Chapter 23 - The Fifth Prince And Azura

Iris was leisurely sitting on a comfortable chair. Recently, the troubled waters had calmed down in her house. No one came to bother her, trying to cause trouble for her...yet. Very soon, the bullying would start, just like before.

The hunting competition would give out it's results in a few days, so there was nothing to do at the moment.

Swaying her legs back and forth, Iris was bored. Riya was sleeping, so Iris had nothing to do.

Unable to take her boredom on any longer, she decided to go to the capital city for a stroll. She reached into her closet and brought out her old cloak. Donning it on, she left the Silcia Mansion secretly.

The capital city was bustling with activity. Everyone was engaged in something. There were stalls, shops, hotels, everything one could expect to find.

Voices and laughter resounded through the streets. All sorts of colors highlighted the environment making it brighter and joyful.

Iris walked through the enthusiastic streets smiling slightly. She felt a warm feeling, the feeling of life and clarity. Seeing such liveliness made her mood brighten up.

All of this harmony, was so, so far from her dull life...

Every cackle, every giggle made it's way into her heart, giving birth to a longing.

But Iris just felt that being of noble birth was much harder than any of this. She just wanted to be born a commoner, enjoying this type of life.

Hiding her gloomy thoughts, she continued to browse through the city. After some time she noticed that there seemed to be some sort of festival today.

People were making and selling lanterns and ribbons of all colors, congratulating each other happily. Wanting to find out what festival was taking place today, Iris stopped and tried to listen to the conversation of two shopkeepers.

However, just as she was listening to the voices, she heard a loud yell!

"Miss, get out of the way!!"

"Hm?...Ah!"

Thud!

Just as she turned around, a heavy figure crashed straight into her, a full-body slam!

Caught off-guard, Iris fell heavily to the ground with a thud. Rubbing her aching t.h.i.g.hs, she looked up to glare furiously at the ill-mannered hooligan who dared to bump into her!

His gently-carved face was flushed slightly, his blueish-green eyes were shaking slightly as he waved his arms around, trying to say something to the glaring girl on the ground that he had knocked down.

After getting a closer look at the hooligan's face, Iris blanked out.

Hm?

Isn't this man...

"M-miss, I'm so sorry! You see, I was running really fast and you were in the way...no! I-I mean I was being chased and so I d-didn't see you, ah! I'm not saying that you don't have any presence at all, I-It's just that, well, today is valentine's day s-so I was receiving many letters that I a-accepted unknowingly, so n-now I'm being chased by a huge crowd of girls...I-I'm sorry for knocking you down!" The handsome man reached out his hand to help Iris stand up who simply shrugged it off and stood up herself.

Just as the man was about to say something to Iris, they both heard the sound of many footsteps approaching them. Getting a sound of them, the man became more fl.u.s.tered.

Curious, Iris swept a glance past him, only to see a huge crowd of girls rushing wildly towards them.

"Here he is! Everyone, there is the man who accepted our letters!" Someone shouted in the crowd as they got closer.

"Ah, I didn't intentionally take those letters! Miss, please excuse me!" Saying that, the handsome man ran past Iris, dashing wildly as soon as he started to run.

Looking at the man's retreating back, Iris swiftly moved to the side to give way to the crowd to avoid being trampled on. Her brows tightened to a knot.

Why was the Fifth Prince in the capital city?

The man Iris recognized as the Fifth Prince Zhi Ruo appearing in the capital city's streets gave Iris quite a surprise.

But considering his frivolous personality, it wasn't that big a deal.

But still...Iris had a bad premonition.

Slightly worried, she decided to follow him.

...

After running for a long time at his fastest speed, Zhi Ruo stopped beside a tree and panted heavily, trying very hard to catch his breath. As he adjusted to his normal form, he raised his head to gaze at the man in the garden.

The garden was spacious and completely filled with roses. In the center, there was a pavement that looked like the old castles in the seventeenth century.

Underneath all of those layers of roses, were low-key luxury silver carved stone pillars, the pillars were placed strategically at the four directions north, south, east, and west.

He seemed laid back from his posture, one of his hand lazily supporting his head, one of his hand just hanging down with his red eyes closed, he looked very detached. When he felt a gaze on him, he opened his eyes, there was a glint in them and it was as if he could see through everything.

As this man turned towards him, Zhi Ruo made his way over and slumped heavily on the chair closer to the man.

He wore a look of exhaustion and disapproval all over his face, "Seventh Brother, this is not right! On your orders, I went to the dislocated shop in the city, and because of that I was madly chased by those star-struck girls, chased to the point of almost dying, yet you don't even utter a word of concern for me?! Am I still your older brother? What should I do the next time this happens?"

Azura opened his eyes lazily, taking a sip of the tea, "Disfigure your face."

"..."

Heck, his brother really has a venomous tongue. Even though he is supposed to be older than him by 1 month, he's still treated as the younger brother by him...

Sighing at his life, Zhi Ruo was just about to say something when suddenly, Azura opened his eyes, a sharp glint passed through them and he turned to the bushed nearby