Chapter 27: A Discovery
Soon, a scrawny middle-aged man walked over to the podium and began his story.
Amelia leaned forward to the table as she began to listen to that scrawny man's storytelling. It was the first time that she had attended such places and events. Therefore, she was concentrating on the man's words.
After listening for the story for almost five minutes, Amelia found that the man was telling a story about her.
The storyteller began from the moment she was a very young girl, but as she continued to listen to the man's story, Amelia's face grew darker. Her chest heaved with anger, knowing that the man was telling nothing but lies. The man was accusing her of overthrowing her brother to gain the throne.
"Do you want to leave?" Laif had long noticed the changes in her expression the moment the storyteller got into the part where the Princess was conspiring to harm her brother.
As she was working under the Princess, Laif had this thought that Amelia was upset when someone was talking badly on Her Highness.
Amelia turned her head to Laif. For a moment, she did not know what she wanted to do. It took her a while before she nodded. Amelia had the feeling that if she stayed longer, she would not be able to contain her anger.
The two of them stood out to leave and Laif led her to the door. One of the burly men raised a brow when they saw Laif, leaving the premises. "Leaving so soon, lad?"
Laif replied to him with a short nod before he chased after the girl who was in a hurry to leave the pub without any specific destination. Amelia continued to walk along the wide path, colliding with a few people as she walked through.
Some of the people glanced at her angrily, but it seemed that Amelia was oblivious to her surroundings.
Seeing this situation, Laif let out a helpless sigh. He walked beside her to grab her wrist to stop her. However, before he could touch her, Laif felt a light force pushing his hand away from her.
They both stopped at their tracks with both were staring down at their hands.
Amelia started to scratch at her hand at the sudden itchiness and pain. She had thought that there was some insect biting at her hands, but no matter how she looked at her hand, Amelia could not find out anything.
What just happened?
Amelia looked up to Laif and frowned when she saw that he was in a daze. She took a step towards him and asked, "What's wrong with you?"
Laif moved his gaze towards her hands before he shook his head. "Nothing." He saw the concern on her face and began to smile. "Are you alright now? You seemed pretty upset after we left the pub."
"I'm fine now." Amelia retracted her gaze. "It's just that, I think it's inappropriate if we stay around and listened to that kind of story. If the authorities found out, we might get ourselves in trouble. It's never a good thing to participate in anything that was slandering the royal family."
"You're right." Laif nodded absentmindedly. Her gaze moved to her hand that he had failed to touch. "Do you want to continue to walk around?"
Amelia glanced at her surroundings before she nodded. "Alright." Anyway, it was a rare chance for her to come out to look around and Amelia thought that it was a good chance for her to see the city.
Laif's gaze turned a shade darker as the two of them continued their walk. His gaze could not stop staring at the girl's right hand.
Just now, although it was very briefly, Laif was sure that he was able to feel that familiar feeling of power coming from her. That feeling... it was none other than magic.
Soon, they arrived at a smaller road but was crowded with people.
On their right and left, the shop owners tried to call them into their shop. Amelia frowned when an angry man ran into her. The man opened his mouth to blame her, but stopped himself when he saw the man beside her.
The angry man grumbled before he walked away.
Amelia turned her head towards the shop where the man had come from. It was the liveliest place along the street. Amelia thought that this place was even livelier than the pub.
However, she could not understand why some of the people who walked out of the shop would end up getting angry or cry.
"Ah, a gambling house. I haven't been to one for a while." Laif mumbled to himself.
"A gambling house?"
Laif turned to her with astonishment on his face. "You—you haven't heard of a gambling house?"
"I've heard of it. A few palace guards mentioned it sometimes ago," Amelia said.
It was almost two years ago when she heard of a gambling house. She remembered the horror look on the guard's face when they realized she was listening to their conversation.
"But I never went to one," Amelia continued. "I'm curious to know what people do in a gambling house. I heard that gambling was a fun game."
"Fun?" Laif chuckled. "I guess it could be fun if you win a lot of money."
"Have you ever been to a gambling house before?"
"I've been to a few gambling houses during my journey just to see what was it like. They differ in most countries." Laif said.
He remembered the one he visited in the Western Continent where the people gambled in a martial arts competition. It was very interesting. He gave her a fleeting glance and suggested, "Would you like to go in and check for yourself what is it like in there?"
"What?" Amelia blinked. "You mean right now?"
Laif nodded. "Now is a good time. It's not that we will have the chance to sneak out like this all the time. If you wanted to see what is in the gambling house, now would be a perfect time. We'll be really quick. Then we'll head back to the palace. I promised to take you back to the palace before midnight, didn't I?"
Besides, now that he had sensed that this girl might be someone who had magic, Laif had wanted to observe her a little bit more.
If she was indeed someone with magic, Laif wanted to know how did she able to survive to live in the palace for too long, and what kind of power did she possess.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone