Sold to a Prince!

After the tutor left, Sylvia stood up to meticulously work on her physical conditioning. 

She might not have Mrs. Gruger looking over her movements, but she had already practiced it several times and was quite confident with it. 

She didn't need anyone to oversee her training. 

She repeated the same set of exercises a dozen times until it was time for her dinner.

She then once again sat in the garden by herself and ate the food. 

A lonely silence filled the air, with only the distant rustling of the leaves and the light melody of the cool night breeze but Sylvia didn't care.

There were a lot of thoughts in her mind to keep her company.

Mrs. Gruger might have brushed her off by saying that there was no need for her to worry about things like astral affinity and such, but Sylvia was now more sure of it.

She had a feeling that if she just tried hard enough that she might be able to achieve the core formation which the old man was talking to her about.

That seemed to be the foundation of everything, her magic, and her shifting. 

However, her issue now was… she had absolutely no idea about how to form a mana core.

If only it was as intuitive as the shifting process… things would have been much simpler.

Nibbling on a piece of meat stuck in her fork, Sylvia pondered how to solve this issue.

Not long after, a set of footsteps coincidentally sounded near her.

She looked up to see the two princesses Melissa and Kel stalking towards her, their auburn hair swaying in the wind and their long gowns gliding on the fresh green grass.

"Oh? We didn't know that you were having your dinner by yourself, sister." Melissa smiled with a sympathetic expression on her face that bordered on derision.

"Ahh… What a pity. You could have joined us. We as well just finished eating." Kel added, her smile a bit more genuine and kind.

"It's alright. I am used to eating alone." Sylvia stood up from the table, wiping her mouth with napkins.

She didn't know why these two princesses had walked over to her out of nowhere, but she could tell that they were up to no good.

And she was not in the mood right now to get into any sort of argument.

"Have a pleasant evening. I think I will head inside and rest now." Sylvia placed the napkins down and prepared to leave.

"Oh, that's right. You are so weak. You must need plenty of rest." Melissa chuckled mockingly, while Kel looked away as if she was embarrassed.

Sylvia halted her steps and rubbed her temples. These two are somehow supposed to be older than her? 

Maybe the pampered and sheltered life did something to their brain! Yes. That must be it. 

She sighed and immediately agreed with her. "Yes. Yes. You are absolutely correct. I am weak so I am heading inside to rest."

She then tilted her head to the side, giving them an even wider smile, and proceeded to head inside.

"Wait a second, sister. We brought you a gift. Don't you want it?" Melissa hurriedly stopped her again.

She placed a book on the edges of the crowded table that was still filled with the leftovers from the dinner.

"We heard that you were asking Mrs. Gruger about astral affinity. So we decided to bring you a special book on it."

Oh! Sylvia immediately turned around, her eyes widening in surprise. 

She was not surprised because they knew about her conversation with the tutor, rather she was surprised to see that they were being helpful and even went to the trouble of getting a book specifically for her.

She took the book in her hands and glanced over it quickly expecting some sort of dirty trick but the book looked genuine enough.

"This… I am really grateful for this." She replied, her mind still lingering in confusion.

"Ha Ha Ha. No need to thank us. This is what we sisters are there for. We should help each other out when we can."

"You see… I also happen to have very high astral affinity. So I had taken out a few books from our library in that field." 

Melissa smiled again, while the other one still kept looking around here and there restlessly.

"Oh and before I forget…" 

She then took out another item from a bracelet on her hand and placed it on the same table, instead of directly handing it over to Sylvia.

"The Lycan clan's harvest moon festival is about to begin. I heard that Lord Roman was the one to rescue you from a brothel?" 

Her words made Sylvia freeze for a moment and she noticed it, her lips curling upwards into a smirk. "Perhaps you would like to attend the festival and meet with him again?"

Sylvia looked at her, her eyes turning bright golden and almost immediately Melissa's black eyes turned bright golden as well, as if she was challenging her.

The two continued staring daggers at each other, and unable to bear it any longer, Kel worriedly interrupted. "Ummm… Sisters?"

Her words broke the tension, Sylvia being the one to relent first. "Sure. That's very thoughtful of you."

She took the invitation in her hands along with the book.

Seeing her tongue-tied, Melissa chuckled contently and waved her hand. "Then, I will be leaving first. Good luck sister."

"Just another small advice… it is not good to day dream alright?"

"Ha ha. Astral affinity. What a joke… Come on Kel, we need to meet with father tonight." 

Melissa dragged the other girl and the two of them walked away, talking and laughing amongst themselves about something.

Sylvia could hear their laughter even at a distance.

"I am day dreaming huh?" She smiled, watching them disappear. She turned around and left the garden as well, falling tiredly on her bed.

She looked at the invitation in her hand and then at the book. Both looked suspicious, but she was more wary of the book than the invitation.

Nevertheless, she decided to take a look at it anyways.