NOVEL NEXT Chapter 68: 3.13: Honeywell Street
The garden had wooden tables and benches scattered about for socializing, with a fountain and a statue of the founder in the middle of it all.
Lucian spotted her sitting next to Edmund, and he almost couldn't recognize her. She blended so well with the rest of the ladies, wearing a similar hairstyle and make up as them.
She set up a new trend to test how malleable the public's opinion was and to see if the other students would follow her example. It was an interesting observation.
Edmund got all the spotlight to himself, the admiring female gazes and giggles following him around. He was the second most popular male student right after the Crown Prince.
As if feeling his presence, Celine looked up and almost busted herself with a surprised look on her face before quickly composing herself. It was a struggle as she clapped her cheeks with her hands and looked away with flushed cheeks.
The other girls followed her gaze and let out gasps, giggling among each other.
"It's the Crown Prince," one of them said.
Lucian turned his head and saw the Crown Prince walking through the path leading to another building on the grounds. The black hair and grey eyes made him stand out more than he already did with his title alone.
The attention seemed to annoy the Crown Prince rather than flatter him, and Celine probably picked on the signs because what she did next surprised everyone.
She got up and chased after him, and like a hoard of sheep, the other girls did the same.
"How is your day, Your Highness?" they flooded him with questions, their voices overlapping each other.
'It seems like that not even a person with a higher rank could stop Celine from finding a way to harass them.' Lucian thought, feeling a bit better at the thought that it didn't matter if he had a lower status or not. She didn't view him as an easy prey since nothing could stop her from making her move.
From the outside, Celine's behavior looked no different from an infuriated maiden in love. Lucian would have misunderstood too if it weren't for the Crown Prince's reaction.
Celine wasn't so clueless as to not know how to attract a man's interest. The Crown Prince was bound to fall for her if she tried. Tried was the keyword here, because she barely did.
The Crown Prince gave the group of females a deadly glare before entering the building.
The girls didn't dare to follow him. Celine also retreated back to her spot and sat down, her smile widening in delight.
'There's no reason for the Crown Prince to have a secret relationship with her like me, is there?' The knot around Lucian's heart tightened as he continued to walk without a stop, getting the last glimpse of her from the corner of his eye.
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After entering his carriage, Lucian rubbed his chest to ease the pain, but it didn't go away.
Even bad attention was still attention, and the way Celine dished it out to others made him feel a certain type of way.
'She thinks it's mostly because of my kindness that I don't support her actions against innocent people, and I thought so too, but...'
He looked down at his palms and closed them.
'...I have no excuse to be jealous now, do I?'
He pumped his head into his palms in frustration, his nails biting into his scalp.
'Is it wrong of me to want her all to myself?'
He would rather dirty his own hands than have hers stained. At least she wouldn't put that much focus on the rest of the world and dedicate her attention to more wholesome activities.
'But I'm fine with Togo and the rest,' he thought of an excuse, 'So maybe I don't have it that bad...maybe it's just a worry. Yes. I'm just worried about her...'
Celine had a little ZOO back at home, where she collected birds of various species to keep her entertained.
Instead of keeping them in cages, she released them inside the greenhouse he built and trained them to return back to her whenever she called.
Togo turned out to look more like a black raven than a colorful parrot, which resulted in her calling Lucian a scammer.
Scamming Celine was the best part about his job. It was never worth selling her anything because she would end up scamming him out of the product for free.
Lucian never mentioned the species or the exact location where the bird was captured. It was on her whether she caught the bait or not.
It didn't matter because Togo ended up becoming her favorite.
It was a little devil in a suit of a bird. It didn't like anybody else except for her, and had the same superiority mindset that Celine had, looking at everyone from a pedestal.
Today was Lucian's eighteenth birthday, and it would be his first birthday in years he would spend without her.
"Stop by the closest butcher," he instructed the coachman.
Togo had been staying with him since her school started, and Lucian needed to get dinner for the little rascal before it threw a tantrum.
He had no idea how Celine could tolerate such a creature. His Seline used to be a much more pleasant pet to have around, always cuddly and adorable. Or maybe it was Celine's fault, she was a rotten influence after all.
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Lucian returned to his office in the capital, carrying a small bag of ground beef from the city's best butcher.
Honeywell street was located in the shopping district. The buildings shared walls with one another, with the storefronts in front and the backyards in the back.
His office in the capital was more spacious compared to the one in Stonetomb City, with a large balcony on the second floor that overlooked the backyard. The view was not as impressive, but it was still a nice place to relax.
A nest was located on the roof, and a familiar black bird was peering down at him.
Lucian kept the door open for it to come in and set the ground meat in a small bowl on his desk.
"There you go. The best quality money can buy," he spoke to the bird, bribing his way into its good grace.
╔═══ Author's note ════╗
I wonder if anyone here likes to read smut?
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