– Flammer, that's not the point. These girls are dangerous to us.
– What is it? – Kayu grinned condescendingly.
– Don't you understand? They were sent here for a reason. Very soon they will get used to it and start hunting! – Aze explained.
– OU! Well, I don't mind being hunted by a couple of beauties! – Contrary to expectations, the restless Freckled One became inspired.
“Jed, it seems you don’t understand.” These girls are from noble families. Stay away from them if you don't want to die in your prime! – Aiz’s patience was running out, judging by the green lights lighting up in his pupils.
– Why should I die? Do you think I can’t handle two or three at a time? – Freckled arched his eyebrow dashingly.
“I think you’re thinking with the wrong head!” If you make an attempt on even one of these girls, her parents will strangle you! – Malachite flared up.
“For the causal place,” Kayu added with a laugh.
“You’ll just have to get married and that’s all,” I remarked calmly, which scared Freckled Man much more than everyone else.
– Marry?! Nope! I pass! – Jed finally realized, but then added: “But can we look at them?”
In fact, I was also interested in what kind of crazy people agreed to come here, but I didn’t show it. It would not do for the second heir to the Onyx Throne to show excessive interest in girls.
Yielding to an impulse, I put my hand into the pocket of my camisole and felt there the Focus of the Onyx Dragon, which I had stolen from my uncle’s office.
The senior adepts of the Academy of Wind and Storms preferred to use not the main gate, but the secret gate leading to the park. From there you could go straight to campus and not flit around in everyone's sight. Through the same gate, adherents left the territory or returned at odd times when the gates were closed. At times, it seemed to me that it was deliberately invented so that revelers like us would not discredit the glorious institution with their indecent appearance, wandering through the square in front of the academy.
Today, the crimson-clad kerns, euonymus and abelias in the park seemed overly elegant to me. The state of my soul was as gloomy and dark gray as the weather and the ubiquitous stone, but I wanted even more gray, and my unsightly act was to blame. This is probably why I sat alone all night drinking, not taking part in the general fun. I kept thinking about how my uncle was going crazy, how the servants and guards were knocked off their feet, turning the palace upside down, and I was very, very ashamed, but I simply could not do otherwise.
It all started with the fact that my cousin Mikael, to make him feel empty, made things worse again, and in the end we both suffered. My uncle called us for a conversation, and I had to listen to his lectures. Then endure a difficult conversation about how it’s time for the two of us to settle down and not disgrace the glorious Derberg family with our adventures. Although I still don’t understand, what does this have to do with me? And at the very end, my uncle set a condition for us that he would review the order of succession to the throne, in favor of the one of us who would be the first to find a bride. Yes, not just any, but a true couple, as befits a dragon of the ruling family.
This condition greatly complicated the task, but gave me an advantage as the second heir. But Mikael, who was already asleep and saw himself as the ruler of the Onyx Rocks, on the contrary, was seriously worried. He was no longer the first crown prince, just as I was no longer the second. From now on, we are on equal terms, which makes Mika hate me even more. But I didn't care about my cousin's feelings. I just punched him in the face and broke his nose, no matter what the guys said. Did I need at least some kind of compensation for all the shame that I experienced through his fault, listening to my uncle’s reprimands?
