THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER

CHAPTER 3

This is the same day as the first time I introduced Beverly.

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BLASTTTTT. I quickly sidestepped the fireball Steve, one of my trusted protectors, threw in my direction. Just when I thought I escaped the attack, Collins, my second most trusted protector, blasted me with a powerful wind storm.

"f**k. That hurts", I grumbled. as I stood up.

"Where is your mind today?", my favourite cousin, Aiden stated from behind me, "That's the second time they were able to get you under 10 minutes"

"I know right. It's normally hard to get a hit on you", Steve said with a smirk.

"I guess it has to do with the crowning ceremony. The queen called him about an hour ago", Collins guessed.

    Let me introduce myself. I am Prince Asher, heir and future king, of Unicorn and Dragon Kingdom. I am an only child so basically, all the responsibility falls on me. I'm turning 18 in about three months which means I will be crowned the new king. My 18th birthday will also be the day of my crowning ceremony. But as always, there is a catch. In order for the crowning ceremony to happen and for me to become the king, I MUST have chosen a bride. NO BRIDE, NO CROWN. It is a lot of pressure though. The only people I can talk to about it is my cousin, Aiden and believe it or not, two of my protectors, Steve and Collins. Yes, I said two of my protectors. As the future King of all the kingdoms, I am prone to have a lot of enemies so I have 6 protectors namely: Steve, Collins, Adam, Johnathan, Devon and Tommy. Out of all of them, I am a lot closer to Steve and Collins. I trust them a lot more even though I know I am meant to trust all my protectors. I do trust them all except one, which I am very skeptical about.

    Steve is the most outgoing one. More of a flirt. Even though he is my protector, he always tries to get girls for me, just like Aiden. Simply because we are royalty doesn't mean we are reserved. We have both done things that have almost given our mothers a heart attack multiple times and caused our fathers to bust out laughing. The only difference between Aiden and me, when it comes to our "bad boy lifestyle", is I tend to do mine on a low, quietly but I don't hide it, while Aiden, on the other hand, doesn't care. According to him, ''it's the advantage of being just a prince and not a future king". Our parents say he is just like my dad when he was young while I am like his dad, my uncle and dad's younger brother. Back to Steve, he is also the loud one of the group( Steve, Aiden, Collins and me) and the jokester. Always ready to jump into any fight.

    Collins, on the other hand, is the most reserved one of four of us. He is also the very quiet one. When he speaks, listen. He can spit reasonable s**t more than anyone I know( it's no surprise, he's my protector). He can be funny when he wants to. He is also the most observant of us all. He tends to be the first to notice whenever something is wrong. Lastly, he is a ticking timebomb during battles. He strikes once and NEVER misses. Don't let his calm facade fool you. Ever since all my protectors were assigned to me, I have always preferred these you, even Aiden prefer them which means I made the right decision.

    Aiden is my favourite cousin. We have always been close ever since we were little. I'm just a few days older than him, not even a week. No matter what we do, we do it together. He is the most carefree person I know. Doesn't always give a s**t. The majority of the time, he doesn't even act like a prince (just like my dad doesn't act like a king until when necessary and his dad doesn't ask like a prince and the king's second in command unless necessary). Even though he is very playful, silly and flirtatious, he is also very very wise and smart which is why I made the decision to appoint him as my second in command. Whenever he doubts or suspects someone, pay attention: he is never wrong. So when he also took a liken to both Steve and Collins, I knew I wasn't wrong in trusting them.

"Oh really? I heard from my mom that your mom has actually started the planning, so what has got you so distracted", Aiden said as they all sat beside me.

FLASHBACK TO AN HOUR AGO

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I was getting ready to spear with Steve and Collins in about an hour when someone suddenly knocked on my door. I dropped the outfit I was holding on the bed and opened the door. Outside my door was a commoner fairy. The moment I opened the door, she lowered her eyes.

"Good afternoon, your highness. Her majesty requests your presence in her personal chamber", she said.

"Okay, I'll be there in a minute", I replied then went back to my room to dress "royally".

Soon after I was on my way to my mother's chamber with two warriors with me. As I got closer to her chamber, the warriors stopped by the door since they are not allowed in unless there is a serious emergency, or if they are protectors, Nobles or Royals. I entered and saw my mom with my aunt Sally, Aiden's mom. I already knew I will not like the outcome.

"Your majesty, your highness", I bowed to both of them while my aunt laughed.

"Silly", she commented.

"Asher, I have told you, you don't have to address us formally unless we are in front of the public. Inside, we are just your mom and aunt and you are our little pumpkin", my mom said as she pulled my cheek. So embarrassing.

"You are so uptight and you are not even the king yet", aunt Sally jessed. I rolled my eyes at them and sat beside my aunt. "Why did you want to see me?", I asked even though a very large part of my brain knows what we are going to be discussing.

"Well, we'll just go straight to the point", my mom said as she made a pot of tea appear even though there was juice on the table. She magically flew a cup of very bitter tasteless ginger tea to me even though she knows I hate it. I think she secretly does it to torture me. "We have decided to host a ball two months before your crowning ceremony so you can pick a bride and we will train her for a month before the ceremony"

"What? Hell no. I do not accept", I said as I stood up

"You should have picked a bride months ago when we asked you too", they shrugged.

"You have got to be kidding me. You want me to get married to someone I don't even know, not to speak of love?"', I stated upset.

"You will learn to love her, dear. Love does not exist in our royal world. Any female that says she loves you is lying just to become the queen", my mom said as she stood up to comfort me.

"Really? love doesn't exist? So you don't love dad and you don't love uncle Andrew?", I addressed them both.

"Honey, you have got this all wrong. Of course, we love them, but you are the future king. Many females will lie to you in order to become the next queen", aunt Sally said, as she tried to touch me.

"I'm sure you will like some of the females I am planning on inviting to the ball. I'm only thinking of inviting Nobles and Royalty so you can be least assured that they won't try to use you", my mom said trying to make me see the bright side.

I moved towards the door, "You can set you the ball but I won't be attending. I will not marry a girl I don't know or love even if it means I will lose the chance of becoming the king".

Both my mom and aunt were shocked. My aunt quickly came over to me, "You can't be serious"

"I'm serious", I said. My mom and aunt looked at each other and my aunt quickly came over to me.

"Ok, let's make a deal", she began.

"I looked at them skeptically and replied, "what kind of deal?"

"If you find a girl you fall in love with before the ball, we will cancel the ball and you can get married to her", my aunt said. It sounds like a very good idea actually but I know there is a catch.

"What's the catch?", i asked

This time, my mom replied, "She must be of royal blood or a Noble"

I raised my eyebrow, surprised by the condition, "I know you, Asher. You might end up falling in love with a commoner", my mom said and my aunt and I burst out laughing.

"Okay, mom and aunt. Deal", I replied as I left.

END OF FLASHBACK

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"Damn, you are in trouble. I'm so glad I'm not you", Aiden said with a careless shrug

"Yup", Steve and Collins agreed. We already teleported ourselves into my room. Just as we were talking, I felt another presence trying to teleport into my room, we all felt it. Suddenly, Star, the most beautiful winged unicorn we know, appeared.

We all got up to pet her, "Hello", her voice rang into all of our minds.

"Hi Star" 

"Hey Star"

"Yoo Star"

"Wassup Star"

She sat down by the foot of my bed while the four of us sat on my bed. "I heard your discussion with your mom and aunt", she said and I sighed

"Any advice, oh wise one?", I teased.

"Nope. Although, I came here for another reason", she said.

"What?" I asked.

"I want us to go somewhere tomorrow by 10 PM", she responded.

This certainly piped our interest.

"Go where?", I asked.

"Are we invited?", Steve asked excitedly. 

"Are there banging girls there?", Aiden smirked

I rolled my eyes as Collins smacked him behind his head (he can only do this in private since we consider him a friend. But if he does this in public, he could be executed).

Star stood up on her hooves and said, "even if I said you can't come, you will still come, won't you?"

We all smirked because we know she's right. We all go everywhere together, even if we have to sneak there( we have done things a lot. We sneak out just to accompany each other). Steve and Collins don't just follow us simply because they are my protectors, but because we are all so tight to the extent they are like brothers. 

"Whatever, just be ready by 10 PM. And, you three," she turned to Aiden Steve and Collins, "stay hidden. The person I want to show Asher doesn't know I'm bringing anyone, talkless of a Prince and seeing three of you might make her catch on, on who you are, and it might end up frightening her and even if you want to show yourselves, because I know you will try to, all of you should dress like a commoner"

"So it's a girl?", Aiden said with a sly smirk.

"Is this some sort of blind date?", Collins asked with a knowing and suspicious look.

Star just turned around and teleported out of my room to wherever she is going to without answering. I turned to three of them and they all shrugged, completely clueless. 

"Well, this should be interesting. At least two things we know are, it's a girl we will be meeting and secondly, she is a commoner." Collins stated.

"I can't believe Star is setting you up on a blind date and with a commoner at that", Steve laughed.

"We just have to be careful and make sure no one knows except four of us", Aiden said.

We concluded our conversations and they left my room to go to theirs, which are just beside mine. Steve's to my right, Collin's to my left and Aiden's opposite mine.