Chapter 3

Vivian looked at Cliff with a questioning look. Cliff shrugged even more behind Sam and Jeff. Sam pushed Cliff to the front and said, " HEY, tell her that you heard enough. You don't have to be scared of her. She's no longer your master. If you're really that scared, I'll reassure you that the Prince will protect you. You already know that he is stronger and smarter than that witch. Cliff couldn't hold himself back and got angry at the words that Sam was saying about their lady. He shouted with his eyes shut and said , " SHUT UP!!!! How dare you say that about my lady. " He continued as he started tearing up, " She is the one and only master I'll serve. I'll never do anything to hurt her . She's kind and caring. She might sometimes be scary and .... and.... AND blind but she saved me. Her family saved you and look what you're saying to her. I LOVE MY LADY FOR WHO SHE IS , FOR SHE IS MY MASTER!!!!" Cliff started huffing and his face flash red because of the words he said .

Everyone went silent looking at Cliff. He ran in embarrassment and stood infront of Vivian defending her and he said, " Come at me, I'll protect my lady with my life."

Everyone had the same thought while looking at him , ... "Puppy."

But one was thinking of something else. Gracie was embarrassed and angry that Vivian didn't pay attention to her. Her face was flashed with anger . She clenched her fist with nails digging into her palm looking at Vivian with bloodshot eyes thinking, (How dare she ignores me? She's still looking down on me. That bitch, just die, DIE...DIE ALREADY. She treats me like air. I'll make you pay. Don't think that you'll make it out of here alive. ) . Gracie then held on to Isaac's hand and whispered, " You're highness, I think those two might really be of use to you. How about you send them to kill her in order to prove their loyalty to you. You can't be careless. "

When the 9th Prince was about to give the two an order, they had already drawn their swords out and swinging them at Vivian's people.

Sam said out loud, "You don't have to say that Future Empress. And his Royal highness doesn't have to give the order. I'm going to end her miserable life myself. After all, that is all I can do to really prove my loyalty to you."

Vivian looked at Gracie and 9th Prince holding hands and she clenched her fists in secret with a hurtful expression. Though Gracie didn't notice her clenched fist, she noticed the hurt on her face and smiled with delight and mouthed , "Even your best knights abundant you. Pathetic. "

Vivian leaned on Captain no.0 's shoulder with her heart hurting as if she was being stabbed by a thousand arrows . A foolish thought came across her mind , ( I should be the one by his side.) She paused her thoughts and laughed pathetically at herself as she said out loud, "Hahaha, I'm really stupid."

When Gracie was holding and mouthing words at Vivian, the 9th Prince Isaac noticed the hurt expression on Vivian face as she was looking at his hand locked with Gracies. His heart thumbed for a moment , he was about to pull his hand away from Gracie but he held Gracie's hand tightly. And thought to himself that he might not be feeling good. After all, he's been busy in the last passed weeks . Gracie felt pain from being held tightly and looked up the the 9th Prince who was still looking at Vivian with a complicated expression and she was in disbelief of what she saw on his face. ( hey, what's that expression on your face while looking at her. Are you feeling.....) ,she thought to herself. She then acted pitifully and said softly, " Isaac, it ...it hurts, you're hurting my hand. I know that you are angry because of her unrestrained actions of being in the arms of another man while saying she loved you. She's calculative and untrustworthy. I bet she lied to you about everything just to gain a higher status from you. Women like her should just stay away from kind people like you. She's not worthy of you anger or feelings. "

The 9th Prince looked at Gracie and thought to himself , ( I don't know who you're describing but I don't trust anyone, even you. You're just useful to me.) He paused his thoughts and continued thinking while looking at Gracie, ( But.... but how are you useful to me.) His thoughts went blank as he got a slight headache. He answered Gracie and said while looking at Vivian with a hateful expression , " who said I was angry? Is she worth it?"

Gracie smiled with delight and thought, (That's more like it.)

The fight continued. Sam and Jeff got hurt badly while fighting and that earned themselves trust from Prince , though Gracie doubted their loyalty for the Prince, she couldn't find fault with them for they really looked like they wanted to kill Vivian. She decided to observe for a while longer. Plus it seemed the Prince liked them and she herself didn't have a say in the situation. Because it will only look like she is too controlling. So she decided to make use of them. After all , they betrayed their master and chose the Prince, even if Vivian dies or lives, or even if they are spies ,they'll live in the palace as traitors who abandoned their master for a better life and that will be a good weapon to use on them.

At the end of the fight Vivian was able to be rescued but that didn't mean the price wasn't paid. They lost three out of ten knights and two out of ten knights were badly hurt. As for the palace knights , they were the ones who were most at lose because most of them died and got hurt even more worse than the DeLunar group of knights. The 9th Prince was very furious about the result of the battle. He lost most of his strongest knights and the person who is more of a threat to him is free . He could already smell war coming his way. He felt helpless for the out come of what was going to happen in the future. His life was easy so far and the thought of war drained some of his strength. But he wasn't scared much because he had faith in the power of the Elite Knight Order he will inherent after being the Emperor. After all, the Emperor needs a strong army to maintain the safety of the kingdom. So with him getting the throne in few days , meant he'll have power over the Elite Knight Order. And that made him confident that even if Vivian decided to wage war against him, he will definitely win.

Vivian Delunar and her group got on their way to the DeLunar territory. But they couldn't take the normal route because that will course problems like getting attacked by other knights . So they took the forest route where less people were. The forest route they took was dangerous because of predatory animals that lived there. But that of course wasn't a threat to them because they were strong. As they were running to the deepest side of the forest. Vivian who was carried by Captain no.0 looked back at Cliff . Cliff looked back at Vivian then shifted his gaze to the side. Vivian asked him, " Why did you do that Cliff? You could have been on the strongest side like Sam said. The Prince's side could have been the safest side for you."

Cliff looked at Vivian with a hurt expression and answered her," I'm sorry, I couldn't just do it. I like being by my lady's side. I don't want to see you hurt. Sam and Jeff are idiots. How could they say those words to own master?"

Every said in their heads, ( Cliff, you're the one who is an idiot, but I guess that's what makes you cute.)

Vivian looked at Cliff with a questioning look. Cliff's thoughts ran wild . He flinched and tripped on his feet and fell. Looked at Vivian then down with teary eyes and sniffles then said while murmuring, "Master Vivian doesn't want me anymore. Does she think I'm useless because of what happened back there?" He started tearing up and said out loud to Vivian, "My ... my lady, please...sniffle.. don't abundan me. I'm sorry, I'll do better next time." He continued crying. Some of the knights help him up and comforted him saying that he's thinking too much and he should come down. But that made him more depressed and thought that he really is useless. Because him acting like kid was bringing more trouble to the group. Plus in those comforting words he didn't hear them say that the lady needed him more than anyone. He just wanted to be more of use to Vivian than anyone else. Vivian looked at the depressed Cliff and said, " I won't abandon you, you are one of my knights after all."

Cliff wasn't comforted yet again because he thought he was bringing more stress to his lady who was already going through a lot more. As for Vivian, she was thankful to the words that Cliff said back then. They gave her some of her confidence back.

To be continued...