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Chapter 3 Part 2: Aura and Magic
🕑 Added 2021-09-01 13:01:04 +0000 UTCThe knight in golden armor leaped into the air, the six magic swords dancing behind him.
In response, the helmless knight brandished his sword, and a white aura erupted from his body. Even from afar, Adelheid's heart palpitated after sensing the pressure emanating from the man.
In midair, the golden knight pointed a finger at the helmless knight. Acting on command, the six swords behind him shot towards the target like bullets.
The helmless knight stood firm as the six swords neared him. The white aura coalesced onto his sword and enchanted it with ethereal sheen.
Adelheid's eyes could not discern what happened next. One moment, the six swords neared the helmless night. The next moment, he became a blur, and before Adelheid knew what happened, the six swords had been deflected. Each sword had been embedded into the ground.
However, the helmless knight didn't have any time to catch his breath as the golden knight had landed a mere meter away from him. The golden knight reached towards the sides of his waist, and a flash of light later, the golden knight pulled out a sword from light and slashed towards the helmless knight.
Adelheid's brows furrowed. Earlier she thought she had seen a circle formed from strange symbols appear at the golden knight's waist moments before the glowing sword materialized out of nowhere. Compared to the white aura from the helmless knight, Adelheid was even more sensitive to the strange circle that appeared.
Regardless of Adelheid's thoughts, the duel between the two knights continued. It was a dance full of danger, and any slightest mishaps would result in grievous injuries—a cut tendon here, a sliced vein there, or a slit throat.
Despite this, the deadly dance of steel continued between the two, their life and death balancing on the edge of a blade.
As the battle continued, the golden summoned another sword of light and increased his offensive against the helmless knight. At the same time, the six magic swords that had been embedded into the ground had pulled themselves out and attacked the helmless knight. The helmless knight was quite literally, surrounded by all sides.
The helmless knight held against the golden knight's assault admirably, but the outcome was already evident, even to the inexperienced seventh princess. Rather than a one-on-one duel against the golden knight, the helmless knight's situation was closer to being encircled by seven knights.
Not long after, the helmless dropped his sword and said, "I yield!"
Instantly, the golden knight and his six magic swords froze. Moments later, the two glowing swords disappeared into tiny glowing particles, and the magic swords floated behind the golden knight.
Afterward, the two knights shook hands and began to talk.
Adelheid was broken out of her daze from witnessing the dazzling duel between the two knights when she heard Matilda sighing behind her.
"Sir Gerrald is one of the strongest knights, being an aura master. Unfortunately, his opponent was Sir Griselda." Matilda said in lament.
Wait, Griselda? Isn’t that a female’s name? The golden knight was a she? Adelheid thought, surprised. I thought female knights were addressed as dame or lady before their name. Or perhaps, it’s just a matter of address unique to the Vuldar Empire.
"You recognize them?" Adelheid asked.
Matilda puffed up her budding chest with pride. Without waiting for Adelheid to ask, she spilled everything. "Of course I know. Sir Griselda Ritter is the current knight captain of the Imperial Guards, taking orders directly from his majesty, Emperor Wilheim! Not only that, I heard that she's only twenty-one years old! She is the youngest in the history of the empire to take the position, and there's a rumor that she is the strongest knight of the empire despite her young age!"
Adelheid took a step back, a bit frightened by the fanaticism in Matilda's eyes. All that was missing was for the aspiring knight to scream, "I wish I were Griselda Ritter!" or “I want to have Griselda Ritter’s child” in her loudest voice.
"As for Sir Gerrald," Matilda's voice returned to normal, almost as if the excitement from earlier was a hallucination. "He's a former member of my father's now-disbanded knight order."
"Hey, hey, you praised Griselda to the sky and back, but that's all you have to say about me? I'm hurt." A boisterous laugh neared, causing Adelheid to swivel her head in surprise.
Griselda and Gerrald had finished their conversation and had noticed their audience. Gerrald immediately recognized Matilda and, by association, discerned that Adelheid was the recently awakened seventh princess.
"Sir Gerrald, I respect you, but how can you compare to Sir Griselda?" Matilda retorted without a hint of shame, causing Gerrald to laugh even more.
"You sure say whatever is on your mind," Gerrald said, and then he looked teasingly at Griselda standing next to him. "What do you say? Miss strongest knight?"
Griselda stayed silent for a few seconds before replying. Her voice was neither high nor low, perfectly androgynous and pleasant to the ear. "Miss Avery praises me too much. I still have much to accomplish before I reach the heights of my predecessor, Sir Leif."
Then Griselda turned towards Adelheid and performed a full bow. She kneeled with her right leg forward, placed her fist over her heart, and lowered her head. "Forgive my earlier rudeness for not greeting Your Highness. I am Knight Captain Griselda Ritter of the Vuldar Imperial Guards."
Adelheid stood there, dazed by the elegance of Griselda's actions. After a few seconds, she broke out and quickly said, "A-ah. Rise, there is no need to be so formal. You are in full armor. It is not convenient for you to perform the full ceremonial bow. In the future, a nod of the head will do." Only later did Adelheid notice that Elune hadn’t stopped her from talking.
Griselda rose up from her bow and nodded her head, still covered by the helmet. "Thank you for your grace."
"You are the emperor’'s knight. There is no need to lower yourself more than necessary," Adelheid said as her thoughts drifted off. Speaking of her grandfather, Emperor Wilheim, she had yet to see even a hair of him, but she felt she would meet him soon.
Focusing her attention on Griselda's armor, Adelheid could see the sculpted image of a woman on her chest plate. The sculpted woman had blazing hair, a divine visage with one eye covered by an eyepatch, and a valiant air to her. This was not the first time Adelheid had seen the image of the woman because she was the War Iras, the Goddess of Fire and the patron goddess of the Vuldar Empire..
"Griselda, don't be so uptight. The little princess won't mind such meaningless formalities." Gerrald glanced at Matilda and then continued, "After all, Matilda is her highness's maid."
There was a moment of silence before an indignant cry could be heard.
"What do you mean by that, Sir Gerrald?!" Matilda's eyes were full of resentment as she glared at her father's former subordinate.
Then to her further anger, she heard a snort of laughter. Slowly, Matilda turned her head towards Sofia, who had an impeccable poker face, but Matilda had known Sofia for years and would not mistake her laughter. Stomping towards Sofia and bringing her face dangerously close to Sofia's, Matilda said through gritted teeth, "Whatcha laughing about, huh!?"
"Ew, say it, don't spit!" Sofia made a disgusted face as she retreated a few steps. Taking a handkerchief from her apron, she wiped Matilda's spittle off of her skin and uniform.
"Hmpf," Matilda crossed her arms, unwilling to back down. "So what? That's what you get for laughing at me!"
There was a delicate little snort, and both Matilda and Sofia turned their glares at the sources and were immediately befuddled. There, a little distance away from the two, stood Adelheid laughing. The laughter was sweet and bell-like, a treat for the ears.
But for Matilda and Sofia, they could only feel shame as their faces heated up. Not only had they forgotten about the princess, but they made themselves a laughingstock in front of her, a girl younger by them by several years. Even Gerrald and Elune had slight smiles on their faces while looking at the two maids with amusement.
The only one who showed no reaction was Griselda, and that's because her armor covered up her entire body. Realizing that she made a fool of herself in front of the target of her admiration, Matilda sunk into despair.
"Alright, alright, why did you bring the kid princess here?" Gerrald scanned Adelheid from head to toe. "Don't tell me you're going to train her as a knight? But I heard that the princess's body hasn't fully recovered."
"The kid princess would like to tell you that she is not a little kid," Adelheid said, a tad annoyed. The moment she was called a kid, she felt a sort of incongruence. After all, she had memories as an adult and being called a kid was shameful. Adelheid had a hard time putting the feeling into words.
"Alrighty then, Your Highness," Gerrald said, not taking Adelheid's word at face value.
Seeing that Gerrald didn't take her words to heart, Adelheid didn't dwell on the matter. After all, she truly was a kid, right now. Instead, she wanted the answer to another question.
"Why did you think I was here to train?" Adelheid asked, perplexed.
"Aren't you? You're wearing the uniform of female knights after all." Gerrald said as he looked at Adelheid's clothing once more. "I didn't think the uniform came in your size at all. It must have been custom made."
"Really?" Adelheid said more to herself than others as she glanced at her clothing. She turned towards Elune and asked, "Did you know?"
Elune nodded. "Of course. Considering that Your Highness needed to train your body, I thought the uniform was rather fitting."
Adelheid accepted the explanation. There wasn't much to consider since it was only clothes, but she made a mental note to order more pants to be made for her. She then turned towards Griselda, wondering what the knight captain would look like out of her armor and in uniform. It should be rather dashing, right?
"Is there something wrong, Your Highness?" Griselda asked, seeing Adelheid's lingering gaze.
Realizing she had been staring, Adelheid quickly thought of a question to cover her blunder. "I was wondering what the sword of light you used was. I didn't see anything at your waist, so I couldn't help but ask."
"It is nothing much, Your HIghness," Griselda answered as she put her hand forward, and the circle appeared again, and the sword of light magically materialized again. "It's simply a third circle spell, Sword Creation."
"Third circle spell?" Adelheid asked, not knowing the context.
"Yes," Griselda answered. "Spells are divided by circles, from single circle spells to the mythical tenth circle. As a fourth circle mage, I can easily use a third circle spell."
"You make it sound so easy. Which fourth circle mage is as young as you? Not to mention that you don't need to use a wand or stave. What a monster." Gerrald chipped in.
Griselda became silent at Gerrald's word but soon turned her attention back to Adelheid, who was staring intently at the mana sword in her hand.
"Prince Albr-father said that my talent in magic is incredible. So I should be able to use Sword Creation too, right?" Adelheid asked. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t reign the excitement in her voice. If a person’s strength could reach this point, I wouldn’t have died in my previous life, right?
"If Your Highness puts in enough effort," Griselda said after a moment's hesitation. Only about ten percent of people had the capacity to control mana, but that didn't automatically mean you could become a mage. You needed talent for mana manipulation which did not correlate to a person’s mana.
"Thank you," Adelheid said, a fire had been lit inside of her.
"Your Highness, must I remind you that your body needs to recover first before you can do anything else?" Elune said, dousing Adelheid's excitement. "In addition, you will also need to catch up on your lessons that you missed in your three years' sleep."
"I understand,” Adelheid said. She had long expected lessons. It would be a joke if a member of the imperial family wasn’t educated. In addition, Adelheid could gather intelligence and discern what her situation and status was like. She saw affection in Prince Albrecht’s eyes, but no deep love, so she couldn’t help but wonder how much she was valued.
Not long after, Adelheid and her attendant bid farewell to Griselda and Gerrald under Elune's urging. Much to Adelheid's embarrassment, she was carried back to her room. The seventh princess had protested, but Elune was firm in her judgment. Adelheid had already walked for two hours. Any more would be detrimental to her recovery.
At least it was a princess carry and not piggyback?
After Adelheid returned to her room, she was stripped of her clothing and changed into her nightgown.
I should really ask the seamstress to sew some underwear instead of this negligee.
Most of the nightwear provided were loose fitting and easily got tangled or shifted while she slept. Adelheid missed the form fitting underwear of Earth that did not exist in this world. As a princess, requesting customized clothing should not be difficult.
It was only after laying on the bed that Adelheid noticed how exhausted she had become from simply walking for about two hours, and she had almost fallen asleep in Elune's arms on the way back. Just as Adelheid was about to tuck herself into bed without a care for all else, a voice stopped her.
"Princess Adelheid, before you rest, you have to drink your medicine." Elune reminded.
Adelheid's head that had started drooping straightened as she recalled that she hadn't drunk her tonic yet. It was something she drank every morning and night, but she had just been so tired that it left her mind.
The concoction was brewed by the palace's imperial alchemist. Supposedly, it was supposed to strengthen Adelheid's constitution and maintain her health.
"Your Highness," Sofia said as she brought the small bowl of liquid over.
While Adelheid had been drifting between drowsiness and awareness, it seemed that the bowl of medicine had already been delivered to the room without her knowing. With a clink, the cover had been taking off the bowl, revealing the red-violet concoction within. The viscosity was slightly runnier than honey, but that wasn't saying much.
Taking the bowl, Adelheid directly downed the tonic without a second thought. The liquid had a slightly metallic tang, something that Adelheid did not dislike, but nor was overly fond of the taste either. What she loathed, however, was the bitterness that made her want to vomit all the contents within her stomach.
"Ugh," Adelheid gagged as she pushed the bowl away and reached for the cup of sweetened milk in Matilda's hand. Only after gulping the whole cup in one breath did Adelheid feel that the bitterness had receded.
Adelheid moved to cover herself with her blankets once more, but she didn't feel like sleeping anymore. The bitter tonic must have some effects because she felt energized every time she drank it, which made her drowsiness disappear.
She glanced at the two maids standing attentively at the side, waiting for her to enter slumber. Healer Elune had already left for the night. Adelheid moved her eyes around the room, slightly bored. As her eyes glanced at the mirror, her eyes widened, and she bolted upright.
"Your Highness?!" cried out the maids in surprise.
Adelheid ignored the shocked maids calling to her in lieu of observing her reflection within the mirror. Reflected on the mirror was her exact visage, no differences at all, but Adelheid could have sworn she saw her pupils glowing red a second ago.
"Do my eyes look any different?" Adelheid asked her two maids.
Matilda and Sofia looked at each other before shaking their heads negatively.
"I see," Adelheid muttered. Seeing as the two still had concerned looks, Adelheid reassured them that nothing was wrong before laying down once more. The seventh princess could only attribute what happened earlier as herself hallucinating from fatigue.
Not long after, Princess Adelheid of the Vuldar Empire drifted off into unconsciousness.
