The Cursed Prince

Chapter 875: A New Adventure

Rowena stared up at the ceiling of her room.

For the past few years since she left the kingdom of Ashland, marriage was something she didn't think about even as she grew closer to the age where people usually started to think about meeting their potential life partners.

She believed that as long as she had an adventure with Julian, then she could spend the rest of her days with blissful peace and unending fun.

She did see other people so focused on love and relationships, and even Lady Mary was happily married to her husband before... but Rowena didn't think it was for her.

There were some occasions where she and Julian got a little bit too close, but most often, the two of them immediately stepped away from each other.

They thought of each other as partners in crime, Rowena saw Julian like an older brother and he probably thought of her as a sister.

This kind of relationship and situation was something that they both wanted, but it seemed that it was also important for a person to leave the nest and have other relationships.

Rowena wasn't thinking about herself, but Julian rather. He spent the better portion of his youth training a young woman into becoming independent.. so it was also time for them to part ways—even if she didn't want to consider it. That was how people grew up.

"Rowena, wake up, there's something you have to see!" Julian called out to her.

The young woman forced herself out of bed and rubbed her face. "I'm coming Julian, wait a second."

"Hurry up sleepyhead, I bet you'll like this."

When Rowena left her room and stepped out of the house, she came across Julian around the vegetable patch. He knelt in front of the place where they planted the seeds and beckoned her over.

As she drew closer, she realized that after two weeks, the seeds actually grew up and bore something at last.

"This is..."

"The plant grew at last. I've never actually seen anything like this before." Julian admitted. "It doesn't seem like an ordinary crop, or else I would know. Does our resident genius know what it is?"

Rowena familiarized herself with a lot of books in the royal library in Ashland, but she hadn't seen anything quite like it. The plant was nothing like a tree, it was only a small sprout that resembled beans. Each one was different from the other. Red. Pink. Green. Blue. Yellow.

"Do you think they're edible?" Julian asked.

"Hmmm..." Rowena frowned and looked around. "If we have to base it on standard tests, it seems safe. I don't recommend just putting it in your mouth though."

"What if we get an animal to taste it? Let's call Hades over." Julian stood up. "Boy, we have something good for you—"

"No, we won't, sit back down, Julian." Rowena tugged his sleeve and made him sit back down. "It's safe because I'm seeing ants. They're going up the plant's stalk and actually collecting the sprout."

"If ants can harvest it, then it seems like we can as well," Julian said as he plucked a yellow sprout and placed it in his mouth.

"Julian!"

"At worst, I'll get an upset stomach," Julian said but then paused. His face scrunched up and then he grimaced. "Ugh..."

"Are you alright?" Rowena looked over at him worriedly.

"It tastes so sour." Julian shuddered. "It's like that fruit we bought in one of the markets."

"Lemons?"

"Yeah, that one."

"That's strange... how about the other ones then?" Rowena asked. "Can you try them?"

"Huh, what's the change of heart?" Julian grinned. "I thought you didn't want me to try them earlier."

"Well, some dangerous poisons would have immediately killed you by now if it was that strong. I've heard and read my fair share of things like wolfsbane, belladonna, and others."

"Alright, you got yourself a food taster." Julian chuckled. "It seems like a princess still has her roots eh?"

"Julian..."

"Too much?"

"Fine, I'll try this blue one." Rowena plucked the blue sprout and placed it in her mouth. A burst of sweetness spread all over her mouth and her eyes widened. "This one tastes like blueberries."

"Blueberries?" Julian picked up the green sprout and tasted it. "Ick, this one is so bitter. Am I unlucky or what?" &nb

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"Let's identify all of the colors and taste." Rowena encouraged. The two of them ended up trying them all and it didn't take too long for her to write down a small list.

"Hmm, I mean it's really interesting, but I doubt a plant as small as this one is really helpful," Julian said. "You can barely feed anyone with this."

"Maybe it's not fully grown?" Rowena said. "The stalk does seem tender and young. But you also have to remember that some plants are just small. They don't actually plan to be eaten by humans, so they have their ways of adapting to their environment."

"So they decided to be extra small?"

"And extra varied in taste. It might put out some ordinary animals that prey on their plants."

"I see... as usual, expect Rowena to know a thing or two about how plants think." Julian chuckled. "Are you a plant whisperer or what? Maybe you have some elf blood in you."

"I don't know, but at least we've finally seen how the plant grew." Rowena smiled as she looked at the plant. "Maybe I've been reading too many fairy tales, but I almost imagined it growing enormously."

"You mean for it to grow up so much that it reaches past the skies and up into another realm?" Julian grinned. "You know, people do say that there are many portals to other worlds. What's to say that this one isn't it?"

"Well, I don't know, I'm happy to see it budding... but if there's anywhere we have to go to find another world? I heard rumors from the cities we've visited in the past."

"You did?"

Rowena smiled and nodded. "They say at the end of this continent, up the North in the kingdom of Verona is a portal to the realm of mermaids."

"Really?"

"Yes. There's a lot of stories actually."

"Hmmm, adventuring to somewhere beyond humans does sound exciting. Maybe we'll actually get to see me being a swashbuckling adventurer?" Julian chuckled. "How does that sound?"

"Amazing," Rowena said.

"Well, I guess we have to go then. I can't let my fan down if I don't become the adventurer you and the others imagine me to be." Julian said, but then looked back at the plants growing. "Maybe after we watch the plants grow though? You did say we were going to raise them."

***

About two months had passed and the plant had actually grown into a beautiful tree with different-color bearing fruits.

Each fruit was about the size of an ordinary apple.

The seeds actually proved to be magical, or a very rare variety that Rowena had never seen before. More than that, compared to other fruits, it was incredibly filled with a lot of sticky liquid.

It was similar to a large green-shelled fruit that stored a lot of its juice inside, but even far more. Rowena and Julian actually gathered a lot of fruits and even sold them to the nearby cities to gather additional funds for traveling again.

"I can't believe we're actually going to leave this place." Julian laughed as he gazed at their cabin and once again took in the wonderful sight.

"You act as if we can't return here," Rowena pointed out to him as she boarded up Hades. She looked fondly over the hut that served as their home.

"Well, I thought you were craving adventure. And we already have a lot of great memories here." Julian smiled as he patted Cinna's head. "We're lucky that Hades and Cinna don't seem inclined in settling down like us. I was afraid we would have needed to buy new horses."

"If we did, that wouldn't be much of a problem. We do have savings," Rowena said. "A lot in fact. If you wanted to retire someplace by the beach, buy a small fish boat and be a fisherman—"

"You're telling me, the guy who gets seasick that there's the chance that I could actually be a fisherman? No thanks." Julian chuckled.

"So is it the mermaids that you're interested in?" Rowena teased him as they left the valley.

"No. It's just that maybe you'd like to learn how to swim in a bigger lake?" Julian grinned. "I think what happened to you is the scenario of big fish, small pond. So what better place than going to the ocean, am I right?"

Rowena remembered the first time that she fell into a river—chasing Julian down. He had saved her back then. While Rowena was comfortable enough to swim and float in a river, the ocean was going to be a different thing completely.

She glanced at Julian as they rode down the road.

"And there's you being the adventurer too."

"Well, I wouldn't be an adventurer without my trusty sidekick with me," Julian answered.

Rowena smiled a little. "I suppose. But if you save a damsel in distress–"

"I won't be doing any saving." Julian wagged his finger, thought about it, and said. "Unless I get paid, I'm not interested in saving a girl from any locked-up tower."

"Huh. Did you know that I lived in a tower when I was younger?"

Julian glanced back at her and said. "Well, I never said anything about the tower being the bad thing–"

"I know." Rowena chuckled.

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