Chapter Forty Seven

"Stop right there!"

I looked behind and was surprised to see that it was Prince Dylan the one that intervened to help me.

"Using magic unnecessarily inside the palace's walls is against the rules. You should be aware of it so far, Erick." Prince Dylan said, approaching us.

"It is this lowly servant's fault! He disrespected me, he should be punished for it!" The royal boy that seemed to be called Erick shouted mad.

Prince Dylan then got between Erick and me, covering me with his left hand.

"This boy is one of my brother's personal servants, and it is up only to him to decide if Alex should or not be punished. So if you insist to harm this boy, I will have to intervene." Prince Dylan said seriously, almost like he was threatening him.

Erick stared furiously at Prince Dylan for a moment almost like he was intending to fight against the prince, but then he clicked his tongue, and the lightning around his hand vanished.

"For now I will let it pass, but warn your brother that if this boy mistreats me again I won't hold myself." Erick said, mad.

Prince Dylan said nothing, he kept staring serious at Erick.

Erick then looked at me one last time, full of contempt in his eyes, and then, without saying anything he left passing through me and Prince Dylan.

I finally felt like I could breathe calmly again, relieved.

"Thank you, Your Highness, you really helped me." I said, grateful.

But then I got tense all over again seeing Prince Dylan's cold eyes staring at me. Just like he did the last time we talked just the two of us when he threatened me.

"You should not put my brother in trouble." He said, mad.

"I-I am sorry, Your Highness." I said, bowing, nervous.

Though I was still facing the floor I could feel Prince Dylan's eyes piercing me.

Then Prince Dylan sighed, and I raised my head, looking at him again, he seemed to have calmed himself.

"Until the ceremony is over I suggest you be careful, Alex. If something happens to you the one that you are actually troubling will be my brother, and he has already enough things to deal with these next few days. So, don't be a burden to him." Prince Dylan said, staring at me, serious.

"...Yes, Your Highness. I will be more careful, I'm sorry." I said, realizing the meaning in his words.

Prince Dylan was staring at me, it seemed like he was still mad, but then he suddenly patted my head, surprising me.

"My brother seems to be really fond of you. I wouldn't like to see how he would be if something happened to you." He said it seemed he was genuinely worried for his brother.

Then he took his hand away from my head and asked, serious. "Don't tell my brother what just happened between you and Erick, do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

***

"What took you so long?"

After my uncomfortable meeting with Prince Dylan and that royal boy Erick, I went direct to Prince Noah's studying room. It seemed like he was in the middle of a break.

"I… Nicholas and I met his family on the way here. Nicholas told me to tell you he will see you later." I said, omitting the actual reason why I was late.

"No, he won't." Prince Noah said, annoyed.

"What do you mean, Your Highness?" I asked, confused.

Prince Noah sighed and said. "He will pass the whole day with his family, don't expect to see him again today."

"I see." I said noticing that Prince Noah was saying this from experience.

Then the studying room door was opened. It was one of his teachers coming back from the break.

"I will take my leave." I whispered to Prince Noah, then I quickly left his side, joining the other maids.

The old teacher holding a big book in his hands asked, calmly. "Are you ready to continue the class, prince?"

***

I felt a bit sad when Prince Noah's teacher ended the class, I was actually enjoying it.

'Wait, since when I became such a nerd?' I asked myself after realizing that I wanted to keep watching the class.

'All those years of just reading and studying indeed changed me, huh.' I thought quite surprised of myself.

"Where are we going, Your Highness?" I asked Prince Noah after noticing that he wasn't going to the dining room.

'He usually goes have lunch after his classes.' I thought.

"To the training ground." Prince Noah said.

"You will have your swordsmanship training today, Your Highness?" I asked.

"No, it will be magic training." He said, serious.

I was surprised.

'I think I've never seen Prince Noah using his magic before.' I thought, excited.

But then my excitement was gone after watching Prince Noah practice his magic in the training ground with his master for a while.

'...It is hot in here isn't it?' I thought, sweating.

Though I and the other maids were meters away from Prince Noah and his master for our safety, it was hard to not feel the heat of Prince Noah's flames.

Watching Prince Noah practicing was more impressive than I thought it would be. The amount of mana he has must be immense. Each time he uses his magic massive flames appear.

Each of his attacks is powerful and destructive, I doubt many things could endure it.

'Isn't it a problem though?' I asked myself noticing what Prince Noah and his master were doing.

Prince Noah seemed tired and each time he used his magic it seemed like he was trying to make it smaller and manage it better.

'Does he lacks control?' I realized.

Noticing how much mana Prince Noah spent so far it's obvious he has way more mana than a normal person, his magic is powerful indeed, but it seems he lacks control of it.

'Well, since Prince Noah has a lot of mana lacking control wouldn't be so much of a problem, but looking at how tired he seems, in a real fight it wouldn't be good for him to quickly spend all his mana and get exhausted just because he lacks control of his magic.' I realized.

'I wish I could help him.' I thought, noticing how much effort Prince Noah was putting into his training.

The first time I used my magic I even fainted exhausted because I didn't know how to control it.

'But with time I started to have more and more control of it, actually, after the first time I used my magic controlling and learning how to use it came naturally to me.' I realized.

'Well, I did ask the angelic lady for me to be good at magic after all…' I thought, feeling a bit guilty seeing how hard it was for Prince Noah.

Trying to distract myself from the guilt I was feeling I started to look around the training ground. Not so far from us there were kids all from different ages training, they were all probably pages.

'Is it Theo?' I asked myself after noticing a familiar red-haired boy between them.

"Mary, I will go see a friend of mine over there I won't take too long." I said, actually using Theo as an excuse to get away a bit from all Prince Noah's flames heat.

"Alright, I will call you whenever Prince Noah's training is over, Alex." Mary said, gently.

"Thanks, Mary." I said, and then I quickly left her side, going after Theo.

I sighed, relieved feeling the fresh wind passing me by. 'So much better.'

My attention then was caught by seeing all the kids training in front of me, watching them closely was actually pretty interesting, I couldn't stop thinking how cool it was.

'I wish I could train too.' I thought, feeling a bit jealous.

Becoming an adventurer is still my biggest dream, learning how to fight is essential to any adventurer that actually wants to come back alive after a mission.

'Though I have my magic to protect myself, learning how to fight would be pretty good too.' I thought.

Then I looked at where Theo was. He was fighting another boy that seemed a bit older than him. Both of them had training wood swords in their hands, and though it was obviously just training, both boys seemed to be fighting seriously giving their all in that fight.

I was impressed by how fast both of them were and how skilled Theo was, fighting someone older and taller than him so well.

Unlike Nicholas and Prince Noah's sword fight before, Theo and this other kid weren't using just their swords to hit each other but also using their body to attack punching, and kicking one another.

They couldn't let their guard down, having to quickly react deciding if they should block, dodge, or even counterblow all that in a matter of seconds.

Theo was faster than the older boy, but the other boy's attacks were way more potent than Theo's. I flinched seeing Theo receiving a hit in the stomach making him give a few steps back, stunned.

'It's over now.' I thought, nervous seeing the older boy running towards Theo to attack him.

But in the last second Theo pulled himself together and dodged his adversary's sword, then quickly counter-attacked punching his opponent's face with his left hand.

The other boy backed off because of the hit, and Theo not giving him any second to recover, quickly hit the other boy several times with his sword, then making the other boy fall with his last attack.

Their duel was over, Theo approached the other boy, offering a hand to help him up.

To my surprise, the other boy held his hand and got up, he had a joyful smile on his face, it seemed like he was complimenting Theo, and he wasn't the only one other kids also seemed excited about Theo's victory. Even one knight, probably one of their masters, was patting him on the back.

Seeing that I realized how much potential Theo had.

'He will become a powerful royal knight one day.' I thought, glad for him.

"Theo!" I shouted, calling him when he was finally alone, probably going to rest.

Theo looked at me surprised. "A-Alex?"

Then he looked behind me, he seemed a bit scared for some reason. I looked behind and the only thing I could see was Prince Noah far away from us still training with his master.

When I turned back to look at Theo I was shocked to see that he was running away from me.

'W-Why is he running away from me?!' I thought, confused.

"Wait, Theo!" I shouted, running after him.

Theo ran inside the palace making me lose him for a moment.

But then when I turned around to follow Theo inside the palace, I shocked myself into someone pretty hard making us both fall.

For a moment I thought it was Theo, but then when I opened my eyes and saw who it was I couldn't believe it.

It was Erick, the royal boy that not so long ago seemed to want to kill me.

'W-What are the chances?!'