Chapter 23) Unfair Behavior

"Jay you good? What was up with the sneeze?"

I shook my head and rubbed my nose for a moment.

"Shouldn't be anything, don't worry. Someone was probably wishing or hoping I would have to deal with a nuisance or something."

"Huh? Okay then. Seems legit."

~

"Hey Jessica, as cute as you are when you don't talk and cling to me like a monkey, I do have to ask if this will be taking up my whole evening?"

I looked down at her while she continued to cling to my waist as though her life depended on it.

"I'll only let go if you promise not to fling me with magic again! I thought I was gonna die! It was unfair! Cheater!"

She stuck her tongue out and clung even tighter to me. I could only shake my head helplessly. 'What did I do to deserve this brat? She is adorable as can be when she doesn't open her mouth, yet the world deemed it necessary that she has to speak almost every waking moment of the day. Hmm, maybe I can learn magic to silence her?' As the thought bloomed, Jessica's spine was graced with an immense chill of danger.

"Umm, maybe should let go after all. I think I remembered something I left unattended back in my room. Bye lard belly!"

With that she sprinted to her rooms and I was forced to swallow that insult. 'I'm not fat!,' I cried inwardly. With a sad face I trudged the rest of the way to my room. Emily and Joanne had helpless expressions while Anna tried consoling me the whole way. As I was passing the final hallway leading to my bedroom I passed by a familiar looking face.

"Well it seems that in my moment of crippling defeat, I've come face to face with a saddened angel. How goes it, dear cousin of mine?"

I looked up and realized I was in front of Prince Lucian, who had a very weak smile on his face. I fixed my posture and forced a smile onto my face.

"Dear cousin? It would seem father has beaten you at another game for you to be calling me as such. Last time I checked, I was 'The worst bitch to have ever walked in a castle known to man!' or something along those lines. Do tell how you LOST again, huh, Lucy?"

He wore an aggrieved expression at first, that slowly morphed into contained anger.

"It seems your ears seemed to not be working as usual, dear cousin, as I recall I never called you such an ill mannered word. Although if I were to, it might have been because SOMEONE had decided to go joyriding on one of my favorite horses and put it out of commission for three months due to its injuries, albeit, we didn't have to put it down. I also have no reason to talk about my grievances to someone that is the human equivalent of a farm cat, unhearing, fat, and arbitrarily does its work when it so pleases."

The mana in the air around us boiled under my anger, and my eyes started to glow before I barely managed to rein in my temper.

"Watch where you stand you reject of a child. Here, you are under MY father's castle, under MY father's good graces, in front of MY father's favorite daughter. The next time you speak like that to me, I won't stop myself from crippling you further than my father or uncle already do on a daily basis for you. You're lucky father wasn't here, or he'd simply rip your head off and mail it to your castle. You may be a part of the family, but with all your miniscule achievements, I'd say the talent wasn't passed down like it was on my side of this little story. get out of my sight, you unwanted trash."

With his anger having been forcibly cooled his face was left aghast as he hurriedly ran off back to his own quarters. As I spit in his direction with a harrumph followed soon after, I felt Joanne walk up beside me.

"Well that escalated quickly. Did you both not respond rather harshly to minor insults? Especially you? Hmm?"

With a very deep sigh, I turned to face her.

"If the little prick didn't try all those years ago to accuse me of leading his hunting party into that ambush, none of this animosity would exist. He was simply incompetent and decided I'd be an easy mark back then. Snakes are the second of the three worst types of humans, behind only pigs, and above rats. The thing is, I'd much rather deal with pigs, as they can be killed easily, while snakes are bred into existence and rats come in packs. Between one pig, potentially two or three snakes, and tens to hundreds of rats, I'd always pick the pig to slaughter."

Joanne showed a sad face when she heard the words I uttered. 'If only she could have lived as anything but a princess, she wouldn't have had to deal with these people as often as she does now.'

We finally got back to my room where I asked them to bring me my dinner once it was ready, and they all left to do other tasks while I flopped onto the bed. I lay there staring at the ceiling for a while, just mindlessly muttering thoughts.

"Gods above, why is all of this happening to me? While I love having and learning magic, the responsibilities attached to it aren't really my taste. I already had enough on my plate being the crown princess of a kingdom forged by father's literal blood, sweat, and tears."

I closed my eyes and looked deep into myself again, staring at the large ball of flames I call my core.

'I still haven't figured out what you should be either. Father, in his own words, said that he's technically immortal with his phoenix soul. Should I do the same? After all, I, along with anyone else am afraid of death. I haven't asked him how that works, but I can only assume it won't be pleasant dying.'

The fired roared in front of me, pulsing with life along with my heart. Watching it do this every time I come back into this space, I've come to realize it calms me down considerably. With a thought I could make it emanate warmth, or be as cool as a spring breeze. I floated along around my core, resting my eyes and humming a tune that came to mind. I didn't know where I heard this before, but I seemed pleasant to listen to, so I continued humming it.

Little did I know, outside my mindscape, the mana in the air around my real body was dancing and twisting to the rhythm of my humming, getting increasingly more dense in my surroundings, coming under the scrutiny of a certain overprotective father. King Aaron cast his gaze in the direction of my room to figure out what was going on, and when he made sure it wasn't a threat to my body, he retracted his gaze before going back to looking at some documents strewn across his desk. 'Seems she's doing something interesting, but, eh, whatever. Honey is going to kill me if I don't finish this paperwork before dinner.' Without noticeably doing anything, his eyes turned gold and his arms started moving at speeds so high they started leaving afterimages, paper after paper getting grabbed, signed, rejected or approved, then stacked into new piles, at lightning speeds.

Back in my room, the mana was getting so dense in my room that the gravity was beginning to distort a bit, slowly causing cracks to appear in the ground around my bed. The second I heard a fairly audible crack, my head snapped up. The moment my humming stopped, the mana started diffusing into the atmosphere again.

'What the hell happened? What is up with all this mana in my room? Now that I can see it better after becoming a master, it looks almost like a white smog in here.'

I then looked at the floor, only to realize everywhere I looked the ground seemed to have spiderweb like cracks.

"Well that isn't good. Hmm, I guess I could fix this with magic."

I thought about what runes I should use, then flicked my hand and they all formed. I light brown light shined for a moment before what seemed like sand drifted away from the runes and started filling in all the cracks in the floor.

"Hmm, why don't I try something.."

I dropped the original spell and began using raw earth mana and some water mana, easily mixing them together in comparison to forming aurora, and started using a runic formation I thought would work, using what was basically mud or clay to fill the cracks instead. They all filled more easily and the clay began hardening quickly once I used a basic fire spell and cast it over all of the wet locations. The floor looked almost brand new once I was done.

"Lucilia you've done it again. Look at you mixing elements right after learning how to only a few hours ago. I must say you are too smart for your own good!"

While standing in the center of my room boosting my own ego to the high heavens, a mighty growl rumbled the room. I could only look down and then around my room to make sure no one had heard that.

'(Ahem) It seems I was a bit more hungry than I thought. Let's hope no one heard that one.'

Off to the side of the room, my precious Kerberos triplets were looking at each other with knowing looks. 'Yeah mother's stomach growls louder than we do. Happens every day and we still can't get used to it. Woke us up she did.' All of them nodded to each other while nestling back together to sleep again.

I looked over at my boys lovingly and wondered:' They never leave each other's side. I love them so much! maybe on my next outing I'll bring them with me. While they are free to wander the halls and walls of the castle as they please, they usually never leave the grounds. I think they'll enjoy the forest with me.' I nodded to myself. 'Yup, they're coming with me next time.'

At that moment, Anna knocked on the door.

"Your Highness, I've come with dinner early, as I know you get hungry around this time."

My face turned a healthy shade of pink out of embarrassment before I walked over to open the door for her.

"I said to call me Lucy in pri-"

My words were caught in my throat as I saw mother and Joanne behind Anna smiling.

"Well go on! Finish that sentence why don't you? I have Joanne call me Sophie in private, I see no reason why Anna shouldn't follow suit. Speaking of, Anna, if I haven't already told you to, call me Sophie as well under the same conditions. I hate this title of mine, but I love that strong idiot of a husband, so I'm stuck with it."

At first Anna had been happy when when my mother started speaking, only for that happiness to crumble into mortification, followed by unwilling acceptance. After all, who was she, to deny a request from the Queen herself. At least with me, she had some leniency to be stubborn, but with my mother, any hope of being so detached was removed effortlessly. I could only giggle in triumph.

"Hahaha, at last you have no room for escape my dear Anna! Now, what shall you call me?"

I raised my chin with my nose pointed to the skies, waiting on her to speak.

"(Sigh) I will refer to you as Lucy in private from now on...and Your Maje- I mean, and you as Sophie, Your Majesty."

While she slipped up a bit, my mother and I both shared a look before openly laughing. My mother's laugh sounding like tinkling bells while I laughed to the point of snorting. That's when Jessica decided to poke her head from around the corner.

"Did someone start having fun without me around? Unacceptable!"

That only made the rest of the people here start laughing as well. Meanwhile, in the dining hall, my father was wearing a fake smile on his face, while his domain was expanded, seeing and feeling all his girls having a good time while he was stuck here out of courtesy for Lucian. 'Yet another reason why being king is annoying. I want to have fun too! I want to giggle and laugh and make them all smile! Gods why must I be here attending to my nephew, he is no fun at all!' Little to Lucian's knowledge he thought dinner was going well while he continued his boring talk about so gossip of his own castle and kingdom.

While all of this happened, the tune I had been humming seemed to fade to the back of my mind once more, seemingly forgotten again.