Shue was naturally aware of Laura’s identity, so he didn’t dare make Laura do these kinds of things. He immediately approached the receptionist and took over the task of arranging their rooms.
Laura saw Shue coming, she didn’t hesitate to have him handle their things. She told him, “Prepare the best room for the Young Master. You and Blockhead should also live in high grade rooms, the young master said that his servants shouldn’t be looked down upon.”
Shue understood Laura’s words, Zhao Hai didn’t want to treat them unjustly therefore he just made this excuse. Shue immediately nodded and didn’t say anything.
Before long, the two accommodations were prepared. At this time, the attendant who was tasked to take care of Zhao Hai’s carriage came back, Shue gave him a silver coin as a tip, then turned him away.
Zhao Hai led Laura and the others to the arranged hotel accommodation. The accommodation had three bedrooms, a living room, as well as a dining room, it was certainly one of the best accommodations in the hotel.
Zhao Hai acted like he was just in an ordinary noble young master’s journey. He just stayed inside the place, letting Laura handle everything. When it came to eating, the food was just delivered as well as ordering a bottle of expensive wine, no different than any other noble young master.
Not long after Zhao Hai arrived at the hotel, a servant was running quickly toward the Grand Duke’s mansion and headed towards the rear courtyard.
This courtyard had a very elegant name, it was called the Orchid Courtyard. This was because it was full of orchids before, hence it had acquired its fame.
But now, even though the place is called the Orchid Courtyard, it didn’t have a single orchid in it. In place of orchids, it had a lot of Redspring flowers in it.
The redspring flowers were very beautiful, its flowers were red, but its flowering season was short. Moreover, even though these flowers were extremely attractive, some nobles sees its color as uncouth. Because of this, there were rarely any noble houses who planted these flowers.
Despite these, there was someone inside the Grand Duke’s mansion who liked this flower. So currently, the Orchid Courtyard were filled with these flowers, to the point of uprooting all of the original orchids in the courtyard.
Although the inhabitants of the mansion thought that it was a pity, nobody dared to express their thoughts. This was because the person living in this courtyard was the Grand Duke’s daughter, Ruyen Purcell, formerly the fiancee of Adam but later recalled the engagement.
Before, Ruyen had a huge influence inside the Grand Duke’s mansion, naturally it wasn’t because of Grand Duke Evan. Since Evan didn’t have any power in the past, Ruyen didn’t like him very much. Even though he was her father, she always responded to Evan with sarcastic comments, she didn’t give Evan any face.
At that time, Ruyen depended on her grandfather, an old elder from Evan’s clan. Her grandfather was a staunch supporter of Great Elder Caesar, therefore she was doted heavily by the clan. This made Ruyen develop a very arrogant attitude, she became someone whose eyes were way above their head.[1]
It was because of this arrogance that when Ruyen heard that the Buda clan had lost its power, she immediately wanted to renounce the engagement. His grandfather was in support of this, and the Great Elder, although he didn’t voice it out because of noble honor reasons, still put pressure on the Buda clan. But they didn’t imagine that the Buda clan would take initiative and renounce the engagement themselves. But it was at that point that the situation began to turn downhill.
The Great Elder lost his power, so naturally Ruyen’s grandfather lost his as well. Without power, he just became an idle elder, with an absence of responsibility and power.
While this was happening, Evan’s influence and power went the opposite direction. Evan suddenly took control of the entire Purcell Duchy, and with Laura’s help, made a lot of money. And then when Laura managed to provoke Southern King, the entire Magic Lily store was handed to him, making the Purcell clan’s power and influence even more abundant. Now, Evan’s status as the Grand Duke was unshakable.
Ruyen was very regretful, but it was no use. Her previous attitude towards Evan was very terrible, in addition to her actions towards the Buda Clan, it was impossible for Evan to forgive her.
However, she was still Evan’s daughter. Although Evan dislikes her, she was still provided with necessities such as food and clothing fitting for a young lady. But everyone in the Grand Duke’s mansion were well aware that Ruyen’s status in the mansion wasn’t as great as before.
Despite all of these, Ruyen’s arrogant personality couldn’t just be erased. Coupled with her unsatisfactory state, the house servants became her punching bags. No matter the servant did was right or wrong, she would still scold them. More importantly, Ruyen wasn’t a reliable lady, she had many scandals with various young masters inside Casa City, which gave her much infamy.
Grand Duke Evan initially didn’t want to meddle with her, but now that she was affecting the entire clan’s reputation, he couldn’t ignore it anymore. So Evan sent warnings to the young masters to get away from Ruyen, at the same time, he had Ruyen prepare to travel towards Rosen Empire’s capital Carson City to study.
Because of her father’s decree, Ruyen was very frustrated these past few days. She didn’t want to leave Purcell Duchy. In the duchy, she was a princess, although not in good graces, she still had her young lady status. Here, if she wanted wind, wind would come, if she wanted rain, rain would pour.
But if she went to Rosen Empire, everything would be different. What was the Rosen Empire? It was the most powerful human nation in the continent. Let alone a Purcell Duchy lady, even if the Aksu empire’s princess were to go there, she would be a nobody, not to mention a mere Purcell Duchy young lady.
Because she was frustrated, she ordered her servant to find her some amusing things to make her feel better. Otherwise, she would have to give her servants a good beating.
Now all of the servants in the mansion were afraid of her. This young lady’s temper was very short, every so often she would whip a servant. What made the servants most distressed was the fact that the young lady grew up inside the Duchy, there were very few interesting things that she had not yet seen here.
And while these servants were worrying, Zhao Hai’s convoy suddenly arrived at Casa City which caused quite a stir. They hadn’t seen a giant-horned bull before, so the servant immediately ran to the Grand Dukes mansion’s Orchid Courtyard to tell Ruyen this information.
Ruyen was truly bothered these days, since in two days she would leave Purcell Duchy. This frustration caused her to shout loudly, “Someone come here, Jill hasn’t arrived yet? If he’s still not, might as well not let him return.”
At this time, an excited sound came from outside, “Young Lady, Young Lady, an interesting thing had arrived in town.”
Ruyen froze for a moment, then said, “Come in.”
The door was opened, Jill came in from the door, he had a long nose with small openings, his body wasn’t that tall. He was Ruyen’s personal servant, a children of a Purcell Clan slave, thus he cannot betray the clan. At the same time, he was also a eunuch, otherwise, Evan wouldn’t let him become Ruyen’s servant.
Jill immediately entered the room and knelt beside Ruyen, “Young Lady, I had an interesting matter to tell you.”
Quite amused with Jill, Ruyen said, “What? What amusing thing has this young lady not seen inside Casa City? If you dare deceive me, you’ll better watch out for your skin.”
Jill just smiled then replied, “I wouldn’t dare, your highness. This time there really is an interesting thing, it just came from outside the city, a carriage. The carriage was made up of lightwood, the person inside seemed like someone of significant status….”
Without even hearing all of Jill’s word’s, Ruyen grabbed a golden whip from her table and whipped Jill’s shoulder with it as she scolded, “Lightwood carriage, our family also has one. And what kind of person with significant status has this young lady not seen. So is this the interesting thing you’d like to say? If so you might want to take a taste of my whip.”
Jill quickly replied, “Your highness, this one didn’t deceive you, the interesting thing I mean isn’t the carriage nor the person, but the magic beast pulling the carriage. It was not a horse, but a bull, it looked like a bull but it had two huge horns, each one about two meters long and a width of half a meter. This one hadn’t seen that kind of bull before.”
Ruyen was about to raise her whip, now that she heard what Jill said, she was surprised. Then she put down her whip and looked at Jill, “Are you really not deceiving me? There really is a bull with horns that big? I don’t think that you can find something that interesting, what nonsense.”
Jill added, “Your highness, I really didn’t deceive you. What I said is actually real, it’s currently at the back of Shelley Hotel, I saw it with my own eyes. It’s horns were this big.” He said as he gestured with his hands how large the horns were.
This time, Ruyen was really interested. Actually, she didn’t believe that Jill would lie to her, so she immediately said, “Really? You’re not lying?”
Jill nodded again and again, “Even if I had extra courage today, I still wouldn’t dare deceive the young lady.”
Ruyen nodded, “Prepare the carriage, I want to go to Shelley Hotel and take a look. If there is no bull like what you’ve told me, you’re finished.” She stood up as she spoke.
Standing in front of the door were two maidservants, they didn’t suffer any little sufferings from Ruyen’s whip, therefore they would tremble whenever Ruyen approached them. Jill also followed Ruyen, appearance looking calm but in fact, his shoulder was in agony. His shoulder was still burning from being whipped, but he cannot make Ruyen see his pain, so he can only follow her with a small smile.
The three servants immediately left the Orchid Courtyard. Jill was immediately tasked by Ruyen to prepare the carriage, Ruyen was still holding her golden whip.
This whip was also Ruyen’s special instrument. Ruyen was a magician, so it stands to reason for her to have a magic staff, but she didn’t like staffs, so she got a whip. But her whip was very displeasing to the eye, making her a joke inside Purcell Duchy.
Ruyen got on a majestic carriage pulled by a flaming horse and headed for Shelley Hotel. Her two maids were sitting with her inside the carriage while Jill became the driver. They didn’t need guards since the carriage had sported the Purcell Family’s insignia, and nobody dared to touch them inside the Duchy.
The horse quickly moved towards the hotel. Regarding the hotel, Jill was very familiar with it. Not only was it popular inside the Duchy, but also in the entire continent. It was owned by the Shelley Family who were the owners of the biggest hotel chains in the entire continent.
The Shelley Family, also known as the serpent family because of their insignia being coiled serpents, had been in the hotel business for about a millennia. Their names represented high-end hotels in the continent. Almost every big city in the continent would have its own Shelley Hotel.
Besides providing lodging and dining, the hotel also accepts mercenary missions, big mercenary missions that cannot be handled by small mercenary groups.
Ruyan had also came to dine in this hotel before, so Jill was familiar with this place. Quickly, they arrived at the front door of the hotel.
The attendant noticed Ruyen’s carriage, and after seeing Ruyen arrive, he immediately welcomed her outside the carriage, “This one welcomes the young lady.”
Ruyen walked out of the carriage then looked at the attendant and asked, “Wellen, I heard that there was a strange magic beast that arrived at your hotel, is it true?”
When Wellen heard what Ruyen said, he immediately understood why she came. Wellen fully knew that this young lady was a tyrant inside Casa City, so he cannot dare to offend her. He immediately responded with a respectful tone. “Your Highness, there was such a magic beast. It’s horns were massive, I hadn’t seen bulls with horns as massive as those.”
Ruyen replied, “Quickly, lead me to take a look.” As she said that, she left the carriage and headed to the hotel. Wellen, Jill, and the two servants immediately followed.
Ruyen was also very familiar with the hotel, she didn’t only dine here but also had meetings with her friends, she also came here to do other things, so Shelley Hotel had been very familiar with this young lady. But since the hotel had a rule to not disclose their guest’s matters, not many people came to know about it.
Because of this, Ruyen was also very familiar with the hotel’s back door. One had to pass through the lobby and then head the door at the back to go towards the back area of the hotel.
At the back of the hotel wasn’t single stable. It was divided into small courtyards, they were there for nobles who didn’t want to be disturbed, so the hotel would give them the courtyards. And the place where the hotel would place the magic beasts would be in the very far back. There were people who were specialized to take care of the guest’s carriage and magic beast. Carnivorous and herbivorous magic beasts were also separated.