_ Alone with his eminence

She'd be lying if she said she did not expect the next question that come from him.

At least for this once, he was predictable.

"What family did you come from again?" his voice sank into her ears.

Afina wished he hadn't asked her that. She had no idea if he was a disliker of the low class as he was of color.

She could not leave a divine prince's question unanswered so, "My family is from the flame line but we have moved here since I was a baby. Father Atticus works in a cultivation stone mine while mama Xylia was a former maid in the high house." she said, her voice barely getting out.

The prince seemed to have a sharp hearing. He heard her words clearly as the next questions came.

"You are a descendant of Adramelech's," he said.

Afina had no idea if that was a question or an affirmation. However not wanting to be on the prince's bad side, "Yes, your eminence." she answered.

The prince sipped the rest of the content of the cup before asking, "What is the color of your qi?"

Was prince Cargan always this interested in the personal information of his maids or he was only like this with her?

Tch, she'd be foolish if she thought she was an exception. The Prince was probably only using this conversation with her to kill his boredom.

Yes, it was definitely that. Couldn't be anything more.

The ambiance from the pool was sending some recharging wave into her soul even though she wasn't a bender of the sand. The power of the energy in it was as overwhelming as it should be. If not more.

"I have the green qi, your eminence," Afina replied to him, her ears already standing in readiness for the next anticipated question which would be how she came about a green qi.

The prince's question was not as forward as Afina expected but it was close.

"You must have invested a lot of time into cultivation and a lot of money too." he shook the empty cup in his head as he said so.

Afina understood that gesture. Prince Cargan wanted a refill of his cup. To say he consumes a such large quantity of alcohol every day. Afina was worried about the damage that would do to his lungs but after remembering the prince was immortal, she knew her worries were to a waste.

Hurriedly, she rushed to the stand and took the round bottle from on it. She took easy steps towards the prince afterward, her heels not failing in making the sing-song sounds on the tiled floor.

"I really don't know about cultivating a lot but I do cultivate periodically," Afina replied as she poured wine into the prince's cup.

She took some steps away and then went to return the bottle to its place.

"How are you able to afford cultivation chips? I heard those costs a lot." Prince Cargan said after taking and swallowing another portion of his wine.

Afina was starting to get uncomfortable with all the questions of the princes. If she told Mama Xylia she had been in the same room with prince Cargan and he was asking her such questions that were personal, her mother would never believe it.

She played with her clothes trying to divert her restless mind. Her mouth was pressed into a thin line as she answered, "I have never used cultivation chips. I only cultivate on holy grounds for a shilling or two."

Prince Cargan burst into a peal of a chuckle out of the blue.

He was not among those who considered holy grounds as fake, was he? It'd be an offense for him to think such for he had been cultivating on a holy ground for more than eight hundred years.

Perhaps, there was another element behind his humorous chuckle.

"You did not believe you acquired a green qi by cultivating on holy grounds you pay two shillings for, do you?" he asked her amidst chuckles.

No one mentioned Prince Cargan being a man of smiles.

She had no idea how to answer him now.

"I— that is the only mode of cultivation I have ever used. We cannot afford cultivation chips back at home. We only use cultivation grounds." she enunciated.

At this point, Afina was seeing serving the prince as more of a punishment than a privilege. If he was going to leave her unable to render a perfect speech or make her appear dumb like this, she would rather switch with another high-house scholar for this post.

"Blue hair." she heard him call on to her.

Blue hair?

She was supposed to correct him by offering her name to him but she did not think that was the right thing to do with a prince.

"Come here." he rose up a bit higher from his sitting position and more of his chest was visible.

Swallowing as an effect of the view, Afina took unsure steps closer to the pool.

The prince after hearing her halting steps shifted from turning his back to her to looking at her.

"Come closer." he smugly ordered as though it was the most normal thing for a girl to move closer to a naked man.

Afina's hands were entwined in front of her as she forced herself to heed to the prince's order.

The way he fixed his eyes on hers made her cringe under the flaming red irises of his. The components of the suspicion in his gaze were making her fearful. She somehow felt the next words that would come from him would not be something she liked. She was sure of it as she firmed her composure to not look like a scaredy cat under his gaze.

His lips traveled up into a smirk on the corner of his face before he said, "You are not a descendant of the flame line, are you? You are a heaven's descendant." his chin shifted up as if he was sure of his conclusion.