The Innkeeper

"Yes, yes, how did you know?" asked the pale elf? 

He stood up and took a good look at Lex, but with his entire body covered, there naturally wasn't much to see. To hide his current situation, he had his entire body covered from head to toe.

"Oh, you're from one of those races! My apologies, I didn't mean to stare," the elf quickly said as he looked away from Lex.

"One of what races? I think you may be misunderstanding something. As for how I could tell you were the heir, it was simple enough. There's no need to consider you talking about princesses or anything else. Just based on my luck, I wouldn't encounter an ordinary situation."

"You're quite confident in your luck," the elf replied, not realizing what Lex had meant.

"Quite. Speaking of my luck, do you want to leave this area? If you're being pursued, then your pursuers might stumble right onto us if we don't leave."

"Yes, yes, that's a great idea. And I know just where to go!" the elf said before beginning to hastily march towards town. "Will you be coming as well? I'd like to repay you for the pill."

"Why not?" Lex said as he joined the elf. "I'd like to hear the story of the heir being forced into a marriage. So far, I've only encountered happy couples, so this will be somewhat of a change. By the way, how did you get out of the princess situation? I thought Tilaiya was supposed to be a neutral entity."

"It is!" the elf said with a look of regret on his face. "The old geezer incharge directly told the princesses' family that he would accept any punishment I receive without any interference since I started the situation to begin with. He likes looking high and mighty, but I know he was just getting back at me. The old geezer has kept me on neutral territory my whole life, so he wasn't exactly pleased that I left to begin with."

"What was your punishment? Is that princess your bride to be?"

"No, nothing like that. I had to give up all my gains from the Field of Sacred Harvest, and pay a little more on top. It's quite sad, I have to say. The field is, predictably, filled with the absolute best harvest in the galaxy. A single crop or fruit from there just… tastes absolutely divine! I mean, yes it's good for you and packed with all kinds of medical benefits, but let's be real here. It's the absolute divine taste that has everyone hooked."

Lex did not comment, and simply silently wondered if the prince was someone 'special'. Was that why he had been locked on his own territory his whole life?

"But once I got back, the geezer decided I was too wild and irresponsible. In his words, I was not taking my role as heir seriously at all, and that I needed a wife to 'tame' me."

The heir scoffed at that, and looked absolutely disgusted.

"It seems to me that you're not quite happy with your position as heir, so why don't you give it up? That way you'll be able to do whatever you want."

Lex was only speaking randomly, but little did he expect that the heir resonated with his words tremendously!

"Exactly! I think so too! Since I've been young I've tried to get out of it. Sure it brings with it a lot of power and authority, but neither of those things are edible. They also come with a lot of baggage. Frankly, I'm not interested."

Although their conversation seemed casual, the two of them were moving quite quickly now that the heir had recovered somewhat. Instead of continuing deeper into the wilderness, where no one may notice him, they actually went directly into town. A few passerbyers already noticed the heir, and were struck with confusion since they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Lex did not comment on the situation, and just followed the heir, as he seemed to know exactly where he was going.

"But the way we do things here is a little different. Are you familiar with Darmin?" he asked.

Darmin was the name of the neutral organization which ran Tilaiya.

"Besides the fact that they run Tilaiya, not at all. I only came to this planet because I was interested in the potential for trade it presented."

"I guessed as much. It's quite simple. Darmin owns 4 star systems, and we have about 21 habitable planets within that space. The territory is quite small, but we are able to maintain our neutral stance even so. In fact, we even accept dealing with pirates and all kinds of outlaws, and do so quite openly.

"Such actions not only begin retaliation from the forces in which those outlaws are wanted, but often we are targeted by those very same outlaws as well. All in all, there's a lot of pressure. We would not be able to cope with it, and maintain our situation if we were weak. But at the same time, being strong also presents a conundrum, for why would the strong limit their own expansion? After all, everyone knows that the stronger one is, the more resources they require."

Now, thoroughly within the center of the town, the heir led Lex to a very inconspicuous little restaurant. There were only four, small tables and a counter where guests could sit, and at this hour the entire place was deserted. The restaurant remained open nonetheless, and their heir sat down on the counter, ignoring the state of the place.

"Three bowls of the Spicy bowl please!" the heir yelled in the back, prompting the sound of dishes falling down somewhere in the kitchen. Clearly his yell had startled someone, but the heir simply continued his story.

"The reason why we are strong, yet choose to remain neutral and not expand, is because we already have everything we need to grow incredibly strong, and more!"