Royal Secret: I'm a Princess!

[I DID it.]

Calyx was proud of himself after knocking the royal princess out.

But if he'd be honest, he was actually doubting if he caused her to faint. If he remembered it correctly, the royal princess already fainted and coughed up blood (with some Darkness mixed in it) before he stabbed her with the Twin Crescent Moons, the halberd.

[The royal princess probably fainted because of the injury she suffered from fighting the White Lion. And since I'm the owner of the White Lion, I can take credit for it, right? After all, my aunts and uncles always say that I can take anything and everything I want as long as I remain loyal to the family.]

He looked up to see his father's reaction.

The emperor was looking at the royal princess with a blank expression on his face. Even his aura was calm.

[Oh. He's not worried about the royal princess?]

Maybe his father was disappointed in the royal princess for losing to him.

Yes, that could be it.

[When I was younger, I lost to Regina in a fight once. Lord Callisto and my uncles punished me back then. They said they would no longer treat me as a member of the family if I lost again.]

Perhaps the emperor had the same mindset.

[His Majesty probably favors the royal princess because she hasn't lost to other people before. But after I've proved to Father that I'm stronger than his daughter, his affection will now be diverted to me.]

It was now time for the second "surprise."

He turned to his Uncle Raven and gave him a slight nod as a signal to proceed with their plan: to reveal that there were "two Prince Neros."

One was stabbed by his halberd.

And the other was in the royal palace.

Uncle Raven, who received his signal, moved his hands to summon the crows with artificial eyes that worked as visual and sound recording devices. Those devices were connected to the biggest plaza in the Royal Capital where both nobles and commoners would cross paths.

Of course, their plan wouldn't be complete without the appearance of the true Prince Nero.

Thus, Lord Callisto sent one of his old friends to literally take a look at the real Crown Prince. It wasn't a powerful god, but a god's eyes weren't something that one could easily block. Thus, they were confident that the god could take a clear picture of–

His thoughts were distracted when, all of a sudden, several crows fell from the sky.

[What…]

Even Uncle Raven looked shocked by what happened.

The crowd was also confused by the sudden "rain" of crows.

No one was as confused as him, though.

[The crows are hidden with high concealment magic that not even high-ranking Mana users could detect!]

And were those gunshot wounds?

He didn't hear anything similar to a gunshot. But the crows that fell to the ground all had their eyes hit by a bullet.

[Who could shoot those crows with such precision?!]

"What a nasty weapon you have, you crow psycho."

He turned to the royal princess who was already awake.

She touched the twin crescent moon blades as if they were admiring them. And it looked like she had no intention of pulling the long spike embedded in her stomach by herself.

[Or maybe she can't.]

"These two nasty crescent moon blades are filling my body with Darkness filled with malice. Are you trying to poison me with it?" she asked, then she laughed. "Did you have to ask for Helstor's help just to defeat me?"

He just frowned since he already learned that he couldn't win against the royal princess in a verbal argument.

[She's fluent in sarcasm and bad words.]

"Calyx Dalton, what can you do on your own?"

He didn't know why, but that question cut deep into his heart.

"Scratch that," the royal princess said, then she looked at him straight in the eye. "The way I see it, you're nothing more than a handsome puppet. I bet your family decides everything for you– down to what underwear you'd wear every day."

His cheeks flushed from embarrassment.

The royal princess wasn't wrong. But to be precise, he had an uncle who was in charge of his outfits– not just his underwear!

"Oh, fuck, I'm right," the royal princess said, laughing. "What are you, a baby? Should I call you 'agi' from now on?"

"'Agi?'" he asked, confused.

"It means 'agi' in a language I know. You're a sheltered baby bird, so I'll call you that from now on," she said in a mocking tone, the arrogance smirk on her face getting worse as minutes passed. "Agi-ya, can you pull this out?" she asked, but her voice sounded so commanding that he felt like she was ORDERING him around, while pointing at the Twin Crescent Moons. "This noona is too weak to pull this out, so be a good dongsaeng and help your noona a bit."

And now she was looking down on him by talking to him as if he was a baby!

He couldn't fully understand what she was saying because she used some strange words, but he could tell that she was mocking him.

Again.

He pulled out the halberd since he was done sending the "gift" to the royal princess anyway.

It must have hurt a lot because, for the first time since the fight began, the royal princess's face was distorted with pain. Blood gushed out of the hole that he made in her stomach, and she also coughed up blood again.

[The gift was delivered properly.]

It was an unsightly sight to see but even though the royal princess was a big mess because of the blood all over her face and clothes, she still looked…

[Beautiful and elegant.]

It didn't make sense, but only people who could see the royal princess right now would understand.

Even the crowd was mesmerized by her.

He could tell that most of the people in the audience were worried about their precious "Crown Prince," but he could also see the admiration in their faces.

At that moment, he finally realized what the royal princess had that he lacked.

[Charisma,] Calyx thought to himself. [The royal princess's charisma is overflowing.]

***

<"YOUR MAJESTY, Jeno Dankworth has taken care of all the crows lurking around the academy.">

Nikolai was relieved to hear Warren Fletcher's report that he received using mental telepathy.

The Fletcher Twins were in charge of taking care of the area around the academy. He didn't expect Jeno Dankworth to appear, but he should have expected it. Neoma's "children" prepared a gift for his daughter in advance because they were confident Neoma would win the match.

He and Lewis Crevan were also involved in the preparation, but they had to keep it a secret from Neoma so it took them this long to finish the gift.

[I'm glad that they finished it on time, though.]

<"Greko– the young Healer– is also here, Your Majesty. He has already taken a glimpse of Princess Neoma, and he's now preparing a concoction to help the royal princess heal faster. He said he could give it to Her Royal Highness discreetly.">

Since Calyx Dalton already played dirty, why would it matter if they sent Neoma a healing potion in secret?

<"Alright,"> Nikolai said, responding to Warren's report. <"Protect Greko and Jeno Dankworth.">

<"Yes, Your Majesty. In fact, my older brother Wyatt is already doing his best to subdue Jeno Dankworth. The boy almost lost his mind when he saw Princess Neoma impaled by the young crow's halberd, so Brother Wyatt is busy restraining him by force.">

He almost let out a smile.

[Neoma's "children" inherited her nasty temper.]

<"How about the other children?">

<"I heard from Jeno Dankworth that Lewis Crevan and Paige Avery are communicating using telepathy, too,"> Warren began with his new report. <"According to him, Lewis Crevan has dispatched the other children to different locations.">

Ah, right.

Neoma and her "children" had a unique communication link that Neoma referred to as "mental group chat."

He turned to Lewis Crevan who had finally calmed down.

The boy must be busy talking to his "siblings" using mental telepathy.

[When Neoma is unavailable, Lewis Crevan is in charge of the other children. And it looks like he's doing a good job leading them.]

That lessened his worry a bit.

[Mona, Nero, be safe,] Nikolai said to himself. [Please.]

***

"WHY IS it raining crows again?!"

"And who is that young lady wrecking havoc in the plaza?"

"Isn't she the one who's known as the 'Beautiful Beast of House Wisteria?'"

"Wisteria? Are we talking about Juri Wisteria here?"

The people in the plaza, both nobles and commoners, wondered why Juri Wisteria was destroying the communication device known as the 'Translucent Walls' that appeared in the plaza out of nowhere.

They thought the royal guards put the Translucent Walls there because people heard someone say that they'd get to watch the Crown Prince's match if they went to the plaza. The communication devices were really there, but they weren't activated.

But what they saw was Juri Wisteria destroying the Translucent Walls with her sledgehammer.

It was unsightly, but the 'Beautiful Beast of House Wisteria' was really an eye candy.

The young lady was still beautiful, even though she was laughing like a madwoman while casually swinging the heavy sledgehammer around.

"Whoever killed those poor crows must be a brute."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. The poor crows were beheaded by a sharp tool since the cut on the neck was clean."

"Yeah, hunters would usually use guns to catch birds."

"It looks like this was a work of an assassin."

"Assassin? Pfft! Is there an assassin who would bother killing crows?"

Unbeknown to the people of the empire, there was an assassin who would do just that– and he goes by the name 'Xion Redgrave.'

The assassin was Juri Wisteria's partner in wrecking havoc in the Royal Capital.

***

HANNA couldn't enter the Light Temple normally because of the strong barrier that surrounded it.

It was so strong that West, the White Tiger, was kicked out of it.

She really wanted to blow it up, but the Soul Beast told her that Jeanne Audley, one of the Paladins, was taken hostage inside. So even if she received the emperor's permission to destroy the Light Temple, she changed her mind.

[How could I enter the Light Temple…]

"Lady Hanna Quinzel, may I give you a hand?"

Hanna turned around, then she smiled as soon as she saw the familiar face. "Lady Paige Avery! How did you know I'm here?"

Paige Avery smiled, then she put a hand over her chest. "Lewis sent me here to assist you, my lady."

***

NERO groaned as he clutched at his stomach.

[Neoma…]

Since he wasn't injured anywhere, he could only conclude that Neoma was badly injured in the same spot where his stomach hurt the most. He wouldn't have felt the same pain as his twin sister felt if it was only a shallow or light wound.

[That means Neoma is heavily injured…]

"Calyx Dalton, you obnoxious crow," Nero whispered to himself through gritted teeth, then he glared at Zeru, in his human form, who was lying down on his bed lazily. "Let me out."

The ice phoenix created an ice igloo that covered his bed.

He was trapped inside, and the ice was so thick he couldn't see a thing outside. But he could feel and hear William fighting. He just didn't know what kind of beings attacked them.

"No can do, Prince Nero," Zeru said, then he got up to look him straight in the eye. "You are the target of the eyes that attacked the palace. We can't let them see you, so I must hide you until William and Lady Roseheart subdue the enemies."

"This is definitely the work of the crows," he said. "What are they trying to do now?"

"There are eyes around the palace looking for you," Zeru said, then he moved his hand as if he was drawing in the air. As he did, a simple ice replica of the palace appeared. "South told me that their side caught crows with cameras for eyes lurking around the academy." A simple ice replica of the academy appeared this time. After that, he created a simple ice replica of the plaza in the Royal Capital. "I heard from the emperor's Soul Beasts that they received another report that said there were crows at the Royal Capital, too. But they were already taken care of, along with the Translucent Walls that appeared out of nowhere." The Soul Beast pointed at the mini ice statues floating in front of him. "Do you see the big picture, Prince Nero?"

A god who wanted to see him.

Crows with cameras for eyes.

Translucent Walls– devices that showed the things recorded by the cameras attached to them.

"They wanted to show the empire that there are two Crown Princes in different locations at the same time," he said, clenching his fists tight. "They wanted to reveal the royal secret."

Those damned crows.

"The crows and the cameras are easy to handle, but the god that appeared here…" Nero trailed off. "Will Mother be alright alone?"

Zeru laughed as if he found his question funny. "Prince Nero, your mother is Mona Roseheart," he reminded him casually. "THE Mona Roseheart."

***

"THEY SAID only a god can fight another god," Mona whispered to herself, smiling. She was standing on the roof of the highest tower in the Royal Palace while looking at the pair of gigantic red eyes above her. "I don't like the fact that you're making me look up at you while you're looking down at me."

She pointed the end of her staff in the space between the two colossal red orbs.

Just like that, the enormous pair of red eyes fell down to the ground fast– creating an enormous crater as a result.

Now it was her turn to look down at the unnamed god.

"It's true that only a god can fight another god," Mona said, then she raised her hand to gently pet the huge hand of the goddess beside her. "Luckily, I have the ability to borrow the power of gods."

***

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