Aleric looked at the woman buried deeply in his chest. She looked like a tiny little chick hiding underneath a mother hen for protection. He smiled at his thoughts. To think that he would be comparing himself to a hen now.

“We’re here,” he said, and he patted her head gently.

Ingrid took a deep breath as she slowly moved away from Aleric’s embrace. It was the first time that she was out of her palace after so many weeks. Ingrid thought she was already over what happened a few weeks ago. But the moment her eyes landed on her surroundings, she instantly imagined an arrow coming her way and involuntarily flinched.

“It’s okay, I’m here,” she heard Aleric say, kissing her forehead.

She did not know when it started, but she noticed that Aleric had been constantly kissing her forehead.

"Let's go," Aleric ushered.

Ingrid lifted her head. She was met by Aleric's mesmerizing purple eyes. For a moment, she was lost in his gaze.

Everything in this world pales before her beauty. But not him—not his eyes that seem to hold the galaxy.

She was pulled back to reality when she felt his hand intertwine with hers, and they began to walk.

Ingrid scanned her surroundings. She was familiar with this manor called the Rose Residence. It made headlines in the capital when it first came into the market thanks to its extravagant price tag. It was being sold for 500,000 gold coins.

Even high nobles thought it was absurd. Despite it being located within the city center with easy access to the main road and the market place, Ingrid agreed with the nobles opinion.

The maximum price this manor can probably be sold for would be no more than a hundred thousand gold coins. Inflating the price to several hundred thousand felt like they didn't want the manor to be sold at all. Her speculation was further fueled when she noticed that the owner had no plans to lower the price, despite nobody taking any interest in buying the property.

Ingrid never expected that there would be someone insane enough to buy the Rose Residence. But it turns out there are.

When Ingrid first met Naz, he didn’t seem to have the aura of a noble or a rich merchant. Instead, he looks like a typical traveling mercenary. That was why she was really surprised when Naz told her that he was the buyer who made headlines in the capital after buying this overpriced property. She wondered how he could afford to buy it. Does being a mercenary pay that well?

Hopefully, the seller did not scam him out of his money. From their previous interaction, he seemed to be the kind that can be easily deceived.

As they were heading to the main mansion, Ingrid noticed something odd. They literally landed in their courtyard, but the several servants that they passed by did not bother with them. They even bowed in their direction before returning to whatever task they were doing.

Ingrid was about to point it out to Aleric when the giant double door swung open. A man in a butler uniform was standing in the middle of the hall with his head bowed as though he was expecting their arrival.

“Welcome, lady Ingrid, and your highness the crown prince,” the butler greeted.

“Johannes!” Aleric grinned and gave the butler a big slap on the shoulder.

If it were someone else, their shoulder would’ve been dislocated with how strong that slap was, but Johannes continued to bow his head as if it were a normal greeting.

“Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be taking care of the main base?”

“We are going to transfer the base here in Learia. I am here to supervise the transition,” he answered.

There is no use lying to the Crown Prince of Aradhya. After all, there is no outsider in the world who knows a lot about the existence of the Prickly Rose apart from him. Furthermore, the crown prince may annoy his master a lot, but he is a trustworthy man.

Crown Prince Aleric was taken aback. Their hold on the south cannot be trifled with. Even the Kingdom of Serus, which is the greatest powerhouse of the south, cannot touch them that easily. So why are they abandoning their strongest stronghold for a place where they still haven’t established a stable footing?

"This way, your highness, my lady, the master is waiting.”

“You know him?” Ingrid asked curiously as soon as Johannes turned his back.

“I’ve been trying to tame them. But they get wilder as the years pass instead,” he said while shaking his head, an amused smile etched on his lips.

Ingrid looked at him weirdly.

Johannes led them to a long, winding staircase and into a giant mahogany door. He knocked on the door and announced, “Master, Young Lady Ingrid of Lennox and Crown Prince Aleric Joaquin Kensington have arrived!”

“Tch, do you have to say my full name?” Aleric grumbled.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Johannes ignored him and opened the door. “You may now enter your highness, my lady.”

Ingrid felt her heart ramming into her chest. After their conversation through the emblem, she had a lot of questions that were left unanswered. Like if he were that boy with desperate eyes. And what kind of promise did she make to him?

"Greetings, your highness, my lady,” Naz and Felix said in unison as they bowed.

There were only the two of them in the room. Naz is wearing a black vest, while Felix is wearing a blue one. They would be very much mistaken for nobles with their attire if not for the uncomfortable look on their faces.

Ingrid’s eyes travel towards Johannes. It was easy to guess who forced them into wearing those. She couldn't stop her lips from slightly rising upward.

“Please, my lady, your highness, have a seat,” Naz said in an awkward attempt to sound like a proper noble.

Aleric almost burst out laughing after seeing Naz try his best to be formal. It was so unlike Naz. Aleric reminded himself to thank Johannes later for allowing him to witness such a side of this hard-headed bull.

***

The four of them sat across from each other in silence. They were looking at one another as though they were waiting for the other to start the conversation. To say that it was the most awkward silence Ingrid had experienced would be an understatement.

“Will one of you start talking already!” Flex, who couldn’t take it anymore, groaned in annoyance. “Don’t you know how itchy this outfit is?!”

Naz smacked Felix in the head. “You’re the one who asked to be here, and now you're complaining?”

“I didn’t know I would be forced to wear ridiculous clothing! I swear I’m going to murder whoever invented them!” He blurted while pulling on the collar of his shirt.

“Felix, manners!” Johannes who had just arrived, bringing a tray of refreshment, scolded him.

Felix instantly closed his mouth. But his pouted lips clearly indicate his silent rebellion.

“Please excuse this child’s behavior, my lady. Felix grew up in the wild, so he isn’t quite used to the nobles's etiquette.”

There was also another person who seemed unused to it. Naz has been holding it back, but his forehead was sweating as he tried his best to hold the urge to rip the itchy clothes off.

Johannes placed their drinks on the table, and to Felix’s delight, he quietly left the room.

“Sir Naz, I came here because I have a lot of things that I wanted to ask,” Ingrid started.

Naz shifted on his seat and unconsciously straightened his back as he saw the seriousness on Ingrid’s face. It reminded him of the unsmiling version of her younger self. But at least now her eyes don’t look empty, unlike before, and that made him relieved.

“Before that, I'd like to see the scars on your arms again."

The two men in the room were surprised by Ingrid's odd request.

"Hmmm, I heard that the more beautiful the lady, the more unusual their taste in men is," Felix stated while rubbing his chin and looking at Aleric mockingly. "What are you going to do, your highness? It seems that your future wife is going to be stolen thanks to my master's scars. Hahahha~argh! Ouch!"

Ingrid looked at Felix, who was holding his head after getting smacked by Naz in confusion. Why would she get stolen by a scar?

"Please forgive this child, my lady! He's still very young and blabbers a lot of nonsense."

Ingrid waved her hand and said, "Don't worry about it. I just want to see your scars to confirm something. But if you're not comfortable about it, I won't force you."

"No! I-it's fine, my lady. I don't mind."

Naz began taking off his outer coat, but then realized something and looked at Ingrid with a blushing face.

"Forgive me, my lady. Allow me to go to another room and remove my clothes," he said, taking off before they could even respond.

"So, how long have you known Naz?" Ingrid asked when there were only the three of them left.

"Hehe." There was a proud expression on Felix's face. "It may not look like it, but I am Captain's first companion. I was with him even before the Prickly Rose was created."

"Is that so? How did you two meet?"

"We met at the Tunnel of Trials. It's a tunnel full of powerful monsters. My mission was to survive in that tunnel for five days so I could become a full pledge assassin. But according to the captain, that tunnel was a hidden tunnel connected to the palace of the king of Serus..."

Ingrid was taken aback. After learning about the Prickly Rose from Naz, she began digging for more information about it. From what she learned, Prickly Rose was established four years ago. If she guessed correctly, Felix is about 14 years old right now. If it happened before the establishment of the Prickly Rose, how old was he at that time when he was thrown in that tunnel for a so called trial?

"Felix, how old were you when you met Naz?" Ingrid asked.

"I was 8 at that time," Felix answered as though he were remembering a happy memory.

On the contrary, Ingrid had a painful expression on her face. She heard rumors about a certain organization that kidnaps children and trains them as assassins from a very young age. But she never expected it to be true. She thought they were mere tales meant to scare children.

Her fist tightened. She couldn't understand what kind of cruel person would do such an evil thing. How can they destroy a child's childhood and innocence for the sake of their greed?

Ingrid felt a warm hand gently squeezing her shoulder. She looked up, and she was met by Aleric's playful smile. For some reason, looking into his eyes calmed her raging emotions.

"I'm sorry for the wait, my lady!"

Naz returned with only a sleeveless shirt, revealing the gnarly scars on his skin. They aren't the normal scars that you see on mercenaries or soldiers who have been through many battles. His scars were shaped in such odd ways that it was hard to guess what may have caused them.

Ingrid was drawn by a particular scar on his left arm that ran from his wrist until his elbow. It was as though the skin in his arm were peeled away, and all that's left to be seen are scar tissues.

But while staring at those scars, an image of a young boy with dark looking flesh falling from his arm suddenly flashed through her mind.

"Where did you get this wound from?" a young girl asked while holding her breath as she removed the dead flesh from the young boy's arm. It must have hurt a lot, but the young boy did not flinch even a little.

"From an experiment," he answered, his eyes clouded with fear as though he were reliving the memory.

"They were testing a potion that can aid in the skin's regeneration. At first they cut my arm, then apply the potion and the wounds would instantly be gone. But they wanted to test if the potion can restore a skin that is completely lost. So they scrapped off the upper layer of my skin. But it didn't work. It was really painful. They did not even give medicine for the pain. They just stormed off the lab angrily."

Her skin crawled as she listened to his story.

Then, all of a sudden, the scenery changed. She was inside a giant chamber filled with a lot of toys when a giant hand appeared in front of her face. In her attempt to evade, the hand missed her arm and got a hold of her dress instead.

The hand yanked her dress away, exposing her young and slender back.

"NO please!!! Nooo!!" she screamed when the hand started caressing her back.

Her eyes went wide with horror when the next thing she felt was his wet and disgusting lips brushing against her shoulder.

"Nooooo!" A high-pitched scream came out of her mouth. Then everything turned black.