Chapter 12: Trading Places
In a small country next to the Nation of the Dragon King, far removed from any sort of extravagances, there was a small village where the villagers lived off of the land. It was here that Ada was born. But Ada had an uncommon hair color that stood out. Her mother had married into this village, so Ada never really gave it any mind, but here it was seen as a rarity and the villagers would marvel at her from afar. It was Ada’s dream to ditch this creepy, deadbeat village, go to the Nation of the Dragon King, and live with some glitz and glamor like a regular girl.
One random day, her father informed her that he’d found some work for her, so Ada was brought to the royal capital of the Nation of the Dragon King. However, she didn’t even have a chance to take her first look at the capital before she was taken away to the port. There, standing in front of her father as he bowed over and over, was a well-dressed, middle-aged gentleman. He certainly didn’t seem to be an acquaintance of his.
Ada realized how fishy the situation appeared. The gentleman ogled her from head to toe, making her feel extremely uncomfortable.
“Mm-hmm, her hair color is indeed unique. A deal it is, then,” said the gentleman, nudging his chin at the attendant behind him, signaling him to come to the front and present a drawstring purse.
From the dense jingle, and from her glimpse of the contents when her father took a peek inside the pouch, she knew it was filled with money. It seemed like a considerable amount of money, as well, from the perspective of Ada’s poor family. Once he received the purse, her father left the scene without so much as looking Ada’s way.
With a sense of uneasiness settling over her, she followed the gentleman onto the boat. It wasn’t soon after she was aboard, however, that she was informed her father hadn’t found her work—he had sold her off.
Rocked by the waves upon the boat, tears flowed endlessly from Ada’s eyes in an attempt to escape from reality as she wallowed in despair over the turn her life had taken.
Once they had docked and unloaded the ship, she was taken to their stronghold and imprisoned in a room. She was certain she’d be sold off to someone else and forced to live out the rest of her days as their slave. However, the curtain closed on that hopelessness faster than she could have ever expected.
A ruckus outside the room where Ada and the other girls were being held unnerved the whole lot. They thought the day they would be sold off had finally come. But it wasn’t slave traders that came to their room—it was soldiers from the Nation of the Dragon King.
They helped liberate the girls from their enslavement. Those kidnapped and brought to this place against their will were sent home per their requests. Those with more complicated situations, such as being sold off by their parents, refused going back and were instead brought to the royal capital—the very royal capital Ada had long dreamed of.
On their way, they took up lodging in a local inn. As Ada was casually passing by the soldiers’ room, she just so happened to overhear them speaking, causing her to pause in her tracks. They were slightly tipsy from drinking, and since they weren’t staying in a five-star establishment, the inn’s doors were paper thin. She was able to hear every drunken word they shouted.
“—and so you’re saying Ada is the very girl His Majesty is searching for?”
“His Majesty finally has a girl he’s fond of, does he? I thought it was odd they sent so many men to bust up a human trafficking operation, but it makes perfect sense if they abducted the girl who is slated to be the Dragon Queen.”
“We need to be on our best behavior, then...”
The moment she heard that, Ada carefully tiptoed away from the area. However, if she had only listened a little bit longer, she probably would have taken a different course of action.
Immediately after Ada left, Joshua, who was also in the room, clocked each of the drunken soldiers across the noggin. “Hey, quit your speculating, ya bums. If someone overheard your chitchat and got the wrong idea, Dad would chew me out, not you guys.”
“Speculating what? She is the Dragon Queen.”
“She’s definitely not.”
“And how’re you sure?”
“I got the entire rundown. The day His Majesty met his mystery girl, Ada was already getting shipped off. We’ve been chasing the wrong girl.”
“The hell? Then we did all this work for nothing?! We dropped our own work just to help out, too.”
Joshua stepped in to calm his booze-fueled comrades and give them a harsh warning not to spread any hearsay. But since Ada ran off before she could hear Joshua’s part in the conversation, there was indeed a massive misunderstanding.
“I’m the Dragon Queen...” whispered Ada. The prospect that she, a poor girl raised in a poor village, was going to be the queen of the superpower known as the Nation of the Dragon King gripped her with so much joy that she trembled all over.
However, you only had to think a little to see what was wrong with this picture. Ada had never met a dragonkin in her life, much less the Dragon King, so how exactly could he have fallen in love with her at first sight? But now that the carrot had been dangled in front of her face and she was as giddy as could be, she tossed that obvious query off to the far corners of her mind.
And so Ada entered the royal capital under that false assumption. Although she thought she’d be able to see the Dragon King immediately, she first had to meet with the chamberlain. Before she had a chance to think, the chamberlain led her to a common room used for servant quarters and assigned her servant work herself.
But, why? Why...? Ada couldn’t figure out why someone who was supposed to be the Dragon Queen was assigned menial labor as a servant. Still, she wanted to see the Dragon King one way or another, so she approached a fellow servant for advice.
“U-Um, excuse me, but how would I go about visiting His Majesty the Dragon King?” asked Ada.
Once the servant heard her question, her eyes widened for a second before she smiled sarcastically, saying, “There’s no way servants like us can seek an audience with His Supreme Majesty the Dragon King. What are you even talking about, girl?”
Ada stood dumbfounded. Sorrow overcame her, and she questioned why His Majesty hadn’t come to greet her even though she was chosen to be the Dragon Queen. Although she tried to make her case, the other servant girls simply laughed her claims off as poppycock, leaving her practically helpless.
Time passed, and Ada lived life in the castle, carrying out her servant duties as she secretly contemplated her options all the while. One day, she was sent to deliver a meal via cart to a room on sector six of the castle. “I’ve come on meal delivery,” she said, letting the guards in front of the room inspect what she’d brought. Once they oversaw the contents, they allowed her passage.
She opened the door and pushed her cart inside. Behind her, she caught wind of the guards’ conversation.
“Has His Majesty come down yet?”
“No, not yet. He probably won’t be down during your shift anyway.”
(He’ll be coming down here...?) Ada thought, her joy slowly bubbling to the surface. It was short lived, however, as she needed to vacate as soon as she dropped off the meal.
As she lost herself in thinking of a way to remain in the sector, a voice calling, “Ruri-chan?!” yanked her back into reality. Her head shot up in surprise.
The person who had called out to her looked at Ada’s face for a second before pausing. “Oh, you’re not Ruri-chan...” she uttered in disappointment.
The girl occupying this room went by the name “Asahi.” Once she explained that she’d been on house arrest for the past few days, an idea popped into Ada’s mind.
“Then why not trade places with me?” Ada proposed.
Asahi’s only reply was a clueless, blank stare.
Ada and Asahi were around the same age and possessed similar physiques. The servant’s outfit came with a special cap, so if she were to stuff her hair inside of it, no one would notice her hair color. As for moving between sectors, while the guards did conduct a thorough investigation when entering a sector, they simply let you through when exiting if you had a clearance pass.
Plan in motion, Ada swapped clothing with Asahi and gave the girl her own authorization pass. “That should do it. When you leave, keep your head down and don’t say a word. I’m betting people won’t recognize you in passing, so I’m pretty sure you won’t get found out if you just keep your face lowered.”
“Thank you!”
And so, after Ada told her the route to the outside, Asahi proceeded to make her house arrest escape.
Ada watched as Asahi left the room and walked out of sight. Then she let out a chuckle, unable to contain it any longer. “Tee hee hee hee, at long last...”
Ada’s chance to see the Dragon King was right at her doorstep. Now all she had to do was wait quietly and patiently until he arrived.
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