Chloe walked in front of Trinity, not looking away from forward.

“How do you know the directions to the royals’ bedrooms?” Trinity asked him.

“One of the knights biggest duties is to protect the royals, so we have to memorize the map of the whole castle as fast as possible so they don't get lost.” they answered back.

“The whole thing? All of its floors and hallways, everything?”

“Yes. We have a week or more to memorize it. We already know the basics, the royals bedroom being one of them.”

“Isn't that harsh?”

“Harsh? We’re already learning things with sharp swords, others with arrows. But I'm obviously amazing at it, I'm a pure Nakano.”

“You know, you don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself just because of your bloodline.”

“I'm not, I'm doing this because I want to, okay?”

“Well, I'm worried about you and your mental health!” Trinity said a bit too loud.

“I know that, and I already told you, I'm doing great! But some of the other people are amazing! You should see Eldritch Charneldevil, he's awesome! He took out 4 mannequins in one go! Despite that, he's not as good as me! I got 6 mannequins already!”

“I don't think that’s healthy, Chloe. You shouldn't just be training nonstop, I heard that you’ll get better if you sleep 7-9 hours and eat 3 meals a day. Once again, don't put all this pointless pressure on yourself just because of your ancestors.”

They were walking 10x faster than before. Chloe obviously wanted this to end, and by now they were a few seconds away from the bedroom doors, which were almost in front of them.

“Well, this was a nice conversation. I guess I'll see you soon, just take a right and the bedrooms are right there.”

“Chloe, don't avoid this!”

But Chloe had already ran off. Trinity went inside, to where Apurva and Arkanos were there changing.

“Oh hey Trinity! The overlords allowed us to change into normal clothes, where have you been?” Apurva asked her.

“The stupid teleportation circle sent me to another place, i needed a knights help to get here.”

“We were teleported somewhere else too, but the overlords found us quickly, but they couldn't find you.” Arkanos said. “Can you take this off? I can't reach the strings.” He asked Luiz, who was a few feet away. The second she took it off, he took a deep breath in and out and said, “Finally, I can breathe! That corset was about to break my ribs!”

“I know! What’s the point of making them so tight?” Apurva said, taking hers off and taking deep breaths. “Are the overlords trying to suffocate us? Trinity, won't you take off yours?”

Trinity took hers off, not realizing how tight it was. She took a few deep breaths and sat on her bed.

“Is something wrong, Trinity?” Arkanos asked.

“My stupid friend was avoiding me because i told them they shouldnt overwork themselves.”

“You mean the Nakano the overlords mentioned when they checked our bloodlines?” Apurva said. “Maybe they just don't wanna face reality, or they actually don't feel like they’re overworking themselves, and they don't want to hear you talk.”

“I know that she doesn't want to hear me talk! But why?”

“Once again, they probably don't want to face reality, they want to be good at what they are doing and don't want anyone getting in their way.” Arkanos said.

“But i'm her frien-”

“Stop with the buts.” Apurva said in a serious tone that scared both Trinity and Arkanos. “She just doesn't want to hear your bullshit! I know you're anxious, but you shouldn't be in every aspect of her life! If you're really that anxious, go see Grigor Segreti. They’re one of the best herbalists in the castle, she helped a lot with how scared I was when I got lost in the castle. Ask one of the knights to take you there.”

By now, Apura and Arkanos had been done changing and were in casual clothes.

“Fine, I'll go.” Trinity said

“Change first.” Arkanos said.

Trinity changed into a simpler dress and left the room. She went up to the nearest knight and asked, “Do you know where Grigor Segreti is?”

The knight nodded and walked away, with a hand gesture that told Trinity to follow them.

“So, who are you?” Trinity asked them.

“Eldritch Charneldevil. You’re Royal Aohina, aren't you?”

“Yeah, I am. Chloe told me about you. Didn't you knock down 4 mannequins in one go?”

“Yeah, I did. So, why are you going to visit Lady Grigor?”

“The other royals said I should go visit them.” she said in a miserable tone.

Eldritch didn't say anything, making Trinity assume he did not know how to respond. Soon they were at a giant gate. Eldritch put a finger and did a 10 second pattern with it on the door. It opened, and there was a giant room with different smells and very tall walls. There were at least 6 shelves with giant glass jars filled with different herbs. On one of them were smaller jars with a mixture of the herbs with some sort of liquid mixed in them. A person, who was wearing a dark green hijab with matching eyes and was wearing a long black dress with a ruffled top and angel sleeves that stopped at slightly above the ankles, was sitting near them with a silver bowl in front of them. The gates closed, Eldritch behind them.

“Hi, your Lady Grigor, aren’t you?” Trinity said after walking up to her.

The lady turned around and Trinity got a better look at her eyes, which looked like one of the dried herbs in the jars.

“Yes, I am. You must be Royal Aohina aren't you, young lady?”

“I am.” Trinity said, taking an awkward courtesy. “One of the other royals said I should come here because I had a problem with stress.”

“Well, I understand why you're stressed, almost every royal had to come to an herbalist to help with stress, don't worry, it's completely normal to have stress, especially when you're one of the new royals!”

They then took a jar from the bottom shelf, which was a colored liquid that Trinity didn't know what it was.

“Ma’am? What is that?” she asked

“Dried lavender, valerian root, passionflower, dried orange peel, and dried ginger mixed with a special liquid.” she answered. They poured some of it into an empty silver bowl, then took a stick and spun it around the border of the bowl, making it shake and change color.

“This makes the magic happen, all you have to do is put it in hot or cold tea or sparkling water, and then drink it.”

“EIther one is fine.”

Grigor then poured the colored liquid into a cup of sparkling water, making it change colors once again.

“Just a warning, it doesn't taste all that well.”

Trinity took a few sips of it. It was strong and quite bitter, but she managed to swallow it, coughing after it.

“Don't worry, it's normal to cough after drinking it. You can now go back to the royals bedroom, you're allowed to sleep, it can help make it work better. I suppose you’ve had a long day.”

“Yeah I have. Thank you, I guess.” Trinity said to Grigor, who gave her a smile.

“You're welcome, I'm available anytime.”

Eldritch was waiting outside for her. “I knew you would need the way back, so I stayed outside.

“Yeah I do.” she responded. “Chloe told me that she and the other knights have to memorize the whole blueprint of the castle. How do you memorize it so quickly, along with the passwords?”

“Different knights memorize different parts of the castle, it was a coincidence that I was the closest person to you when you needed Lady Grigor and I knew where she was, along with the password.”

“Thank you. I have one last question and I really need it answered.”

Eldritch suddenly looked scared and said, “Well, that's going to have to wait. Take two rights, then three lefts, then one last right, and you will be there.”

“Get back here you asshole!” Trinity called, but Eldritch was gone.

All she wanted to do was ask him about Chloe, and if they were hiding something from her. She tried to ignore the feeling and follow Eldritch’s directions, but on the 2nd left she was lost. There were 4 lefts on one side of the hallway, and she didn't know which one it was. Suddenly, on the other side of the hallway, a light came through the window of the door. Trinity looked inside and saw a man, who had dark gray hair with lines of white in it, tan skin, and black eyes, hover his hands over what looked like a giant snow globe, but instead of the base snow globes had, it looked like the ball was sitting on a giant candlestick to stay in place. Trinity could see the man's ring, which was a creamy white that looked so much brighter than everything else in the room.

Trinity watched in amazement as the man, who she could tell was a sorcerer by his robe, held his hands over the ball and muttered something, making the white stuff inside the ball slowly move up and glow. Soon the ball itself started to levitate and glow. Soon it was so bright Trinity had to squint her eyes so she wouldn't be blinded. Even though she had to look away, the sorcerer didn't take his eyes off the ball, but soon he let go, and took deep breaths in exhaustion. He soon noticed that Trinity was watching him and went to the door, and opened it.

“You must be Royal Aohina.” he said to her, taking a deep bow the way Asteria did.

“Yes I am.” she said back to him, taking a courtesy.

“My name is Luxei Shrochen. I saw that you were watching me do a Spiraluxfuga spell on the orbilla.”

“That's what those are?”

“Yes, I can tell you are quite fascinated by it.”

“Yeah, it's… cool.” She walked inside the room, and went over to the orbilla.

“You can touch it, but it feels just like any other glass ball. Just don't damage it, they are very rare.” Luxei spoke in a deep and serious voice that made Trinity want to always follow his directions. He could tell her to jump off a cliff and she would.

She put her fingertips on the orbilla, and found out they were right. It felt like a normal glass ball, with nothing special about it.

“Doesn't the selection happen every 50 years? Why were you and Lady Asteria here before yesterday?” she asked after realizing he was there before yesterday’s selection.

“Sometimes when a person is very skilled, they are taken away to serve the overlords and the castle.” they replied.

“Taken away? From their hometowns, just because they are skilled?”

“Yes. It is sad, but we can't do anything about it.”

Trinity took her fingertips off of the glass. She felt bad for him and Asteria, who were taken away just because they were good at what they did.

“Is there anything you need, Royal Aohina?”

“Well, I need to get back to the royal's bedroom.” she told him.

“Finally, I can use it. It's been years since.” he muttered to himself.

They walked over to a teleportation circle, and tapped a spot on the border with a stick, making it turn to the same color as the floor, but with a faint circle. He then tapped the border of the circle in different places, making the inside of it change color.

“This will take you to the royal’s bedroom. I swear on Hefin, it is not broken, I've been practicing ever since I've been here, you will be able to get there.”

“Thank you very much, Sir Luxei.” Trinity said. She stepped on the circle, feeling the different air temperatures blowing in different directions, and the blinding white light. The last thing she saw was him waving to her.