Chapter 29

Arya waited outside the medical ward for news about the assaulted woman while Ezekiel rushed off to launch a full scale investigation into the assaulted woman. He had that power as a Crown Prince.

A doctor in a white robe appeared.

"She's fine. Nothing fatal or permanent. Thank you for taking care of that bastard for me."

Arya raised an eyebrow.

"Mister, I only gave him what he deserved."

The doctor nodded.

"Exactly. This ain't the first time that bastard forced himself on some poor woman. It was just that we couldn't do anything about it since we needed our jobs and he knew it all too well."

Arya grimaced.

"He blackmailed you?"

"All of us. Me, the workers, the professors-anyone who knew about his nasty habits. He threatened to fire us without any recommendation letters. Some of us need our jobs since we need the money. He abused his power over us and he's finally got what he had coming for him."

Arya noted how the doctor relished that last sentence with glee and satisfaction.

Arya turned around, about to leave.

"Tell all of that to the Crown Prince.He's opening up an investigation into the manager's corruption."

….

Arya walked around the gardens, breathing in the smell of roses and flowers and nature. She was finished with training for the day anyway. That corrupt manager left a bad taste in her mouth and ruined her day.

She sat down on a bench. A gentle breeze rippled through her hair and she could feel the harsh chill of winter in the air.

A ugly and nasty-looking rat rushed out of the bushes and it looked like it had rabies.

Its red eyes were bloodthirsty and gleaming and it was foaming around the mouth. Arya also wondered how a rat could be as big as a cat. She almost mistaken it for being a stray cat for a second. It sniffed the air and its beady red eyes lasered in on Arya.

Arya had no idea a rat could move so fast before.

Arya's hands reached inside her pant pockets. She was dressed in a short-sleeved green tunic with black pants. Brown boots were her preferred footwear. She must smell after all the training she did earlier today.

She pulled out the knife, unsheathed it and threw it directly at a rat. The knife hit its mark and it was speared completely through its body. The rat screamed and squeaked in pain but it continued to move and scream vengeance. Arya was sure that the knife should have killed it.

Then a ball of fire flew towards the rat and set it on fire. The rat was burned alive and reduced to ashes in a matter of seconds.

Arya's nose was filled with the smell of burnt rat.

"Hey, little princess."

Arya whipped around and spotted Elijah behind her.

Elijah tackled her into a hug and ruffled her hair.

He was wearing a plain white tunic that reached mid-thigh with a leather belt wrapped around his waist. His long white hair was loose and flowing down his back. He wore simple leather boots laced up halfway to his knees.

His beauty and elegance still shone through the simple outfit as female servants and even some of the male servants stole glances at him and their faces flushed and red. The gardens and servants tasked with caring for the royal gardens stole glances at him any chance they could.

Arya hugged him tighter in response.

"I missed you, Eli!!!"

"I missed you too, princess."

Elijah had been busy with missions and royal guard duties.

In fact, the Royal Guards had been burdened with more patrols and missions these days.

Mass murders taking place all over the kingdom.

Reports of wild animals attacking people.

People disappearing without a trace.

Fear and panic was on the rise in the kingdom. It wasn't visible and kept hidden underneath a mask of calmness and positivity. Everyone sensed that something was wrong.

Elijah whistled.

"That was one nasty rat, princess. It tried to attack you. Speaking of which, I had to burn up a lot of crazy animals on my shift. Dogs, cats, birds, you name it. The crazy thing is that those freaks won't die even if we cut off their heads or stab them in the heart.I see that your knife pierced its heart but it still didn't die."

Arya looked over at the small pile of ashes that was once a rat.

Her pretty knife laid in the middle of the ashes, red-hot from the flames.

"Yeah. It was. Where's Catty?"

Elijah looked up at the sky.

"She received a request for her presence. Apparently, there had been a mass murder involving poison and Catalina's knowledge of poison is required."

Arya frowned. The mass murders. The crazy animals. The disappearances.

"You don't think that something fishy is going on, do you, Ezzy? A sort of evil plot or plan to overthrow the kingdom?"

Elijah collapsed on the bench next to Arya.

"Beats me but I think this is messed up. I saw dead little kids, entire villages wiped out, bears and wolves gone mad and started to eat people alive. I just can't unsee any of that shit. I think something evil is going on."

Elijah's eyes were staring off into the distance. They looked blank and haunted.

Arya decided to change the topic.

"You heard that Royalstrail is coming up in less than a week now? It's open to all girls and boys of noble households. Will you be competing in it or Catalina? One of you could marry into royalty, you know."

Royalstrail: It's an ancient tradition dating back to the founding of the kingdom. It's how royals choose their wives or husbands but it's mainly for a Crown Prince or Princess to pick a future spouse. From the nobility in a fair way. It's basically a huge competition where the sons and/or daughters of nobility fight each other in a tournament for the right to marry a prince or princess. The winner or winners gets to marry into royalty and it looks like both young ladies and young masters are competing this year since Ezekiel is of marrying age now along with Princess Freya and Marisa.

Elijah looked at Arya with an amused look. Arya was glad that he had lightened up now.

"Yeah right, as if I want to fight for the right to marry that bitch Marisa's hand in marriage. Princess Freya is alright, I guess, but that doesn't mean that I want to marry her. Catalina's not interested in Ezekiel as a husband or marrying at all. But I bet thousands of other sons and daughters of the nobility are lining up for a chance to become royalty. I mean, that's how most queens are chosen."

"Most?"

Elijah nodded.

"Most spouses of kings or queens are chosen via Royalstrail but not Queen Estelle. She was not selected by Royalstrail at all but rather by "true love". True love, my ass. She just used her ability on the king to make herself queen-"

Elijah caught himself as if he just said something that he shouldn't have said.

He turned to look at Arya.

"Forget about what I just said, my princess."

Arya's mind raced.

Queen Estelle was Ezekiel's mother. Arya knew that she was a disgraced queen but nobody ever told her the reason why.

"Elijah, answer my questions. What was her ability-"

Elijah changed the topic quickly.

"How about a nice spar between the two of us like we used to do before you became a princess and I had to go back to being a royal guard?"

…

They were in a rather big and open field of grass that looked big and wide enough to host a royal ball in.

No wait, this was their old training grounds from behind the concubine mansion where Arya lived before she moved to the royal palace.

Arya smiled.

She missed this cozy little mansion. Not that life in the royal palace was uncomfortable or miserable but it just lacked that sweet and cozy feeling that this mansion had.

The stone training court looked the same and Arya walked over to a rack of swords. She lifted up the waterproof cover that protected them from the rain and elements and selected two twin swords.

Not as good as her twin swords that she normally used but they would do.

Arya still had a lot of questions in her head about Queen Esteele but Elijah didn't look like he would be answering them.

Elijah drew out his own twin swords that hung by his side.

"I hope you weren't slacking off while I was gone, princess."

Arya gave him a smirk.

"Never in a million years, Mr.Eli. Now should I go or you go?"

"Get ready, Eli, because I'm not going to go easy on you just because I'm a girl."

"I'll be a fool to underestimate and look down on you, princess, because I can sense your monstrous power from all the way over here. I'll fight you with all my power-"

Arya suddenly appeared in front of Elijah as if she had teleported in front of him and she brought her twin sword down on him. Elijah quickly deflected the twin blades and counterattacked with a jab that Arya easily blocked with her right blade.

"That's low, little princess.". Elijahteased Arya as the two traded blows and attacks. The wooden blades crossed and it seemed as if Azarael and Arya were on par with each other.

Arya only smirked as she landed a heavy kick on Elijah's right leg after her latest attack. Her leg did some serious damage toElijah as it was clear that he wasn't able to move very quickly or easily now with his right leg crippled from the kick.

"You always said that honor and dignity mean nothing in battle. You fight with everything you got and you shouldn't be afraid to play dirty in order to win. Because winning means death, losing means death. Simple as that."

Elijah dodged, blocked or parried her jabs and attacks while unleashing a unrelenting counterattack of slashes, stabs and blows that Arya easily blocked or deflected as they came in hot and fast.

"Ha!! I taught you a little too well, little princess."

Arya suddenly leaped back and away from Elijah as she started to manipulate and control all the remaining and unused 10 swords from the rack.

They flew off their racks and up into the air. Arya focused all her energy and attention to them and five of the swords flew directly at Elijah.

He gave a yelp of surprise but easily deflected the swords that came at him like vultures to a dead carcass.

More swords came flying at him in all directions now: front, behind, from the sides.

Elijah dodge, blocked, ducked or deflected all of the attacking swords that Arya was manipulating but Arya easily controlled their movements and the swords relentlessly attacked him from all directions as he defended himself.

Elijah's twin swords were a blur of movement as he had to block and parry all the swords attack him at once as Arya controlled them from a distance.

He suddenly held up his hands in surrender, dropping the sword to the ground.

All the swords were still pointed at him.

"It's your win. I pushed myself a little but too hard when I should be taking it easy."

Arya put the swords back into the racks.

"You fought well, Eli.."

"You fought well too, princess. I'm proud of you."

…

Second Prince Assyrian was busy training with a private sparring partner in an outdoor training court.

He threw bolts of lightning at the man who dodged all of them. Assyrian didn't give up and he continued to form and create more lightning bolts and hurled them like spears at his opponent who continued to dodge all of them as he approached closer and closer.

The bolts of lightning zoomed past him and instead fired some poor bushes and trees into piles of ashes instead. 

The man's skin turned gray and started to harden as his entire body turned to stone. This gave him some protection against the prince's lightning but he was gritting his teeth in pain as he pushed onwards.

Assyrian summoned bolts of lightning from the sky that came crashing down at full force. The bolts fried the ground and left black burn marks on the grass. 

Assyrian's eyes didn't see the man in front of him until it was too late.

The man aimed his stone face at his face in a straight punch.

Assyrian dodged it but barely.

Lightning crackled and hissed as it the sparks danced and sparked in both his hands

A bolt of lightning streaked from his raised hand and it arched its ways towards the man.

The man was hit full force by the bolt of lightning and he was lit up like a human torch.

He jerked and twitched like he was having a seizure as the lightning and electricity worked its magic on him. The man was shaking and trembling from the shock but still alive and standing as Assyrian did not use his full power when he was fighting him.

Assyrian gave up the fight. No use fighting now that his sparring partner had been defeated.The sparks in his hand dying away as his lightning faded away inside his body, weak and faint but still there.

The man got up, stone skin already turning back to flesh and bone.

"It was a good fight, your highness. You are really powerful and amazing. If you didn't hold back for me, I would already be dead."

Assyrian nodded in acknowledgement of the praise. The man with the ability to turn his skin to stone was Granite Boldone, the youngest son of the Boldone House that was famous for producing stone-related ability users.

He was also one of Assyrian's closest friends and supporters. Assyrian liked him for his good nature and strength as a friend-not just as an ally to help him succeed the throne.

"Hello, half-brother."

Assyrian turned around to see Marisa with her group of bitches consisting of a blond haired girl, red haired girl and blue-haired girl all wearing matching white and black training outfits. Marisa herself was dressed in a blue and white knee-length dress with sandals laced up with white ribbons.

Assyrian's day was ruined. Out of all his half-siblings, he hated Marisa the most because she was always such a bitch towards him and she was vain, arrogant and a bully.

"What do you want, half-sister?"

Marisa smiled but her smile never reached her eyes which remained cold and emotionless.

"Well, I just wanted to say that I'll get you back for the humiliation that you inflicted on me yesterday during our spars."

Ah, her smile turned into a sneer and her voice was mocking and snarky.

Ah, yes. Assyrian had completely wiped the floor with her during their spar. It was all the instructors could do to keep her from throwing herself at Assyrian and killing him.

Assyrian decided to return her snarkiness.

"Well, you're welcome to try to get back at me any time, Marisa."

"Exactly."

Marisa raised her arms and water was leached out of the air, condensed from gas back into water.

Droplets of water danced and flew through the air as Marisa controlled them.

The water circled and consolidated in the air until it was a huge ball of water. Some of the droplets of water circled around her and danced around her hands and arms.

Granite was the one she attacked.

The water raced towards Granite and enveloped his head in a ball of condensed water.

He fell down onto the ground and grabbed his throat, struggling to breath as his head was trapped inside a prison of water. He was drowning on dry land.

Asstyrian's hands lit up as lightning crackled and sparked to life in his hands. He hurled two bolts of lightning at Marita.

Or he should have been able to.

Instead, he found himself unable to summon his lightning at all.

Marita gave him a big smirk as she drank in his stunned and shocked look as he found himself unable to summon or create lightning.

She waved her hand in the direction of the red haired girl.

"Allow me to introduce you to Helene Slies, the second born daughter of the Slies. She has quite an amazing ability to be able to prevent anyone from using their powers-almost like she can turn off your powers."

Assyrian-unable to fight Marisa now- rushed over to where Granite was now flopping around on the ground now like a dying fish, unable to breath as the water bubble around his head choked him.

Marisa smiled. She relished the look of despair on his face. Serves him right for being so cocky.