Chapter 8

Princess' study was one of the rooms no one was allowed to enter, not even to clean. For the first time, she was letting someone inside her study.

"Alissa, make sure the kid stays still. I don't want a mess in my study"

Monica entered the room and told them to sit on the couch. Alissa was afraid that it would be dusty as the room was never cleaned but there was not even a speck of dust on the furniture as if someone had been cleaning it carefully every day.

The room was a little messy as the books were lying around here and there. There were massive bookshelves, it was pretty much a library. There were all kinds of books though most of them were about magic. Monica was searching for a book in a nearby bookshelf.

"Princess, should I help clean the-"

"Don't bother"

Being rejected like this made Alissa think that Monica was still mad at her. She was afraid she would be replaced at this rate. She would be grateful if she wasn't just kicked out.

"Alissa, I noticed something…"

Alissa clenched her fists and closed her eyes. She wasn't ready yet.

"I don't like you kneeling like that. Not in front of me, not in front of anyone"

Alissa opened her eyes. The princess wasn't reprimanding her but…

She teared up and felt embarrassed.

"Ah, found it"

Monica found the book she was looking for and sat on her desk. She skimmed through the book and paused at one page. She had read the book before but it was long ago and the contents were hazy. She needed to confirm something.

"Little kid. Did you meet anyone suspicious today?"

Ali was quiet, he did not respond.

"Alistair! The princess is asking you something!", Alissa scolded him.

Ali did not respond at all. He kept blankly staring at the floor.

"Is he sick? Something is wrong", Jason worried.

"Both of you, step back", Monica ordered them.

She sat on the floor and held Ali's hand. Mana began flowing from Monica's hand. It was snowy white and spread like fog. It crept up Ali's hand, as it reached near his heart, red mana appeared. Both the mana began clashing with each other. Monica's mana overpowered the limited red mana. By using her own magic power, Monica suppressed the magical power hidden inside him.

"Princess what is going on?"

Alissa seemed worried.

"Someone was using him as a vessel. The red mana belonged to the perpetrator. It looks like they were planning on doing something rather troublesome. If I hadn't suppressed the other mana in time, he would have exploded…for now he will remain in this state. I would need to prepare a potion"

It would be weird if the Queen would attempt to kill her because she was preparing to sell her off for benefit. Something was not right. Why would a strong magician help the Queen? Magicians were independent and most lived in the southern islands which were free islands not falling under any kingdom's lands. Those islands were under the Magic Association's jurisdiction. Strong magicians would not merely work to kill off some princess in secret, they had huge egos and didn't lack money or power. However, she did not have time to ponder over it. She had to save Alistair before his body would get eaten up by the two mana.

"You two look after the kid. Take him to my bedroom. If something happens, come find me in the other study room."

It was the room she used to perform experiments and making potions.

Monica hurried off to the other study room and began preparing a mana expulsion potion. After an hour, she came out of the study with the potion hidden inside her long sleeves. She went straight to her bedroom. Alistair was lying in her bed; he was looking pale.

Monica gave the potion to Alissa.

"Give it to him slowly. His fever will rise up. He needs to expel the mana from his body"

If a normal person was forcefully injected with mana more than their capacity, their body won't be able to withstand its power and tear to shreds.

If she was not a sorceress, she wouldn't have noticed the red glow in his eyes and currently, there were only a few magicians in the royal grounds and all of them worked exclusively under the emperor. This needed an investigation. She was deep in thought but suddenly stood up. Alissa was startled by her sudden movement.

"Princess?"

Alissa had never seen that look on her face.

"Just what the hell is going on?!"

Monica rushed out of the room but before leaving, she stopped and left after giving them an order:

"Stay here with the kid and Jason protect them if anything happens"

It happened very quickly. The two weren't sure about what happened to her.

"Is something wrong with Alistair's condition? If something happens to him…I brought him here because he wanted to see a real-life princess and I wanted to show our precious princess to him"

Alissa was engulfed with guilt. Jason gently patted her back.

"You there!", Monica pointed at a maid near her, "Did something happen?"

The maid looked troubled by her question. Monica immediately understood that the commotion didn't occur in her palace, if it did, it wouldn't have been so quiet here. She walked out of the palace's main door and looked ahead. The sky was clear, the surroundings were too peaceful for something to have happened.

She had a troubled look on her face. Was she wrong about it? But she had clearly sensed a disturbance in the flow of mana and the wave of disturbance wasn't particularly small. The imperial magicians should've also noticed it. Could it be their doing?

She sighed.

"No, it must be what I fear it is"

She didn't want to consider the scenario that was playing in her mind. That…would be too cruel.

She immediately rushed inside towards her study room. There, she grabbed a few bottles of potions, then used an invisibility spell and quietly flew out of the window. Once she rose up high enough, she could see broken walls of the nearby palace. The nearest palace belonged to the prince.

"Silent bombs…"

The reason there was no sound or commotion was because the terrorists had used silent bomb…and the vessels for these bombs were humans. She remembered learning about them during her study lessons with her master.

"Master, why do something so cruel?"

She still remembered the venomous grin he had on face.

"Dear disciple, do you know the satisfaction that is felt when you squash a mosquito that has been irritating you?"

"Satisfaction, my ass!", Monica mumbled and gritted her teeth.

As she got closer to the site, she could see blood splattered everywhere and few dead bodies lying around. It was a terrible site; she could feel her stomach churn at the horrible sight in front of her. She hurried and landed there.

It was near the backyard. It was highly possible that the victim was a servant. It seemed to be a place very less people would come to as no one had yet realized what a great incident had occurred in their own backyard. She looked around the area for survivors but the bodies were in too bad of a condition to be saved even if they were breathing their last breaths.

Monica closed her eyes and heightened her senses with magic in the limited area of the disaster site. She could hear a faint sound of breathing coming from under a toppled wall.

She immediately casted a spell that lifted the rubble in the air and pulled out the person. As soon as she pulled out the injured person from under, the rubble fell to the ground with a thud.

The injured was a maid, she looked young. However, she was barely breathing. She seemed to have been out of proximity of the bomb but the toppled wall had caused her harm instead.

Monica chanted a spell and a potion appeared from her inventory.

"I'm not a healer but this should help you survive"

She gently put the maid on the ground and made her drink the potion. Monica once again heightened her senses, just in case. However, she could not sense any heart beating in the area. It was time to leave.

"Who…?", a faint voice called out.

It was the injured maid. If Monica had not intensified her senses, she would not have heard. However, she left without giving a response.

Before flying further, she turned around and noticed a servant entering the disaster zone. He fell down in shock and several seconds later, he ran away and began shouting for help.

 Monica left the site with a lighter yet heavy heart. She did what she could have as a fellow human.