Disclaimer; Half Prince is the work of Yu Wo. Any characters and things besides the plot are all owned by her.
Notes; DAMN! I am on a roll with these updates aren't I? Go Rai, go Rai, go Rai, go go go! Ahem! Well... What can I say? Now that I know the end of the Manhua is closer... I'm on a Half Prince express train to feels. And the hyper kind.
So, the advice for this chapter is as usual. No real plot evidence just more progress into the daily lives of Odd Squad and Feng Lan's school life. Why? Because WE DIDNT SEE ENOUGH OF IT ON THE LIGHT NOVEL THAT'S WHY... Ahem. I mean, of course we need to focus on the fantasy aspect and the game blah blah blah but I think its interesting to see how their lives are all changing and this fanfic is about that. What happened in between the next-to-last chapter of the light volume 8, to the last chapter where its like years later. There's a gap there... AND I INTEND TO FILL IT!
Ahem. I need to stop writing/updating these chapters so late at night.
Anyways... Enjoy and review. Your constant support and interest is what's mainly keeping me writing and bringing these updates out so fast. Again, I apologize for lack of plot progress.
Warning; I do not recall if there are any "hybrid" monsters or the amount of time it takes them to respawn. Or if the pattern changes via factors or sorts. I'm winging this so for the sake of this story, let's say it does. IT DOES OKAY! Rai knows best. (Noooo I don't, I really don't.)
{-}
"Hey guys..." Prince said as he walked into the castle's main control room, a week later. "I'm back?"
To say that Infinite City's very own Odd Squad wasn't in a uproar was the least.
"Where have you been, mister!?" Lolidragon was the first one to respond, as she was the first who had gotten over the shock of seeing their leader for the first time in over twelve days.
"Your highness!" Gui was wailing and quickly stood up, running over to the elf whom he fawned over as usual.
"Took you a while," Wolf replied, "don't tell me you got lost again?"
"Doll is happy to see you are well!" The necromancer quickly stated. "Meatbun however, has missed you a lot."
"How much is this disappearance of yours going to cost us this time, Prince?" Yu Lian asked, worried not over their leader, but their financial state. "We really don't have time for this."
"Well... Hello to you too." The elf crossed his arms as he stared down to his legs, whom the bard had attached himself to. "Get off me Gui!" He shook his legs, trying to swat the bard away so he could kick him. Really, it hasn't even been a minute since his return and everyone was already fussing over everything.
When he managed to get the bard off him, he sat down and pulled a big bag out full of various gems and other weird items that he placed in the table. Lolidragon and Yu Lian's face instantly light up and went to check it out.
"Whoa!" The thief exclaimed happily. "Aren't these the rare amber-like gems that only can be found in the Southern Continent? If I am recalling correctly, they are really valuable and worth a fortune! How did you...?"
Prince smirked. "Who do you think I am?"
"She's right. Five of these are worth enough to keep us afloat a week," Yu Lian's face was glowing. "There is enough here to cover the expenses for the festival without us having to worry."
"Wait, wait, wait," Feng Wu Qing barged into the room. "You're saying that Prince here was in the Southern Continent? I heard that place was hardly accessible."
"Mhm!" Prince nodded his head. "I had to take down all these monsters I had never even seen in the game before and man were they tough. Each kill gave me very little EXP."
"The beast/dragon hybrid." Wolf explained. "It's a legendary monster who breathes fire and can fly. I'm surprised you survived to tell the tale, Prince."
"Wasn't easy, I'm telling you." Prince inhaled and shuddered at the memories of his training. "But it was worth it. My dao is a little stronger now, as am I."
"How many levels did you increase by?" Feng Wu Qing asked, "Or don't tell me that you couldn't keep that promise of yours."
"If you must know," Prince stood up and pointed his fingers at the warrior, "those things were not easy to kill or gain EXP from. I only managed to level up by six."
Everyone stared at the two confusedly.
"Errmmm... What's going on?" Lolidragon asked. "Did we miss something."
Feng Wu Qing shook his head. "Sibling rivalry," he said. "You wouldn't understand."
"Only you two would be making weird bets off-game that affect you in-game..." Lolidragon sighed.
Feng Wu Qing laughed. "It's not my fault he's so easy to poke fun at," then he sighed. "Darn I lost. I only leveled up by three." At the statement Prince did a victory dance.
"Ahuh! Who rocks? I do, I do!"
"If you would stop that," Feng Wu Qing couldn't help but retort, "I think we all would appreciate it."
"I enjoy seeing his highness so happy." Gui said.
"Only you," Feng Wu Qing stated back. "Weirdoes, the lot of you."
Doll blinked and stared confused. "Doll is still wondering what is going on. Prince-gege, will you take Meatbun back?"
Prince stared at the necromancer. "Hmmm. Probably. I want to go eat something first."
"Doll will accompany Prince-gege and tell him all about the adventures Meatbun has had in all this time."
Lolidragon walked to the door and closed it. "No one is leaving here until Prince tells us everything he did in his little trip." She said menacingly.
Doll hid behind Prince. "Doll hates when Lolidragon gets like this." Prince quietly petted the girl's head.
"It'll be okay, Doll." He smiled at her. "Don't you want to hear the awesome story about a skeleton I defeated in the name of justice?"
"Doll wants to!" She replied happily, and stepped out of where she was hiding behind Prince's back, to go sit at the table.
Prince sighed and walked back with her. "Let's get this over with quickly, I'm hungry and want to sleep."
{-}
"So, they respawn every half hour to forty five minutes?" Wolf was very intrigued about the hybrid's pattern and manner of dropping items.
Prince ate a loaf of bread and nodded. "Depending on the kind of item they dropped, was what kind of colored beast would respawn after them."
"And of course, you didn't really take note of it you just picked what ever they dropped and waited for them to respawn without a single care." Lolidragon could only stare amazed.
This was the leader of Odd Squad, who had only skimmed through the guide and without their help, would surely fail at mostly everything in-game. How he possibly survived nearly two weeks without dropping to level one was beyond them.
Prince rested his head on the table and sighed. "Man am I glad to be back."
"Sunshine is too," Feng Wu Qing said. "I saw him take Fair Sky on a carpet ride."
"I have to properly apologize to Sunshine later." Prince stated as he yawned. "Can I go now? I want to take a nap. I'm exhausted."
Yu Lian placed what seemed to be a mountain stacked pile of papers in the desk and shook her head at Prince. "You're not getting off the hook from paperwork so easily."
Demons, that's what you all are. Demons! Prince's head was screaming. He sighed and grabbed a pen.
"If I must."
{-}
Finally gotten the okay to get offline, after what seemed like a entire lifetime, Feng Lan took off her gaming helmet and rubbed her eyes. "These all nighters are taking their toll on me."
Feng Yang Ming poked his head into the room. "Sis, make me something to eat."
"When will you learn to cook yourself you lazy brother? I can't do everything for you forever!"
"Tsk-tsk. Is this the way to talk to someone whom you owe for not ratting you out on two occasions? I think nooooot."
"You lazy, manipulative, blackmailing jerk." Feng Lan was driving him out of her room. "At least let me take a nap first."
"I'm hungry." He whined.
"Either you wait or starve. Your choice."
Who says sisters can't be manipulative too? Feng Lan; 1. As she closed the door to her room and locked it to take her nap, inwardly, she was doing a victory dance.
Feng Lan had been so exhausted that the nap turned into her sleeping the entire night. It was rumored that the screams and death threats at the Lan household increased from that day forward.
{-}
The class of twenty six year old literature professor Ming Gui Wen was in a crazy frenzy that upcoming week.
"I heard that Prince is back in Infinite City!" A girl squealed. The rest of the girls squealed back and gushed. "I know right? I'm so happy about it. I might go to Infinite City later and hope I catch a glimpse of him."
Others weren't so happy about the news, but the guys also had something to celebrate. "Does this mean professor Gui will stop giving us all these annoying pop quizzes?" One stated to his friend as he closed his book in despair. "We can only hope, dude."
Feng Lan snickered to herself, and taking out her tablet went into Infinite City's webpage to see if there really had been such a hype about Prince now that he was back from the Southern Continent.
Lu Jing and Gu Yun Fei walked into the classroom and stared at Feng Lan, then before the professor walked in and told them to go to their seats, took the seats next to the girl and smirked.
"Ohohohoho," Lu Jing leaned close enough to see what her friend was doing and grinned. "Isn't it a bit ironic to be going through forums that talk about yourself?" She whispered to Feng Lan.
Feng Lan was startled and squeaked, nearly jumping out of her seat. "You scared me!" And looking to the sides she made sure no one was listening to her, then running a finger through the tablet to scroll down, she shrugged. "It's more like curiosity. They're all really interested, but no one really knows what he's been up to. It's hilarious to see the comments."
Gu Yun Fei stared at the tablet as well and snickered at the comments. "You're right! These are hilarious!" Then he glanced to Fen Lan with a serious face. "But honestly, where was he?"
Feng Lan didn't really want to be overheard and her secret to be revealed when she has kept it for so long so she simply took out a clean fresh piece of paper and drew a north, south, east, west arrow then circled the one going south. Gu Yun Fei and Lu Jing could only stare.
"NO WAY!" Gu Yun Fei shook his head. The entire class stared his way at the outburst. "Uhmmm..." The class blinked, curious as to what he yelled for. Lu Jing intervened. "You didn't do the reading again Feng Lan? Professor Gui is going to go after you again." She pat her friend's back.
"I'm sorry I overslept last night and didn't study." Feng Lan sighed dramatically and placed the tablet down.
"That's what the fuss what about?" The girls were all upset. "I thought it was something about Prince." The others nodded then went back to gossiping, "so anyways... I heard from a good source that Prince was most likely looking for ways for him to be away from Gui for a couple of days." The girls all shrieked. "Why would anyone from Odd Squad want to be away from each other? They're all bishies!"
Ming Gui Wen cleared his throat. "If you all would stop saying false rumors," he walked into the class. "We can start."
"Professor Gui!" Everyone frantically went to their original seats.
Feng Yang Ming walked in just as Gui was about to close the door.
"How nice of you to join us. " Gui said as his student found his seat and stuffed chips and other snacks that were in his hand to his backpack and took out the literature book. "Wouldn't be anywhere else, professor." He sarcastically retorted back.
"You're late!" Feng Lan whispered to her brother.
"I was hungry!" He mouthed back. "This is your fault. You're paying me back from your allowance."
"Feng Lan! Feng Yang Ming! Whatever sibling feud you have it can wait until after the lesson." Gui chastised them.
"Yes professor..." They chorused together.
"Good. And Feng Lan," he pointed to her tablet that was still in Second Life's homepage. "Put that away."
She blushed in embarrassment.