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
After a while in the carriage, we pulled up outside the estate. As I got out, I noticed Larry wasn't behind me, so I looked back inside the carriage and saw him talking to one of his guards, "Larry, aren't you coming inside?" He turned around and smiled, "I have something I need to discuss with my guards. I'll meet you inside after I'm finished. I'll try to be done within 20 minutes." "Ok, as long as you don't leave me waiting too long, I'll be in the back living room where you were waiting for me earlier today." Larry decided to tease me a little and said, "I'll look forward to seeing you waiting in there instead of me this time." I turned red from embarrassment, "Would you stop teasing me!" Larry laughed, "But it's so much fun seeing your flustered expression." I pouted at him, "You do realise if I accept our marriage, I'll have over a thousand years to get even with you for teasing me so much." "And I'll have over a thousand years of happiness seeing you every day." His comm
After a while, a maid came into the room, "Miss, lunch is ready if you and his highness would like to make your way into the dining room." "Thank you, we'll head in soon." the maid then curtsied and walked out of the room. I looked at Larry and asked him, "Shall we go have our lunch now?" Larry smiled, "Of course, you talked so highly of your chef that I'm looking forward to it." "I'm glad to hear it." As we got up and made our way to the door, Larry asked me, "What happened to that guy from earlier? I think you said his name was Terry." When I heard him ask about Terry, my mood quickly got ruined, "He had some business he had to take care of, so he left." "Was that what that private discussion was about earlier?" I hesitated to answer for a moment, "Yes, it was..." Larry noticed I didn't seem too happy talking about Terry, "Did he do something? Remember, I'm the king's son. So I can help you if he's done something." "No, no, it's fine, I just don't like him much, but he hasn
After that day, I started to feel even closer to Larry. We started going on more regular dates almost every day instead of every other day for a week. The main upside to how busy I'd been with Larry was I had barely seen Terry for the entire week. I only saw him once briefly before I left with Larry four days ago. I was still annoyed with him when I saw him, so I didn't even acknowledge him. But, with how well everything was going with Larry and me, I, unfortunately, wasn't able to spend any time with Tasha during that time. With how busy I was, whenever she came to the estate, I had already left or was just leaving with Larry. When I saw her the other day before I left, I promised her that the next day I would push my date with Larry back to later in the day so she could spend the morning with me so we could catch up on everything. She told me she would arrive around 8 am, so I waited out in my private garden for her to arrive. I started waiting for her at 7:30. I was only waiting
Larry and I left the estate and got into my family carriage. Once inside, Larry told the driver, "Take us to Golden thread." Curious, I asked him, "Is that the name of the boutique you use?" "Yes, they make all my clothes for me." "They must be good. I've never seen you in a bad outfit. Also, I'm curious about your original plan for today if we didn't have to go to the boutique?" "I was planning on taking you to the restaurant we went to for our first date. After that, I was going to take you around the market square so we could explore any stores that caught your eye." "I'm sad we couldn't go on it, but I'm still happy we can spend today together." "There's no need to worry; I'll take you on that date next time." "I look forward to it." After a while, we arrived outside the boutique Larry was talking about. The outside of the building looked reasonably new and well-designed. As we entered the building, I could tell it was upper-class by the design and decor of the store. The
After I finished picking out a few new outfits for Larry to try on, he went to the changing room and came back eight minutes later, wearing the first of the three outfits I picked out for him to try. When he walked back into the room wearing the new suit, the moment I looked at him, he asked me, "So? How does it look on me?" I was at a loss for words seeing him in the new suit, 'This is dangerous; he looks too good in that suit!' "I don't know how the other outfits are going to compare. You already look perfect in this one!" Larry smiled, "Does that mean I look good enough for our first kiss?" I pulled an embarrassed expression at his comment, "Don't push your luck! Go back in there and try another one on before I kick you!" Larry laughed a little, "Yes, your future highness!" "That mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble! And I haven't said yes yet!" "So you're saying you're going to say yes?" I facepalmed while going blood red from embarrassment, "Just get back in the
The following day, I woke up early with a smile, got out of bed, went over to my dresser, and started brushing my hair before my maid arrived, 'Today's the day I get to go on that date, Larry was telling me about the other day!' While brushing my hair, Jasmin came into the room to wake me up; she was surprised to see me up early, "Miss, you're already awake?" "Yeah, I woke up early and decided to start getting ready on my own." Jasmin looked at me, confused and slightly nervous, "I've never seen you get up on your own before... You normally try to sleep in as much as possible and refuse to get out of bed..." I looked at Jasmin, slightly annoyed, "I'm not that lazy..." Jasmin smiled nervously, "Of course, miss, now, if you'll allow me, I'll finish brushing the rest of your hair for you." "Alright." Jasmin walked over, and I handed her the brush. After she finished my hair and helped me change, I headed down the stairs to wait for Larry to arrive. I decided to wait in the tea roo
A week later, Larry took me out on another one of our dates. During the past week, Larry came to learn how much I adore cakes and sweets, so he told me he'd take me to a renowned bakery called Velvet desserts for this date. On the way there, Larry said, "You know, the pastry chef at this bakery used to work for the royal family before he left to open this place." I looked at him, surprised, "If he used to work for the royal family, that must mean he's incredibly talented." "He is. You'll see just how talented he is in a short while." When we pulled up outside the bakery, the building wasn't much to look at. Very modest and ordinary exterior. If it wasn't for the sign on the front of the building, you wouldn't have known it was a bakery. Larry got out of the carriage first and offered me his hand to help me down. I happily accepted. As I took his hand and walked down the steps of the carriage, he asked me, "This is the bakery I was telling you about. What do you think of it?" "If
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