Chapter 33

"Are you sure about this, my lady?" Lady Yeona's maid asked as she took a cautious glance around.

"Why would I hesitate? A lowly person like this girl should be taught a lesson or two. I don't want someone who doesn't recognize the future empress"

Nash grinned. She was looking down with her hair blocking her face so the guards couldn't see her grin.

'As if I let you be my brother's wife,'

"What should we do to this person, my lady?" One of Lady Yeona's guards asked.

"Just teach her a lesson. Beat her up, but not her face, it will make me a bad person once her face is all battered up."

Two guards are holding Nash's arms while two more knights beat her mercilessly. Nash let them beat her up.

"You're a tough one, aren't you?" Nash coughed blood after a guard murmured and punched her stomach hard.

After a few kicks and strikes, the lady told her knights, "That's enough. We're already wasting time here. I have an appointment with Princess Celeste later, so I need to get ready."

Nash was pushed by the guards, leaving her exhausted.

"That shit hurts!" She murmured this as she struggled to stand, clutching her stomach.

"Why didn't you fight back!? Raum asked, frustrated.

"I was about to when I heard that she was a candidate for my brother's fiancé."

She smirked.

"Your body will mend quickly, so don't worry."

"I know,"

Nash went to Barcley's diner as if nothing happened.

"I'm back."

"Sister!" The children ran up to her and hugged her tightly.

Nash flinched from the pain when the kids hugged her stomach tightly, but she managed to keep a smile on her face.

"See? They didn't do anything to me," she smirked, "I'm a cool sister, you know."

"I... I was so scared" Trish whispered. Nash stroked her hair.

"You don't have to, I assure you I'm fine," She noticed the Duke frowning as she peeked over the counter.

'Oh shit,' Nash cursed in her mind.

"Continue your lunch I'll just talk to uncle,"

They went over to the kitchen, and as soon as she saw a chair, she sat down.

"The kids told me what happened. You know the attitudes of nobles like that, right?! Why do you have to argue with them!?" To avoid being heard outside, he shouted quietly.

"Bret almost got crashed, what do they expect me to do? Let Bret get squashed?" She sighed.

"Who is the lady?"

"Lady Yeona of Titania. I heard she was a candidate for my brother's fiance so I let her beat me up."

"They beat you!?"

She rolled up her sleeves and showed her bruises to the duke.

"You... why are you always letting others trample you!?"

"Why not? It can be an advantage to me in the future. There will be a day when all those shitty nobles looked at me as someone higher and honorable," She wickedly smiled.

'I thought this attitude of hers was gone,' Duke Barcley thought.

Nash was a kid who always smiled and just let things happen, but behind that smile is her evil self who silently made others suffer. She finally stopped being that wicked person after her grandparents left the Imperial Palace when she was nine years old.

"Go upstairs and tend your wounds; Katherine's cabinet is stocked with bandages. I didn't understand at first when she instructed me to get a lot of bandages for you, but now that I see it, you really need a lot."

Nash chuckled as she rose to her feet. "Thank you for looking after the kids while I'm away."

She walked out of the kitchen and told the kids she was going upstairs to fetch something.

"Well that really is a lot," she said as she looked at Katherine's cabinet of first aids.

She examined herself in the mirror and placed bandages around her entire body.

She packed a few bandages and walked down to meet the kids after she finished. "Are you finished?"

"Yes!" They all answered.

Nash hid a few silver coins beneath their plates as payment for the duke. She is well aware that the duke will not allow her to pay for the children's meals.

She knelt in front of the children before entering the alley. "Promise me you'll never say anything about what happened before, because if you do, I'll become incredibly angry and toss you in the river, okay?"

"Yes, sister," she patted their heads and escorted the kids to their home.

"You're back?" She turned around and saw Kane behind her as she walked toward their inn.

"Obviously," she answered. "Where did you go?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Tsk. I didn't even do anything and yet he's so mad at me," she said and walked faster than him.

Kane glanced at Nash as she walked away from him.

"Because you're an idiot." He responded even if Nash couldn't hear him. "Allowing yourself to be beaten up by a noble?"

From beginning to end, he witnessed what happened to Nash.

He was in town to purchase a string for his arrow. He witnessed Nash being dragged and beaten severely.

When he opened the inn's door, he noticed everyone laughing, with Nash in the center.

"Just how intense your training was to the point that you look like a door rug?" Aidan asked, laughing.

Nash's clothes were filthy, the result of both training and the guard's kicks.

Kane looked at him with his stern face. Aidan noticed it and looked back at Kane.

"What?" Aidan asked, still with the smile from laughing.

Kane ignored him and went straight to his room to fix his arrow.

"Have you eaten?" Aeries asked while eating bread. Nash shook her head, "There's still some food left, you can eat it."

"Thank you,"

While Nash was eating, Jaxael sat in front of her.

"Did you sleep well?" Nash asked.

"I did."

Nash grinned. "That's good. You should take your time sleeping. We won't have any mission for two weeks so just rest and take back those sleepless nights."

"What time will you wake up tomorrow?"

"We won't go. The brats couldn't take it and gave up."

"How about you?"

"I could just train in my room or outside, depending on where I want to."

"Tell me when,"

"Why? Cause leader asked you to?" she teased.

Jaxael averted his gaze a little and placed his chin on the palm of his hand.

"All right, I'll tell you. Maybe next week if it doesn't snow. If it snows then I'll just stay at home."

Jaxael didn't answer back and just left the table leaving Nash. As soon as Jaxael left, Nash held his stomach and tried to press it.

It made her flinch.

'They kicked me in the stomach harder than they punched me.'

After she finished, she prepared to take a hot bath to help her relax.

After taking a bath she started to wrap bandages around her body once again.

She heard a fast knock and the door opened.

"Nash we'll head out..." his voice goes loud to soft.

Nash quickly pulled down her shirt.

"Can't you knock?" Nash asked, irritated, 'I have to wrap it once again, gosh! This is frustrating.'

"I did... what's with those bandages?" Aidan asked, concerned.

"My body ached, so I wrapped to try to alleviate the pain," she explained.

"I see..." he said, still suspicious. "Then we'll go out now. Jax and Kane will accompany you, so you will never be alone at home again."

"Okay, safe travels."

Aidan closed the door and met the others.

"I thought she'd come with us," Idris grumbled.

"She said her body aches so she doesn't want to come," Aidan said.

They went to a pub not too far from their place.

"Yjhan! I see that you're back again!" Greg, the owner of the pub, welcomes them and escorts them to a table.

"So how much would you gamble today?" Greg smirked.

They went to a pub to gamble.

...

Nash went out of her room and went downstairs. She noticed that no one was present. She sat on the couch, reading a book she found.

"I thought you came with them," Jaxael said as soon as he saw Nash sitting on the couch.

"Nah... They're going to gamble again," she said, uninterested.

We're supposed to be moving to a different inn, but because of that gamble our savings only decrease and are only suitable for our daily food and necessities.

She flipped to the next page and asked, "How about you?"

"Not interested"

"Why? Are the ladies encircling you like what Aidan said before?" She grinned, without looking at him and focused on the book she's reading.

"It's not that," Jaxael countered.

"If that's what you say" she said, still grinning.

Jaxael frowned and let her think things.