Royal Secret: I'm a Princess!

LEOFLOR ISLAND.

It was said to be the home of Kingston– the White Lion.

Thus, it made sense that the Lion Tribe lived in the Lawless Jungle. However…

"I thought the Lion Tribe has already perished the moment the Lawless Jungle has become uninhabitable," Neoma said, confused. "But you're telling me that the people of the Lion Tribe kidnapped Xion?"

"And Gin," Trevor added. "I wasn't able to protect them since I was literally running out of breath. My plan was to quickly return to the Devil's lair to get more masks, then come back here to rescue the two."

Xion wouldn't enter the Lawless Jungle for nothing.

[I asked him to search for Regina. If my son entered the Lawless Jungle, then it only means that Regina is there.]

"Moon Princess."

"Shh," she said, putting a finger on her nose while hushing the demon boy. "I'm connecting the dots, so don't disturb me."

Trevor acted like he was zipping his mouth with his hand.

[Good.]

Now that her peace and quiet had returned, her big brain worked its magic again.

[Obviously, Kingston was captured by Calyx Dalton and the crows. And Regina is residing in the Lawless Jungle, the home of the White Lion and the Lion Tribe. The Lion Tribe was presumed to have been annihilated already, but it turns out that there are survivors.]

She walked towards the window and opened it.

The picture of the beautiful sunset sky was ruined by the Darkness that covered the entire Lawless Jungle. From where she stood, the view of the jungle embraced by a thick black smoke was visible.

[If Regina and the other crows are there with the Lion Tribe, then…]

"They must be using the survivors of the Lion Tribe to threaten Kingston," she mumbled to herself. "Hence, the White Lion has no choice but to accept Calyx Dalton as his new master."

She finally connected the dots.

[Grandma Roxana asked me to free the White Lion from Calyx Dalton's grasp. Regina and the crows must be holding the Lion Tribe as hostage. So, I need to free the survivors.]

If there was no hostage, maybe Kingston would be able to fight back then.

But she wasn't that arrogant to think that she had figured out everything now.

[Aside from the survivors of the Lion Tribe being held as hostages, the crows must have something else in their hands that they're using to threaten Kingston.]

Then, if that was the case…

She turned around and faced Trevor again, then she snapped her fingers– breaking the barrier that she made, freeing the demon boy. "We rented the entire floor, so choose any room you want."

"Are you asking me to leave now?"

"Obviously."

"Are you not wondering why I'm here?"

"Why would I ask the obvious?"

"Huh?"

"You're here to kidnap me, aren't you?"

Trevor's eyes went wide in shock. "How did you know that, my Moon Princess?"

"Well, I'm not dumb," she said, shrugging. "Do you think I wouldn't notice that you're waiting for me to drop my guard?"

The demon boy flinched.

"Moreover, there's nothing on this island that you'd want more than you want me."

This time, Trevor gave her a slow round of applause. "My Moon Princess, once again, I'm touched to know that you realize how big my love for you is–"

"I'm not talking about your feelings," she said, cutting him off. "I'm talking about the Devil's goal. He already revealed his desire to take me away from this world in the past. The fact that he sent you here only means that he believes it's the right time to snatch me away from here and send me to wherever it is that the gods' hands can't reach."

The demon boy looked at her with sparkling eyes.

"I've always known that the Devil has been keeping an eye on my movements all this time," she continued. "When he realized that I'm headed to the Lawless Jungle, he probably thought that it was the perfect time to kidnap me since I'd lose my divine power here. Right?"

Trevor grinned and shrugged. "No comment."

"Well, there's one thing that the Devil failed to consider."

"And what might it be, my Moon Princess?"

"Losing my divine power won't be a disadvantage to me," she said, twirling happily. "Not when I can freely use Skewer here."

Then she opened her hand and summoned Skewer. As soon as the pink Death Scythe materialized in the air, she grabbed it and made a slashing motion. The blade produced a black aura shaped like a boomerang, and it attacked the demon boy.

Trevor created a red, heart-shaped barrier to block her attack.

Since she didn't have the intent to kill the demon boy, the slashing aura created by Skewer disappeared quickly.

But her aura was still strong enough to break the stupid, heart-shaped barrier.

"Ouch," Trevor complained. He even put a hand over his chest. "You broke my heart again, my Moon Princess."

"Shut up," she said, dropping Skewer. But before the pink Death Scythe hit the floor, it vanished into thin air. "I'm tired, so fuck off already."

The demon boy just laughed at her crude words. "I've really missed you, Princess Neoma."

"Of course, you would," she said as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "I would miss myself too if I were you."

"Has Ruston Stroganoff retrieved his memories already?"

"Why are you suddenly bringing him up?"

"Why are you so protective of that damned royal chef?" the demon boy whined. "He's not a good match for you, Princess Neoma. He already chose the world over you once. What makes you think that he'll choose you this time?"

She let out an exhausted sigh.

Gosh.

[Ruto and I aren't official yet, but there are already a lot of people opposing our relationship. The world is literally against us, huh?]

"Trevor."

"Hmm?"

"The more you and the world tell me that Ruto isn't the right man for me, the more I covet him," Neoma said, her ash gray eyes glowing as she smirked. "Don't forget that I'm Neoma Roseheart de Moonasterio. I always get what I want with my own hands– and that's my law."

That declaration successfully shut Trevor up.

***

"YOUR ROYAL Highness, I've done what you asked me to do."

Neoma, who was sitting on the bed while Juri braided her hair with a towel, smiled at Paige who had just returned to their room. "Good job, Paige."

She bought all the masks that the mysterious old man was selling earlier.

They didn't need it.

In fact, right now, the entire floor of that inn was covered by her barrier. And, inside the barrier, her children could breathe normally without the need to use an oxygen mask. After all, the barrier was filled with her breath.

Hence, the air inside the barrier was safe and clean.

"Distribute the masks to the children and the elderly who need the masks," Neoma said. "And those who deserve it."

The island was known to be home to the most notorious criminals.

However, she noticed that there were a lot of children there. She could tell that most of the kids were born on the island. And there were also some people, especially the elderly, who looked like they only ended up there out of desperation.

She was confident that Paige could tell the innocent people apart from the hardcore criminals on that island.

"Put a spell that will prevent the masks from getting stolen," Neoma added. "The masks are expensive, so people will kill to have them for free. We must protect the people who will receive the masks that we will distribute."

"As you wish, Your Royal Highness."

"Done, Princess Neoma," Juri said after braiding her hair prettily. "What should we do next?"

"We need to wait," Neoma said. "Trevor is already doing what he can to locate Gin and Xion."

She was worried about Xion Redgrave, but she was doing her best to remain calm.

[Haste makes waste, after all.]

Jeno and Greko, on the other hand, were in charge of keeping an eye on Rubin.

To be honest, she wanted their <anno data-annotation-id="80189298-f0f1-d0cd-73cb-a46dc72a729c">maknae</anno> to stay with them. But Greko pouted and insisted on being put in the same job as his Jeno hyung. She didn't have the heart to say no to their youngest, so she gave in.

"Princess Neoma, I thought you made a bet with Rubin Drayton," Juri said carefully. "I don't mean to question your decision to stay put and wait for Rubin Drayton to make his move first. I'm just wondering why Your Royal Highness is waiting instead of moving to find Regina Crowell first."

Ah, right.

She made a "bet" with Rubin earlier.

<"If you find Regina first, I'll let you run away with her. But if I find her first, I'll kill her in front of you.">

Right, that was what she said.

"It's just a bluff, though," Neoma confessed, shrugging. "I scammed Rubin, so he'd be forced to go to where Regina is."

Juri and Paige were confused.

"Rubin lied first," she explained to her daughters. "He said he hasn't confirmed yet whether Regina is still alive or not, but I'm sure they already met. In fact, I can tell that he just came back from the Lawless Jungle."

"Oh?" Paige said, then she asked. "How can Your Royal Highness tell?"

"There are some residue of Darkness left on Rubin," she said. "I tried to purify it, but it didn't work. It wasn't because my purifying power was weak, but it was because it has already been cleansed."

"I see," the mage said, nodding. "That makes sense. The residue doesn't need to be purified anymore since they will disappear on their own."

"Yep, that's right," Neoma agreed with the mage. "Rubin lied to me, so I lied to him, too."

She wanted to say more, but the sudden shift in the air stopped her.

"My Moon Princess," Trevor, who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, greeted her with a serious look on his face. "I've located Gin and Xion Redgrave."

After the demon boy said that, Neoma's communication device– the heart-shaped earring in her right ear– rang and automatically answered the call of the person on the other line.

<"Princess Neoma,"> Jeno greeted her politely. <"Rubin Drayton has left the inn.">

"Good," Neoma said, then she stood up and cracked his knuckles. "It's time to work, children."

***

"PRINCESS NEOMA already entered the Lawless Jungle?" Calyx Dalton, who just woke up, asked while rubbing his eye with his hand. "But why are you asking ME about how to proceed?"

<"The elders put you in charge of making decisions when it comes to Princess Neoma, duh.">

He pouted, then he fully opened his eyes to look at the small crow on his windowsill.

The small crow, just like any of their messenger crow, had a mechanical voice. But the speaker's manner of speech could only belong to one person.

"Regina, why are you always hostile to me?"

<"Because I don't like you.">

"Right," he said, brokenhearted. "You only like Dilan ever since we were kids."

<"I need to like him if I don't want to die.">

[Regina and Dilan have a really twisted relationship.]

<"Hey, I'm really busy right now. Give me your orders before my patience runs out.">

What were they talking about again?

[Ah, what to do with Princess Neoma who finally stepped foot in the Lawless Jungle?">

Hmm.

The royal princess was interesting, but he didn't like the fact that Prince Nero was so obsessed with his twin sister.

[Prince Nero should give me all his love and affection instead~]

"You started a new experiment, didn't you?" Calyx asked, then he yawned before going back to bed. "Just abduct Princess Neoma and use her as a test subject."

***

NOTE: Hi. I posted some Nero-Neoma phone wallpapers on my k/o-fi account that you can download and use. You may visit my page: k o-fi .com/sola_cola (just remove the space). Or simply G*ogle k o-fi sola_cola. You may or may not buy me a coffee (donate). Thank you!

***

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