Chapter 6

"Father, please don't do this," I can hear my father pleading, but I cannot see him from the inside of the carriage. "If she dies, what will we tell the king."

"If she dies, then she is unworthy to be a member of our family, and we will tell the king she died in a hunting accident," Grandpa coldly replies, climbing into the carriage. He stares at me, looking like he might kill me himself. "You better not mess up today."

We leave my family home when he closes the door, and I quickly get hold of Noah's hand. We are powerless. We cannot run away, and even if we did, we are too young to find work. It will be even worse if we kill or hurt grandpa with the amount of power he holds. I have thought about making sure an accident happens, but I could not bring myself to do it. As much as he deserves it, I just cannot bring myself to hurt him. I do have a backup plan, but that depends on how fast the messenger father sent gets to his destination. One good thing that came out of this is that I have spent more time with my father last night than I have my entire life.

Looking at Noah, I give his hand a reassuring squeeze as I feel him shake. I will protect him. I will make sure he gets out of this alive no matter what. I glance at grandpa, who is still glaring at me and quickly look away. I will not let him have his way.

After about an hour of travelling, we finally stop, and grandpa forces us out of the carriage. We are in the middle of the forest. It is the same forest I go to practice magic, but grandpa must have taken a long way because walking her only takes me twenty minutes tops. But Grandpa does not join us. Instead, he looks out of the carriage and addresses us.

"You home is that way," He points off into the distance. "You are to make your own way home and defend yourself from the monsters living in this forest."

With that, he leaves us and rides away in his carriage. I cannot help but feel relieved that this is his idea of training. I do this all the time, and I know for a fact the monsters in this forest are not dangerous. There are goblins that attack in small groups with clubs and bows, giant wolves that travel in packs, and finally, there are bears. None of them posed a threat to me when I came here to practice magic. Unfortunately, Noah does not realise that as he collapses, looking like he is about to cry.

"Don't worry," I smile as I bend down and put my hand on his shoulder. "I have been here before, and I know how to get home."

"Really?"

"Really," I help him stand and take his hand. "I can even show you a little trick."

"What trick?"

"Just close your eyes," I continue to smile as I picture the look on grandpa's face when we beet him home. Out of all the spells, I know this is the one I wanted to learn the most and a spell I have found very helpful in sneaking out to practice magic. "Open your eyes now."

"How… how are we…." I giggle at the look on his face, and I hope grandpas is just as good. "How are we back already?"

"I told you I would show you a trick," I tell him as I start to lead him inside. "Now, let us go inside and wait for grandpa to get back."

In reality, I teleported us back. The teleportation spell was a pain in the ass to learn but worth it in the end. Even if I did have some embarrassing accidents along the way involving leaving my clothing behind when I teleported. But once I learned the spell, I could do it with ease as long as I knew the location of where I was and where I was going. Of course, there is always the chance of teleporting half my body inside a wall. Still, if I am careful and make sure to teleport only to places I know are empty, I do not see that happening to me any time soon.

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"How did you two get back so soon?" I was right to wait for grandpa to return as his reaction was priceless. Seeing him looking confused with his mouth hanging open almost makes the beating he gave me yesterday worthwhile. "You both should be in the forest crying and waiting for me to come and get you."

"You left them in the forest," My father nearly drops the cup in his hand hearing that.

"Yes," Grandpa nods. "They needed to learn their place and your daughter to not hold back on using her magic."

I struggle to keep a straight face as I watch grandpa struggle to figure out how we beat him back here. I wish camera's existed in this world so I could record this moment for all eternity. I look to Noah and see him suppressing a smile as well.

"How?" Grandpa looks at me. "How did you two get back so fast?"

"We walked back like you told us to," I reply, struggling not to laugh.

"Tell me the truth," Grandpa walks closer to me, but I hold my ground. "You used magic to get back here, right? You must have done something so tell me what you did."

"We just walked," I winch after saying that as grandpa's grip tightens.

"Stop lying and tell me what you did,"

I open my mouth but a maid bursts into the room before I can even say a word.

"Excuse me," The maid quickly bows her head. "I am sorry to interrupt, but the prince has just arrived."

I smile, seeing my backup plan has worked. Last night, I wrote to the prince, and father sent someone on his fastest horse to deliver the letter. I was not sure he would make it, but I am glad he did. Grandpa may have the power to harm me behind the royal families back, but even he cannot do anything right in front of them.

"Your highness, what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?" Grandpa quickly straightens himself up and release me.

"I have heard that I got a future brother-in-law and wanted to come and meet him," The prince replied.

"Meet me…" Noah does not seem to believe that the prince would want to meet with him, and a cute embarrassed look takes hold of his face.

In my letter, I left out the stuff about my grandpa harming me, fearing the king might overreact and change things to the extent that I would no longer predict what would happen. But I let him know about Noah and how they would become best friends while requesting the prince come and visit me. I was planning on my grandpa panicking and putting an end to whatever he was planning on doing to us, but this plan still worked out for me. Grandpa already said he would be leaving after lunch, and I asked the prince to remain until dinner so he should keep Noah and me safe. It is only a temporary solution, but as soon as my grandpa is gone, I will develop a better plan for managing him.

"Good morning, your highness," I smile, giving the prince a curtsy.

"Good… good morning…." Noah seeing me, quickly greets the prince.

Noah is just as cute as Marshall. In the game, I never got to see this side of him.

"Mother, father, grandfather. We will move into the next room, so we do not disturb you," I tell the adults in the room before leaving them with Noah and Marshall following behind me.

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Collapsing in my bed, I still need to think of a way to deal with grandpa. Add that to figuring out who turned Marshall into an evil young man, and my head starts to hurt. It is too much. No six year old should have to deal with such problems. Staring up at the ceiling, I do not know where to start with this mess.

Knock… Knock… Knock….

Sitting up, I stare at my door. I have not asked the maids to bring me anything, so no one should now knock at my door.

Knock… Knock… Knock….

"Just a moment,"

I stand up and walk to the door before slowly opening it. Surprisingly Noah is on the other side of the door wearing his nightclothes. He looks around nervously before speaking up.

"Can I talk with you, sis?"

I nod and let him inside. Noah calling me sis came about when we were playing with the prince. It felt natural having him call me even if Noah looked embarrassed by calling me sis in the beginning.

"Is there something you need, Noah?" I ask as w both sit down on my bed. I have a set of chairs for company, but my bed is softer.

"I want to thank you," Noah looks up at me. "You got me out of the wood, healed my arm and even helped me make my first friend. Thank you for everything, sis."

"You do not have to thank me. We are family," I smile as I ruffle his hair. "Besides, I also owe you a thank you. You stayed with me yesterday after grandpa knocked me out."

"That was nothing compared to what you did for me,"

"Noah," I grab his hands. "It was not nothing. You helped me even though grandpa threatened you."

"But you did so much more,"

"It does not matter who did more," I tell him as I give my little brother a hug. "It is the thought that counts. We both helped each other."

"I… I should get going…." Noah says, pulling away, looking flustered. "It… it's late…."

I smile and see him to the door, telling him he can rely on me whenever he is in trouble. Noah is a cute boy with the way his cheeks light up. Laying back down, I feel myself refreshed and quickly fall asleep.

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Thank you for reading.