Fangless: The Alpha's Vampire Mate
Chapter 61: Fashionably Late or Just Late?

Chapter 61: Fashionably Late or Just Late?

So... the dress needed to be paid for.

Citizens of the Kingdom of Eira might be able to pay later as long as the merchant knew where the citizens lived and worked.

For nobles, shopping was even easier because they mostly carried special bank notes with their family signature on them. These bank notes had a specific value indicated by the number written on them.

What if the price of the goods they purchased cost less or more than the number written on the bank notes?

If the nobles trusted the merchant and often shopped there, they would usually give another note. The excess value would become a deposit for future purchases.

If the nobles didn’t trust the merchant or didn’t usually go there to purchase items, they could pay the additional price with gold, or their servants would return later with new bank notes for the exact value of the shortfall.

For foreigners, nobles or not, things could be tricky. Merchants didn’t trust foreigners enough to accept their bank notes, and for good reason, because there were many frauds. Thus, foreigners needed to pay in cash.

Paying in cash would be absolutely fine if they weren’t pressed by time. Foreigners were not given coins of higher value, so their purse tend to be heavy to carry a lot of coins of lower value.

And counting the lower value coins would take a while, especially for a dress like this.

Riona should cover for the dress since she was a citizen of the kingdom, but she was not known enough outside of the palace for Stella to trust her. Moreover, she was too poor to cover for Thorin.

Frustrated, she gave up thinking for a solution and just stepped out of the changing room.

Thorin, who had been waiting outside the changing room, froze. He intended to welcome her with teasing, but that plan failed when he found himself being captivated.

Stella worked magic on her, but Riona herself had the basic asset to appear this dazzling. The wine color that she wore matched well with Thorin’s deep crimson suits.

"Wow. You are... breathtaking," he murmured. The way he said it and the stupid expression on his face made it seem as if she really took his breath away.

"It’s no time to idle! We must leave now," Riona said, pushing Thorin towards the door.

"All eyes will be on you tonight. He will be invisible," Stella said, putting her hand on Riona’s shoulder and smiling widely. "Oh, and you still need to pay."

"Right," Riona muttered. She thought Thorin’s friendly banter with Stella earlier would help them with this. "Can we do it another time, please? We promise to return with the coins."

Stella rushed to the door and stood there, crossing her arms while staring at Thorin and Riona as if she was ready to drain their blood. "No, can’t do, sweethearts."

Riona grabbed Thorin and pressed her palms on his cheeks. "Can’t you do it for him? Don’t you feel sorry for his handsome face?"

Stella laughed maniacally, amused by Riona’s efforts. "Oh, dear, it’s too bad that I’m immune to his charm."

Sighing, Riona decided that there was no other choice but to pay. However, she had no intention to stay and wait until it’s all done. She turned to Thorin and said, "You pay. I’ll leave for the palace now."

"What?"

She ran outside the dress shop, and as she was about to abandon Thorin, she screamed, "Let me borrow the horse."

"Hey! Wait!!"

Riona gritted her teeth and jumped on the horse. She galloped, pulling the reins as hard as possible to accelerate the speed.

"I’m so sorry," she muttered to herself as she got farther from town. "At least one of us should not be too late. What if the guests have left already?"

It was unusual for guests of an event of this scale to return home so soon.

Most nobles wanted to stay as long as they could to socialize and strengthen bonds with their business partners. The ladies would want to get the latest gossip and share their boring lives with each other.

And the single bachelorettes wanted to put themselves on display for potential suitors.

But Riona didn’t know that. She rarely attended social events, and when she did, she would leave as early as possible.

The road from the palace to town felt short when she was with Thorin, mostly because she had someone to talk to.

She was alone now, so the path seemed to take forever to pass. Sweating, she steadied herself on the galloping horse.

Riona was an excellent horse rider because she was strong enough to control the horse, but she actually lacked the basic technique of horse riding since she had never learned it before.

So when she turned, she didn’t know she needed to position her body correctly, distribute her weight well, or use her legs to brace the horse for the turn. She suddenly pulled the reins to the left, shocking both the horse and herself.

The horse went wild, and Riona was thrown upward. She almost hit the ground when someone caught her.

"You’re here already?" Riona commented, giving him a guilty smile.

Thorin, being the hero he always aspired to be, was panting as he supported her body from touching the ground. He smirked and said, "Do you think I’ll let you abandon me twice? I have pride too, you know."

Riona rolled her eyes. "So, chasing after the person who abandoned you doesn’t hurt your pride?"

He got up on his feet, and Riona jumped off his arms before he could princess-carry her. Bead-sized sweat rolled down his temple. "If I could catch up, that means I wasn’t abandoned."

"Whatever you say, Alpha." Riona looked around and saw the horse nowhere.

"Um, how are we supposed to go home now? The horse is... abandoning us."

Being abandoned sucked, Riona knew that now. It must be her karma for abandoning the werewolf twice.

"We’re late, aren’t we? And we need to get there as fast as possible, right? What do you say, we run?"

She knew her idea wasn’t the brightest, but did they have any other choice? They could turn around and borrow a carriage or rent a coach, but would they find one soon?

Every vampire was practically celebrating the Blood Moon at the festival now. Even the Coach Inn would be closed already.

Moreover, they were both already covered in sweat anyway. Their attire was now wrinkled and dusty due to the fall. What would a little more sweat mean?

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.