One Finch, Two Finch, Redfinch, Deadfinch.
Redfinch had a look of rage when she initially jumped down from the royal table, the look turned to fear when she drew Nightingale.
Kirin loved watching the blood slowly drain from her enemy's faces when she drew the dark blade. She had never told anyone the sword's name, she never planned to, so she had the rather endearing nickname of...
"You're....You're the monster!", the man said in a trembling voice."Can't deny that.", Kirin responded in a saccharin sweet tone, giving a forced smile that made her face hurt. The man, steadying himself, ran towards Kirin with his sword raised high above his head. Kirin was amused seeing the man, easily 3 times her weight in muscle, tremble in fear. She couldn't deny his intelligence, fearing her was the smartest thing she had seen any of the nobles do. He did challenge the queen in the first place though, so her respect dropped again.
As the man swung down, the world froze, at least for Kirin. She stared at the frozen image of the man, rage, fear, and trepidation marking his face. Kirin could give the man credit, he was no coward. She moved past him, under the strike, dragging Nightingale against his belly as she did so. His own momentum, clashing against Kirin's, dragged his body across the black edge of the blade, the blade feeding from his vitality, draining his blood. Kirin's perception slowed to just above human again and she turned towards the man. The man, now behind Kirin, looked at her and froze in fear. He watched as his blood traveled up Nightingale's surface, moving into the crimson nexus at the back of the blade. The sword had consumed a part of him, he could feel it. He then looked down at his belly. He had a 14-inch cut, like he was dissected for study. He promptly fell to the ground, his body giving under him. In a voice-only Kirin could hear, Redfinch cursed out, "Monster...."
Kirin walked over and drove the tip of her blade into his back, stabbing into his heart and through the ground below. She watched as Nightingale drained him dry, taking his essence, his vitality, and making what was once his, its own. After Nightingale fed, she resheathed the blade, the man below her looking like an overdried raisin. She walked back to her seat next to the queen and sunk into the chair.
Never having seen her fight in such a way, the nobles sat in silence. Most of the time Kirin didn't bother trying to impress them, she didn't care, but she was getting tired of the constant duels and challenges. Every death was just more time for her on this hellforsaken planet. She hated her existence more everyday.
"That was gratuitous.", Anne said in a slihlghtly fearful tone."I told you my skill had a price.", Kirin responded in a tone that could freeze hell. It was incredibly rare for a noble to challenge the queen while the court was assembled, so not many knew quite who she was, not that it was exactly kept hidden. The nobles knew now.
She noticed that almost everyone in the room was avoiding looking at her. Funny what a basic show of force can accomplish. Part of the problem with the nobles is that a lot of them didn't actually know what happened. Human eyes only perceive so much and Kirin moved faster than that perception. Most of them saw a man slash down at a woman, then the woman was a few feet behind him and he was left cut open mid swing. Only a select few saw what the sword did, those few had a tangible fear of Kirin now, it permeated through the air, telling Kirin to hunt. As much as Kirin hated the fights, the fear was truly the best feeling she could ever experience.
"What are you going to do about the lord's land?", Kirin asked, not really caring about the answer."I'll let the hier take the land. Redfinch was always so proud of his sons.", Anne said in a ponderous tone. Kirin laughed,"Ha.....was."
---------------------------------------‐----------------------------------
A few hours later Kirin was walking back to her room when she ran into Dickhead. Dickhead was Kirin's name for the youngest prince of Mesonia, Erik. Erik had earned his nickname by hitting on any sentient being capable of producing estrogen that he'd ever laid his perverted eyes upon. Erik was the 9th child of 13 birthed by Anne. She had a set of quadruplets and 2 sets of triplets, along with the 3 youngest daughters born in just as many years, people joked that she had rabbit blood from a beast man tribe, Kirin didn't think that was entirely wrong. Erik was currently flirting intensely with one of the maids, she was not flirting back, dick.
"Leave the poor girl alone, Mr. Ego-testicle.", Kirin said while sighing."Well hello my noble defender, fancy seeing you here, heard about the fight by the way, bet it was suuper entertaining.", he said the last part with a smirk."My room is right here dumbshit and thank you, im so glad you're impressed, want to see me fight again.", Kirin responded to him with enough sweetness in her voice to make a kid in a candy shop wince. She also deactivated the ward concealing Nightingale's sheath.
Erik gave her a dumb look for a couple seconds, then frowned and walked away.
Kirin turned her attention towards the maid, "Are you okay?", Kirin asked, "I'm fine, thank you.", with that, Kirin walked into her room and practically leaped into her bead. She could draw on Nightingale's power to sustain herself, but sleeping was so much more rewarding. Moving faster than human perception is, understandably, tiring. Kirin slept like a baby that night.... a murderous, blood crazed baby.