“The Crown Prince will handle all of that as long as you’re arm candy beside him,” Dahlia cackled. “Who needs to be smart when you can be pretty instead?”
“AndI don’t have a powerful family,” I added, shooting a withering glare at Dahlia as she continued to titter. “I’d like to believe the Prince is smarter when choosing his future wife.” His voice already echoed in my head, chastising me for calling him “the Prince” again.
As if on cue, through the enormous windows of the dining hall, Claude and Winston were walking together and getting closer. They weren’t heading toward the hall, nor were they even looking in our direction, but I felt extra conscious about my actions anyway.
“Can you imagine becoming a princess though? It’s the easy life, and it comes with wealth and prestige.”
“If it’s so great, why don’t you sign up?” I snarked.
“No thanks, I have a cute mage waiting for me at home,” Dahlia snarked back, giggling.
I immediately felt a pang of jealousy. Not only did she have a loving family that insisted she came home weekly, but she also had a sweetheart waiting for her. I also wanted those things.
But was I being greedy? My own parents loved me, I had an older brother who doted on me, and I even had four men who made me feel great. It wasn’t exactly like hers, and when you counted the people, I had more than her. But why did that make me so envious?
God, staying here for so long was messing with my head. I didn’t want to lose my sense of self, and the more I existed here, the less I felt likeme.
Was I really doing the right thing?
Unsurprisingly, my other Elemental classes didn’t fare any better. It was a good thing Professor Strom — Uriel — had informed all my professors that I had an issue with my magic, so they could make their own observations. And the consensus was:somethingwas holding me back.
Was it a mana block? A curse? A psychological issue? That was the purpose of my extra class starting this Thursday. Unfortunately, the longer I thought about it, the more I believed it was myoutsiderstatus, and it was a thing I could never reveal to anyone.
Did that mean it was impossible for me to cast magic? That would put a huge damper on my escape plan. Maybe outright nullified it.
Shit. I didn’t have any other plans.
The following morning, I put on hold my Teleportation magic research and switched to looking up historical accounts of mages who had their magic tampered with. I might get ideas on how to fix it even if my assumption was wrong. Sincethisproblem wasn’t really a secret, I convinced Elias to help me along with Dahlia. I didn’t consider Claude since I didn’t want to bother a Champion.
We breezed through the morning classes — Runes, Arithmetic, and Ethics. I excused myself to the restroom while Dahlia went ahead to the dining hall to meet up with Mia and my knights, and Elias ran off as usual. We would meet at the library after lunch. We were free all afternoon to research until an hour before dinnertime when I was scheduled to meet with Vincent for his weekly lab consultation.
All in all, it was a solid short-term plan.
My head hurt like a bitch.
That was my first thought as I woke up, blinking my eyes open. I didn’t remember sleeping, and I certainly didn’t remember going to a brothel, if the sounds from below were any clue.
I was laid sideways on a wooden floor. Kinda grimy. As I tried to sit up, I felt my arms bound behind me, and my legs tied at the ankles. My mouth bit a rag tied to the back of my head.
It clicked at once.Kidnapped.
Really, as a noble daughter, wasn’t this expected? First lesson in 101 Nobility: youwillbe kidnapped. That was the point of having bodyguards. I didn’t blame them, though; this was entirely on me — I insisted they meet with me at the dining hall after their morning training, and we had been doing that since last week.
Whoever kidnapped me knew my schedule; struck during that brief amount of time where I didn’t have my knights with me. At least that was info I could work with. That could only mean they were a regular at the academy, either as a student or a staff member. Or knew someone who did.
Why bring me to a very public place, though? Anybody could easily discover me in this room. Unless everyone in this brothel was all in on this.
It was dim inside the room, and the sky from what I could see through the window told me it was almost time for dinner. I should be with Vincent right now, talking about his latest potion experiment. Was he looking for me? Did my knights notice I wasmissing? What did Elias and Dahlia do when I didn’t show up at the library?
When I heard footsteps nearing the room, I pretended to be unconscious and closed my eyes. The door opened with a loud squeak, and two, maybe three people walked in before the door squeaked closed again.
“Man, rich girls are bred different, aren’t they?” one man asked the other; I didn’t recognize the voice.
Something prodded my thighs, and I tried hard not to react. “Can’t touch this one at all?” Another guy huffed, and his question calmed me despite the feeling of my dress getting pulled up to my waist.
“Nah, the Lord won’t like that,” the first man confirmed. “Maybe we can look, though. Didn’t say anything about bringing her clothed.” A bunch of laughter sounded, followed by the ties of my uniform at the front getting loosened. I could feel my heartbeat speeding up; if I didn’t calm down, my breath would follow, and they’d know I was awake.
A hand brushed my collarbone, and in the next second, the neckline of my dress was pulled down, the cool atmosphere touching the skin of my bare breasts. Chuckles and groans rippled around me.
