novelTaking the Risk
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Chapter 78: Taking the Risk
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
Lucien forced himself to put a smile on his face, "Maybe I'm too nervous, in the palace, in front of the princess. Please forgive me, Your Grace."
At the same time, Lucien had a good relief in his mind, "Finally... the princess asked."
The anxiety, the restlessness and the nervousness that Natasha noticed were all conveyed by Lucien purposefully.
Lifting her beautiful eyebrows, Natasha said to Lucien, "Don't be afraid of me because I'm a princess or a knight, Lucien. A man can respect or even worship someone else, but not be intimidated. That's the spirit of men, the spirit of knights."
"I'll work on it. Although I have a rather poor background, I'll get better." Lucien was a bit surprised by Natasha's comment, but he still answered properly.
A gorgeous smile appeared on Natasha's face, "You know what? You're already much braver than most people. Many of them couldn't even speak properly the first time they saw me, while you're brave enough to stare at Silvia's legs the first time you saw her. Impressive."
Natasha was talking about it pretty casually, as if it was just a joke.
"I... I'm terribly sorry. It was the first time I saw silk stocking... I sort of forgot myself..." explained Lucien awkwardly, "I'm not a pervert..."
The left corner of Natasha's lips curled up, "I totally understand, Lucien. Both ladies and gentlemen like the interesting byproduct of alchemy, and you're not excluded, of course. Silk stockings is precious since the magic empire was destroyed and the ancient alchemy was lost many years ago."
"I appreciate your understanding, Your Grace." Lucien nodded.
"But you looked at Silvia for a pretty long time, which was not common. Are you really not a pervert?" Natasha asked Lucien with great interest. She was making fun of him.
"I'm not. In fact, I haven't touched a girl's hand yet, in my whole life, " admitted Lucien to justify his innocence.
"Oh... I... see..." Natasha drawled purposefully, "Too bad for a seventeen-year-old boy. But now it won't be a problem anymore, after the concert. There will be lots of girls having interest in you. Do you want me to introduce you to some ladies? Although all of them will end up marrying nobles, it's not bad to have some sweet memories before getting married."
"Your... Your Grace, thank you for your good will but I want to devote myself to music in the next few years. You don't have to introduce me to any lady, " refused Lucien, seriously.
"I don't have to?" The princess did not have enough fun yet, "So you want to pursue them on your own? I can teach you some secrets to win the heart of a young lady. I'm good at it. Silvia, that little wild cat, she likes me..."
Camil all of a sudden started coughing and cut off Natasha.
"Your Grace, I feel this topic's a bit weird." said Lucien. He felt the princess was very approachable, but the conversations they had always tended to go somewhere else.
Natasha glanced at Camil sitting on the other side and asked with surprise, "What's wrong with it? It's no more than a common conversation between guys."
Finally, Lucien realized the problem, "Yes, between guys, but you're a noble lady, Your Grace."
"It doesn't matter, Lucien." Natasha shrugged, "Actually I can teach you more about how to pursue a girl than many guys."
Lucien did not know what to say.
"All right, all right..." She waved her hand and smiled, "Look at your nervous face, Lucien. Let's switch back to music."
She was glad that Lucien was not like the many other nobles. Most of them directly refused to talk about this and viewed it as an improper topic for chatting.
"As for the playing skills we just mentioned..." Lucien was a bit relieved.
"I got a question." Natasha was behaving like a good student.
"Yes, please?" Lucien was waiting for the question.
"You sure you don't need any of my suggestion about pursuing girls?" Natasha laughed loudly.
"..." Lucien was speechless.
An hour flew by. Natasha was inspired and kept working on her composing. Camil stood up and walked Lucien out.
In front of the gate, Camil said to Lucien in a low voice, "About the princess... don't be a gossiper."
Lucien nodded seriously.
...
After having lunch, Lucien came to Victor's place and waited for Felicia patiently.
"Mr. Athy, please sprinkle some sulphur in the living room. In the Month of Harvest, there are many mosquitos around."
"I will." Athy nodded.
Felicia arrived half an hour earlier that day, knowing that Lucien must be waiting for the roses. In the corner of the living room, she took out a unique black bag with embroidered flame patterns on it and handed it to Lucien.
"Forty grams of dried Moonlight Rose. The roses were ground into dust already. This special bag can make the dust of Moonlight Rose last much longer. You can return the bag to me when you finish using it."
"Thanks a lot, Felicia." With great excitement, Lucien opened the small black bag, in which the fine white powder was shining like a beautiful dream.
After roughly weighing the bag, Lucien put it in his pocket, "I'll pay the money back to you as soon as possible, Felicia."
"I hope so. That was my personal savings." Felicia smiled, and then she sniffed a bit, "Why I smell sulphur here?"
"To drive the mosquitos and bugs away, " answered Lucien casually.
...
Lucien made more mistakes than usual this afternoon, although he was trying hard to stay focused. Luckily, Mr. Victor did not say anything about it, thinking Lucien might need some more time to adjust to the big changes that the great success of the concert brought into his life.
Finally, the class ended at six in the evening. Lucien came back to his shack in Aderon, wrapped up some of his stuff in a small box and cooked himself dinner. After all that, he opened the letter again.
"Mr. Evans, you did a good job in front of the princess today. We hope you can be calmer, since your nervousness made you a bit suspicious. Talented as you are, we believe that it is not too hard."
The heretics did not ask anything about the conversations Lucien had with the princess and what he saw in the palace. Lucien could tell they were trying to make him believe they had everything under their control.
Putting on a worried look, Lucien folded the letter and put it into the small box. Then he carried the box with him and left for his rented house in Gesu district.
In the house, Lucien put down the box in the master bedroom and took out a music book. It seemed like he would stay there for the night.
When it was getting late, Lucien lay down in the bed and soon stood up again, looking a bit irritated, "The sheet is so soggy! Brian should find someone to dry the sheet first before asking me to move in!"
Then he stepped out of his bedroom and left the house, leaving the small box in his new place.
...
After closing the window and locking the door, now Lucien was lying in his small bed in his shabby shack.
Ten minutes later, Lucien jumped out of the bed again and swore, "These bloody mosquitos!"
In the crate Lucien found some sulphur and he sprinkled the sulphur in the every corner of his place. He wanted all the annoying mosquitos and bugs to leave right now.
Then he went back to bed and closed his eyes with satisfaction.
In the night, Lucien faintly sensed the existence of a supernatural power in his shack, like a pair of eyes staring at him in the air.
Without the help of Aalto Tigorid Mosquito, the heretics finally started to monitor him directly using their fiend power.
Pretending to be sleeping, Lucien waited patiently. An hour later, the magic eyes disappeared, but soon came back again.
"The duration is about an hour." Lucien thought to himself.
Within his expectation, an hour later, the eyes disappeared again. Maybe the kidnappers believed that Lucien was just sleeping, or maybe they were changing shifts. Ten minutes later, Lucien sensed the eyes again.
Thirty minutes later, the eyes, all of a sudden, disappeared for the third time.
And Lucien knew that now it was time for him to take action!
He jumped out of the bed swiftly and messed up his blanket and sheet to give the kidnappers a false impression that someone was still sleeping in the bed.
Recently in Aderon, there were night watchers patrolling at night, and they could easily target the existence of the fiend power. Lucien knew that the heretics would not take the risk of being found by the church.
Seizing the chance, Lucien sneaked into his underground magic lab.
Lucien was aware that his whole plan was very risky, however, in the current situation, he did not have a second choice.
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