Chapter 19-The Maid And The Witches of Sapphire Order

After what happened in my room yesterday, I can't sleep properly. Thanks to the jerk, Methusael. Alethea told me that Methusael obtained his title as a god after the goddess of creation, Stacia, selected him as the God of Death when he was six years old and abandoned aging. It is up to him if he will retain his form or not. So, to make the story short, he was the same age as Xavier. So he was referring to my age when I was Serena. Still, he was an old, crazy jerk! Meanwhile, Typhon and Zain are still avoiding me after what happened yesterday. While lying on my bed, an owl was pecking at the window. I opened the window and took the letter out of its letter vessel attached to its body.

My eyes widened when I opened the letter. It was a request for back up in the mission of the Knights under Zain's Thirteenth Regiment in Eblines. Mr. Noah, on the other hand, was Glaustein's Knight Commander, and he was helping Big Brother Rowan to investigate the case of Project Ouroboros. As I read the letter, I bit my thumbnails. Well, things are getting boring here in the palace. I can't ignore this matter. I had already taken a bath earlier, which is a good thing, but it felt awkward because Big Sister Amethyst joined me. I shook my head and focused my attention on the letter.

My mother, Queen Thessaleiah, forbade me to join the Falcon Order again. She got upset when I told her that I wanted to join the Falcon Order. Besides, the Falcon Order's only base is in Glaustein. On the other hand, their counterpart is the Sapphire Order, the group that specializes in seeking the truth. But she forbade me to fight, which I was frowning about. A maid entered the room and pushed a cart that was full of desserts and tea. I have no appetite to eat, but I don't want to waste these foods. Food is life, and ignoring food is like ignoring life. The maid was about to leave when I called her.

"Excuse me, what is your name?" I asked her.

She was a shy type of girl with a thin body. She has freckles on her face, and her brown hair is above her shoulders.

"Your Highness, I'm Jasmine. I was tasked by the Royal Chef to bring these snacks as part of the royal routine," Jasmine said, and she bent down.

I raised my eyebrows and tasted the biscuits. It has an opening in the middle on the top layer but is filled with blueberry fillings. I covered my mouth because it was delicious. I want to share it with the servants because I know the feeling of not eating anything and having to work to survive. Jasmine kept on looking at me. I gently grabbed her hand and gave her a piece of biscuit. Jasmine looked surprised and looked at me.

"It's your reward. And don't you ever return this to me. Food is life. If you refuse to have this food, then you are refusing to live and survive," I said and smiled at her.

Jasmine accepted the food and joined me to finish the snacks. She was crying while eating, and I stood up to wipe her tears. When I wiped her tears, the freckles smudged, and that revealed the true beauty of Jasmine, like a flower blooming in the garden.

I smiled and asked her in a gentle voice,"You're such a beauty, Jasmine. But why are you hiding your true appearance?" Jasmine looked down and played her fingers. She bit her lower lip. I let out a deep sigh and drank my chamomile tea. I poured chamomile tea into her tea cup and gave it to her.

"I will not force you to tell your story. You can tell me when you're ready," I said to Jasmine, and I sat down in my chair.

Jasmine clenched her fist and looked at me. "I'm ready, Your Highness. I know you are the only person who can help our village!" Jasmine said in a voice full of determination.

I put my cup back on the saucer and smiled at Jasmine. "I will help in the scope of my ability. Tell me the details, Jasmine," I uttered.

Jasmine stood up and looked at the window. She released her pocket necklace from under her maid dress. She opened it, and I saw a portrait of a lady and a man on the necklace. She started telling the story about her disguise, "They were my friends. We had lived for the past sixteen years in that village until I decided to leave. Every year, our village celebrates the festivities of Puppet. There was a legend that a certain puppet during ancient times had spread among our village. A beautiful woman carved from a tree of mahogany by a puppeteer. Thanks to the ability of that puppeteer, a normal puppet transformed into a human. It seems taboo, but the puppeteer fell in love with his creation.

I touched my chin and I squinted my eyes. “But still, I couldn’t see the connection between this story and your disguise,” I said.

Jasmine let out a sigh and answered, “Please let me finish, Your Highness. To make a long story short, the puppeteer didn’t have a happy ending with his puppet. The puppeteer died due to old age and left the puppet alone and lonely. Our village creates a festival of puppets to reminisce about the tragic story but also to appease the loneliness of that particular puppet. But that festival became strange two years ago. One by one, the beautiful ladies of our village have disappeared after the festival. Including my friend, Zinnia. I escaped the village in fear that I might be the next to disappeared. I disguised to be ugly so the puppet won't target me.”

So, this is a disappearing case? The fear for her life made Jasmine hide her true beauty. I stood up and I implanted a lie that I could use the void like Typhon. I summoned a void and I entered my hand into it. When I picked up the things I needed for this case, I pulled out my hand and I jumped in excitement. Jasmine was surprised when she saw me using my ability for the first time.

"How I missed using this witch's attire!" I said, as I was screaming in excitement.

"But Your Highness! I thought you were going to order the knights to go to my village to investigate the village,"Jasmine asked me with confusion.

I akimbo'd my left arm and my eyebrows raised at Jasmine's thought. "I may be the second princess, but ordering around like I purchased their souls is not my style. I like going into action!" I said with full confidence. Jasmine was shocked by what she had heard. I may be insane, but I will not be. I undress my dress to wear my witch's attire. I snapped my fingers and she regained her senses. She screamed again when she noticed that I had already changed my clothes without her help.

"By the way, what is the name of your village?" I asked Jasmine.

The moment she said the name of the village, my eyes widened. That is the name of the village that is mentioned in the letter at the back of the messenger animal that pecked at my window earlier.

"What did you say, the village was called Dolika, right?"

Jasmine nodded and pulled out a successful protection charm that I created way back in the academy. "Whatever happens, never remove this, Jasmine. It will protect you from any harm," I said, and I summoned a new void.

Jasmine was trying to stop me from leaving. It's too late to back out now. Now that I have heard the details, I need to go myself to the village to solve the problem. "You may take your leave. And anyway, I'm giving those treats to you and the other servants. If ever they are hunting me, please tell them that I am strolling around the town near the palace. Bye-bye!"

I could hear Jasmine calling me before I disappeared. I know that Zain would be mad if he knew that I was charging in to his regiment's mission. But that lady was tired of waiting. I want to see Jasmine's true beauty as soon as I solve this case. When I got out of the void, I wanted to go back to the palace. I fell out of the void and fell into the hot bath where Zain and the other knights were taking a bath.

"Your Highness!" Zain jumped into the water and carried me out of the bath.

Zain placed me under the tree and crossed his arms. I was coughing due to the water that entered my mouth.

"What are you doing here, Your Highness?" Zain impatiently asked.

"Your owl landed on my window. I am the one who read the letter requesting back up," I explained to Zain.

Zain's eyebrows raised and uttered in a furious tone, "But I didn't write a letter. Besides, this village is not safe! Go back to the palace and don't meddle in the knight's affairs!" I stood up and looked at Zain. I hate his words and his "misogynistic" attitude towards me. Why do men treat women as weaklings?

"Do you think I will let the knights suffer from long-term exhaustion? I know that a lady villager disappeared again, and the villagers had lost faith in you!" I answered Zain in a furious tone. Zain got silent for a while. He put his hands above my shoulders.

"Please, Your Highness. Don't make this situation difficult for me. You are an important person in our empire. Please listen," Zain said.

I looked around and transformed the Metamorphosis into pistols. "Forgive me, Zain. But I didn't come here as the second princess of Eblines. I came here as the witch of the Falcon Order!"

I shoot my pistol at the entity in front of us. It revealed itself and I smirked. "So you are the puppet that I'm aiming for?" The puppet shrieked, and she revealed her claws, made of metal blades. I shot my bullets at the puppet when a wind tornado bashed the puppet to the ground. I looked at the person who let out a wind tornado.

"How dare you meddle in our country's affairs, witch of Glaustein!" A lady with violet hair riding on her broom asked me.

Zain was about to speak when I covered her mouth. "A friend of mine made a request to save her village. I guess messing around with other countries' affairs is my thing. I guess the Eblines witches are not competitive enough to solve a certain problem like this," I said.

The witch got annoyed. She let out a wind tornado with wind blades outside. "How dare you insult the Sapphire Order!" she yelled in anger. I guess she has a bad temper like the fire witch of Glaustein. I thought witches under the wind element were the most calming people, but I guess I was wrong. I transformed the Metamorphosis into a sword and slashed her tornado into half. The gust spread throughout the forest, which made her surprised.

"Impossible!" she shouted.

Zain carried me on his shoulder and whispered, "Please don't provoke her! It will get you deported to Glaustein and banned in Eblines."

If that's the case, then I can return to my normal life, which is fine with me.

"Caela, don't mess with her! She's our Queen's—!" Zain shouted, but I covered his mouth quickly.

"I'm her guest. So, I'm testing how capable the witches are, but I guess they are just mere weaklings," I said.

I'm still upset about why they didn't meddle from the start of the village problem but started meddling when I investigated as the witch of Glaustein? I jumped off of Zain's shoulder and faced the Wind Witch, who was in front of me. I immediately dodged the fireball that came from the other witch.

"So a Fire Witch? This seems interesting," I said.

I stretched myself to warm up. "Time to get serious. Knight Commander Zain Ashford, don't you ever meddle in our fight or else I will give you another concussion!" I said.

Zain frowned. "Zain, don't forget you only have your towel with you. You must wear something," I said. When he realized it, he immediately went back to their tent.

"I guess you're just a blabber mouth," the Fire Witch said.

I laugh so hard that they just look at me. "I guess you are referring to yourself. Shall we start the banquet?"

Their eyes widened when they realized whom they were talking to. "You are that witch! The Blue Rose Witch!" the Fire Witch exclaimed.

There may be a lot of events in the palace, but whatever happens stays confidential to the general public. The only people who know about my identity are Lord Typhon, Prince Sol, the two knight commanders, and palace servants.

"Maybe returning you to Glaustein will lead to our promotion to Class S!" Caela said.

I crossed my arms and made my eyebrows arch. "I thought that the elemental ones are the strongest here? Why are your ranks lower than mine?"

Their faces were surprised when I showed them my Class S plus badge pinned to my dress. Prince Sol gave this to me the day I rose from my coffin. I wonder what Jerk Prince is doing right now? I was about to attack when Ehadris appeared in his adult form.

"Stop this nonsense and leave," Ehadris threatened, but I can't pinpoint who he is talking to.

"Yes! Leave!" Caela yelled.

Ehadris looked at the two witches. "I am talking to you, Caela and Pyria. Don't mess with my wife!" Ehadris said and the two witches were surprised.

"W-Wife?" they both shouted.

"I'm not her wife! He is just an idiot who stole my first kiss yesterday!" I shouted and elbowed his stomach.

Ehadris kneels down and throws up. "What the hell is with your elbow? Is it made of steel?" Ehadris shouted.

"Ehadris, refrain from standing beside Lady Epiphany!" Zain shouted.

Good thing Zain was helping me in hiding my identity. A tension spark between Zain and Ehadris became clear to my mind. I guess having a normal life is not possible for now.