The Crown and The Rose
Chapter 65: The Red Light District

Chapter 65: The Red Light District

The Crown

I had never thought how uneventful and boring life was within those high stone walls of the palace. Yes, there was always a melodrama inside the royal court where I was forced to go every single day on the calendar after I turned fifteen. I tended to screw up a lot at first, but eventually, I came to understand how that ridiculous court worked.

Three weeks is enough to know how eventful my life became after I was banished from the palace and expelled from the court. Maybe I never enjoyed how I was put in danger every time he gave me an assignment. But it always kept me preoccupied and never let me get bored. Which is more than enough.

I have been sitting around in the royal palace of the Red Empire and doing nothing for three weeks now. I didn’t bother with the task he gave me because I didn’t want to waste my breath doing anything useless. But what am I doing here, sitting around and moping for three weeks?

As expected, Rosalia is too busy to keep me accompanied twenty-four-seven. Erick wouldn’t stop flirting with me and Zhen Xin occasionally talks just when I am alone with him. This is getting as unbearably boring as it can be. And I need to change that before I go crazy by the thoughts tormenting my idle mind.

I wonder what Rosalia thinks of me after I told her about how I feel about Lord Vermilion. Does she think I am a weirdo and have lost my mind? Well, this is Rosalia Red that we are talking about. There is a thin chance that she would even think that. She is my best friend after all. Or maybe my future bride.

She didn’t tell me, but I know my father has taken some steps to strengthen our alliance through our marriage. If you are wise enough to keep your ears open to the palace servants, you will easily receive this information.

I blow out a sigh as I push up from my seat in the garden. I have read countless books in the past three weeks and my brain can’t take it anymore. I need to get out of these four walls, even if I have to use Vermilion’s task as an excuse.

***

Convincing Rosalia wasn’t even the hardest part of the job. What was hard was sneaking her out of the palace gates. I had to pull two all-nighters to craft a perfect plan to get her out of the palace gates and hopefully, it worked.

I had her bring me as much as earth magic stone possible, then made a secret passageway. This is just how Edward made it for me. I am truly missing Edward a lot in all this. He was my ultimate planner. I’d him do all this planning thing and he’s also do the arrangements. I also miss his nag. And I wish he was here when Rosailia curses like that. I wonder how he would have behaved.

I told myself it would all be worth it—a little thrill after three weeks of boredom. Those all-nighters and the secret passage had to pay off. But I didn’t think that my presumptions were always nonexistent.

"And...where are we?" I ask Rosalia, tucking my hood further down to make sure my face is obscured from everyone’s view. Zhen Xin is inside the pocket of my tunic.

"This is the Red light district of the Red Empire." She announces, her voice proud and her posture upright. I want to slap her. But I am keeping my hands to myself.

I can feel the excitement radiating from Erick as he pulls down his hood to take a better look at everything, "Oh. My. Lord. Lush, you never told me that the human realm’s pleasure district is much more prominent than the demon realm’s?" There is so much awe in his voice that makes my stomach flip.

I don’t bother to pay him any attention but grab his hand firmly, worried that he might start to run wild any moment now. I turn to Rosalia, "And why are we here?" I raise a pointed eyebrow, "I thought we were going to investigate the thing that is happening here regarding the dark magic user in this Empire."

"Of course, this is partly as to why we are here," Rosalia says, and I don’t like the tune in her voice, "I went through the paperwork myself last night—" She turns to me, holding up her two fingers to me, "—and determined that there are two places from where these kinds of activities are more prominent. The first one is the underground market or the black market of the royal capital. And the second one—"

"The red light district," I conclude, cutting her off.

"Right." She acknowledges and lowers her fingers, "I picked the pleasure district first because I thought that it would be a great opportunity to run a few experiments on you while we are at it."

"What kind of experiment?" A frown appears between my eyebrows, I can feel that I am getting more and more upset as the second passes.

"What do you actually like." She answers simply, ignoring the pissed look on my face blatantly, "Sextually." She adds, "Men or women."

"I am not about to participate in your shitty experiments, Rose." I hiss. I was already moping in the palace and she just had to piss e off even more. I can feel indignation bubbling beneath the surface, so I take a few calming breaths to get my shits together, "I am not doing anything like that." I repeat.

Rosalia’s expression hardens and she gives me a sidelong glance, "Why?" It’s a simple question but I don’t know how to answer it.

"I-I don’t want to..." I stutter a little and I don’t sound as confident as I was before.

"You can’t get over Vermilion, can you?" She just has me where she shouldn’t.

"Yes..."