NINE

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Princess Lauren was having lunch with the four bandits but she's still unaware of what they really are.

She may have a bit of suspicion, and that was based on the things she has heard and read about the island and it's habitants, but she doesn't really want to jump into conclusions so quickly without getting a much more tangible information about these people. People who let her in to their home and sit at their table to feast on their food. If they're such miscreants, they wouldn't be so kind now would they?

Unless they were planning on something sinister about her and was just simply waiting for her to get used to them . . .

"Where is Simona?"

The grumpy panda-fish whose name she heard was Camila spoke quietly.

Are they really this soft spoken or are my ears deceiving me?

Princess Lauren thought to herself.

"At the tavern. Changed her mind and said it's never too late to open for business," Normani replied just as quietly, exchanging quick glances with the panda-fish.

"So, tell us more about yourself, Laura," Dinah prompted after a weird silence.

Keeping her anonymity is imperative at the moment. Especially when she doesn't know how trustworthy these people are. She can't just blurt about her true identity to anyone when she knows someone is going after her.

And if these people are in fact criminals, she'd only make herself a high valued hostage.

"I'm an orphan," She awkwardly replied, "From an orphanage in Arcade city. I was looking for . . ." Lauren paused, thinking of what she should say next, ". . . uhmm, I was looking for an employment,"

Four sets of eyes across the dining table focused on her, she could feel them scrutinizing her, seemingly unconvinced with her statement but didn't comment much about it.

"Is that why Dinah found you outside Zaragoza's borders?" Normani asked instead.

"You can say that," Lauren isn't used to lying explicitly. She'd rather say nothing at all than utter complete lies even to a stranger.

But this situation calls for it.

"That's odd. Faeries of Zaragoza only ever requires the employ of their fellow faeries," Camila the panda-fish warily said.

"I didn't say I seek employment there. It was the only way I know to reach Weiss Tower. Passing through the kingdom of Zaragoza is the most convenient route. And that's where I was actually heading," To divert attention from her, because she's about to run out of lies to tell, she addressed Dinah instead, "What about you? What were you doing outside the borders of Zaragoza?"

"Business," Dinah simply replied as she chewed on her calamari.

"Business? Of what sort?"

"The sort that's none of yours," Camila the panda-fish retorted.

Princess Lauren glared back at the piercing russet brown eyes that are already set staring at her intently. The way this Camila person looks at her suggests that she doesn't really like her presence in her turf and she made sure it shows.

Well . . . I don't like her either even if she's really pretty . . .

There is a bit of mystery and danger to her, Lauren is almost sure of that. Kind of similar to Dinah but Dinah is somewhat reserved, kind of in an intriguing way. This Camila person however, her kind of mystery is somewhat like a simmering pot of anger that would burst into explosion when you dare try to take off the lid. She has the air of someone you shouldn't be messing with otherwise you're dead meat.

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