Jake's right hand snakily combed through his clothes, but he remembered that he was allowed to carry weapons in the Hall.
He eyed the princess, predicting her next action, clenching his fist, preparing for an attack, but an attack was never to come.
Slightly surprised, he thought, 'She isn't going to attack. We are in public. Wait! Why am I acting like this?'
Jake mentally scratched his head as his mind was going crazy.
It wasn't Jake's nature to act before thinking, but truthfully, right now, all Jake was thinking was an excuse to attack the princess.
They were something about her that bypassed his character setup and set him off, and that was going to be a problem.
After cooling his head, Jake stared at the princess.
His eyes twinkled as he flashed a neutral smile at the princess. Now that he had curbed the strange influence, Jake wasn't going to act at her pace, he would find out what about the princess that repulsed him.
It wasn't strange to Jake as they were a lot of things that innately repulsed him.
For instance, anything that was ugly and far from perfection. They would all meet the deaths if they met Jake, except if they had used.
In Jake's defense, he was doing a rare humanitarian duty, ridding the world of its ugliness. He couldn't stand looking at something that was extremely far from perfection.
Once in his pre-rebirth days, Jake was living comfortably completing his various assassination.
On one particular day, he was tasked with eliminating a particular family, but upon getting there, he found out that the family was not at home.
He had gotten the wrong intel, and he made his informant pay for that. Well, that is a story for another day….
So, Jake was left all alone in the insanely huge house. He wanted to wait for the family to come back, so he decided to check out the fun parts of the house, after all, he had the house to himself. That was what Jake thought….
Five minutes into his self-ordained house interview, Jake was swimming in the house's pool, fluttering around like a mermai--merman.
Suddenly, he had the sound of his most terrifying rival. He heard the bark of a puppy dog.
Now, puppies were always cute and well-liked, and Jake didn't like that.
He was meant to be perfectly handsome and cute, but in the internet's cutest beings on the planet poll, five puppies were above him!
Since, that day, he made a secret vow to exterminate the whole puppy population.
So, that's what he planned to do when he heard the puppy's bark, but when he saw it, he became mentally displaced.
The puppy wasn't anything usual. It even had "I am Special!" words on his dog tag. For once, Jake agreed with it, it was definitely special, SPECIALLY UGLY!
The puppy had no hair and only one ear. It had dirty teeth and unpolished nails. Furthermore, its four limbs had different lengths.
All in all, the puppy was a special terror.
It made sense why the family didn't take it along, but they didn't know they had doomed it, because such sight was not good for Jake, especially a drunk Jake, who had drunk five bottles of expensive wine in the Kitchen's fridge.
Jake's speech slugged, as he vowed to kill the beats-the puppy.
He grabbed a nearby lamppost, holding it like a flag.
Looking back, Jake thought that was one of his most embarrassing moments. Luckily, no one was there to see it.
Back to the ultimate fight, Jake swat the puppy with the lamp post, but it didn't kill the puppy, instead, the lamp post broke.
Angered, Jake ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and tried to swipe the head puppy.
After multiple tries, he successfully decapitated the beast--uh, the puppy.
Jake, in his drunken stupor, felt so victorious that he left the house to celebrate, forgetting that he had a mission to complete.
Day after, the top trending news was how an assassin assassinated a cute defenseless puppy. Jake watched as multiple influential figures vowed to bring him to justice!
Back to the current time, as stated before, after encountering various situations similar to the puppy ordeal, Jake wasn't surprised that he felt a strong repulsion towards the princess.
All of these thoughts swirled in Jake's head within seconds of contact...
...
Hearing his sister's voice, Prince Roan groaned, "Cheyenne, what is it again?"
Of the three children of the Kings, Princess Cheyenne was the only one that resembled her mother. She had a unique silvery-white hair that she usually kept long, but for the celebration, she braided it into a crown style.
She didn't inherit the mature face of the royal family. Yet again, she got her mom's whitish face which when added with her cherry rose skin made her look quite the prankster.
As she was in puberty, the notorious princess had a modest bust and bottom which was said to be her reverse scale.
Cheyenne, in her beautiful long dress, winked at her brother, "Can't a sister talk to her brother? I come in peace."
In the royal palace, it was common knowledge that the rebellious princess Cheyenne had a knack for pranking her brother.
In fact, it was counted as a game among the servants, with the scoreboard being [Cheyenne -100 points], and [Roan - 0 points].
In Fact, the crown prince dreaded his little sister. She was just too strange and extremely lazy. She had no ambition and didn't like to cultivate, always finding a target for her tricks.
If it weren't for the countless resources the royal family possessed, Cheyenne wouldn't be in [Realm 1] currently!
Prince Roan responded to his sister, his face wrung in defeat, "We both know you don't understand the meaning of peace. How many times have I flashed the white flag in your face, yet I still received your occasional pranks!"
Sensing a heated conversation, the nearby nobles stepped aside and allowed the two royals to debate.
Cheyenne's innocent eyes beamed as she giggled, "That was a long time ago. I have changed. Haven't I, Gavin? The last time that we met, I didn't light your ass on fire as I did before."
Being dragged into this, Gavin internally screamed, 'Why her again?! Also, she didn't light my ass on fire, she lighted my entire body on fire.'
However, he didn't say it out loud.
He knew more than enough not to go against Princess Cheyenne.
He stuffed his pride as he replied, "Of course, Princess Cheyenne has been really kind lately," his mouth squirmed as he quavered, "She has truly changed!"
Princess Cheyenne's appearance had scared the nobles nearby, so when she tapped the shoulders of the remaining noble, which was Gavin, he got scared and excused himself.
"See brother, even Gavin agrees with me!" Cheyenne smiled after she tapped Gavin.
All the while, Roan smiled, inwardly thinking, 'You call that an agreement! That was no better than blackmail!'
Knowing his sister couldn't be stopped, he replied, "It is nice to see that you have changed---"
He turned his head, feigning surprise as he pretended to spot someone, "--Is that who I think it is? Sister, please excuse me, I need to talk to this person!"
Like that, he left instantly. He didn't wait for a reply.
As Jake saw this, normally, what he would be thinking was how desperate all the fleeing nobles acted, but that was the furthest thing on his mind.
'She is bad news. While many may not notice, she singlehandedly used her reputation to create a private space for both of us,' analyzed Jake.
He had instinctively grouped the princess under the intellectual type, and he was not wrong to.
She most likely had a face hidden underneath her princess persona.
Jake decided, 'This is a game of composure. I need to make the most dangerous impressions so that she can steer away because she has most likely noticed me, just like I noticed her.'
His thoughts were interrupted by the princess, "Still thinking? You are making this boring."
Jake emotionlessly smiled as he moved closer to her, "Am I?"
"Yes, you are. Quick question, what are you?"
"I should be the one asking the question," spoke an impassive Jake.
As they were still in the hall, they kept their conversation to the minimum, hiding questions beneath their question.
Suddenly, claps sounded as the crowd cheered whatever was going on on the stage.
The King stood up, saying, "Everyone, pick a partner and for a while, let's just dance to the beautiful music."
After he spoke, a group of people carrying various instruments took to the stage.
The King left the stage and the hall, as he allowed the nobles to have fun, and the dancing began.
Listening to the stage, Jake got an idea, "Princes--"
Cheyenne retorted, "Please, just Cheyenne."
Jake, a smile still hung on his lips, extended his hand, "Well then, Cheyenne, may I have the honor of being your partner?"
He was well versed in the affairs of nobles, he could act as one anytime he wanted.
Understanding the hidden game, Cheyenne curtsied, picking up the gentleman's hand, "Gladly"