Chapter 42 Temporary Cat Owner "She is my master now."...
"Are you crazy?" Lucas spat out the words through gritted teeth.
"When have I ever been normal?" Ashlin retorted.
Everyone burst into laughter.
"The prince of Helian? I didn't see him," the auctioneer said.
Ashlyn nudged Lucas. He sighed and twitched his dark ears helplessly.
“I am him.” The cat-eared boy stepped forward firmly so that everyone could see him more clearly. “I am Prince Lucas Deville of Helian City.”
“Calling him a banished cat-man makes more sense, after all, he looks so frail,” one of the orcs laughed among the buyers. “Who would believe the story of a human girl and a skinny orc?”
“I’m not an ordinary little girl. My name is Ashline, and I’m a witch!” Ashline said loudly, hoping to sound aggressive. “To bind the prince, I cursed him, making him my black cat pet, which is why he looks like this. Need to verify?”
“Very good, Your Highness. Please drip your blood into the mouth of the stone lion.” The auctioneer tilted his head toward the stone lion with the word “Inspection” written on it.
Lucas put his finger into the stone lion's mouth, and a drop of blood was drawn from its fangs.
The stone lion's gray eyes instantly turned blue.
"Passed!" the auctioneer announced. "This is the genuine Prince Lucas de Vere."
Ashlin spread her hands: "See? The real prince is just my cat now. No matter what I say, he won't resist at all! Right, Your Highness?"
To get the prince to cooperate, she stepped on his foot.
“That’s right,” Lucas said, grinning. “She’s my master now.”
Ashlin was overjoyed to hear the prince of Dias call himself his master, and now she was starting to have second thoughts about "selling" him.
"What other evidence is there to prove that he really wouldn't resist?" the leopard girl asked.
“That’s simple,” Ashlin said readily. “Prince Lucas, kneel down.”
The auctioneer narrowed his eyes, while the leopard girl watched them with great interest. From her eyes, it was clear she had recognized Ashlin as the owner of the backpack.
Lucas's eyes widened, his eyebrows furrowed, and he wore an expression of betrayal. His cat ears were pressed back, his tail wagging wildly, but he still obediently knelt on one knee.
Even in this situation, he could kneel down with great elegance, as if he were about to kiss Ashlin's hand.
Of course, he wouldn't do that; Ashlin's hands had their own ideas.
"How about it?" she asked smugly, ruffling the prince's hair and ears. "Can't a well-behaved royal puppet be exchanged for a tattered magic backpack? Once the deal is done, the magic will change hands, and then the human prince will be completely obedient to you. Do you accept, Miss Mara?"
Lucas slammed his tail to the ground.
Sure enough, Ray smiled slightly. "Of course, the prince is worth much more than Hegin."
Ashlin had initially taken a desperate gamble, but to her surprise, the deal actually worked. It seems she was still too naive.
"Prince once, prince twice, prince three times... deal!" The gavel fell, "Little girl, the backpack is yours now, but the prince is Miss Mara's."
Ashlin retrieved her backpack, gripping the straps tightly. Ray looked very happy, her leopard tail swaying gently as she nodded to several other orcs behind her. The orcs bound Lucas's hands and led him out of the auction house.
“This isn’t over!” Lucas whispered as he passed Ashlin.
"The next goods are from Wheelheart Mining City..."
Ashlinn ignored him and quickly followed the orc away. Lucas would be a cat again in less than an hour, making escape easy. But if he were imprisoned or sold to some underground criminals, things would be tricky. Heaven knows what price she would have to pay for this charade she'd put on on a whim.
Hopefully, the cat won't be too angry.
Ashlin chanted a spell to silence and reduce her scent, praying that the orcs wouldn't notice her presence.
The orcs arrived at another hidden room underground, with stone brick walls and dim lighting.
She tiptoed, her back pressed against the cold wall, peeking through the crack in the door.
This place seemed to have once been someone's workshop, but it was now abandoned. Half of the room was filled with a huge stone table, on which gears, wrenches, scraps of paper, and large books were scattered. Several parchment drawings were pasted on the table, but she couldn't make out the details.
The spider on the ceiling was happily eating flies, while Lucas looked up and glanced at the spider uneasily.
Just like before in the tavern, he was completely bound to a chair in his cat form, even his tail was tied with several thick ropes. Perhaps knowing that he could escape by transforming into a cat soon, or perhaps confident that Ashlind would save him, he didn't seem genuinely afraid.
In reality, he seemed quite helpless, and was used to such scenes.
He was surrounded by three tall, strong orcs, with the tall, short-haired leopard woman, Rae, in the very center.
"Ladies and gentlemen, what do you want from me?" Lucas asked in a nonchalant tone, as if they were just having a tea party.
“Of course, we’ll keep selling it for money. The royal family can fetch prices you can’t even dream of, little prince,” Ray replied.
"Really? What is my value, Miss Mara?"
Lucas blinked, as if his eyes had been stung. "What's in my eyes?"
“Well, I shouldn’t have told you this. As a magical puppet, you have a lot of questions,” Ray said with interest. “And, I’d much rather hear you call me master.”
Lucas closed his eyes, seemingly making some difficult preparations.
But how can she get him out?
“It’s alright, I’m just bored anyway.” Ray grinned. “What you have that’s valuable isn’t important, what’s important is whether I can buy what I want. Speaking of which, I think the famous Prince Dias probably knows something else too.”
She pulled a piece of parchment from her pouch, on which was drawn a pale blue plant.
Lucas's face turned deathly pale in an instant, but only for a second. Ashlin blinked again, and he was back to normal. Perhaps she had imagined it.
"Have you ever heard of this grass, Little Prince?"
"Never heard of it."
“Lying.” Ray stared at him intently. “I noticed your reaction.”
Ashlin squinted. The plant in the drawing was beautiful, with heart-shaped leaves that seemed to glow with white light. Most remarkably, the leaves on both sides were perfectly symmetrical with the direction of the branches.
This plant has never appeared in Sanova's notes.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that, miss,” Lucas said calmly. “Why are you asking me this?”
Ray gestured to the other orcs with his eyes.
“Bryce, Harry, you two go to the black market now and post notices so everyone knows I’ve captured a human prince. Soon, wizards and Frankenstein’s monsters will swarm like mosquitoes.”
“Yes, ma’am!” said the werewolf named Bryce and the deer named Harry immediately, and Ashlin quickly hid behind the door.
Bryce and Harry both had real wolf and deer heads, but their bodies were those of robust human men, just like the pig-men who had just auctioned off the magic mirror. Ray, on the other hand, had a head that was indistinguishable from a human except for a pair of leopard ears; at most, upon closer inspection, one could see that her eyes were golden needle-like pupils.
She certainly couldn't let the orc black market know about Lucas's situation. So, before she could even think, her body acted first, taking a large step to block the two burly orcs.
This time she forgot to adjust her hat. The hat fell down and covered her eyes.
Perhaps because they couldn't see her face, the two hideous orcs simultaneously took three steps back in terror.
"Awoooooo!" the werewolf screamed, hiding behind the deer-man, but it was to no avail. He was several times stronger than the deer-man and offered no cover whatsoever.
"Who are you!" the deer-man mustered his courage, puffing out his chest. "Show me your true colors, you dwarven dark mage!"
She realized she hadn't had time to come up with a cool fake identity.
"Idiots, what are you doing?" Ray shoved the wolf and deer aside. "Explain your purpose, dwarf!"
Is she really that short? Why do they all think she's short? Ashlin is clearly 15 centimeters taller than the average height of a dwarf.
She raised her staff majestically, and in an instant, green light filled the entire room, causing the orcs to stagger backward.
In fact, she hadn't decided what spell to use, and there were no plants around, so her magic was powerless in the enclosed basement.
Therefore, nothing happened after the bright light; the orcs then saw only a witch rushing frantically to untie the prince.
“You’ve solved it backwards, Ashley!” Lucas exclaimed in despair.
"I'm sorry!" She was completely confused by the ropes.
Lucas sighed. "If you're practicing tying a bow, I'm sorry to tell you my wrist isn't for gift wrapping."
"Grab her!" Ray shouted.
She wanted to know what she was doing.
"Don't move!" she warned, pressing a dagger against Lucas's neck. "Or I'll kill your precious darling! This is the cursed prince you traded a magic backpack for. If you don't want to lose another sum of money, put down your weapons!"
The movement was truly bizarre: she, Ashlyn, had her arms wrapped around Lucas's front, a dagger poised to slit the prince's throat at any moment; Lucas's cat ears were rubbing against her chin, tickling her terribly.
“Fantastic! I hope your knife skills are better than your rope-untying skills,” Lucas said.
“Very well,” Ray raised his hand. “So you’re his seller. Ashlin, right? Now you’re going to break your promise and steal him back?”
Ashlin watched the three of them nervously. Orcs were all strong, but these three were the strongest of the strong, their muscles practically bursting out of the basement. Even if they laid down their weapons, she wouldn't have the upper hand.
As for Lucas, compared to the three orcs, he does look rather weak and frail now, appearing thin and haggard, completely unable to fight back; although he can escape the ropes after turning into a cat, he will still be no match for the orcs.
To make matters worse, this place was underground, with stone walls on all sides and mud outside the stone walls, making it difficult for her to use her forest magic.
Using Lucas to threaten Ray gave Ashlin a little time to think.
She quickly considered other spells. Illusion? Useless; she'd already been exposed. Bombardment spell? The last time she used it, it only turned Aidan into an afro. What if she tried cursing them too? Probably not a good choice; leopards and wolves, in their pure animal forms, were far more terrifying than orcs.
Ashlin's forehead was covered in sweat, and a dense, anxious gripped her heart, wrapping around her breath like a spider web.
Magic was everything to her. What could she do without magic? She was no different from the useless girl in the eyes of the village children, no different from the crowd of people she saw buying medicine in the Dragon Crystal Cave.
Calm down and try a different approach.
Plants sometimes don't appear on the surface. Remember the sketch Laurel drew of Lucas on papyrus?
She looked around the room again, and after her breathing calmed, her magic regained some of its power. There were indeed plants here.
Finally, her gaze fell on Lucas's rope.
Hemp rope. Flax.
Although it is just fiber and cannot grow like a real plant under her magic, even a slight movement is enough.
Oh, seriously. She slapped her forehead. Why did she bother using her hands to untangle them before?
She winked at Lucas, and the rope instantly untied itself.
Lucas jumped up and immediately grabbed a wrench from the stone table to use as a weapon.
The ropes then turned towards the orcs, slithering like snakes up the legs of the werewolves and deer-men. They struggled fiercely, and the more they struggled, the tighter Ashlinn made them constrict. As she did this, she felt her magic draining away, growing increasingly weary.
Ray wiped the blood from his face in surprise, then swiftly grabbed Lucas's wrist, which was holding the wrench, and twisted it hard. Lucas cried out in pain as his arm was turned inside out.
The wrench clattered to the ground, slid towards Ray, and was stepped on by her.
Ray raised an eyebrow, picked it up, and twirled it in her hand.
"This is your weapon, Your Highness?"
Ashlin was distracted, and some useless branches suddenly sprouted from the rope, diverting her strength.
She turned to help Lucas, but the werewolf used his muscles to break the rope and free himself, grabbing her arms and causing her elven dagger to fall to the ground.
Hemp rope is not a living plant, so it is inherently difficult to control. In addition, she had hardly eaten or drunk anything all day and was not in a good state, so her magic was much weaker than usual.
He threw the rope outside the door, far out of Ashlin's control.
Ray held Lucas down, picked up a thick book that looked like a spinning top from the stone table, and smacked him hard on the head.
Clearly, Lucas was in just as bad shape as she was and had no time to react. He collapsed to the ground, a little blood seeping from his hair.
First, he was betrayed by his teammates, then he was tied up, and now he's been knocked unconscious. Today is definitely his unluckiest day.
Thankfully, he seems to be alive.
“This is a hoax.” Ray kicked the unconscious Lucas in his brown Doc Martens and said dismissively, “You’re not some witch who cursed the prince, and he’s not a puppet at all. You two are in cahoots. Does the human prince have some kind of spy mission to detect orcs? Is that why he looks like a cat?”
"Watch your next words, little witch." Ray raised her hand, and the werewolf handed Ray the elven dagger that Ashlin had just dropped.
She raised the dagger, grabbed Lucas's head with one hand by his blood-stained black hair, and pressed the blade against his cheekbone with the other.
“Every word you mispronounce adds a red mark to your dear little prince’s pretty face,” she said fiercely. “After all, that’s what he just did to me.”
"No! Damaging artwork is illegal!" Ashlin exclaimed in terror, but hadn't thought of any other lies.
What else could she do? Revealing the truth wouldn't help. Just moments ago, the prince was a commodity that Ray could manipulate at will, and Ashlind could even pretend to harm Lucas to threaten her; but now, Ray knows that Lucas is not a puppet controlled by magic, and may not show mercy again.
Just then, a series of childlike footsteps came from outside the door.
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