The princess wearing a veil

Knock knock!

The pounding on the door became increasingly more and more frantic and Sophie could no longer ignore the noise.

Who on earth could this be? She could not recall ever having any visitors come to her dorm room.

There was a camera attached to the top of the door for additional security, so Sophie rerouted the video feed to her tablet.

A young girl who she had never seen before was knocking furiously on her door.

She was covered from head to toe in a veil so none of her features could be seen and Sophie had no clue who this person was.

Cautiously she wrapped around her exposed body with some towels to cover up and opened up the door partially.

"Hello there, can I help you?" she asked the veiled girl.

The girl paused in shock, stunned by how beautiful the angel who appeared before her was, but she recovered quickly and replied,

"Let me in…I'm hiding from some bad men!"

Sophie was unsure what to make of the situation, but suddenly loud voices echoed from the ends of the corridor.

"Find the royal princess immediately"

"She was last seen going to the upper floors so carefully check room by room"

"Why does she always cause so much mischief!"

The men spotted the girl in the corridor and dashed towards her with great haste. Sophie heard the girl curse softly under her breath and run away to the other end of the hall.

She cheerfully laughed while running and loudly shouted,

"You can't catch me. You're all stupid pigs!

The men sped up, but the graceful figure of the veiled woman danced before their eyes and she confidently leapt out of a window and floated down to the ground.

Her lithe figure soon vanished off into the distance leaving her pursuers with frustrated expressions on their faces.

Sophie closed the door quietly and returned to her bed in a daze. She was unsure about the identity of the girl but the men chasing her wore the uniform of the imperial bodyguards.

The black cloaks with golden stars were instantly recognisable to Sophie whose father had shown her the different uniforms of the imperial army on many occasions.

"What a weird girl!" Sophie muttered to herself.

Involuntarily the strange girl's physique flashed through her mind and although her facial features were hidden, Sophie could sense that a great beauty lay under the veil.

This came from Sui Meng's personality who referred to her strong cutie seeking instinct as the 'big beauty tracker.'

Sophie then shrugged and continued to tidy up her bed as no matter how exciting that situation was, the royal family and her were different worlds apart from one another.

The royal family was split into a main branch which was the current emperor and his immediate family and numerous side branches.

There were countless number of princes and princesses who could potentially sit on the throne after this emperor passed away.

The present-day emperor in particular was known as a lustful man and his harem of ten thousand beauties had produced many sons and daughters.

This could potentially destabilise the royal family were it not for a tradition called the ritual of Yergete.

After the tumultuous years of infighting between the royal family in the early days of the federation, it was declared that all persons with a certain percentage of royal blood could vie for the throne.

This meant that main branch members and side branch members all stood an equal chance to become the ruler of the federation.

The next emperor was chosen in a death contest between the younger generations called the sacred ritual of Yergete and was broadcasted to the entire federation.

All who qualified could enter but the fighting was so intense that several rituals in years prior, ended with a death toll of over ninety percent of the participants.

Nothing mattered except personal strength.

Even if the person who won did not have much influence or connections, they were guaranteed a smooth pathway to the throne as their cultivation base would have to be at the very least at god stage.

Using the imperial family resources had even produced a handful of ascension stage monsters but this happened very rarely throughout history.

The princess she saw earlier must be a member of the main branch in order to have imperial bodyguards and the sheer number that Sophie saw indicated that the girl's mother clearly held a high level of the emperor's favor.

This however had nothing to do with her as she would most likely never even see that girl again, so there was no need to worry about her.

Sophie put all thoughts of the strange encounter out of her head and decided to focus on her troubles at hand.

(Meanwhile in the Peterlor family home)

Duke Rokan looked at the four figures in front of him with a satisfied grin on his face, each person commanded an unfathomable aura of strength and strong killing intent. These were his black guards who served him loyally through missions that could not be revealed to the world.

Assassinations, bribery and spying were all their specialities and they had trained for many years under his careful instruction.

This was not an exceptional group to have as every noble house was engaged in shadow proxy wars with other nobles over issues of wealth and resources, so it became a necessity to train death guards.

"Are you clear on your mission?" he commanded in a rough tone.

The replies came immediately from the dark figures,

"Yes, my lord!"

"As you command my master!"

"If you ask me to go east, I will not dare to go west!"

The duke nodded slowly, the mission these guards were about to undertake was a perilous one with no acceptance for failure. Their very lives would be at risk and Rokan would personally snap their necks if it was not completed successful.

The dangerous mission…..

"Make sure you pick up my daughter from school tomorrow!"