Chapter 13: Yet Another Boat Ride

          As the young prince walked up to his surrogate uncle, he noticed a man behind him. It was the same man that his uncle had talked about a lot, whenever he was brought up Augustus could only roll his eyes. Though, he was rather happy to finally meet the duke of the French isles.

          As he gazed upon the rather rotund man, he bounced upon and down on his feet. It wasn’t every day you got to meet the people you ruled over firsthand, at least, that was what he had noticed. The duke noticed him and bowed, then everyone else except his surrogate uncle.

          “Hello, I’m Augustus, and you’re invited to my birthday party. It’s nice to meet you!” he enthusiastically said to the duke.

          The man seemed to be taken aback at the young lad’s words. He had expected him to be rather snarky, maybe even derogatory. But he was just acting like a rather excited ten-year-old, or rather eleven-year-old.

          The man raised his head from his bowed poster and stood up, “thank you for the invitation your Highness. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

          As the prince looked at him with a giddy smile, he spotted his uncle looking at him with an expectant look in his eyes. Like he was making sure he did something, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why.

          It was then that his uncle changed his gaze and tilted his head back while looking down on him. Then he spoke up.

          “My prince, I think he is waiting for you to say something,” he told the prince.

          It was at that moment that he remembered what he was supposed to say when he wanted someone to stand up and not bow to him. No all honesty, the young boy had no idea why people bowed to him, it wasn’t like he was scary at all, unlike his dad.

          “Oh yeah! You can raise your head Mr. duke!” he told the old man, and he did so.

          Then the young boy looked at his surrogate uncle with big eyes, like he was deserving of a treat or ice cream. Also, why isn’t ice cream one word? That was the truly weird thing here.

          The older gentleman looked at him with pride in his eyes, as if he had taught the young prince all he knew of the world. He nodded his head with calmness and pride at the young lad. It was then the prince noticed that the slaves were still bowing in reverence.

          “You two can also raise your heads!” He told the two slaves, and they did so.

          It was at this moment that he locked eyes with the green-haired girl. She was really pretty, at least that was what he thought. She also had cat ears, at first when he had seen her, he thought she had pointy fox ears, but no, they were cat ears.

          She assumed a rather small and meek posture and presence. She tilted her head forward with an ever so slight, inquisitive look on her face. He was about to ask her what she was called when his uncle spoke to him with a rather happy voice.

          “My prince, I wish to ask you a question?” he turned to the older man in response, “what would you like for your birthday?”

          Augustus thought about it for a good minute. He had everything, he could get his favorite food anytime, and his dad got him anything he ever wanted. It was a rather hard thing to do, to buy a present for the prince that was him.

          The only thing he didn’t have was a royal guard, and that was because his dad didn’t let anyone that wasn’t under the most powerful slave spell serve him. Anyone under a slave spell was bound to not harm or disobey their master’s. it was also against the law for a slave top wield a weapon.

          That ruled out royal guards, but he did want a pet, or rather a cat. That might be why he seemed drawn to the older girl. She was a cat beastkin, but his dad wouldn’t let a beastkin slave serve him at all. It was all rather strange in Augustus’s opinion. They were bound just like any human slave.

          “I did want a cat, but dad gave me one right after I said so. I did then say I wanted it as a birthday present on my birthday, so he then stuffed it in a box and I can’t tell if it went to sleep or not,” he complained to his uncle and the older man flinched in sympathy for the cat.

          “Well, my prince, why don’t I get you a beastkin slave? The duke here told me where the best ones are so I can get you one,” his uncle said and the duke beside him nodded.

          The young boy thought about it some more but shook his head in resignation. It was rather sad to see the prince like this. He was actually getting rather sad.

          “I can’t get a beastkin slave, dad said enslaved beastkin are below even enslaved humans so I can’t have one. Sometimes he makes me confused. From what I’ve seen of your beastkin slaves they all are just like human slaves so I can’t really tell why he doesn’t like them,” the prince let out.

          The two were seemingly just going to be left out of the conversation, it was rather coincidental that the young prince wanted a beastkin slave, and there were two of them right there. It was not ironic; one would have expected that cliché. The duke looked over to the head maid that was basically his wife and sighed.

          “My prince, we have luggage so should we talk about your birthday in the ship while these two unload the cargo we brought?” he asked, and the prince nodded in response.

          But the spoken response differed from what he was expecting from the child of royalty. In fact, the slaves themselves hadn’t expected this. Only the man from other world seemed happy by his response.

          “Can I watch the slaves do that while you guys pick rooms?” he asked.

          Now, that was the response one could only imagine in their dreams, at least that was what the duke was thinking. The whole idea of slaves and royalty interacting in the same place other than the royal palace wasn’t even a cliché in books yet.

          “S-sure my prince; just be careful. The docks are a dangerous place for a boy your age. You could fall into the water and get hurt,” the duke told the eleven-year-old prince.

          The boy simply seemed peeved by this answer and response in turn, but didn’t say anything, only looking at the strange, winged girl in turn. She tilted her head in response, her back tilted forward as well.

          It was as if she was asking him why he wanted to come and watched the two women work. But then again, he might simply be entering puberty early. At least that was what Aisling had thought. But that wasn’t the whole truth.

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