Note:
Thank you, Kelly Goodwin, for gifting a castle to this book. With the new system, your gift helped "The Cursed Prince" reach more audience and, as the result, 350 people readers have added this book to their library in the past 4 hours alone. ^^
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While the king, queen, and the wizards were talking and making decisions on what the king should do to the dragon, they were unaware of the fact that a particular Princess and her friends had eavesdropped on the conversation. This kind of discussion was one of those that sparked protest and belligerence.
***
Harlow was outraged and stomped away from the halls. She avoided all the guards who actually had been on standby. When she was far away from the throne room and in an area only patrolled rarely by guards, she turned to her friends with a look of injustice.
"They can't send my dragon away, it's mine! Ughhh…!" Princess Harlow exclaimed and clenched her fists angrily. She searched her friends' faces for agreement. She repeated her words, "They can't decide what to do with it. It was a gift sent to me."
"Yeah, you should be the one who gets to decide, Your Highness!" Loran nodded. "It's technically yours so they can't do anything with it. Even a child would know the law of property. It belongs to you."
"For real, Your Highness." Jorei crossed his arms and huffed at the thought. "They probably only want to take it away because they're the ones interested in using it. You should keep it to yourself and then let me borrow it."
Princess Harlow threw the two older boys a look.
"Er, let me ride it when I'm with you?" Jorei added diplomatically. A wide grin decorated his handsome face.
Jorei received a smack from his older brother, Loran, as the princess decided to consult with their other companions for a less biased answer.
"And what do the two of you think of the situation?" Princess Harlow asked the other four who had been silent.
Loran and Jorei were both nodding and agreeing with the Princess readily, the same went with Dimitri and Damien, whereas Louis and Ava were actually looking a bit more agreeable with the idea of the adults who were discussing it.
The young man thought it was good to let the adults handle the situation, while the younger girl, Ava, just didn't like the idea of dragons and princesses. They both said as much while Princess Harlow took their answers into account.
"I believe that His Majesty and Her Majesty only have the best intentions for you, Princess Harlow." Louis pointed out with a good-natured and even mature smile. He was the oldest one among the bunch and he was the wiser of them all. However, even he sometimes couldn't talk Harlow into doing the right thing.
"Dragons aren't so interesting as they're dangerous!" Ava cautioned with her a look of a child who heard stories, myths, and legends.
In a way, they were Princess Harlow's own advisers. People who she could rely on to tell her the truth, and just like her mother, she valued good friendship and advice when it counted.
But for the first time, well, not exactly the first, Princess Harlow came to a decision that involved actually asserting her independence. "I want all of you to turn around and cover your eyes and ears."
"Huh?"
"Pardon?"
"Hide and seek?"
"No… well, not exactly for you guys," Princess Harlow had to admit with a mischievous smile. She was intelligent as a baby and, now at twelve years old, she was a lot more capable of getting things her way.
Or letting people see things her way.
"Well, come on. Count to at least five hundred, alright?" Princess Harlow said.
"Five hundred?!" Jorei burst in surprise.
"Cover your ears." Princess Harlow instructed. "Do as I said."
Before the children had even counted to one hundred, the princess was already long gone.
***
"Mother!!! Harlow left the palace!!"
Damien's scream echoed in the royal palace's hallways and entered the throne room before the boy arrived. Emmelyn and Mars exchanged glances, both looking so surprised.
"Huh? She left?" Emmelyn murmured. She furrowed her brows and waved at Damien to come closer and explain what he meant. "Why did she leave? Did she tell you? Do you know where she went?"
Damien spoke between his panting breath, "She said you want to return her birthday presents. She hated it and decided to leave."
"Huh? Leave?" Emmelyn turned to her husband." I think she overheard our conversation."
Mars let out a long sigh. He knew his daughter was stubborn and strong-willed. If she wanted something, she would do whatever it takes to get it. So… did Harlow overhear their conversation about returning the dragon?
"When did she leave?" Mars asked Damied with concern.
""Half an hour ago… I think," the brown-haired boy reply. His twin, Dimitri just arrived and confirmed his story.
"She took the dragon with her. They ran out from the stable," the boy said,
"Uf… she is only 12. We must immediately find her," Mars immediately felt distraught. He turned to Edgar who was sitting nearby and asked him to form a search party.
Edgar did the job quickly. He formed the search party for the princess and all of the children, especially the much older cousins, were taught to never let the Crown Princess of Draec out of sight because of her tendency to create a commotion if things didn't go her way.
Both the king and queen found out from the kids told that they eavesdropped on the monarchs' conversation with the wizards.
Not only the search party but Mars and Emmelyn also immediately went out and look for their daughter. It wasn't enough that only guards and trackers were sent for their daughter, they personally went out to look for her.
Neither of the parents would simply sit down and wait for their daughter to be found, both of them were at the forefront of the search party along with their friends who quickly lent their strengths to help them.
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Today is the Christmas Mass Release Day, Dec 13.. I will start publishing 5 chapters in these hours and the rest will be at night time at my place (next morning your time).
