"You have nice taste.", she said as she looked into the mirror with delight.
"Of course.", he smugly said.
"Hey, I need to go now. See you later.", she said and walked out in satisfaction.
"Anyhow, I want to stay here with this duck princess.", he thought to himself.
His curse unlocked by the sacrifices and blood of the princess. But, because of he stayed as a tree for 9000 years, he couldn't unitize his whole powers. So he needed a fearless maiden blood to gain other half of his powers back.
Unfortunately, the maiden's blood could be obtained from a single maiden in a lifetime. But, the princess was a coward and afraid of her own shadow as well. So he needed to nurture his sacrifice into a fearless maiden.
"How can this happen to me?", he thought about it again.
As he was thinking about his future plans, a big ant came to him.
"My Lord!", it transformed as a youth and knelt down before him.
"You're here. How did you come here?", he slowly said.
"My lord, I smelled blood petals fragrance.", the ant man said.
"I almost forgot about it.", he nodded his head in agreement.
"My Lord, prime Lord wants to see you.", the ant man again said after scaning his expression.
"Where's he now?", Lord nine asked.
"That... I don't know, he said that he will be at the bridge of heaven city in two days.", the ant man cautiously replied.
"Alright. You may leave for now.", he dismissed the ant man.
"One more thing, keep an eye on princess and protect her if needed, don't expose yourself.", he added after a thought.
"Yes my lord.", he said and disappeared into the sight.
"Hahaha, prime Lord! We will meet again.", he said and heartily laughed and he disappeared from the room only leaving behind a red flash and his laughter which was reflected into the stone walls for a long time.
After an unpredictable amount of time princess came back from her palace. But, she found no one in her room. She was little disappointed.
"Little girl, you missed me?", a gentle voice and light laugh sounded in her ears, yet her eyes couldn't find anyone.
She spun around and searched through the entire room.
Suddenly a red light flashed and Lord nine appeared in front of her.
He looked at her with her sharp eyes.
"You look happy, what happened to you? Did the emperor handed over the crown to you?", he asked her.
"No, emperor said to me to go to my mother's hometown. From now on I'll stay there.", she said innocently with a contagious smile.
"What? Exile you? Why?", he was shocked.
"No, no, no. It's not exile. My un...", she paused and clicked her tongue.
"Emperor said, I'm betrothed to the crown prince of there, so I need to study their culture and manners. That's why.", she said with a smile. She had probably thought that it was a picnic or something, nothing serious.
"What? You are engaged?", he shouted in shock again.
What the hell, he only found this duck princess by chance, yet she is engaged to a crown prince from another country in the age of twelve? Is that crown prince pedophile?
He thought to himeself.
"Little girl, you are not even half grown, yet you're engaged. Is your emperor afraid of you gor anything?", he thought for many possibilities but he couldn't find any.
"No, he's an emperor, how can he possible afraid of me?", she asked in confusion.
"Is there any secrets behind the throne itself?", even if he knew, she had no possiblity of knowing the answer, still he asked her.
"There's an imperial edict which says if the first emperor's blood prince or pricess grow into an chivalrous and capable one, they can ascend the throne. Are you asking this?", she asked him again.
"How do you know this at your young age?", he asked her with a doubt.
"I heard it from my father before he was dead. But I was small then, so I can't remember other things he said. This was the one he said frequently, so I remembered correctly.", she said proudly.
"Little girl, you need some adventures?", he asked her with a wicked smile.