I open my eyes and my lips part as I take in the new environment we are. Closing my eyes again and breath in the smell of Orchids, Amazon water, lively and dirty. I'm pretty sure the climate here is that of a Tropical Forest.

My eyes snaps open. "Where are we?" I ask Damian, who doesn't seem taken by the environment, probably because this isn't his first time here.

"We are on an Island," I know that fact. I can hear the sound of water all around us.

"Welcome to Inaral, Camille." His tone doesn't give me the warm welcome I deserve.

Inaral? I'm pretty sure I have hear that name before. "The birth place of the Inaral Warmad technique," He adds. He should have started his conversation with that. I remember our first conversation was about the way I was using the wooden sword, he made mention of a technique and it's good to know I'm at the birth place.

"Exactly where I need to be." I mutter. Not sure why I said that, I need some peace and quiet, but I don't think this is the place to get it. I haven't seen the place, so I'm not sure.

"Come on, let's go," Damian says in haste. What is his problem? I should be the one hostile to him because he kept a life changing secret from me. And speaking of secrets, there seems to be a huge one between him and Roman, and I'm curious about it.

"What happened between you and Roman?" I ask out of the blue as we walk through the tall trees. I've never seen or been to an island, so I try to keep calm of the scary shit as we walk into it. I don't know anything about this place and it's compels me to keep my eyes and ears open.

"I don't know what you are talking about. There's nothing going on between me and anyone." He lies and the fact that he used 'anyone' instead of Roman just confirms it. He walks past me.

I groan and increase my pace, trying to keep with him. Damn! He walks really fast. When I reach him, I place my hand on his shoulder to stop him from walking. Instead of just stopping like a normal human, he takes my hand and twisting it, my body automatically turns as he places my twisted hand behind me, causing my backpack to fall on the swampy ground.

I scream in pain and slap his leg in submission. "What the hell?" I yell at him.

I can feel his breath on me. "I remember telling you that I hate to be touched. You don't touch me unless I tell you to." He whispers into my ear and what surprise me is the calm intensity he used. How can he be hurting me and be so calm and collected about it.

"You've made your point, now let me go!" I snap and he removes my hand, pushing me forward in the process. His grip on my wrists is not hard enough to bruise but it fucking hurts.

"I can't believe you just did that, you hurt me." I say in a broken tone, I can feel tears clouding my eyes. He's an asshole but I'm crushing on the asshole. I thought maybe he'd feel something but I was wrong. It's like I have feeling for an empty shell void of emotions. He did the same thing at the mansion when I touch him but I won't have it anymore.

"I didn't say anything the last time you did it because I thought I deserved it. You don't like to be touched and I crossed my boundaries. What you just did now is fucking bullshit? You can't just manhandle me just to prove a point. Do that again and you'll be sorry." I threaten.

His face remains stoic like what I said didn't have any effect on him. "I expected you to defend yourself." He replies.

I scoff. "I don't have to. You just showed me what a sadistic monster you are. When I asked you to bring me here, I thought you knew what I was going through but ha–" He interrupts my words, he never does that. He always let me finish before he says whatever it is he wants to say.

"Just because every one else feels sorry for you doesn't mean I should. You don't need my sympathy."

My mouth drops open at his harsh words. Ouch. Those really hurt. How the fuck did I miss the signs? I mean, what pulled me to him in this first place? What did I ever see in him? Was I blind? Am I blind?

I shake my head in disbelief. "That doesn't justify what you just did. How silly of me." I mutter and pick up my backpack. "Let me make one thing clear, Damian, I am not someone you can use as your emotional, physical, whatever punching bag. Sort your shit. Get me into the island and that will be our parting gift." I say in a thick and serious tone.

"No more of that," An unfamiliar voice says above us. Wait, did I say above?

I look up but find nothing but birds flying. Great! Now we are in an invisible territory.

Out of nowhere, a man appears in front of us, I yelp as I see the man. "Where did you come from?" I ask the man.

He's an old man in he's in his mid sixties. He is dressed in a white yukata and his silver hair is packed in a ponytail. "The nature takes me anywhere I want to go." He answers with a smile.

That's new.

"Awesome, who are you?"

"My name is Yuri Nakamura," He introduces himself.

"Cool name, I'm Cami," I extend my hand.

He smiles and look down at my hand, stares at it for a while. I clear my throat and keep my hands to myself.

"You can't call me by my name, El-Sah-El." He replies.

El-Sah-El? He just called me princess in Dihipian language.

I roll my eyes. "Why? And you know who I am?" I'm surprised he does, most people just think I'm crazy at first sight.

"I know a lot of things and I can do a lot of things too. You can't call me by my name because you have to earn it," He tells me.

"By."

"Defeating me in fair fight." He says.

I chuckle. "I can't. Are you being serious?"

"Dead!"

Good luck with that. "I can't even beat a toddler not to talk of a grown adult with years of experience," I remind him. I can't even hold a sword properly not to talk of using it to fight.

He takes a step towards me and stares at me, it looks like he's staring deep into my soul. "You are afraid of losing. You will lose El-Sah-El, and then you use the fear to conquer the fear," He advise.

"Great pep talk, but I don't know what that means," I inform him.

He smirks. "You will. Come on, let me show you around."

I sigh and follow him like a lost puppy as I ignore Damian's huff. Still trying to get over what he just did. I don't understand why he keeps acting like an uptight son of a bitch with a stick up his ass. He's Dean's son and the headmaster never showed any sign of being a jerk.

"Here in Inaral we-" I interrupt the old man since I'm not allowed to say his real name, I might as well call him the old man.

"Why is this place called INARAL?" I ask. "It's clearly a jungle island." I add.

He stops and turns around to face me, and I can tell from his furrowed brow that he is not impressed by my outspoken behavior. He intertwines his fingers behind him and frowns. "It is The WarMad Island, we just call it Inaral," He corrects in a condescending tone and I know better than to say anything.

I nod and hum.

"Lesson one; Here on the island our first priority is to be disciplined and learn something meaningful, you have so much to learn, El-Sah-El," He explains.

I nod my head and salute him in a mocking way. "Flattery won't get you anyway, El-Sah-El," He replies.

"My name is Cami," I correct him. I just found out that I am the Princess of a whole planet... Wait realm. The last thing I need is someone addressing me as a title that I'm not worthy of.

"You are El-Sah-El Di Hipsodat, daughter of El-Noh-El Di Hipsodat, the granddaughter of El Di Hipsodat, don't insult your family's name by using your mortal name," He warns.

Gosh! I have so much to learn about my home realm. Apart from El-Sah-El, I have no idea what the rest of what he said means but I can take a wild guess. The headmaster told me the royals are addressed by their title rather than their given name like how his real DiHipian name is Dren. Eric's is El-Rik-El or Ulrik and the queen is Lurytendra but no one is allowed to call her that, so she goes by El-Laura-El. Too much El, it's hard to keep up.

"Lesson two?" I press.

"Never interrupt me when I'm speaking, I trained your father and most of the current Queen's guard." He boast in confidence.

I do not care.

"Mind your thoughts girl, the mind is a very powerful weapon. Come on." He turns away from me and continue walking, I realize that am the only one standing and Damian is nowhere to be found.

"Great. When I asked Damian that I needed space and time to heal and think at the same time, this wasn't what I expected," I voice out as I follow behind the old man.

"He knows this is exactly what you need, and the boy cares for you," He comments and keeps walking.

I roll my eyes and snort. "He doesn't care for me." If anything he hates me, he's just with me because of his protective sense. I still don't know his importance in my life except that he is the headmaster's son. "He almost pulled my arm out earlier." I remind him or tell him since I'm not sure if he saw.

"Almost is the key word. He cares for you, he just has a different way of showing it," He replies.

If Damian's way of showing me he cares is pulling out my arm, I think am good.

We walk pass some guys in black and white ninja attire, they bow to the old man and carry on with their walk.

I can hear the slash of swords as we approach. Not far from us is a woman dressed in a black leotard, her short hair is packed in a bun and I can tell she is a badass as we walk pass more than twenty people dressed in white martial arts attire and black belt. She is coaching them.

"Be mindful of your strikes, only a fool will think anger will help. Extend your arm and fight with all your will, let's your body connect with the blade," She says in a cool tone. That's badass.

He stops, which makes me stop. I stand beside him. Seeing the people swinging their swords is actually inspiring.

"That is Lady Treta."

Treta?

"Seriously?" These people and weird names.

He ignores me and proceed with what he has to say. "A martial arts grandmaster and one of the most skilled combatant. She is one of the most dangerous woman on earth. She is known to have mastered numerous martial arts." He explains.

I don't understand why he keeps using past tense with her skills.

"Hence her name trouble." Takes a lot of thoughts to finally figure out the true meaning of her name.

"How–" Now I surprised Sensei.

"I know my German," I wink when he tilts his head slightly to my side.

Lady Treta says something in some language and the students stop the training, they bow and leave. Lady Treta turns towards us. She definitely doesn't walk like a swordswoman.

"Master Yu." She bows to Sensei when she reaches our side.

"Lady Treta," He acknowledges and she raises her head, tilting her head to glares at me. "This is Camille Stark, an old friend sent her," He says.

I'm just surprised he introduced me as Camille Stark instead of El-Sah-El.

Lady Treta nods without taking her eyes off me. "She can't join my class but I can take her separately." She offers, which I find it weird. She doesn't look like she likes me very much.

"No need for that Treta. I am training her myself, she's a special one. I'm only telling you about her since you'll be seeing her around," He says.

I sigh in relief. Thank God.

She bows her head and turn away from us.

"Interesting," I whisper.

"I'm sure you are tired. Come, let me show you where you'll be sleeping."

****

My mouth drops open at the sight in front of me, my supposed bedroom. The place looks like it was physically dragged from a German prison in 1945, not only is it too big for only me, it doesn't look safe.

The paint on the wall are almost gone from peeling as a result from regular rainfall and the small bed that can't fit my body if I turn, which I do a lot. The bed is on the floor at the corner of the room, there is a small wooden drawer at the end of the room and a door that leads to the bathroom, no dresser or rack.

How the hell am I supposed to survive in this place?

There are no blinds or windows or anything covering the space.

I turn to him. "Do have any other rooms? Ones are that are preferably better than this."

"No. You came here to learn, start by adapting to your environment. Waking hour is five a.m, don't be late. I'll come get you if you are. I'll give you time to get more familiar with your new sleeping quarter." With that he walks away leaving me with this.

I sigh and look around, I jump in fright when I see a rat run pass me. That's a first. I can do this. I can't do this. I think as I raise my head and notice cobweb.

I scream as loud as I can.

Ohhh fuck my life.