassed being caught out like that. Then, just as I was about to yell at him for being arrogant,
After a few minutes, the waiter returned and guided us over to the table. As we sat down, he handed us a menu each, "Please take your time choosing. I'll be just over here ready to take your order." I picked up the menu and looked it over, but I couldn't recognise any of the food on there. I had never eaten or heard of anything listed on there, so I didn't know what to choose, 'Why did he have to take me here! I have no idea what I'm ordering! What even is Ceviche?' Larry noticed I was having a hard time on the menu, so he asked, "If you like, I can order something for you?" "No, I can pick for myself! I just need a minute..." "Ok, take all the time you need." I kept looking over the menu until I found something that sounded familiar. Unfortunately, since it had been a lifetime since I had fish, I didn't remember much about it other than its taste. After a minute, Larry asked me, "Have you decided what you would like yet?" I wasn't confident I would like my choice, but I still a
The next day I was outside in my private garden when Tasha came over to visit for the first time since my coming-of-age ball. When Tasha walked into the garden, she greeted me the moment she saw me, "Sash! Since I never got to see you on your birthday, I wanted to-" when I looked at Tasha, she stopped mid-sentence the moment she saw my eyes. I was confused about what she was so surprised by, "You wanted to what?" Tasha's face was both shocked and surprised, "Sash, there's something wrong with your eyes!" "What's wrong with my eyes?" "They've changed!" I suddenly realised that she didn't know, "Oh, that. Yes, I already know about that. It happened during my coming-of-age ceremony." "What exactly happened?!" Tasha came over and sat down as I explained everything to her. Finally, after a few minutes, I finished my explanation, and Tasha sat back in her chair in a state of overload from the information, "That's a lot to take in all at once... I didn't even know something like this w
As we walked into the estate, I noticed the Marquis wasn't with Terry, so I asked, "Where's the Marquis? I was told he would be visiting today as well." "My Father had some last-minute business to take care of and entrusted today's meeting to me." "Speaking of business, I thought you worked as a magic teacher at Red phoenix academy. So why are you working with your Father in the magic trade?" Terry pulled a sly smirk at me, "I don't see how that's any of your concern." I couldn't help pulling a frustrated look at Terry, "Well, I have to make sure you're qualified to judge our product and not just blindly assume things about it. I know you have a history of wrong assumptions." Terry pulled an amused but slightly annoyed face at me, "I seem to recall nothing but sound judgement on my part. However, I do recall meeting a lively child who didn't understand proper manners. As for my qualifications, all your magic talent is all the evidence I need to show my knowledge and skill of magic
Hearing him talk about this ability I apparently have, I couldn't help my curiosity and asked him, "Did your Mother tell you how to use the ability?" Terry stared intensely at the mana shard while looking like he was lost in deep thought, "No, she only told me what I could expect if I awakened my eyes. Needless to say, she was disappointed when I didn't." As Terry said that, I could see the depressed look on his face, "I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been hard on you, feeling like you let your family down." Hearing me say that, Terry let out a light sigh and put the mana shard in his pocket, "Nonsense, me not awakening my eyes never meant I let my family down. On the contrary, my Father holds my talent for magic in high regard. If he didn't trust my abilities, he would have never entrusted today's meeting to me alone." Seeing how Terry was acting, I couldn't help but think, 'He's put his guard back up. He let it down for a moment when I asked about my abilities, but now his eg
Later that night, after the maids had finished getting me ready for bed and left the room, I sat in front of my dresser mirror, staring into my eyes, 'He told me I have the ability to change my eyes, but I have no idea how to even begin.' I started to try and practice whatever I could think of to try and discover how to use the ability. Finally, I began to focus and make my mana flow around my body while focusing most of it towards my eyes. As I did, my eyes didn't change colour, but they did start to glow brightly, 'It didn't work... And I didn't know my eyes glowed when I used my mana now.' I stopped my mana flow and started to try and think of a new method to change my eyes. But, as I did, I couldn't help but think back to when my eyes were still magenta only two days ago, 'Even though my pure pink eyes look mesmerising, I just can't help but miss my old eye colour...' Thinking about my old eye colour, I closed my eyes and remembered what they used to look like. While trying to
While Terry and Larry were talking, I finished getting ready after 12 minutes. As I rushed down the stairs, I was met by Jasmin waiting for me at the bottom. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, she walked up and told me, "The prince is waiting for you in the back living room, miss." "Thank you Jasmin!" I rushed into the living room, but when I got inside, from what I could see, it was empty, "Larry, are you in here?" Hearing no response, I left the living room and returned to Jasmin, "Larry isn't in the living room." Jasmin looked surprised, "I did tell his highness that he was allowed to explore the estate while he waited. He must have done precisely that." I let out an exhausted sigh, "Ok... I'll go look for him." I looked around the estate for five minutes before I saw Larry talking to someone by the front door. Unfortunately, the way he was standing, I couldn't see who he was talking to. I walked up behind him as I heard him saying, "Of course!" Curious, I asked, "Who
I put the gem back on the shelf and kept exploring deeper into the store, but the deeper I went, all I found was more of the same, "This store doesn't seem to have a lot of variety in what they sell." Larry looked around the room, "You're right, but don't worry, this is only our first shop. We'll be visiting plenty of others. This one was designed for the common dragon in mind and not nobles like us." "I also wanted to ask you, do those mana accumulators come in different qualities like mana shards?" "They do, actually. Like mana shards and gems, these come in low, mid and high-rank. Unfortunately, the ones sold here are more than likely all low-rank." "What are the differences?" "The higher rank ones have a greater accumulating effect and use less mana to work since they're of a higher purity." "Do you know anywhere that sells them? I think I'll buy a high-rank to try at home." "Unfortunately, I don't know, but we'll be visiting many shops today, so with your eyes, you should b
Zander is a high schooler who dies while saving his best friend from a speeding truck. When he wakes up, he finds that he's inside an egg. Once he breaks out, he finds that he's been reincarnated as a newborn dragon-shifter noble girl. He now has to live his life with a family, something he never had in his previous life, while learning how to live as a girl and a dragon. She goes through many troubles in her childhood but eventually makes it to her coming-of-age ceremony that's held when dragons turn 21. During her coming-of-age, she meets the 3rd prince with who she has an arranged marriage. She has to now spend the next month getting to know the prince and ultimately decide if she wants to marry him. As she spends time with the prince, another noble notice's that the prince is being less than honest about himself, so he warns the mc to be careful, but the mc doesn't listen. While the mc gets to spend more time with the prince, she notices his personality starting to take a darke
After the guard left, the king looked at Terry and me, "You should bring her up here and let her rest on the crown princess's throne." Terry looked at the king, surprised, "Are you sure, your majesty?" "Of course I am. My son has troubled her greatly. It's the least I can do." Terry then made his way up the stairs and placed me down on the throne beside the king. Once I was sat down, I said to the king, "Thank you." After an hour, the guard returned with two other guards dragging Larry by the arms, wearing special shackles that prevented him from using mana, casting spells, or changing forms. The two guards dragged Larry up to the king and dropped him to his knees. Larry looked up at the king and asked, "Father, what's the meaning of this?!" Without realising it, Larry's eyes were still in their pink state for the king to see, "I can see you actually had pink eyes this whole time." Larry then realised his mistake, "That's beside the point! Why have you ordered your guards to put
Over the next month, the guards set up the barrier like Larry told them to, which kept me from collecting the mana in the air. Finally, after that month was over, it came that time when Larry would normally give me some small amount of food. One of the guards in front of my cell received a call from Larry. When he finished talking, he turned to me and said, "His Highness said he won't be able to make it until later today, and because of your previous attempt to escape, he won't be bringing you this month's ration." I let out an amused huff, "He barely feeds me already. So why do I care if he misses one?" The guard didn't respond and turned back around to continue standing guard. Finally, after a few hours, it came time for the guards to change, but no one came in to relieve the current guard. After a few minutes of waiting, the guards in front of my cell became restless, "The next shift should be here by now. Those two in the evening shift are normally more punctual than this." "J
Larry would come back to the cave every week to try and convince me to sign the contract, but I refused every time. Finally, after three weeks, Larry came into the cave carrying a stale piece of bread, "You've been in here a month now. Aren't you hungry?" "I went two months without eating of my own choice. You really think I'll cave after a month?" Larry smiled at me, "I have to admit, I do admire your spirit. I think you've earned this much, at least." he ripped the bread in half and threw one of the halves into my cell at my feet, "I'll give you the other half next month." He then left the cave. I reached over, picked up the piece of bread he gave me, and took a small bite out of it, 'Tastes awful, but it's better than nothing. But I should ration it for the next month.' After taking just one bite, I put the bread down beside me and started practising my mana control, 'He said I can't use my mana, but what about the mana in the air?' Concentrating, I was able to see the faint gl
As I slowly started to come to, I opened my eyes and looked around the room. I noticed I was in what looked like a cave. After completely coming to, I sat up and had a proper look around. I was inside a cell built into the corner of a cave with guards standing just outside the door to the cell. Feeling groggy along with a headache, I took off my wig and mask and threw them on the ground, "What the hell happened? Where am I?" "You always ask a lot of questions, don't you?" I looked over to my left and saw the man in the crow mask standing outside the side of my cell, "Who are you? Are you the bastard that kidnapped my child?!" The man smiled as he took a few steps to the side, allowing me to see the rest of the cave. As I looked behind him, I saw a pedestal in the middle of the room with my egg on it, "My egg! What the hell do you want?!" "You never stop asking questions. That's something I really couldn't stand when we were together." "Just tell me who you are!" The man faced me
While we were still in Walter's office, I asked him, "Can we cast disguise spells on ourselves before we go to the masquerade?" "Spells like that will be broken the moment you walk into the castle. You'll have to wear a wig to hide your hair, but I'm not sure how we'll hide your eyes. Terry doesn't need to change his since magenta eyes are still relatively common among nobles, but pink eyes are rare enough that dragons will know any noble with them." "I can just change the colour of my eyes." "That won't work. Like I told you, spells like that will be broken when you walk into the castle." "Dad, I can change the colour of my eyes through my own will." Walter looked at me, confused, "What?" I leaned in towards Walter as I slowly changed my eye colour to grey, "I can change my eyes to resemble that of any natural dragon eye colour." "And this isn't a spell?" "No, it's one of a pink eye dragon's abilities, but it's apparently kept secret." "I can understand why. An ability like
Terry and I spent the next month working together, combing through everything we could find on the three noble families we were looking into, but we couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. While Terry and I were looking through documents in his office, I finished reading the one I had and threw it on the desk, "Nothing! I can't find a single thing that can help us!" "Sash, please, we'll find something. It'll just take time." "Terry, it's been nearly two months since our egg was taken from us. I want to get it back." "I do too, but we have time. The child won't hatch for nearly five years. So we have all that time to search." "From what I've seen, we're not even close. It's obvious after looking through all this these families didn't do it!" "Then we start again and look for something else to help us." "And how long will that take? I don't want to leave our child's life up to some ruthless bastards who stole it!" "What do you suggest we do then? We've been doing all we can.
The next day, Terry called Dan, "I need you to come to the estate today." "I'm a bit busy with work today. I can come down tomorrow evening if that's fine with you." "I'm sorry, but we need you to come down today. It's an emergency." Dan started to get a bad feeling, "What's happened?" "Late in the evening yesterday, our estate was attacked, and our egg was kidnapped. Not being able to deal with it, Sash's shut down and hasn't said a word since yesterday." "I'll be there as fast as I can." After a while, Dan arrived at the estate, and Terry escorted him to our bedroom as he told him, "Like I told you, she's completely shut down and unresponsive." "If I'm being perfectly honest, I can't blame her. I wouldn't take it well if my children were kidnapped." When they entered the room, Dan walked over to me and started to check my state, "Sash, can you hear me?" I didn't respond or open my eyes. After Dan finished examining me, he said to Terry, "She's in shock. She could wake up tom
Terry walked me into the living room and put me on the settee. Seeing that I couldn't stop crying, Terry crouched in front of me and held my hand, "Sash, we'll get our child back, I promise you. But right now, I need you to stay here. I'm going to call the guard. While they're on their way here, I'm going to go to the incubation room and see if they left anything behind we can use to find them." I was too emotional to talk at this point, so Terry reached into his pocket, gave me his handkerchief and then got to his feet, "I'll be back soon..." Terry then left me to calm down in the living room while he went upstairs to the incubation room. He looked around the room and couldn't find anything, only some scratches on the floor from where they had placed something heavy down, "Looks like I was right. They were smart enough to bring a transport box for the egg to keep it warm." He then went out of the room and checked on the guards. Unfortunately, they were all severely knocked out and