Royal Princess of Blood Chapter 78: Uneasy Mera

ra was with the princess learning a new spell called Fire Bolt. As for the Palm Shield spell, ra had already learned how to cast it with no fail. That said, the strength of it left plenty to be desired.

Further training of her mystic dium will be required to make it stronger to at least block half of Vernon’s true strength. ra was often baffled that Vernon, despite being a commoner at birth, was powerful enough that he could match the strength of an elite knight.

Perhaps it would be because of his hard work when he was young, or he was blessed by the gods.

That aside, since Vernon was not a caster of magic, he wouldn’t be able to help much in the spellcasting departnt. Therefore, it was up only for both her and the princess. Everything would have been less distressing if the princess wasn’t acting so weirdly.

At the mont, they were outside the palace in an empty courtyard, no other personnel could be found here. This was around the eastern side of the palace, although a bit distant. In addition, the area the knights used for training should due south of here.

Under the shade of a building used for storage, although empty since it wasn’t used much, ra stood as she looked at the book atop the table, and beside her was the princess. ra glanced at the princess and noticed she was acting tense.

Her fingers often shook as she laid them on the table. ra felt even more uneasy about the situation, she could even feel Vernon’s stare from behind her. Her heart throbbed hard as she felt a small sense of anxiety building up in her chest.

“M-Milady… is sothing a matter with ?”

The princess frantically turned towards her.

“N-No! No…. Why? Is sothing bothering you?”

“Um… no…”

“I see… So, ra, have you understood how to do it?”

“I think so…”

The princess had begun to act a bit more normally than she was only recently. But ra was still pretty disturbed.

As for the spell, in short, just visualize and imagine flas. At the sa ti, give it properties of heat, as flas originally were. However, it would need to be compressed so it would be truly a bolt of fla that it was designed to be. The hardest hurdle here would be shaping the mana into it.

ra has yet to fully master tinkering with her mana. Like having difficulties putting a thread into a needle. Yes she may be able to cast a shield easily, however, she would be casting a new spell. And shaping mana into it would be different to making the shield.

She didn’t know about the princess though. She was a bit afraid to ask at the mont.

In the open space, ra did as what was instructed in the book. She held out her hand and concentrated on the flow of her mana.

She imagined and visualized flas.

Fire flickered in her palm. However, in a second, it vanished completely. She did it again and fire ca forth flickering.

ra glanced at how the princess was doing. The princess’s brows furrowed a little, struggling to create her flas, they flickered around the sa as ra’s.

About half an hour later, ra had gotten used to it and a small ball of fire hovered above her palm. However, the best this could do was set afire a bonfire, or cause mild burns on a person.

She forced forward her mana, and the flas grew larger inviting a smile to play on her lips. After that, she took a glance at the princess. Her eyes froze at the princess’s palm where a ball of fire hovered just above it. What caused her surprise however was that the flas were in a perfect ball shape.

The fingers of the princess motioned slightly, and the ball rotated around, as though the fingers were carving and controlling the full motion of the flas. However, the ball didn’t seem to be compressed yet. Despite all that, ra was impressed.

The princess was able to give a clean form of the fla, ra was sure that the princess had such precise control of her mana. That being said, she wasn’t sure how much level of preciseness that was yet.

“Fire bolt, it’s not shot in a swinging throw… so…”

The princess murmured. Indeed the bolt was not thrown like how you would throw sothing from the shoulder forward. If one does that, one would need to focus more than on launching the bolt, but also timing it with your throw. In other words, it was faster and easier to launch the bolt yourself, like how a fire bolt should normally be used.

The princess held out her hand forward. The ball of fire turned slightly smaller. Then, it shot forward as though propelled by an invisible force.

However, a few steps of distance, it puffed away into smoke.

“Huh… it’s not as easy as I thought.”

The princess turned around towards ra.

“M-ra.... H-How is your progress?”

“... I am still trying to give it a form.”

“I see....”

The princess cast down her eyes towards her palm, and flas ca forth.

“Magic really is wonderful, one can easily cast fire. You wouldn’t need to struggle in lighting a fire with this…”

The princess seed to halt all motion as she observed the flas in her hand.

“I’ve been wondering for a while… Vernon.”

She called Vernon. Upon her beckon, the old man approached her.

“Your highness?”

“Magic is a pretty, mysterious thing… In this world full of magic, there must be a number of manners of things which are quite mystical, am I right?”

“Of course.”

“What… What sort of interesting things are out there? Creatures, places… what sort of things are there that resemble sothing mystical, and mysterious…”

The princess gazed up at the sky. For so reason, ra could sense solemness in that gaze, mixed within were what seed to be curiosity. A princess who had never seen much of the outside world, of course, she must be full of wonder of what could be out there.

“Well, for starters,” Vernon said. “There are monsters… Which I think are pretty mystical, and mysterious. I an, why do those savage creatures have to exist? Creatures that normal humans cannot even hope to match.”

The princess lowered her gaze.

“I suppose horror exists in the world, no matter how hard you wish for it not to. But, there must also be beauty, is there?”

Vernon faintly smiled.

“There was a lake in the north, I went there with my old party once. The water was clear during the day. However, when night ca, as the gentle moonlight touched the water, the lake shone with various colors. Then, small dots of light in the color of gold began to ascend from the water.

“When I reached out for them, my hand went through them. They cannot be touched, as though they were spirits… Of all the many beautiful places I ca across, that place was the most morable…”

“... Why?” the princess asked.

“That was the last day I was with my party.”

Vernon had a look of nostalgia on his face, however, ca along with it were eyes of sadness.

“I see… I’m sorry I asked.”

“Do not be sorry, your highness. There is nothing to be sorry about.”

The princess nodded.

“Vernon, please tell stories of other places next ti.”

“As you wish.”

“... Places aside, are there any creatures, you could say, the sa as us? Sentient and almost resembled our appearance.”

ra and Vernon both had a puzzled expression. The princess was specifically asking after all.

“Why do you ask?”

“I am curious. I wondered if there are other living beings almost the sa as us. Like a different race.”

“Hm. There are demons in the south, beyond the southern shores.”

The princess jerked her head and faced towards Vernon.

“ — Demons?”

“Yes, demons. You need to cross the sea though, they are not exactly a kind you could easily be friendly with. Well, this is a continent ruled by humans, so I suppose that is to be expected.”

“I see. But demons? Do they like to possess people or beco invisible or haunt you or sothing, becoming spiritual?”

Vernon raised an eyebrow, baffled by what the princess thought the demons could be.

“Your highness, where did you get those ideas from?”

“... Just my imaginations.”

“Hm. In any case, they are not like that. They almost resemble the form of humans. Well, almost, so there are conspicuous differences. That said, they are generally dangerous, so… be careful if you encounter one.”

“I would unlikely encounter one in the palace anyway…. So, are there any others?”

“Others of?”

“Other races?”

“Ah, if you want to learn of other humanoid sentient beings, that which we can communicate like proper people, no, no other.”

“Oh…”

The princess sounded disappointed. She returned her focus to the ball of fire on her hand. Then she raised her head and turned to ask Vernon again.

“Vernon, have you heard of elves?”

“Elves…” Vernon echoed.

ra was confused by the term “elves”. She didn’t know what that was. Vernon also seed to be in deep thought.

“Elves… I have heard of it, but barely anyone ntions that word.”

“So… what are they?”

“They are only ntioned in non-popular myths.”

ra had realized why she never knew of the term. They were myths that were barely ntioned. ra was not exactly a person that strives for information such as this, therefore it was expected she wouldn’t know about it.

“Wait, myths?” The princess looked puzzled.

“Yes… Not much is known about them. Well, as myths there are, they likely never existed.”

“So no one has discovered elves? And there is a chance that they never existed in the first place but rely works of fiction?”

“...Yes… but princess, where did you hear that word?”

The princess moved back her elbow, then instantly moved it forward vigorously. The bolt of fire launched forward with great speed, however, it didn’t reach that far, just double the distance from before.

ra was in awe of how the princess was able to achieve such distance already.

“Where did I hear it? You do know there are a lot of mouths around the palace, don’t you Vernon?”

“I suppose.”

Really? I never heard anyone talking about that…

ra mused.

***

A couple of days had passed since the princess started learning her fire bolt spell. She had shown significant progress to the point that Vernon was wary to take it head on. For that reason, testing it to a person was not an option, not that it was an option in the first place.

ra had also shown a lot of progress. However, her bolt was not as destructive as the princess who had a vast amount of mana.

Regarding the princess though, there was a concerning matter. She would often grimace whenever her bolt strengthened due to her damaged mystic dium which greatly limited her progress. But at least it was better than before.

Then at the end of that, the princess asked for a break. ra understood why the princess would ask such a thing. The princess must have been exhausted, not only did she have to train but also endure the pain within her body.

The princess definitely needed rest.

Also, needless to say, ra still received a cold treatnt from Vernon, while the princess was still quite frightened, only a bit though since the princess had slowly ward back up. ra was a bit relieved about it, but she still had no idea at first why they were acting this way. And that only made her also more anxious as days went by.

At the mont, the princess was on her way back to her room earlier than usual along with ra and Vernon.

ra snuck a glance towards Vernon as they walked side by side behind the princess. She then returned her gaze forward as she resisted the urge to sigh.

After all the days that had passed, ra had co to a conclusion. The princess and Vernon were definitely cautious of her for an ominous reason. It was as though they were suspecting her.

But could it be simple suspicions? ra had a feeling that they already had a basis for their actions. With this realization, ra hardened herself.

When they arrived at the third floor by the stairs, they found a man that ra and the others recognized. He was walking from the far side of the hallway and was heading towards them.

ra was puzzled as to what this man was doing walking around in this part. If he ca from the prince’s office, he wouldn’t need to go through here just to go down. Surprised for the sa reason, the princess stopped in her tracks as she gazed towards the man.

ra and Vernon followed when their superior began to walk forward, and approached the man.

“Oryn…” the princess called his na.

“Your highness,” Oryn bowed deeply with a neutral expression.

“It’s rare for you to walk around here. What brought you here?”

The princess gazed innocently at Oryn with a blatant trace of cluelessness.

“I am reviewing the security within the palace hallways.”

“...For what reason?” the princess asked.

“You knew of the information of a traitor within the palace, yes? If that is true, then it is essential to make improvents or check for errors of security within the confines of the palace.”

“Does big brother know about this?”

There was a second of delay before a response finally ca.

“... No… I was intending to check everything out first and formulate a plan before informing the prince. I hope that it would at least relieve him of so things to think about.”

ra understood and agreed with Oryn’s intentions. Seeing how much paperwork the prince was working on, this way it would lessen the things that bugs his mind. ra would have done the sa for her superior.

“... And you left him, alone with his work…?” the princess asked.

ra turned her gaze towards her. If Oryn didn’t inform the prince of his intention, then how was he able to leave behind the one he was supposed to assist. If he suddenly left the prince, he was a failure of a servant. A prince full of work would not let his attendant leave freely unless with a good reason.

“His highness asked for refreshnts, and I only took this opportunity.”

Oryn gave his reason.

“I see,” the princess’s smile grew wider. “I’m glad soone is helping my big brother, please don’t let him overwork himself too hard.”

“Of course… By the way, your highness, aren’t you a bit red?”

Indeed, a tinge of red colored the princess’s pale skin.

“Exposing myself under the sun for too long isn’t good for . It’s a bit painful.”

Because of her snow white skin, she was very sensitive to the sun. Therefore, she would mostly stay under the shade whenever necessary. However, her training got more intense than before, and because of that, she exposed herself to the sun more than before. Which was one of the reasons why she wanted to rest for now and stay away from the sun’s light.

Truth be told, ra was a bit surprised that the princess lasted this long. After all, before this, she almost never left the palace and was barely exposed to the sun.

“I suppose magic training is going smoothly? May I ask what you are learning now?”

The princess pressed her index finger to her lips adorably.

“That’s a secret, it would ruin the surprise of my improvent if I tell anyone now.”

Oryn chuckled.

“I imagine the prince will be very pleased when you show him your newfound abilities.”

“I hope so! Alright then, I will be going to rest, so goodbye for now, Oryn.”

“Very well, your highness.”

With that, they left each other and headed towards their own destination. After several steps however, the princess stopped and turned around. Puzzled, ra also turned around towards where her gaze was directed at. And there she saw Oryn going down the stairs.

It only lasted for a second before they continued on their way.

ra wondered why the princess looked back.