28 Chapter 27 - The Princess has Grown Stronger?

After eating breakfast, she spoke briefly with Kaelyn before the arrival of Sir Gregory.

Once again Sir Gregory offered for her to join the training of the young recruits, similar to last time she gladly accepted as she gained noticeable improvements previously, so it would serve as a good means of improving her strength whilst under 'house arrest'.

Travelling along the halls of the Palace, she straight away noticed the difference in comparison to before as it was far heavily guarded than in the past with dozens of unfamiliar men watching her closely.

Maybe if Talia was the previously naive Princess she would believe nothing unusual was happening and it was simply because there is concern about the safety of the Princess.

However, Talia knew better and remembering the chilling gaze from the Governor as they parted ways previously, he obviously was not going to let his former errors repeat, as who knows what another one of 'the Princesses policies' she would generously decide to remove?

In fact, she wouldn't even be surprised if he was already plotting to have her killed.

Though, by this point, she had no plans in acting against the Governor again by using public opinion against him, as she knew that although the Governor cared about his reputation greatly, if she ended up provoking him too much and proving to be far too much of an annoyance to remain alive then he would make his move regardless of the cost.

Thus, despite the seemingly precarious situation she was in, Talia felt no pressure at all and knew that no matter how scheming the Governor is he wouldn't be able to predict her true trump card.

All that she needed was time, so she was happy in allowing the Governor to believe he still had everything under his control, as by the time he realised her astonishing growth in strength it would already be far too late.

Arriving safely at the training grounds whilst under the hawk-like stares from the guards, they quickly entered, shutting the door once inside.

Kaelyn breathed a sigh in relief, a slight drop of sweat dripped off her face as she said, "Ah! There is such a strict setup today, I've never seen so many guards defending the Palace, even though they are on our side the pressure they gave was still very intimidating!"

"You wouldn't say" Talia chuckled in reply, inwardly thinking, they are anything but 'friendly' if the hostile, cold stares they gave us was anything to go by, you would think I was royalty from a hostile nation compared to being the heir to the throne.

The hidden meaning behind Talia's words seemed to fly over Kaelyns head though as she replied, "Yes! I can't believe there were such formidable guards hiding within the Kingdom, ever since his Majesty passed, we lost a number of experts with many even joining neighbouring Kingdoms, I didn't think such a force was remaining which is a good thing as the Princesses safety is now even more assured!"

Talia just shook her head at Kaelyn's denseness of understanding their true situation, but she supposed to a young noble girl who grew up protected under the rule of two great monarchs, even the thought of betrayal would be preposterous.

If it wasn't for discovering that the Princess had the skill 'poison resistance' she wouldn't have found evidence of the likely betrayal, which encouraged her into looking at everything more suspiciously than before.

On the other hand, Sir Gregory remained silent throughout the entire exchange, not revealing anything about what he thought of the situation.

It didn't matter to Talia anyhow, as she had a strange feeling that Sir Gregory's knew a lot more than he was letting on.

Now, at the training grounds, it was time to meet with the drill sergeant and the other trainees.

Upon walking into the room, the drill sergeant once again introduced Talia to the trainees which responded with much more respect in comparison to before, as they no longer looked down on her capabilities.

Similar to last time they began with a 'small' warm-up of numerous different exercises which she easily accomplished, once it again came to sparring, Ritson and the other top students faces immediately went pale as they attempted to come up with all forms of excuses to get out of this 'torture'.

Even so, this all ended up in failure as the drill sergeant even battered their pride as men by saying they were afraid to fight little girl years younger than them, to which they inwardly thought, is that the correct term to describe that monster?

However, they still reluctantly dragged themselves into sparring against Talia who ended up beating them, even more, one-sidedly than last time due to her increased physical attributes.

Talia tried to restrain her great physical attributes in order to focus more on developing her swordsmanship but as her swift reaction speed made whatever strike the men threw at her seem slow no matter how skilled they are with the sword, she still easily dealt with the trainees.

Ritson felt like crying when his greatest attribute, his physical strength was utterly crushed against Talia who rag-dolled him around the ring.

With the trainees staring at Talia with such pitiful looks whilst being both battered and bruised, it made her even start to question whether she was bullying them.

Sir Gregory and the drill sergeant noticing the large discrepancy between them stared with looks of approval, both quickly decided to make the matches against Talia more 'fair' by allowing the trainees to team up fighting against her instead.

Neither questioned the rapid growth rate of the Princess, even coming to the conclusion of believing it to be due to her former parents.

Both were uncommon geniuses, but what many did not know was that one of the reasons why the Queens Ice Magic was so formidable, with also her progression as a Mage increasing rapidly was greatly contributed by the awakening of her bloodline, the Frost Dragon.

Even if it was a trace, anyone who was fortunate to awaken a dragon bloodline will no longer be an ordinary person.

Talia's father similar possessed a strong bloodline, so Sir Gregory already believed that the Princess rapid growth rate was due to her dormant bloodline awakening which usually leads to an initial burst in an increase in strength before slowing down.

Bloodline awakening on this continent was already well documented and known, usually, most bloodlines prove useless or remain dormant for a person's entire lives, though for those lucky few who manage to awaken the bloodline of a formidable being will instantly transform to a genius overnight.

This mythical transformation though was both luck and a curse, as a bloodline can often limit a person, as depending on the purity or being the bloodline is from.

People who rely on a bloodline will initially experience a rapid progression in strength but this slows down eventually when the bloodline potential for that person reaches its limit.

For that person it is then an extremely difficult task to increase their strength, especially if they were nothing special beforehand, breaking the shackles and limit of a bloodline was an extremely daunting task which is why human geniuses who do not rely on a bloodline to reach their current standard are usually both more valued and well respected.

Talia on the other hand was an exception to this entirely because both Sir Gregory's and the drills sergeant could never have predicted her true source of growth which is unique only to her.

Although she does have a bloodline it is constantly evolving and changing alongside her growth within the 'game world' and will continue to do so until she reaches the limit of the world itself.

As long as Talia has the resources needed to progress the beast soul class there is no telling how powerful she could grow too because no one truly knew what the limit of the beast soul class is as no one was able to reach that far.

Anyhow with the addition of two trainees, making it three against one it was able to draw a slight stalemate with Talia, who for the first time in sparring began to face difficulties against the trainees.

The trainees with great effort began to push Talia back, although in terms of physique she was way ahead of them, with the addition of two trainees with the three in total being naturally better swordsman they began to get the slight upper hand as Talia was forced to defend herself repeatedly.

Because of her having no weaknesses as a result of her attributes increasing equally, Talia had agility, endurance and strength, which allowed her to use her reflexes to continually parry their attacks, not allowing them to score a hit on her.

Eventually, a trainee who finally saw an opportunity to redeem himself rushed forward as he bravely went to land the finishing strike, alas things didn't go as planned as the opening he saw was merely a set up by Talia to lure one of the trainees into recklessly lunging at her.

Blocking the trainee's strike, she used the advantage of his separation from the other two to land another strike squarely on his chest sending him flying out of the arena landing in a heap on the ground.

A groan emerged from the trainee as he clutched his chest in pain, the other trainees stared in horror as a gulp unconsciously emerged from their throats the pitiable fate of the trainee.

Talia grinned at the two trainees and said, "Come on, we are just getting started, this is the best sword training I've done so far!"

The two trainees shivered in fear as they braved themselves to continue fighting Talia.

An hour later the top trainees sat on the side drenched with sweat, each appearing as if they had just experienced an extreme amount of exercise.

Ritson sat on the corner alongside two boys who were the only two trainees in the class ranked above him in strength.

These two boys were nobles called Ben and Oscar and were the two who previously sparred with Talia beforehand, they use to not interact with each other much but their recent experience with Talia had led them to develop a comradeship of sorts as they were the trio which when together put up the best fight.

They are also the only group able to suppress Talia slightly at some point before she wore them down.

"Is it me, or has she grown stronger since we last met? Before she beat me cleanly I admit, but now it feels so overwhelming." Ben said questionably.

"I agree she feels even stronger than before, there was a gap in strength previously, but it feels that the gap is even more distant," Ritson said begrudgingly as his shoulders sank finally accepting he will never outmatch that monster in physical strength.

"I wouldn't feel too bad about it, from what I've seen she is comparable to a Tier 1 Warrior with the use of warrior energy at least and is borderline Tier 2. The gap between an ordinary person and a Tier 1 Warrior is immense already, it is good we are even able to put up some sort of a fight." Oscar said.

Belonging to a noble family with a Tier 2 Warrior, Oscar knew from experience just how terrifying Talia's true strength was, although not yet as formidable as a Tier 2 Warrior she still exhibited strength above your average Tier 1 Warrior, so it was great they were even able to last that long.

"I suppose I agree with that, but even with everyone here moaning you can see the Princess is being very lenient with her attacks, and I don't know about you guys but I definitely feel the spars have been greatly beneficial to me" Mumbled Ritson.

"Agreed, the pressure and experience of fighting someone with a strength advantage over me have allowed me to develop my swordsmanship more efficiently than our usual spars, even getting continuously beating up, I would continue to sign up for this! How many times does someone exclusively gets to spar with a Tier 1 Warrior?" Declared Ben.

"Good that you boys are that eager as you are up next." A deep voice said suddenly from behind startling them.

Seeing its the drill sergeant the boys got up immediately with Ben hesitantly saying, "On second thought, isn't it a bit too soon, you see I don't feel that I'm fully recovered… after all…"

He was about to continue but the frosty gaze from the drill sergeant shut him up halfway through, and he replied, "I've decided to change my mind actually, I'm ready to go right now!"

"Good, such compliant recruits," Said the drill sergeant with a big grin on his face.

"Look what you and your big mouth got us into." Said Oscar quietly.

"I was too into the moment for a second! Damn, I'm going to get beat up again, aren't I?" answered Ben.

"Yep," Ritson said as they walked into the arena directly facing their foe.

With a slender build, a beautiful, delicate young girl stood before them, if the three of them didn't see this very girl throw a two hundred pound man out of the ring like it was nothing, they would never believe that such a petite girl could exhibit so much strength.

"Ready?" Asked Oscar.

"Nope," Ben said before the three rushed towards Talia engaging in another intense fight.

"Good, the three have already noticeably improved, I got to say the Princess does seem to have an effect on the class, just two days and I already see them working much harder than before." The drill sergeant said.

"It is to be expected, if she wants to become a good ruler, inspiring subjects is a must. I use to think she will have to depend entirely on others to enforce her rule as she will not be able to reach the strength of her parents, but now I have the hope that she will grow to the point where she can defend herself from the enemies which are hiding in the dark" Sir Gregory said with a determined expression.

The drill sergeant just nodded in reply, as they continued staring intently as the trio spars, a look of excitement filling their eyes.