15 Monster

After a few useless attempts to apologize to Cera, I simply left a few books she might be interested it in front of the door and left her alone. There's no reason to poke the sleeping feral cat.

Noire told me that the Marks family sent a notice regarding their withdrawal of future practice meets. Seems the queen already took care of the training session and should be sending someone here soon. Well, I was sort of looking forward to meeting the instructor my family chose, but that doesn't matter now. Since the queen pretty much took care of everything, what should I do? My plans to spend time with Cera went down the drain. Guess I'll ask Noire to get me some books about the kingdom's history and etiquette. Besides, since they're probably involved with all those ancient rules, joining her faction will put us in some nasty problems.

*** Queen Celest Lunite's Point of View***

"Your highness, we can't complete these orders in a week. We don't have enough information about her partner. If she was an abandoned orphan without any background or information, we can't process it."

"Seems you misunderstood my orders. I said to put her name and validate their marriage under my approval." Guess I'll have to get a new butler, they really never listen. Maybe I'll get a maid instead.

I looked up at one of my personal guards.

"Find me a maid that knows how to listen."

He quickly walked up to the useless butler and dragged him out of my personal study. I still cannot believe that that little girl is really nine years old. Is that the difference between a genius and a normal person? She had such an overwhelming presence and didn't falter at all. Not only were her eyes fearless, but that burning vermillion red was outstanding. The only other person I've seen with eyes that special is my husband. It is usually more subtle and not as prominent, but her eyes were too peculiar for her age. How interesting. I have to do my best to stay on good terms with her wife, she might be a problem later on seeing how attached and careful Zara is being about her. If Zara was telling the truth about it being a combination of their skills, then Cera will be just as important, if not more.

I invoked the Oath on the palm of my hand. I don't understand the principle of this Oath at all, how did two little girls create something this incredible? The Alm is all messed up, like they just chaotically pressed Alm together and then this came out as a result. She said I could learn how to do it but analyzing all these patterns and memorizing them is going to take time. Once I learn how to do this, I'll be able to sell contracts for massive amounts of money and swear all my personnel to secrecy. The conditions for this Oath are revolutionary. I'm sure those slave collectors would love to get their hands on this.

"I greet the celestial star of the kingdom." I heard a shaky female voice coming from the door. Analyzing this really takes up my concentration, I didn't even notice her walk in. Just how did those little girls come up with this?

"Take these documents and finalize their marriage. Also take this plaque with you and if they make a fuss, just throw it at them." Those weak old bastards still try to hold some power through the stupidest means. Why would they try to reign more power through such a simple document? I hope they retaliate and kill this maid. Would give me an excuse to get rid of them.

"I-I understand." She grabbed the documents and plaque while still trembling. Where did they grab such a fragile maid?

"Whose maid did you used to be? Where did you come from?" I asked right before she walked out the door.

"I am your daughter's personal maid, your hi-highness." I urged her to leave after she answered.

My daughter, huh? That useless waste of space is simply sucking my money. If only she wasn't born so useless. I can't even use her as a marriage pawn.

Hmm… Since Zara is a cold-blooded girl, maybe she'll take care of her if she offends her at the tea party? If that happens, I'll have a good excuse to kill my daughter even if she doesn't. Yes, I'll do just that. Guess I'll prepare the new seating order and place my daughter in Cera's seat since she's not coming. Somehow or another, my worthless daughter is bound to make a mistake.

As for their master, I need to find someone suitable, or should I do it myself? The stronger the better. Since she uses ice to attack like the rest of her family, she has to be an external user.

"Chloe, you will be in charge of training Zara and Cera Valentine from now on. Head there today and introduce yourself. I will assign you a schedule later and pay you for the extra work you'll be doing."

"At your will." She answered and went on her way.

I don't use long range attacks, so Chloe should be a better fit. Since Cera is also able to use Alm at her age, even if she's not as amazing as Zara, she should be pretty talented as well. I really got my hands on two amazing little jewels. After their marriage document goes through, I'll send them a pair of wedding rings, since I'll be polishing those two little jewels and wrapping them around my pinky.

***Zara's Point of View***

I know she said she would be finding us a master soon, but isn't this too fast? Why is she already here?

"Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Chloe Estrada, I serve as one of Celest Lunite's personal guards. I was ordered to come and teach you how to use Alm." Her respectful politeness doesn't erase that condescending undertone at all.

Estrada? From what I read, that family has been part of this kingdom since long ago. No wonder she's brimming with arrogance. What a pain. I want to send her back. Well, since the queen sent her, I don't have to be polite or pretend to be respectful.

"Nice to meet you. Let's head to the front garden, I just have a few questions." She looks angry.

I need to find out why I'm not able to focus my Alm like Cera does. I have almost no control over it and I'm just firing it randomly. I'm basically just holding a sword and swinging it around in circles. Well, not that I know how to use a sword… I blame myself for being so useless…

"Do you know why I'm not able to control my power?" I asked her as I created an ice lance above my head and launched it high into the air.

"It looks like you can control it already. If you're able to create that and launch it with such force, that's more than enough control. Do you know why your ice is glowing?"

"I don't. It's been that way since I manifested." Well, that's a lie, but she doesn't need to know that.

"There's a chance that you'll be able to use two different elements because of the red coloring. My guess would be that your other attribute is fire."

"I see. Thank you, I'll try it."

I don't think it's fire, but there's definitely some sort of explosive power behind the ice. I launched another ice lance into the air and I tried to make it explode like the time I did with when I attacked Maddy, but to no avail. Do I need to be closer? I made another ice lance and this time I kept it above me and nothing happened. When I attacked Maddy the power came straight from my hand rather than the lance. Does that mean I'm a close-range fighter even though I use ice?

"Chloe, do you mind if I attack you to test something out?" I tried to ask politely, but she still looks angry.

"No problem. I'll be teaching you soon and even though it's not our first training session yet, I can at least show this much respect. I will be leaving after to report to her highness." Her tone didn't change at all and she even threw a passive aggressive remark at me, guess she really minds how I address her.

Just like the time with Maddy, I put as much power as I could into my hand launched myself at Chloe. Since she's a personal guard of the queen, she should be able to block it. I aimed right at her face and she had her hands out in front of her ready to block it. A massive ice explosion blasted me backwards, sending me rolling into the ground. However, something felt odd. She didn't blast me back. It felt like I launched myself back right as I released my attack.

"Lady Zara, that was a splendid attack. It seems you are a two-attribute external user. I'll keep this in mind for our future training sessions, however, I'll be returning to her highness now." Chloe looks unfazed by my attack. How strong is she? A personal guard is no joke. I should have been polite from the beginning.

"Thank you very much, Master Chloe, I appreciate you taking time out of your day to go along with my whims." I placed my hand on my chest and held my head up as per custom when showing respect to a knight of this kingdom.

"Goodbye, Lady Zara." She disappeared into the air and even though her stern facial expression was still there, at least she didn't sound angry.

I heard the front door open and Cera rushed out toward me.

"Did something happen? Are you okay?" She looked at the ice spikes cemented into the grass.

"Yeah, our master came by and I was testing something. Also, look." I started releasing red small ice spikes out of my hand.

"I've been using my power all wrong. Our new master said I was a two-attribute external user, but I think she was wrong. When I hit her and she blocked my attack I realized that that the force that blew me away was not her, but my attack exploding outside and not inside." Cera looked at me with a confused expression.

"Why are you so dirty? Come inside, I'll clean you up." Cera still seemed angry so I didn't refuse her hand as she dragged me into the house.

***Chloe Estrada's Point of View***

"Your highness." I arrived promptly in front of her highness and kneeled.

"How'd it go?"

"Your highness, I believe it's best to get rid of that girl. She's a monster." I tried to make Celest understand by showing her the wound on my wrist.

"This happened from one of her impromptu attacks. If we allow her keep growing, she may one day try to attack you." I figured telling her this would be useless and it seems I was right.

"Don't worry, she won't. We're already business partners." That greedy smile that Celest has never ceases to frighten me.