Chapter 14: Yet Another Boat Ride (15)

As the young prince walked up to his surrogate uncle, he noticed a man behind him. It was the same man that his uncle had talked about a lot, whenever he was brought up Augustus could only roll his eyes. Though, he was rather happy to finally meet the duke of the French isles.

As he gazed upon the rather rotund man, he bounced upon and down on his feet. It wasn’t every day you got to meet the people you ruled over firsthand, at least, that was what he had noticed. The duke noticed him and bowed, then everyone else except his surrogate uncle.

“Hello, I’m Augustus, and you’re invited to my birthday party. It’s nice to meet you!” he enthusiastically said to the duke.

The man seemed to be taken aback at the young lad’s words. He had expected him to be rather snarky, maybe even derogatory. But he was just acting like a rather excited ten-year-old, or rather eleven-year-old.

The man raised his head from his bowed poster and stood up, “thank you for the invitation your Highness. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

As the prince looked at him with a giddy smile, he spotted his uncle looking at him with an expectant look in his eyes. Like he was making sure he did something, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why.

It was then that his uncle changed his gaze and tilted his head back while looking down on him. Then he spoke up.

“My prince, I think he is waiting for you to say something,” he told the prince.

It was at that moment that he remembered what he was supposed to say when he wanted someone to stand up and not bow to him. No all honesty, the young boy had no idea why people bowed to him, it wasn’t like he was scary at all, unlike his dad.

“Oh yeah! You can raise your head Mr. duke!” he told the old man, and he did so.

Then the young boy looked at his surrogate uncle with big eyes, like he was deserving of a treat or ice cream. Also, why isn’t ice cream one word? That was the truly weird thing here.

The older gentleman looked at him with pride in his eyes, as if he had taught the young prince all he knew of the world. He nodded his head with calmness and pride at the young lad. It was then the prince noticed that the slaves were still bowing in reverence.

“You two can also raise your heads!” He told the two slaves, and they did so.

It was at this moment that he locked eyes with the green-haired girl. She was really pretty, at least that was what he thought. She also had cat ears, at first when he had seen her, he thought she had pointy fox ears, but no, they were cat ears.

She assumed a rather small and meek posture and presence. She tilted her head forward with an ever so slight, inquisitive look on her face. He was about to ask her what she was called when his uncle spoke to him with a rather happy voice.

“My prince, I wish to ask you a question?” he turned to the older man in response, “what would you like for your birthday?”

Augustus thought about it for a good minute. He had everything, he could get his favorite food anytime, and his dad got him anything he ever wanted. It was a rather hard thing to do, to buy a present for the prince that was him.

The only thing he didn’t have was a royal guard, and that was because his dad didn’t let anyone that wasn’t under the most powerful slave spell serve him. Anyone under a slave spell was bound to not harm or disobey their master’s. it was also against the law for a slave top wield a weapon.

That ruled out royal guards, but he did want a pet, or rather a cat. That might be why he seemed drawn to the older girl. She was a cat beastkin, but his dad wouldn’t let a beastkin slave serve him at all. It was all rather strange in Augustus’s opinion. They were bound just like any human slave.

“I did want a cat, but dad gave me one right after I said so. I did then say I wanted it as a birthday present on my birthday, so he then stuffed it in a box and I can’t tell if it went to sleep or not,” he complained to his uncle and the older man flinched in sympathy for the cat.

“Well, my prince, why don’t I get you a beastkin slave? The duke here told me where the best ones are so I can get you one,” his uncle said and the duke beside him nodded.

The young boy thought about it some more but shook his head in resignation. It was rather sad to see the prince like this. He was actually getting rather sad.

“I can’t get a beastkin slave, dad said enslaved beastkin are below even enslaved humans so I can’t have one. Sometimes he makes me confused. From what I’ve seen of your beastkin slaves they all are just like human slaves so I can’t really tell why he doesn’t like them,” the prince let out.

The two were seemingly just going to be left out of the conversation, it was rather coincidental that the young prince wanted a beastkin slave, and there were two of them right there. It was not ironic; one would have expected that cliché. The duke looked over to the head maid that was basically his wife and sighed.

“My prince, we have luggage so should we talk about your birthday in the ship while these two unload the cargo we brought?” he asked, and the prince nodded in response.

But the spoken response differed from what he was expecting from the child of royalty. In fact, the slaves themselves hadn’t expected this. Only the man from other world seemed happy by his response.

“Can I watch the slaves do that while you guys pick rooms?” he asked.

Now, that was the response one could only imagine in their dreams, at least that was what the duke was thinking. The whole idea of slaves and royalty interacting in the same place other than the royal palace wasn’t even a cliché in books yet.

“S-sure my prince; just be careful. The docks are a dangerous place for a boy your age. You could fall into the water and get hurt,” the duke told the eleven-year-old prince.

The boy simply seemed peeved by this answer and response in turn, but didn’t say anything, only looking at the strange, winged girl in turn. She tilted her head in response, her back tilted forward as well.

It was as if she was asking him why he wanted to come and watched the two women work. But then again, he might simply be entering puberty early. At least that was what Aisling had thought. But that wasn’t the whole truth.

…

Aisling didn’t know what to think, she was rather confused. The boy that was the prince was kind of, well he seemed like a person who didn’t know what to think. That was the short answer. He was the first and only child of the king. He shouldn’t have come on this boat.

It wasn’t the best idea in the world. But she was a simple servant, a maid. She worried that her actions would be too human-like. She wasn’t supposed to act all flustered. She was trained to be something other than that. But…

Then again, she was nothing but a slave, a pet, a doll. Her opinion didn’t matter in the long run. But it was still dumb, even an empty-headed cat could see it. She was merely kind of peeved at the end of the day.

As she walked to the carriage and grabbed the luggage on the back of it, she spotted the head maid watching the young prince in the corner of her eye. Aisling was also watching over the lad. He was simply looking around the place, like he had never been anywhere before.

She couldn’t blame the boy. He likely was stuck at the palace all the time and couldn’t leave the building. It was rather strange for him to be here. That man, the man that the first prince Augustus called uncle must be rather well trusted.

The simple fact that he was even outside of the capital proved in her mind how much the king likely trusted that man. It unnerved her how familiar he was with the leader of the country’s child.

It was like he was training the prince, like he was trying to control him. She had seen that look in the older man’s gaze before. It was the same look he had when he was trying to get her own troop executed for treason.

As she turned around with the suitcase in her hands, she spotted the prince looking at her as if she was the second coming of Christ. It was very stressful for her as she needed to keep herself from looking like anything that wasn’t what her slave-ness would suggest.

She then looked at the head maid and sighed internally. It was all kinds of messed up that this woman wasn’t even making sure that there was anyone that was trying anything fishy with the prince. In all honesty, other than the fact that she was the lover of her master, Aisling couldn’t see her as anything other than a horndog.

If you wanted to properly guard the prince from people on the docks that might want to hurt him, you would need to constantly scan the crowd that was beginning to form. She sighed internally once more and made a note of checking their surroundings while they walked up the stairs.

Getting back to the present, she walked over to the two of them and bowed her head to the prince. She waited for the young lord to tell her to raise her head, but he didn’t do so.

It appeared as though he had forgotten etiquette. But she couldn’t raise her head so as to tell him to. That would be very improper of her, a slave, to do so.

With her head still bowed, she spoke to the first prince. It was rather easy, she looked older than him and it helped her keep her head on straight. It was as if she was trying to show a young child on how to act.

“My prince, it would be rather wise to come back to the ship while the head maid picks up the rest of the luggage,” she asked of Augustus.

The young boy thought about it for a second or two, then he nodded his head and started up the stairs, crawling up them like how one would do as a child I her past life. It was honestly kind of funny. But then again, it was efficient.

As she walked up behind the boy who seemed to be in a rather good mood, she thought back as to the looks he was giving her. It seemed to her that he was looking at her like he had never seen a spirit beastkin before. It was honestly kind of weird. The simple fact that such a luxury and thing to brag to others about, was something he may have never seen before.

When they got to the top of the deck, Aisling bowed to the young lord and he told her to raise her head, remembering this time. Looking behind herself, she spotted the head maid walking up the steps with a bag in each hand. Aisling herself was carrying her own stuff.

Even the slaves couldn’t wear the same thing over and over again. It was simply not proper to do so. After all, it told the rest of the nobility things about the master if his slaves that he himself brought were dirty. Also, her master was on the better side of masters, and she did not wish to disrespect him that way.

…

As the prince looked upon the girl that seemed to have an air of someone in chains, he thought about what he wanted for his birthday. It was true that he wished for a slave, maybe even a guard. But in the end, he wished to talk to someone. His uncle fell into that category, but he was much older than the boy.

Venator was also a person he talked to on the regular, but he was simply to in his own world to pay attention to the young lad. The king was a no go for any conversation. It was simply too hard to speak with him about anything. The prince’s dad didn’t like anything that wasn’t himself, and he thought that he was the only person with any amount of intelligence.

Now, at the end of the day he wanted a servant, a pet, someone or something that would help him from day to day. A thing that would enjoy his attention, be that a person, a slave, or a pet. He was tempted to ask his dad once more for a beastkin slave.

He simply wanted one because he didn’t see them often and he wanted to know what they were like. But then again, his dad probably wanted to get him an actual cat, and he was pretty sure the one that had been put in that box had been asleep forever.

He looked around the main deck and spotted the sailors looking at him and the slave with strange looks. It was like they had never expected him to walk around like this by the side of a slave. That was weird to him, as she was a simple slave, a worker. No different from the servants that cleaned his room.

He looked back at the slave that he hadn’t gotten the name of. That was rather rude, all things considered; he couldn’t keep calling her slave. That would clash with the other slave that was standing behind her. he spoke up.

“Slave, what is your name?” he asked with innocence.

In all honesty, this was simply common courtesy. While everyone around him told him he did not have to treat slaves all too kindly, he wanted to. They were people, at least they looked like people. They moved like people. They talked like people.

She looked back at him with a demure looking face She bowed her head with a hand on her chest, and spoke: “I am called Aisling, my lord.”

…

As Aisling walked down the ships hall, she looked back behind herself. There was the prince, standing by the door so he could see his surrogate uncle again. She hated that man with a burning passion. Not only was he there, but he seemed to be teaching the prince his ways.

She desperately wanted to spit in his presence, but she was a slave. She was a plaything, a tool to be used and discarded when her master wished. She didn’t mind it, but it was silly of her to think otherwise.

She went down the hall, to her room. The hall itself was wide enough to for three men to walk side by side each other with a little bit of wiggle room. There was a rather large number of doors on the sides of the hallway. Her room was three doors down on the right.

When she entered, she noticed multiple things. It was a simple thing, with bare wooden walls. The ceiling was bare bones as well, with braces for the floor above her uncovered. She hoped that her master had a better room. Why did she hope that he did?

Well, it was simple, he was better than most master’s she had heard of. His coming here, to the first and only prince’s birthday party was stressful as she had seen. The first prince was surely nice when she had met him, if not a little carefree. But the king seemed strict from what she heard right after getting here.

Her bed was as simple as she had thought. It was a wooden frame, and a straw mattress. What was strange thought was that there was no cabinet to hold her uniforms. She thought about it for a minute and sighed. Did whoever set this boat up expect the riders to simply get their own furniture?

Well, she was in the area reserved for low status servants. It was no wonder why it wasn’t well furnished. But again, there at least had to be a place to set her stuff down, right?

She looked around the room, taking it all in. Then she noticed a drawer under her bed. It was a small thing, looking to hold only the bare essentials. She pulled it out from under her new bed and looked at it, seeing if it had a handle, it did not.

It only had a cut in handle, she gripped it and pulled out the drawer. Inside was a simple space, still only large enough to hold her uniforms and such. She sighed once more and made to put her things inside the space. Then a knock resounded at her door.

Careful so as to not offend anyone on the other side of the door, she walked over with a brisk pace. She opened the door to find someone she had not expected to find at her door. It was the first prince Augustus.

She then bowed her head in reverence. He was a prince, and she was a slave. It was as simple as that. But she had had a feeling about him. She had wondered if he would visit her later. But she had expected him to visit her much later.

“Raise your head Aisling! I want to ask you something,” the first prince said.

She raised her head to look at the young boy. He was simply standing there with a smile on his face. She curtsied while picking up the hem of her skirt a little bit. She wondered what he was thinking.

“What is it that you wish to show me, First Prince Augustus?” she asked the boy.

Simply thinking of him as such would probably be seen as bad manners by the rest of the world. But he was simply that, a young boy who seemed eager to talk to her for whatever the reason.

His smile simply grew a bit brighter, as if he was happy that she was simply talking to him. Then it turned devious. It was like he was only a young boy, ready to bring the world to a stop with nothing but pranks. He put a hand up, as if he wanted her to shake it.

“My lord, do you wish to shake my hand?” she asked.

When he nodded, she grew a sinking feeling in her gut. She quirked up an eyebrow but still lifted her hand to his. She could feel the magic in his hand. It was as if there was lightning in his palms. She grasped her hand in his and felt a small pulse of electricity go through her hand and arm.

She then shook the young prince’s hand in hers while hiding a smile. Augustus had a stupefied look about him. He seemed to be utterly shocked by her unflinching hand.

“Aisling, how did you do that? That was a lightning fist I modified to knock out a person!” the ten-year-old asked.

While she was rather conflicted by the fact that he openly admitted that he wanted to knock her out with magic, she still had to tell him how she was so resistant to the spell. That was going to be a rather long explanation. It led down a rather long rabbit hole.

“My prince, that is a very long and winded story that encompasses all of this humble slave’s life. Could you be more specific?” she asked of him.

She knew it was improper to not tell a free person to specify their question, but it was needed now.

“Why didn’t my magic do anything?” he asked in turn.

She nodded her head once more and told him his answer. It was much shorter now. She only needed to tell him how spirit magic affected her body. It was much simpler than the long answer.

“I kept a major Spirit within my body for to long. This caused him to merge with me. I gained his resistances, powers, and strength as a result of this. I also grew these angel wings on my back as a result of this incident as well,” she told him.

He seemed enamored by this and started to hop up and down. she seemed to have reignited his fervor for magic. She didn’t even know that he had any drive for it. It was as if he was enthralled by her. this was kind of tiring, but if she was being honest, it was kind of endearing.

“How did you get the spirit in you? What is a Major Spirit anyway?” he asked in rapid fire.

She nearly smiled at this; it was like he was a younger sibling. It was as if she had never left her home. But she was a slave, by her master’s side was her home. These feelings were just that, feelings of the past. Nostalgia, that’s what this was.

She took a beath and tried to answer his questions as best she could. It was difficult to do so, as she wasn’t used to talking to people for long periods of time anymore. She used to be able to keep with children, but that skill to simply talk to kids like Augustus seemed to try and slip back into her slave frame of mind.

“My Prince, the reason there was a spirit inside of me was because I was in combat, and I can use spirit magic. While I was in combat, I let him inside of me to gain power in my body and spells,” she took a breath so she could continue to speak.

“A major spirit is a sentient Spirit that has gain great power. This is because when a major spirit is born a lot of minor spirits gather together and merge. This is what makes a major spirit,” she finished.

The young prince was about to speak when the two of them felt a shift under their feat. It was the ship; it had started to move out of the harbor. She looked to the prince after she had glanced at the floor. He had started to sway a little bit, like he was seasick.

“My Prince, do you get seasick?” she asked him.

He only nodded his head in response. She felt her mask of false calm break and she smiled. She felt like she had the smallest connection to this young boy. That was a rather heretical thought in and of itself, but he was simply too kind and to free spirited to hate.

“I know a great way of getting rid of seasickness. Do you wish to hear it?” she asked the boy.

He nodded his head again; he was starting to turn green. It was rather obvious he was going to barf.

“Then please lay your head on my lap, my prince,” she told him.

…