On the first floor of the Daylight Inn, Julius sat on his bed, pondering a few important matters.
'The auction held by the Gladiators' Association should be coming early next year. But it's also around that time that Midgard Academy will start accepting students,' Julius began to plan.
He still had two Stones of Rebirth in his storage ring and hadn't even hatched two of the mountain falcon's eggs. He gave one to Ray five years ago.
He planned to give one to his sister and maybe put the last one up for auction.
'I wonder what the Duke is still doing. I can't actually go to his house because he has assassins as maids,' Julius thought, sighing as he relaxed on his bed.
*Knock knock*
"Hm?"
Hearing a knock on his door, Julius quickly used the Celestial Lens and saw the silhouette of a tall woman, recognizing her figure.
He opened the door to see the receptionist of the inn standing there.
"Ah, Prince Julius, sorry for disturbing you, but a young woman wants to see you," she said politely.
After she found out that he was a prince when he showed her his ID, her attitude towards him had improved ever since.
Setting that aside, Julius was more concerned about his visitor.
"Here to see me?" he mumbled, then his brows raised.
'No way. Did they send her?' A smile crept on Julius's face as he realized what was going on.
"I'll be down now," he said to the woman, who then turned around and left.
He pulled out his sword from his ring and also the slave collar decipherer, which Ray had gotten him a while ago.
He got ready and went downstairs. As he descended, his heart couldn't help but tremble as he saw a girl who was his height sitting on one of the chairs.
'Her hair was a weird color of silver. Her beautiful eyes were the finest and clearest version of wine,' Julius thought, admiring the girl.
He couldn't help but appreciate her beauty; this was the girl who had made him come all the way to the northern capital.
He let out a deep breath.
'This is going to be my first time interacting with a major character,' Julius thought to himself as he came down the staircase and walked towards her.
She turned to look at him. Her expressionless gaze made him nervous, but he could only smile at that moment.
"Why did the Duke let you come by yourself?" Julius asked as he sat with her, and she kept looking at him.
"Prince Julius?" Seraphina's voice was light, very light.
Hearing her call his name like that, Julius couldn't help but be stunned as he heard her voice.
'Damn it, composure,' he thought, clearing his throat before answering her.
"Yes, yes, I'm the prince."
"The Duke said I should go with you wherever you want," Seraphina said, and he looked at the right collar on her neck.
The black collar hugged her neck, and Julius looked at it.
____
Name: Seraphina Raphael
Rank: Level 1 Seeker (Level 2 Aura Adept, Level 7 Mana Trainee)
Attributes: Assassin lv. 8 (Uncommon), Marksman lv. 9 (Uncommon)
Skills: Abyssal Blade (Divine), Infernal Flame (Mythical), Four Winds Blade Dance
Status: Enslaved to the Duke of the Northern Capital. The lost princess of the demon kingdom.
_____
'Bruh... She's loaded with skills, and she's only 15,' Julius thought with a bitter smile as he looked at her face.
'So she is already able to use Infernal Flames. Well, she has the strongest demon bloodline throughout the series, one even stronger than the main character's.'
"Okay then. You already know I'm a prince. Did he tell you to do everything I say?" Julius asked, and Seraphina only nodded, keeping her eyes on him.
"Okay, now stay still..." Julius said as he went behind her.
There were people all around; surely he wouldn't harm her or anything.
...
Ray, who was a few blocks from the Daylight Inn, only moved from his original position to where he could see the prince.
He saw the prince come out of his room earlier and from downstairs, he could see a silver-haired girl talking to the prince, and he frowned.
"Did he already get a wife?" Ray couldn't help but say.
It wasn't weird, as some of his siblings were already married at birth. He was just the last son, so he wasn't paid much attention to by his siblings.
Ray only continued to watch silently as the prince talked to her.
...
Julius pulled out the slave collar decipherer, getting ready to decipher the collar.
'I have only studied this pen. This will be my first time,' Julius thought as he bent down, looking at all the runes on the collar.
Seraphina only had her indifferent expression as the prince began to touch her collar.
She knew that the collar couldn't possibly be removed without the master unlocking it, so he was just wasting his time.
'Okay, this is proving more complex than I thought,' Julius smiled bitterly as he continued to draw the correct symbols to open the collar.
After an entire ten minutes, Julius smiled as he was finally done.
He went back to sit beside the beautiful Seraphina and smiled at her.
"If I remove this collar, what are you going to do?" he asked her, and she raised a brow, looking at him in confusion.
"Your Highness, it's not possible without the master's mana," she said, and he smiled.
He only waved his pen along the sides of the collar, and it suddenly snapped and fell to the ground.
The expressionless Seraphina couldn't help but look to the ground. She kept staring at the slave collar with a confused expression.
Her hand went to her neck as she checked; there were red bruises from the tiny pins of the collar that had held onto her skin.
"What?"
The princess lost her cool as she looked at him. She felt free, she felt like she could act on her thoughts. She stood up and looked at him.
"What's going on?" she asked, her voice shaky.
"Princess, you're no longer enslaved to the Duke," Julius said with a smile.
He had finally accomplished what he had come here to accomplish.