MY STEP-MOTHER IS MY MATE

CITY EXPLOIT

"n-no no, I didn't mean to, I was just trying to~"

"Brother, Don't tell Mother!!!" The princess stated quite sternly, the serious look on her face was a little bit funny but Caspian did not even think about it as he was lost in his thoughts of how he could explain to the little princess that didn't mean to touch her inappropriately. Hearing her words, Caspian only nodded and knew that she'd look back at this moment detestably in the future.

'what is done is done anyway' He sighed in exasperation.

"I promise"

"Then, I'll go" The princess swam out of the study and turned around at the door to remind Caspian to keep what happened a secret in a shush action. Caspian felt it was funny how the little girl behaved sometimes.

Caspian spent the rest of the day yet again in the study, skipping his imperial classes as always.

......

It was almost time to depart for the War Art training and Caspian was quite nervous. He felt burdened and felt as if a slight weight was on his shoulder as he was about to embark on a journey of almost no return. He wasn't scared of the training, he was scared of being the king but before that, he was scared of losing his family's kingship heirloom, afraid of not being strong enough.

Caspian was walking down the hall in steady steps, he had decided to step out of the castle to clear his head.

"Brother!!!"

A familiar sweet high-pitched voice made him halt his steps. He turned back to see the little princess dressed in white plains in the corridor swimming towards him excitedly. For a moment, he felt light and forgot the burden he carried on his shoulder.

"Aerwyna?" He muttered under his breath. And soon, the little princess was right in front of him.

"Where are you off to?" She asked seeing him stride around in the castle for the first time since she had come to know him. Though she never bothered to ask either, She didn't know why her brother never played around like she would or had friends, after all, they were of the same status, and everyone definitely wanted to be friends with them.

"The city"

"huh... To see a friend?" she gasped before asking as she was shocked, convinced and at the same time confused. She never saw the prince go out and to her reasoning, one would only go out of the castle to see a friend. However, she never saw Caspian with another folk before, and if he had a friend, why have they never been to the castle?

"Y-yes?" Caspian responded and tried to avoid more questions as he wasn't comfortable being questioned this way.

"Then I'm going with you... I want to meet your friend." she quickly made a simple decision to clear her doubt, she'd see who this folk was herself. she quickly took the lead and swam upfront to the gate of the castle.

"Brother hurry!" she urged him after seeing him still standing there like a statue.

"Aerwyna, it's not that simple!" but his words only swam into nothingness, falling on deaf ears as the little princess was already approaching the carriage outside.

"hah!" he sighed, in defeat.

...

In a coral carriage that looked like a large shell clamped together yet beautiful with the Royal insignia, which is a crossed golden trident, engraved on its sides. Two figures, one taller than the other sat staring at each other in silence for several seconds.

"Why didn't you say so, brother?" The smaller figure said with an understanding smile on her childish face, seemingly acting like she was more mature than the other figure.

Earlier, Caspian had explained to the little princess that he wasn't going to see a friend and had tried to dissuade her from following him out into the city but she insisted that he was lying so that he wouldn't bring her along. He didn't have a choice but to allow the princess to do what she wanted as the guards were giving him a strange gaze. Initially, Caspian would sneak out of the castle and disguise himself to roam the city, but he couldn't risk it with the princess being with him so they went by the royal carriage.

Caspian explained to her afterward that he was going to shop for a few things in the main city and now the princess seemed to agree with him and was even blaming him for not saying so sooner. He didn't know the princess could be this annoying.

"hah!" he sighed, yet again in defeat.

The princess stared in awe out the carriage as the Hippocampus, under the control of the ferryman dragged them towards their destination. The translucent canals made the castle look exotic as they drifted away from it. Caspian was used to seeing this so he wasn't too moved, but he was still slightly impressed. He was amused to see the princess gawking like this.

"Whoa.....look at that!" She kept saying every time they passed a breathtaking sight. Atlantis city was beautiful beyond remark, and the Merfolks took pride in their kingdom.

They soon arrived at the city square and they both stepped out of the carriage, of course, the lady went first. The huge city square had several shops selling several kinds of stuff and Merfolks, could be seen everywhere, it was like a trade fair.

Aerwyna was about to swim off when she felt a hand dragging her back, and she looked back to see that it was Caspian. She looked confused and to her surprise, he held her hands under his arms and said in a serious tone.

"Don't get lost!!"

Aerwyna looked around to see that the crowd's gaze was focused on both of them and she could hear them praising them in respect. She followed Caspian's steps, reciprocating the Merfolk's pleasantries.

They went about hand in hand, and the princess would point at things at random. Caspian had bought her several pieces of jewelry but the little gobbler had no stop. It seemed like she wanted everything.

Caspian noticed a weaponry shop at the corner as they went past the square. He looked and saw a strange spear on the counter, placed on display. It was Blood Red with a strange golden rune all over it with two prongs instead of the usual three of a trident or that of a standard spear. It looked deadly and at the same time beautiful and magnificent. Although Caspian would definitely get a top-grade weapon when he departs to training, The spear caught his attention and it wasn't too much to have several weapons anyway. So Caspian approached the shop with the princess, still hand in hand.