Chapter 8

Eva Lemuria-14 years old

Today is my birthday and apparently I now have to be introduced to the people as a member of the royal family. Apparently, this is a regular event that we all have to go through. I don't remember Georges two years ago, but that's probably because every time we saw each other we would either walk the opposite direction or we would start a fight. After our training grounds fight 5 years ago George never went back to the same training grounds and received his own combat teacher. Apparently, his teacher was hired through the adventures guild. I'm a little jealous that he gets to train with an adventurer but Shadow is probably much better. Shadow just can't tell me stories of his work.

I have definitely become much stronger in these five years. About three years ago I finally had enough strength to easily start training with my halberd and now I practically treat it as an extension of my own limbs. I even started carrying it around with me wherever I go. Shadow told me it's a funny sight because even though I can use my halberd its still a little too big for me. Apparently, it's a sight of a small girl walking around with a large deadly weapon resting against her shoulder.

The only sad part is that I'm not allowed to have my halberd with me tonight. Mother says no weapons since it's a peaceful party. I of course plan on keeping my dagger hidden on me just in case. I'll also keep my halberd in a close room where I can grab it quickly if needed. Mother knows that and disapproves but I feel better with it around. I already relented to wearing a dress instead of my usual clothes. I can't help but feel dread for tonight. I only expect the same reaction that usual strangers have to me.

At the very least George won't be here for the party. He went to the academy almost as soon as he turned fifteen. He went to the academy with other nobles from this country and a few from others. I'm sure he's been causing all kinds of problems since he's gotten there. That is because the school also allows gifted commoners in and George has a noble supremest mind because of Roland. I really don't know why Father would allow Roland to continue being his mentor. The academy even hired Roland as a temporary teacher so he can keep training George. When I go there in a year I know that I will have to deal with George because anytime he learns another one of Roland's spells he always becomes overconfident and comes to pick a fight with me. I, of course, don't just sit around all day doing nothing either. I’ve been creating my own spells and even improving my old ones. Our duels always end the same with me punching George in the face.

My reminiscing is interrupted as the door to my room is opened and some familiar faces come in. It's my Mother and Lora that come in with someone else. Mother is looking elegant and as beautiful as usual although I know behind that facade is a very dangerous and scary woman. Then there is Lora who's looking very cute even if she's grown a bit more. She's now eight years old and even though she still likes to playground she calmed down a bit more and has been taking lessons from Mother. I just hope that she doesn't turn into a miniature mother. I don't want my cute little sister being a cute-obsessed mad woman.

“Sweetheart, are you thinking something rude again? It's no good to be mean.” How? I know I kept my face natural, but she can almost always tell. “Anyway, sweetheart today we've brought you your new personal maid. She's been personally trained by me so she can go with you to the academy in a year. Her name is Julie.”

“No Mother that's not a maid, that is Guard 1. What do you mean personally trained? About a year ago she just disappeared and no one told me where she went. Did you kidnap her or something? With that face, I can tell that you did. Look at her she still looks at me like a predator looks at its prey. Have you trained her in this time or just locked her up somewhere and forget? Now both of you are looking away?” What is wrong with these two? There both the most dangerous woman I know and that's only because they do what they want. How will Guard 1 even be a maid? “Wait is Julie a made up name or your actual name?”

“Yes, Princess it is my name at this point in time. Don't worry Princess I am fully prepared to take care of you any way you need. Whether it's cleaning, shopping, hugging, dressing, spying, attending, or anything else you can ask for.” Julie

“There seemed to be some wrong and dangerous things mixed into there. I'm not even sure if that's your own list of things or if its mothers. I know for sure you've thought of doing those things even before mothers supposed maid training.” I'm not sure what to do in this situation. Well, I guess I can go with what I usually do and use my scapegoat. “Ok, do you want a new maid, Lora? Think of her as a gift from me.”

“Hehe, Big Sis you can't regift things like that. Especially in front of the giver and even the gift. Mother taught me this earlier.” Damn mother knows me too well. She predicted I would use Lora to get rid of this problem. Ah, I guess I'm out of options and I've been cornered by Mother. She even has that confident smile on her face.

“Now sweetheart don't be so angry. She will make a perfect maid for you. She already knows all your habits and she will enjoy helping and being around you. She can even start by helping you get dressed. Now, which of the dresses did you pick.” Mother walks to my closet but besides my usual training clothes there is only one dress that will fit me and it's not one of the dresses Mother got for me. “Eva where's all the dresses I got for you? There's only this plain black one.”

“Why mother that's the one that I went and picked out for myself after donating all my other unwanted clothes to the cities orphanage. I feel very proud of this good deed.” Haha, I have definitely won this round. There's no other option and it's too late to go get another dress. Mother also can't complain because I gave to the needy. Now she has a very dangerous aura around her, but I still regret nothing.

“Haaaaa Julie help Eva get dressed. Come on Lora lets go wait by the window.” Mother walks away with a pouting face.

Julie helps me get dressed while taking the opportunity to feel me all over. I can already tell this will be a set precedent. She has a little drool on her mouth. I'm just going to ignore her. The dress really is a good quality design and material. It is pure silk black that has no goofy parts at all. It comfortably hugs my still growing body very comfortably. It has sleeves that end a little before my wrists and goes down just before my feet and have a slit on the side so I can move easily in case I get in a fight. I decided that ill keep my dagger on one of my wrists. In fact, Julie actually put it there before I could do anything myself.

As soon as I was dressed I called mother over and we all headed to the waiting room. Apparently, we all have to wait till we are announced for introductions. While waiting for father finally walks in and it's the first I've seen him in a while. I usually only see him quickly when I need to ask for permission for things or when I destroy something and get reprimanded. He looks very worn out and somewhat exhausted. I don't know if anything has been happening in the kingdom that can make him like this. Even when I walk around the city incognito I haven't heard anything about big events in the kingdom so I'm getting a little worried.

“Eva dear you look so beautiful. You're going to make it hard for me to chase boys away. I'm going to have to get my sword sharpened. Hahahahahaha.” He's laughing about it like it's a joke but everyone here knows he's completely serious. Although it is good to seem him happy with such a rigid appearance.

“Your majesty most of the guest have arrived and it's time to begin.” An attendant comes in to inform father that its time so we all get up and move towards the door. It opens and the attendant announces us. “Introducing His Majesty the third king of the Lemuria kingdom Christen Lemuria, her Majesty Queen Luna Lemuria, Princess Eva Lemuria, and Princess Lora Lemuria.” The room is then filled with applause.

My father starts making a speech about how he's thankful for everyone being here and that he appreciates everyone coming to celebrate my birthday. While my father is talking to everyone I'm observing my surroundings and analyzing everyone's reactions. Most are shocked while a few quickly go to disgust. I'm not surprised by these reactions because it's exactly what I expected. I do also see some men with looks of calculations and lust. I'm glad I learned a long time ago about how to keep a neutral face or my disgust would leak out. It seems some of these people are underestimating me.

I guess it is true that most people don't know that I'm stronger than most in this room and as deadly too. The few that are stronger than me are actually the shadow guard that I recognize in the crowd. They are all just naturally blending in and most nobles don't even notice their existence they're just that unnoticeable. I look at all the disgusting nobles in their pompous outfits and those that are weighed down by the jewelry they wear.

“Sister lets go get some snacks at the table over there, I'm hungry.” Lora comes and grabs my hand to pull me towards the table filled with all the desserts and other goodies. She's always had a serious sweet tooth and no one helps the problem because everyone just gives her candy whenever she's cute. She learned a long time ago that being cute equals being fed candy.

Our little snack time is interrupted by a group of noble kids around my age coming towards us. There are three boys and several girls that are following them with lovestruck eyes. The boys are the ones that I recognize as the ones that were either looking at me with lust or calculative eyes. They actually have the nerve to look over my body blatantly checking me out right in front of me.

“Hello, Princess my name is…”Guy 1

“I'm sorry but does this little boy here think that he has the right to just come up to me and look at my body with lecherous eyes while being followed by love struck noble girls and then just pretend nothing has happened? Then try to begin whatever plan you came up with in your head or that your parents told you to do to come get me to follow along in this little pack of girls?” I ask them these while releasing some of my mana. Because of my opened mana heart, releasing mana has always been easy for me. So putting a little pressure on these people is easy enough.

It seems it's worked better than I thought as they turn pale and start sweating. The girls behind the boys even start backing away from us with a fearful look. This is good because I don't care about peoples looks of disgust or fear, but I will not allow them to underestimate me or my family as if they think we're easy targets.

“Sister, what are you talking about? Didn't these people just come to get snacks too? The snacks are really good you know.” Of course, Lora doesn't know why these guys came over here. She's just been eating snacks with her cheeks filled the max. She looks like a little animal while stuffing her cheeks, but I know that mother will be angry if I let her keep eating only desserts.

“Well, then let's let them take over this dessert table while we go and eat something else. I know let's go look at that table with fruits and vegetables.” Her face scrunches up in displeasure so I guess I have to use that. “I'm sure mother would be happier if you eat those instead of these. I don't know how upset she’ll be if she catches you with these cheeks filled with candy.” I tell her while pinching her cheeks and she gets a look of fear before nodding and following me.

Of course, we naturally ignore the idiot nobles behind us. I ignore them on purpose while Lora just forgets because of the snacks. I look towards Julie and see she's smiling as if enjoying a good show and I can't help but feel annoyed by her. I need to figure out a way I can punish her that won't make this pervert maid happy, but nothing comes to mind at the moment.

The party continues on for a while till I turn my head and spot a girl around my age. She has a weird look on her face. It's something I don't think I've seen before. No, I've seen something similar from Lora before but I'm not sure what it is. I'm so used to the usual looks of disgust and fear that this one is completely foreign. She's been looking at me the same way for a while now and I'm not sure what to think of it. I get positive feelings from it but I can't be sure.

“Princess I can see you are having trouble trying to figure out something about that girl that has been admiring you for a while. Do you need help with something?” Julie

“Admiration? So that's what that is. Why is she looking at me like that? I've done nothing that deserves admiration. This is the first time any of these people have ever seen or met me.”

“Princess maybe you should go talk to her then. Maybe you'll make a friend and then your mother will be happy you talked to someone that you don't cross weapons with. Then you both can wear dresses for your mother. She will be most happy.” Julie says with a smile but I think I understand now what mothers training was. Julie's brainwashing aside I decided I will go and talk to that girl so I start walking towards her. She notices my approach and panics a little she looks around her probably to see if I have another destination, but I head straight for her.

“Hello, I am Eva Lemuria. I was wondering if there is something you needed from me? You have been staring at me for a while and your gaze is definitely different from the others.” I ask with a smile but she seems to just get more nervous.

“I-I am sorry I was um just watching you um earlier when you were um talking to those other nobles. They are known to treat all woman as nothing but tools to be of use to men. They probably thought the same as you but you're too much for them. You're a woman and strong so you are amazing to me since its a first for me. What do you mean I look at you differently? Wouldn't more people look at you like me?” Only for something like that? I decided long ago ill become strong for myself and that's what I've done and will keep doing. I don't see a reason why others don’t do the same. This girl also doesn't seem to have much experience with others if she doesn't notice these looks I receive.

“Everyone else in this room is looking at me with either fear or disgust. They look at me like this because of the color of my eyes and hair. It's because I'm different from you all. It's because people believe I'm a mana mutant and maybe there right. Since you didn't know that, now you do so you can join the other gazes.” I turn around to walk away, but she grabs my sleeve.

“Wait, Princess. If you say you're not a mana mutant then you're not and I think your hair and eyes are really pretty. Ah, I haven't introduced myself. My name is Catherine Mercury Daughter of a Duke of the Mercury dukedom. Please call me Cathy Princess.” She tells me her name with a bright smile and I don't understand. She's either a really kind girl or a really naive girl. I guess I can give her a chance.

“In that case Cathy please call me Eva. I believe we are of the same age and both should call each other as equals.” I tell her with a smile and she blushes while looking away, but peeks at me from the corner of her eye. I hope she doesn't end up like mother and Julie.

“Yes, Princ….Eva. I was wondering if you also plan to go to the academy? With how strong you are you'd do well there.” Cathy

“Yes, I plan on joining the academy in a year. Till then I planned on joining the adventures guild. I need some real-life fighting experience.”

“Oh, that's amazing that you can go do that. You really must be strong then.”

Cathy and I talked for a while and most others left us alone. It's nice to be able to talk to someone and I can feel she's been very sincere the whole time. I know that the background has many plays in politics so I will still be careful around her. I can only hope she will be my first real and sincere friend.

The party ended shortly afterward without any major event. Nobody but those noble boys tried to cause me any problems. Besides my family and Cathy, I didn't even talk to anyone. After the party had ended I went to the side room to grab my halberd and then made my way to my room. I have already said goodnight to my family and now there's only Julie with me. I get to my room and change to my pajamas. As I sit on my bed I look at the problem.

“Julie you may go to your own room now and sleep. No, I worded that wrong. Get out! I'm going to bed now so you're not needed anymore.” This annoying pervert maid.

“Ah very well mistress I shall go to my room, but I shall come to wake you up.” She retreats for now, but I know that's the beginning of my problems. Well, for now, I can only sleep.