1 The First Encounter

Life was hard. It was the biggest problem I'd ever encountered with. Imagine living in the-

"Rebel! Your seventh dress is ready!"

Ugh! I was sprawled on my bed, daydreaming, but who would let the princess be in peace?

"Let. Me. Be! I'm trying to be overdramatic!" Maybe my life would have become a bit interesting.

I tried to visualize the following scenario, where I saved the whole world from the enormous dragon, but I was cut off when my stepmother, Queen Sophie, barged into my room with her nostrils flaring. Oops.

"You little, ungrateful brat! I have been arranging your dresses the whole day, and instead of practicing your speech or etiquette, you are spread out in your bed! Take the example from your sister!" She snapped at me with her hands placed on her hips.

"Thanks, Karen, but I am expressing my gratitude towards the bed."

She sighed in disbelief as she closed the distance between me and her causing me to jolt up on my bed and wield my sword, "Stand back, traitor or I'm going to execute you!"

After all, women could appear as the deadliest creatures. I had to stay on my toes. Wait, I was a woman-

"Oh, dear!" She exclaimed before blacking out on the cold ground.

"Hey!" I jumped from the bed and neared her to examine her pulse, "Unfortunately, we lost our comrade! Wehee!"

I chuckled as I dropped the weapon and stomped out of the room. Well, Queen Sophie was pretty hard-headed when it came to me. She loathed me for some unknown reason.

Who needed her love and affection anyways!

I stopped in the midway, turned around, and darted my tongue out.

Hahaha, take that!

"Lady Rebel!"

Oi, oi.

I reluctantly faced the source of the voice. I had placed the trap for Emma, our maid. Why was she still out there?

"Lady Rebel! King rescued me from the horses, lady Rebel! I could have been seriously injured."

"Pft… Please! Horses aren't carnivores."

"Not only carnivores can damage a being, lady Rebel."

"I know. It's just I wanted to use the new word I heard from the queen."

The maid smiled at me softly. Huh?

"She called me a carnivore, Emma." I specified with an emotionless face and hands draped on either side of me. Her eyes went wide as she clamped a hand on her mouth.

"Bye," I said nonchalantly and began whistling while walking past her.

"Lady Rebel, no! Your sister's fiance is here. You must get ready to meet him with the royal family! You are a sixteen-year-old maiden already. You shouldn't be wearing those pantaloons! Lady!"

"Bla, bla, bla."

"Lady Rebel!"

I bolted and detected the light coming from the window. I grinned and sped up as I heard Emma's shriek, then I jumped out of the window and was followed by the guards' clanking.

Landing on the long branch of a tree, I darted my tongue out at the guards.

"I've done it million times. Why are you always this anxious?" I called out to them as they sighed and cursed.

Fudgesticles!

I didn't want to disclose it, but I was jittery about the Dragon king staying here. He was acclaimed for his ravishing looks and immense power. So he was ghastly and alluring at the same time. Even my dad, the River Kingdom's king, was apprehensive about him.

But he was gorgeous! So they said… That's why he couldn't be trusted. I had never had the honor to be called enchanting or beautiful. My sister was. I was pretty too, with ash-blonde wavy hair and green eyes. It's just… Alice was extraordinary.

With her golden blonde locks and blue orbs, Alice could wrap any man around her fingers. Significantly, with her courteous manners. I raised my thumb to prove to you my point. See?

Her lissome body and exquisite appearance were her biggest trump.

I sighed and dangled my legs on the tree. What a drag! Alice even started swaying her hips, and I asked if she was okay. It looked to me she had strained her hipbones, but obscurely, Alice scorned at me.

Then it came crashing down on me. She was becoming a woman and wanted the men's attention. But…Hm… Was it okay to stroll like that? I mean… YOU COULD WRENCH YOUR TENDON! That shit was nasty!

I scrunched my nose at the scene that crossed my mind. It wasn't the worst thing about Alice.

I was destined to shield my older sister for the rest of my life. This was the thing I detested the most in our kingdom. The youngest child was obligated to look after the oldest until death did them apart.

I was studying swordsmanship, martial arts, using other weapons, and the most important – magic. But I was talentless in either of them and severely punished for that every time I messed up. I got to work my ass to oblivion while my sister was bathed in milk to preserve her smooth, creamy skin and shiny, silky hair.

I beamed up and built castles in the sky as I imagined what would have happened if I was born that dragon king.

"Axel! Oh, Axel, stop! Ah! We are in the king's garden! We might- AH!"

I stiffened in my seat, tongue-tied as my eyes almost fell out of their sockets. I hastily gazed down from where the moans escaped a young woman's lips. The sight beneath me was so sinister I felt my cheeks heat up.

The woman was backed up against the castle's stone wall as the tall man was settled between her legs. He was holding her with one arm while fisting his other hand on the wall. Fortunately, they were still dressed.

Oh, my gosh! I didn't want to witness something accompanied by the man's dangling thing!

I couldn't decipher the man from above, but he had short black hair. His broad shoulders were suggesting that he was a warrior. Maybe he even was a lord! Oh, shit! What have I gotten myself into?

On the other hand, to think of it, I'd got an anatomy assignment about reproduction, so may- EW, NO!

I wrinkled my nose as my upper lip pulled up in disgust. I had to get out of there. I placed my fingers on my temples, trying really hard to teleport my sorry ass into my room. No, wait! Sophie would have woken up, and if she saw me, I was as good as this rotten apple beside my head. Eh… I should have paid more attention to my tutor, whose name was still a mystery to me. Okay, it wasn't. I just called everyone, Karen.

"Axel! Oh!"

The woman moaned louder as the man attacked her neck, and I failed to focus on my task as my eyes widened once again.

Okay, I couldn't take it anymore.

I was about to risk my life by attempting to hop back into the castle. I raised to my feet, but the shriek suspended me as I dropped my head to gaze down at the lewd view.

The woman was staring up at me and fiercely pushing the man away. Still, her feeble attempts went to waste as he overpowered her easily, not even noticing her ministrations.

"AXEL! Look up!"

At last, the robust man raised his head, and my breath was taken away. Even at this distance, I could distinguish his elegance and beauty from out of this world.

What the hell? Why was god so biased?

His eyes narrowed, and he loosened the grip on the woman.

"You!"

I lost it as his deep and powerful voice ordered me to heed his presence. Shivers ran up and down my spine. 'Run, Run!'

"Don't even think about it."

I gazed down as hair stood on my body and noticed that the woman had escaped while the beauty stood beside the tree, reading my mind with ease.

"Pft… Like I would listen to you."

"I know you won't." He stated with a euphonious voice and shot me a devilish smirk before he smashed his fist with a hammer punch on the tree without any effort.

I yelped as I felt the tree shaking and the surface slipping from my legs. My heart raced in my heart as I was falling from the three-ground height tree. How did he manage that?

In my next life, I would definitely lift some weights.

As for now, I was sure I would have ruptured as the watermelon, but it never happened.