With a last wink, Granny vanished into the crowd again. With several long steps, he had once again caught up with Antoinette. A servant led them to an ornate red door and motioned them into the simple, yet luxurious room. Through a mirrored window, one could watch the entire auction. The lesser nobles, merchants, and alchemists sat in their regular seats in front of the stage. The room's furniture only consisted out of four ornate armchairs. To Res’s great pleasure, he was able to get a seat next to Serafina. The princess and Antoinette seated themselves on the far right and far left armchairs.

The princess sucked on her piece of candy and spoke up: “It is only a formality, but our royal bloodline is in possession of powerful binding magic. It is only used to keep information from leaking out. Is everyone ok with that?” Antoinette and Res nodded. “Great. You have to say out loud: ‘Out of my free will, I won’t leak any information that will happen and has happened in this room.’”

“Bro, it’s true. You can be as sure as one can be that no one in this room would divulge any information. The loophole would be someone listening in on our conversation.”

Reassured, Res said the phrase out loud and a piece of jewelry on the princess’s neck glowed green in acceptance. When Antoinette said it though, the jewelry glowed red. The princess sighed: “You think you are forced into this? You can leave if you want. You can.”

This time, when Antoinette said the words, the necklace glowed green. The princess relaxed and began to longue in her chair, in a complete not-princess fashion. “You can say everything now, I am under the same vow. Would be unfair otherwise. By the way, you can call me Xenia.”

With a contented sigh, Res tore off the mask from his face and announced in a cheerful tone. “It is good to be honest. You can call me Res.”

Antoinette gasped out in shock and shouted: ‘I knew it’ when she saw Res’s face. Even the princess looked at him as if he was the boogieman. Yet, Res’s gaze clung to Serafina’s surprised eyes and he smirked. “You didn’t even need to kiss me, for me to turn from the frog into the prince.” Serafina’s shocked eyes turned to outrage and she whacked him over his head with her sword scabbard.

“Bro, that was smooth as fuck. Man, you have a talent for this. Even though the fact still remains that it is slimy as fuck. Too bad that it works.”

As if he was not worth her time, she turned to the princess and announced: “I did speak the truth. He is my prisoner and he is the pervert who broke into your room.”

Xenia’s eyes widened wide: “You … ” Then she broke out into giggles. “That was a funny trick. When I was woken up by clatter in my room, I only saw Serafina standing next to the window. She had her sword drawn and my ceremonial crown on her head. You must have seen her face as she tried to explain the situation to me. Glorious. Such a glorious play of colors on her face.”

Serafina shrank into her seat with every word and Res tried to save some of her self-dignity. “It was only a small misunderstanding. As a bodyguard, I would have reacted the same way. The only problem is that I am kind of an enemy of the state. They hate me so much that they activated their power tracker. Your manner was the only place that was accessible and not surveilled.”

Xenia looked at him while twirling the lollipop in her hands: “What did you do? A power tracker burns money.”

“I destroyed a national treasure by accident.”

For a moment, the room was dead silent. Then Antoinette broke out: “We were told that the crystal ball was destroyed by a southerner spy.”

“It was me, but before you ask, I won’t tell you how I did it. Let’s say that it was an unfortunate chain of events.”

Their conversation was interrupted by a sweaty well-clad man on the stage: “My lords and ladies, welcome to our humble auction today. As it is custom, everyone will need to either own a deposit with our bank or make a deposit right now.” Accompanied by the announcement, a knock resounded through the room. A young man about his age entered the room.

“Sir, you are the only one to not have an account. Do you wish to make a deposit?” Res let the pouch drop onto the young man’s silver tablet and the young man counted the coins. The young man’s eyes opened wider and wider the longer he counted. “Sir, you now have a temporary deposit of 55 platinum coins with the olive branch bank.” With a contented nod, Res dropped into the comfortable armchair again.

Antoinette looked at Res askance. “One doesn’t carry so much money around. How did you get all that money anyways? Did you rob a bank?”

He once again switched to his default answer – “Hmmm.”

Luckily, the auction host interrupted them once again with his deep and clear voice. “My lords and ladies, you will receive several small flags to show how much you want to increase the price.” The young man gave each one of them several flags. “Now that we have all the formalities out of the way ... Let’s start the auction off with a palette of the famous southerner beauty powders.”

A female servant pushing a small cart filled with various powders entered the stage. “They are reserved for southerner nobility, but we bought them from a bankrupt family. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to you ladies. The starting bid is two gold.” Antoinette had already forgotten their conversation and was transfixed by the small cart. After the auctioneer had stopped speaking, tens of flags shot into the air. “four gold, five gold” Antoinette pushed her flag through a hole in the wall to indicate a five gold increment. ”Ten gold”.

While Antoinette was busy bidding on the pallet, Res turned to the stony-faced Serafina. “So, you are a bodyguard?” Serafina’s stony face twitched a bit in agitation, but Res continued: “Excuse my ignorance.”

Her stiff demeanor softened a little. “I am an honor guard.” He was hoping Jason’s advice to be genuinely interested in a hobby of hers wouldn’t offend her.

“How does one become an honor guard?”

“We are children picked up from the streets. The families put us through tests and only the best survive.”

He felt like he hit a nerve there, so stopped his line of questioning. “How do you endure such force from your movement technique? That was close to teleporting.” By now, the price of the powders had risen to twenty gold.

The princess interjected. “It is funny to watch. At our palace, they have a special catapult that can shoot people at different speeds. When they are small, they have to do several tosses a day. Our palace is much more interesting than yours.”

Res winced in remembrance of the stiff manners in court. “That is not difficult.”

Antoinette released a victorious shout when she bought the powders for twenty-seven gold. With a merry expression, the announcer waved in another servant girl. “Luckily, we have ANOTHER powder kit!” Excited whispers ran through the crowd while Antoinette only groaned.

”Bro, you are currently at a stalemate. That is not fucking good. You have to get the ball rolling again.”

Res leaned forward and ignored Serafina. “Xenia, the prince said you were his future wife, but I hadn’t heard of such arrangements.”

The princess twirled around her piece of candy in her mouth. “There are none. I am here because Trianon has in some ways forced Osma to do so. I only have to stay here for several years, so it isn’t that bad. They hope that I will fall in love and have organized countless boring activities. I don’t know how many romantic candlelight dinners I had with the prince by now. I have stopped to count.”

“What would be interesting activities?”

Xenia looked at him with interest. “Doing some bad stuff. Like breaking into the house of a princess.” She began to suck on the piece of candy suggestively, but Res wrote it off as a kink.

He replied without hesitating. “I don’t get satisfaction from all the stressful rides. I would rather have it slow and relaxing.”

Serafina’s cheeks had begun to redden and when Res made as if to answer, she exploded in her chair. “Do you have to flirt right in front of me?”

Res stared at Serafina in surprise, who was now breathing hard and getting redder with every second. For some reason, Jason was having a laughing fit at the back of his mind. The princess only continued to suck on the piece of candy with a smile on her face. He tried to think about what could have offended her, but they had only talked about break-ins. When the awkward silence had held for too long, the princess broke out into laughter: “We were only joking, right Res? It was all a joke, Serafina.”

Res tried to laugh too, but to him, it only sounded like he was dead inside. Which he was at the moment. Yet, in the eyes of the princess, he didn’t see humor. Instead, he saw an emotion he dreaded – Interest. His fabricated laughing cut off when he received a resounding whack on the back of his head.

Then everything turned dark and he felt himself topple over onto the floor.