Chapter Twenty Seven: Crazy
It was as if she suddenly fell into a trance after witnessing the little girl get murdered in cold blood right in front of her.
The arrow was heading toward her from behind but there had been no reaction from her so far.
However, she wasn't in a trance, she could clearly see what was going on around her and she knew when both of the guards beside her were taken out but everything was just too much for her to process at the moment.
She had to go into a quick pause to process her thought and in this state of pause, her sense of time suddenly slowed down or you could say her thinking speed was quite fast when she concentrated on just one thing.
'What the heck is going on? That girl, why was she the only one that got shot among the crowd, was it because of what she said? Yeah, of course, it has to be, that's the only reasonable explanation, just what is this black market and why are they after me too?'
She was still in her thought process with the arrow inching closer to her every millisecond when she suddenly heard a disturbingly loud scream come from the side breaking through the barrier she set up to block outside noise.
"Your Highness!" The Secretary who was shaking on the floor had to scream out her lungs just to get her to react to what was coming from behind and it looked like it worked.
Just before the arrow could get to her neck and pierce through it just like it did to the guards, she tapped her foot on the floor as a small pillar of ice quickly rose up from the floor and blocked the arrow just in time.
The one from behind was successfully blocked but that wasn't all as two more came flying toward her from behind.
Both of the arrows were coming toward her from both sides at the same time so what she did was quickly form a long spear and with a quick spin she was able to knock away the both of them.
'Which one of you is the closest?' She thought as her gaze kept moving randomly between the three places to find their positions but so far, she had not been able to spot them, it was like they were keeping themselves hidden with something.
Another one quickly came flying toward her from behind, but just before it could get to her, she quickly turned around and used her spear to block it but she seemed to have forgotten that there was one more person below.
He fired his arrow toward her when she least expected it and that would have been critical If she had not moved a little to the left just out of instinct.
The arrow only managed to tear through her dress grazing her shoulder in the process but she didn't look at that as she quickly shot her gaze down toward the large tree a little to the left just in front of the academy.
"There you are." She muttered with a panting voice before she sent the ice spear flying straight toward there.
She didn't stop with just throwing the spear because if anyone was going to catch any of these culprits it was going to be her.
"Don't get up yet." She said to the secretary who was still who was still trembling on the floor with her hands covering her mouth.
She didn't even wait for her response before she quickly jumped down from the battlement and quickly began to make her way to the tree.
The culprit knew she was on to him now and quickly rolled out from behind the tree to fire an arrow toward her.
However, all it took for her to avoid that was just a little flick of her head to the right.
He wanted to use that to at least slow her down but now that it didn't work, he just got up and started running down.
He was putting on a black coat with a hood to cover his head so there was no way she could see his face.
"Hey, come back here!" She yelled before she quickly rushed to the tree and pulled out the ice spear.
What she wanted to do was slow him down by throwing the spear at him but he had already gotten to the alley down the left so she quickly put the spear down and charged forward toward him with an even greater speed this time.
Devon was already making his way out of the area because none of this concerned him although he took advantage of the chaos to do some swiping.
He felt a bit sad after watching the little girl get murdered last night but it wasn't like it was his fault.
Nobody was in the area anymore besides the mother who was still weeping beside her child so it would be odd for him to just stand there.
'I never knew spilling the black market's secret was this serious.'
He was about to leave the academy grounds when he stopped and decided to take a quick look back.
That was when he spotted the princess making her way toward her alley with her ice spear in her hand.
'So, she's still alive.'
Perhaps heading down the alley wasn't the best option for the man in black because he was heading toward a dead end now while being in the clear view of the princess who was quickly closing up on him now.
Just as he was reaching the dead end, he quickly pulled out an arrow from his quiver and was about to fit it into his crossbow when the princess quickly sent her spear flying straight at him.
"Shatter." She muttered just as the spear was about to get to him.
The spear immediately broke into tiny pieces of ice blade and they showed his body no mercy, piercing through his arms, abdomen, and chest.
He was forced to let go of the crossbow as he crashed to the floor with a groan.
The pain he was feeling now was unbearable because of how he got hit on different parts of his body at once but he was still struggling to crawl away even though there was nowhere to run.
The princess let out a sigh as she slowly made his way to him, and just as she got close enough to him, she removed her tiara from her head and it immediately transformed into a red rope which she quickly tied around his neck and quickly pulled him closer.
"Now, let's find out who you are." She muttered under her breath before pulling down the hood.
However, what she was seeing now was not what she expected.
"Huh?" She gasped with a shocked expression on her face.
The person she had been chasing with the conviction that he had to be a man turned out to be a silver-haired girl who didn't look that much older than her.
"You're a woman?"
"Yeah, and what about it?" She retorted with a strained voice as blood slowly sipped out from her mouth and ran down her chin.
"Why did you kill that girl and why are you trying to kill me?" She questioned with an assertive voice.
Her voice sounded a bit off when she found out who she was dealing with but now she was back to her normal composure.
"Oh, I just needed to startle the crowd and distract you and I thought it was a great idea to do it with the little girl who doesn't know how to shut up." She answered with an evil grin on her face.
The princess should have seen that coming, no normal person would just shoot a little girl like that, only a crazy person would casually do something like that just like the woman in front of her now.
"I would have loved to shoot down more people but every other I had left had to go into shooting you…."
"Shut up!" The princess yelled in detest before pulling the rope to tighten its grip on her neck.
She expected her to start with her hand on her neck but instead she broke into a feat of maniacal laughter instead.
'Just how crazy is she?'
She was quite startled and had to loosen up the rope a bit just to get her to stop and answer her next question.
"I can see that you have no regard for human life so there's no reason for me to feel any form of remorse toward you."
"You were feeling remorse…."
She was about to break into another feat of laughter with that but the princess quickly pulled the rope to seize her voice before loosening it up again.
"Now answer this question or I'll make sure your death is slow and painful." She snarled with a very threatening look on her face.
The woman looked like she was about to say something which led her to pull the rope once again and it looked like she was finally starting to cause her pain with the groan she let out after she loosened the rope again.
"Why are you trying to kill me?"
"Does it matter? You'll still die, just like your father." She stared deep into her eyes as she spelled out those words.
"Huh?"
It didn't take long for her to realize what was happening, there was someone right behind her with a crossbow, and in the position she was in right now, she lacked the time and space to react to a shot from a crossbow.