The Cursed Prince

Harlow didn't understand Julian's motivation at first and was scared that they were going to get beaten up by the tiger demon. She involuntarily stepped back to avoid the tiger demon's wrath. 

However, what she feared didn't happen. Suddenly, the werewolf lunged towards the tiger demon and bore his fangs at him. 

All it took was one moment for the werewolf demon to take advantage of the distraction caused by Julian's agitation toward the tiger demon and the table turned.

ROAARR

SWOOSH!

Slash! 

The tiger demon went down in surprise and struggled to fight off the werewolf. He was bigger and stronger than his opponent. He also had sharper claws and fangs… but the strength of the werewolf in his jaws was second to none.

Harlow was shocked and turned to Julian in surprise. She wanted to say that he was unfair for trying to distract the tiger and causing him to lose concentration.

However, she could only open her mouth and couldn't say anything. Somehow, she understood his reasoning.

Julian and even Harlow didn't want to get mixed up into a lot of trouble if the werewolf guy lost and the tiger demon won.

These demons who bet on the tiger demon's victory would no doubt start beating up Julian and Harlow included because Julian couldn't pay them double the money they gave him.

Fighting dirty, sneaking tricks and other tactics were all open on the table here in the demon realm. It was filled with a lot of vices, greed and Harlow was sure that the city would swallow them alive if they couldn't keep their word.

Julian would not be the only one to get in trouble if he failed to pay them. Harlow too. As his travel companion, these demons would demand her to take responsibility. What if they took Icecube from her to pay back the debt?

No way! She would rather die than give up her beloved dragon.

Well… playing dirty like what Julian did was better than dying though. Finally, Harlow kept her mouth shut. Playing fair was probably a foreign concept here.

The tiger demon only lost a moment of concentration and yet that was all it took for the werewolf to turn around the fistfighting and defeat the tiger. Once the werewolf bit down on the tiger, he never let go.

Fortunately for the tiger, before the fighting could turn into murder, the harpy, the woman that was originally being fought over by the two men suddenly flew into the center and kicked the werewolf guy's face.

An argument occurred between the beautiful harpy and the werewolf, both of them looking at the now battered, bruised, and even bloody tiger demon. The fight was over and whatever the couple actually planned to do was now nobody's business.

Instead, the crowd of demons suddenly turned to Julian and started to grumble. A lot of them had pinned their money on the tiger demon and were now sore losers… 

They growled menacingly at Julian. They knew he intentionally distracted the tiger but there was nothing they could do. It was the tiger's fault for being so easily agitated.

They blamed him for losing the fight. 

"Easy there…!" Julian smirked at a fox demon who snarled at him and bared his fangs in displeasure for losing the bet. "Better luck next time!"

The fox demon scoffed and raised his fist, but then he left without trying to kill Julian, much to Harlow's relief.

Those who literally betted on the underdog were thrilled. Two goblins smiled broadly when they came to Julian and reached out their hands to ask for their winning money.

"Ten coppers for me," said the one with red eyes. "I bet 5 coppers."

"Mine is twelve," said his friend. A fat goblin with golden eyes. Julian was busy counting down the money from his pouch and paid everyone who won.

Eventually, he was left with a lot of money to himself. He gripped the money pouch happily and threw Harlow a wink. "Let's go somewhere and count the money."

Julian, Harlow, and Icecube went into one of the alleyways of the city and were now putting away the money.

"I can't believe it actually worked!" Harlow's eyes bulged as she looked at the proud adventurer.

Julian grinned at her and shrugged proudly. "It's probably not your style, but that's how it works."

Harlow's expression became a little gloomy.  Even though she was upset at how her mother was tricked by Raphael, the truth of the matter was that one always needed to be wary of how things worked.

Even if Raphael probably looked like an angel based on Emmelyn's descriptions of the man before, the Ice Prince still ended up trying to get more than what was originally struck. He was truly the definition of 'never judge a book by its cover'.

Someone that looked like an angel could actually act like the devil. He pretended to help Emmelyn but secretly had his hidden agenda.

Julian noticed Harlow's gloomy expression. He cleared his throat and asked her to eat lunch to distract her from whatever things that were making her upset.

"How about we get something to eat first, princess? I'm sure that you must be hungry from all that excitement. You deserve to eat well after working so hard."

Harlow raised a brow at the adventurer's kind and a rather generous offer. The two of them were now friends, but surely he would have wanted to keep all the money to himself right?

Why was he being so nice to her? He could use the money for himself, but he actually offered to buy Harlow lunch?

"I only sat on the sidelines, you did all the work." Harlow pointed out. "You should keep all the money."

Julian chuckled. "Let's not argue about the contribution and just eat. I'm starving and I'm sure that literally jumping off a cliff into the underworld can sap your energy."

"Are you sure that we can eat the food here though?" Harlow frowned at him and looked a bit wary. She had heard myths and stories about how dangerous it was to eat food from other realms.

"Of course! Just because we're going to eat the food here doesn't mean that we won't be able to leave, princess." Julian grinned at her. "Was that what you were worried about?"

Harlow blinked at him and she thought that he almost read her mind. She did hear stories like that. When a princess visited a wicked wizard's place, she was not allowed to leave because she had eaten his food. Harlow would never take such risks.

She crossed her arms and looked around the street to see all the demons walking past them. A part of her still couldn't believe her eyes. "They look… Well, a lot of them had human forms, didn't they?"

"If you're worried that eating food here will transform you into looking like them, then don't worry about that as well." Julian chuckled. "I've tried the food here before and you can see that I'm still as handsome as ever."

"Wait! So you've actually been here before!" Harlow tossed an upset look at him. "Is that right?"

Julian shrugged. "I never said that I haven't, didn't I?" 

"Hmm… that's fair… So you know how things work here." Harlow pursed her lips. "I am presuming that your first attempt at stealing didn't work out if you're here again. Am I right?"

"Nope."

Harlow raised a brow. "So.. what is it then? Why are you back in the demons realm? What did you do here the last time?"

"Don't worry about that, princess." Julian's expression twinkled. "I'm more positive that I can finally achieve what I've always wanted now that you're here. I'm doing my best to call up and collect all the favors that I know."

"Favors?" Harlow raised a brow. "What favors? From whom?"

"Let's talk about that later, Harlow." Julian smiled as he stretched out a hand to her. "First, let us go eat at this restaurant that's really good here in the underworld. The food is to die for!"

"Hearing you say that isn't really helping me at all, Julian." Harlow finally chuckled and reached for his hand. She did feel hungry. It's been six hours since breakfast. Her stomach was grumbling for food.

Before the princess knew it, she, Julian, and Icecube ended up at a restaurant in the heart of the underworld. It was quite big and had many guests, enjoying lunch like them.

As promised by the adventurer, the meal prepared by the cooks and served to Harlow and Julian was extremely delicious and mouthwatering. It was so sumptuous that Harlow couldn't help but eat so much.

Julian smiled broadly when he noticed the princess seemed like a foodie and could appreciate good food like he was.

Icecube, who actually stayed outside of the window of the restaurant, also got his own share of the meal. Julian tossed some of the ordered steaks and the ice dragon enjoyed his meal happily. He snorted snowflakes into the restaurant and asked for more food.

It was such nice lunch.. Not bad for demons realm.