Asher

Today was the second day of the royal hunt. Our team had hunted 6 low-level mythical beasts and 3 medium-level mythical beasts. So that means we have a total of 9 beast cores. The beast core is what is left from the mythical beasts. After we kill them, their body dissipates into the air and all that is left of them are hard crystals that contain large amounts of mana which we call beast cores.

Right now we were currently stalking our prey which was a low-level beast. After killing this beast, it will mark the 8th beast we killed today which will make the total amount of beast cores that we collected 17, among them were 11 low-level beast cores and 6 medium-level beast cores.

Swish!!!

An arrow rushed past me, striking the beast right in the middle of its heart. The beast dissipated in black smoke, leaving a fist-sized crystal in its place.

"Good job, Aiden," I said while picking up the beast core.

Aiden ran his fingers through his honey brown hair and smiled at me. Seeing his face, I blushed.

Why was he so handsome?

You see, I have a face kink. Handsome Ikemen are my weakness. I grew up in a village void of handsome men except of course my very best friend Kai.

I grew up in the village since I was born. I was praised by the villagers for my good looks and charm. I bathed in that praise and felt superior than Kai who was the second-best looking in the entire village. I thought that the villagers were truly blind to compare my beauty and charm to him, who I thought could never hold a candle to me.

You know I never noticed how good looking Kai was until recently. Before he would always use to pester me and cling to me telling me to hang out with him. I never paid attention to him until for some weird reason he started to distance himself from me. This started on the first day of the mana tests when we were going to test our magic. I felt like something was off about him but I shook it off.

When Kai tried to distance himself from, I started to notice him more. He looked so beautiful with his coal grey eyes and dark black hair. His grey eyes looked especially beautiful when he used mana. His eyes would turn a magnificent golden color and I would find myself lost in his eyes.

I never forgot the sight that I saw when it was his turn to test during the Mana Tests. When Kai placed his hand onto the mana crystal, the entire world turned black and I felt like I was suffocating. I could not move and I realized that might have been the work of Jace, the God of Death.

The God of Death had descended from the eternal darkness to bless him, astonishing everyone, including me.

Every god lives in heaven, however, only the God of Death lives in the eternal darkness, which the God of Death considers his home. The eternal darkness exists in another dimension, separate both from heaven and the land in which the 4 great Kingdoms prosper.

As the villagers and I stood frozen, and unmovable we could not utter a single word. After the appearance of the Dark Lord, he teleported with Kai somewhere. I have this weird feeling that Jace might have took Kai to his home, the eternal darkness.

After what seemed like hours, they finally appeared.

Kai's eyes were glowing with a golden color and his dark hair seemed even more darker. He had snow white skin and plump lips. I realized that he was more beautiful than me. He was breathtaking.

However, like all of my obsessions, he was like a fleeting dream. I started to take interest in the archbishop's son, Allen. He looked so elegant with his white priest robe and his matching white hair. Then came another pretty Ikemen, the crown prince of the kingdom of Asten, Caspian. He had attractive golden eyes that reminded me of Kai's eyes when he used mana and his dark red hair look so soft, his overall appearance enticing me.

I found myself comparing Allen, Caspian, and Kai to each other and found out the one who remained at the very top was Kai. He was like no other beauty I have ever met.

That is when I started to cling to Kai just like how he used to me in past. I wondered how would it feel if such a handsome and beautiful guy would date me. I wanted him but after seeing Caspian come to my rescue that time in the cafeteria where I accidentally spilled some of my lunch on the illegitimate duke's son's clothes, my thoughts dissipated like air. He looked so regal, my prince charming.

After the utter embarrassment of Kai calling me out for not saying the truth, which was that Caliban was not bullying me, I felt embarrassed and guilty...I cried on purpose in front of Caspian to gain his favor.

After two months of not having a proper discussion and only having Allen and Caspian as my friends, with the occasional appearance of the crown prince, I soon realized that I was not worthy of Kai. Both as a lover and a friend.

However, I was happy when he accepted my apology.

I decided to become a better friend and I was no longer interested in Kai as a potential boyfriend.

But, I remained by his side and clung to him. I knew I was annoying, but old habits were hard too break. Even though I did not like him in that way anymore, I still found myself locking arms with him every time I would see him.

As for the Crown Prince? Well, I was interested in him at first from the first time we met as each other's roommates and even more so during the cafeteria incident.

Unfortunately, Caspian went around the school trying to find Kai for a long time. That made me lose my pride and I was no longer interested in him.

Then after the appearance of Dylan who was the Emperor of Rain, and his younger brother Prince Aiden, they caught my interest. They were so beautiful I could not help but blush at the sight of them.

What beautiful specimens I thought.

It was almost night time so we decided to make camp and we also decided to make camp because were we exhausted, well except for me because I did not do much except expend a little bit of my mana healing my teammates. They have been fighting all day and used most of their mana up in killing the beasts. I took our only tent out from my bag and opened it.

Pop!

The tent opened and was about a couple of feet wide. We only had one tent because another was not needed. While it looked small, it was huge on the inside. A single tent can hold a maximum occupancy of 15 grown men.

In our team, we only had 5 total, plus once you walk into the tent, it grows many times its original size! There were a bathroom, living room, kitchen and we had our own bedroom too! Each tent costed as much money to buy a house living as a commoner. But, of course, we got the best of the best because we are royalty, well...kind of. I am still a commoner, but I am the chosen one, blessed by the Goddess of Light herself so I am a commoner in name only but I could actually be on par with those of noble descent.

It was dinner time so we decided to eat in the living room. I sat on the couch and tried to focus on my meal, however, I felt a scorching hot gaze on me. I knew who it was, yet I still raised my head to look at him.

It was Prince Caspian.

I blushed when I saw Caspian's stare and turned my head to the other side.

I felt very different when I look at Caspian now. Even though I felt a little hurt and mad at him, I couldn't believe that I still blushed after seeing his handsome face!

The reason why I was mad and hurt was what happened the night before the royal hunt.

Caspian and Allen were my roommates. Because of the royal hunt happening the next day, Allen wanted to get a good night's sleep, so he went to bed early. That left me and Caspian alone.

I was minding my own business when he suddenly spoke.

"I like you," Caspian said simply.

I stared at him. "You what?" I asked with a shocked expression, but on the inside, I was jumping for joy! A hot man, the crown prince of the kingdom of Asten no less just confessed to me! Yes!!!

Caspian nodded at me.

"Well, we can't be together, you are the crown prince while I am but a lowly commoner," I stated, looking down on purpose, slight tears forming in my eyes.

Come on now, take the bait! Say that you want me!

Caspian nodded. "You are right, forget it." He turned around and left me standing there speechless.

What!!!?? This was not how it was supposed to go! Wasn't he suppose to tell me that he loved me no matter what, not caring about the fact that I was a commoner?!

For some reason, my heart wrenched painfully in my chest.

Did this mean he truly did not like me?

Then I thought back to the next morning, the day of the royal hunt. In the morning, he greeted me like nothing had happened which made me madder! But I sucked it in and played along with him.

It surprised me when he growled at the Emperor of Rain when he got a little too close to me which made me feel strange.

I shook out of my thoughts when I felt the whole tent shaking. What the heck? My teammates placed their dinner on the table and gathered their weapons silently.

Caspian pushed me behind him and we made our way out of the tent. It was already nighttime. What awaited us was quite shocking!

The mythical beast stood tall at 15 feet. The beast was dark in color and it bared its fangs at us. It was a medium-level mythical beast the Fenris wolf!

The ferocious Fenris wolf swiped his giant paw at us, almost smacking me but Allen protected me against its attack with his air magic. He instantly threw a gust a wind at me, flying me out of harm's way.

I looked at my teammates who were barely able to stand. They were weak and under normal circumstances, they would be able to deal with a medium leveled beast easily and quickly, however, they were tired from hunting all day and their mana was almost depleted.

Why was this medium-level mythical beast so hard to deal with? Was it because we wasted our energy fighting many beasts throughout the day?

Although I do have the light ability, the farthest I have gone with it is learn out to heal minor cuts. I went through combat class, however, my skills are still lacking. All I have been doing for these past two days is healing my teammate's small injuries. I have never actually hunted a beast myself.

I made a quick decision and opened my bag. I grabbed the signal flare and threw it up into the sky. The signal flare lit up in a flash of red and purple into the night sky.

"You guys, hang in there for 5 more minutes, that should be more time for help to arrive!" I shouted from the sidelines like a cheerleader.

(A/N: LOL I could just imagine Asher wearing a cheerleading outfit hehe anyways...)

A handsome young man who appeared to be in his early 20's suddenly appeared. He had dark purple hair that reached his waist and his hair was tied back into a ponytail by a long gold ribbon. The man had the same colored eyes and he had an expressionless face. He was wearing a white and purple outfit.

The man propelled himself upwards with his ice magic right at the Fenris wolf! At the same time, the man reached to his right side to pull his sword out from its sheath. When he was right at the front of the Fenris wolf's face, he leapt with grace and slashed down hard right onto the Fenris wolf's face.

It howled in pain, but the dashing young man showed it no mercy as he began to relentlessly slash the Fenris wolf until it laid down in a heap of blood.

The man turned towards us, blood on his face. He was panting with exhaustion and I and my teammate's mouth was open agape.

Just who was this strong and fierce man?

Just then we heard a loud and terrifying roar.

We all looked up and all of our eyes widened at what we saw.

Caspian frowned. "Isn't that a-"

"Dragon!" Aiden suddenly exclaimed.

A dragon?! Oh no, why was there a high-level mythical beast in the forest, shouldn't the barrier be able to block it?!

The dragon soared overhead and passed by us.

Everyone was filled with a foreboding feeling.

Before we could say anything, I heard Caspian say, "Who are you?"

The handsome man smiled.

"My name is Dayton Cascade and I am the commander of the royal knights, your highness."

"Is that so? Then how come I can not recognize you?"

The man smiled. "That is because yesterday was my first day as the commander. I was newly appointed by His Majesty."

Caspian simply nodded.

"But how did you find us?" Caspian continued to question Dayton.

"Your highness, didn't you set off your signal flare?"

Caspian slightly blushed in embarrassment. "Ah, that's right, we did. Ahem!" He cleared his throat.

"It's dangerous, we need to report back," Dayton said with a serious expression.

My group nodded and Dayton broke his teleportation gem on the ground. Then a bright light flashed revealing a large-sized portal. We quickly gathered our things and made our way into the portal.