Lottie's Ship Wish

CHAPTER 17

It's buzzling. It's annoyingly buzzling for Lottie that her eyes squint before slowly opening, ending her asleep state.

"Why is it so noisy...?" Lottie tried to rub her eyes but sounds of chains echoed instead.

"Oh right, I am chained—wait, where am I? Where's Lance?" After the new surroundings registered in her mind, she looked around, trying to make out what new hiding spot was she in right now.

"This...kind of looks familiar..." The place is dimmed but not as dark as the old place she was hidden. So, some parts were visible to her eyesight.

"Is she awake...?"

"I think so..."

"She doesn't look that sick anymore, does she?"

"She better be, or else Mister Cosimo would hurt us."

Lottie turned to her back and saw her fellow children working under Cosimo before she ran away to make her wish come true which...was a failure and now, she was stuck in a kidnapping incident with her former boss.

"So, they took care of me. That explains why I am not dizzy anymore—" she whispered then her eyes went to her body.

"— And why I have this...cute dress?" She was confused for a minute, but her attention soon left her clothes and went back to the children, and to the place she's in.

"Ha, this is the fat guy's gambling den." Combining the obvious clues, it didn't take long for Lottie to realize the place.

"I will literally get back at that freaking son of a pig! Just wait until I escape, you sorry excuse of a huma--"

"That's a lot of foul words coming from a small child."

Her guard raised and her head swing to her side where the tattoo man walking to her direction while the other kids ran away with pale faces.

Lottie's eyes sharpened as her arms tried to shake the grasps of the chains; attempting to escape even if it was futile.

"Stop. You're just wasting your energy."

The tattoo man knelt in front of her, with his arm resting on his raised knee.

"You better save that energy for later because you will need a lot," he whispered before standing on his feet.

This caused Lottie's brows to furrow in confusion. However, before she could ask the meaning behind those words, sounds of steps entered their hearing and the buzzing voices of people behind the curtain halted.

"Everyone, everyone. Eyes on me." Cosimo's disgusting voice replaced the annoying voices which Lottie would really like the latter than his, but she listened regardless.

She felt it, in the deepest of her guts, that a dread was coming and she's sure it was connected to whatever the pig was about to say.

"It's been a good night, isn't it? But we are just starting."

'Starting?' Lottie repeated in her mind.

"I know you have been waiting for this the whole night, and I am not a fan of letting my precious clients wait for the climax any longer."

"You're up, kid," the tattoo man whispered beside her.

Lottie was confused again, but it didn't take long before she realized what's happening.

The beautiful clothes she was wearing, the chains, the kids taking care of her fever, and the gambling den; all of it clicked in her mind. However, before she could voice it out, the curtains opened up and a crowd of nobles wearing masks gaping at her showed up.