Chapter 3

Once morning came, my body had completely regained its strength and my Ki had adapted to my new body.

I had breakfast with the food that I bought yesterday then once again, I merged with my shadows.

I headed to the main palace, also known as the Golden Palace, for the marble building was decorated with golden ornaments. It had three gardens, hundreds of rooms and a gigantic ball and throne room. It was truly a magnificent palace befitting the great Emperor of Athalone.

It was well guarded with several big Knights in golden armours and they all carried very well-crafted swords. They had magical energy in them instead of Ki but their aura was still strong. I guessed they received very good training.

I wandered around, took a few snacks from the kitchen and spent the rest of my time in the library. There were not many books in the library of the castle where I was so I had to get information from the main palace.

As I went through the history books, I understood more and more about this new world. It was truly a place of fantasy and magic was a big component of this Empire. Almost everything worked with magic and the Imperial Family was one of the families that had the most amount of magical energy.

I also learnt that there were currently nine Kingdoms under the Empire, making it extremely big and wealthy. I got the chance to be reborn in such a great place and I was going to make use of this opportunity to the fullest.

The more I read, the more my curiosity was piqued. It was such a fascinating world and even my bloodline ancestors were amazing. We were descendants of a red dragon. That was so amazing! The blood of the king of all mythical beasts ran through me and so did his powers.

Well, I was a new generation so the actual percentage of his power would not be that much. However, we were talking about a dragon so even a small percentage would make me even more powerful. I wanted to get a hold of it but I guessed I would have to wait until I got a proper education on magic.

Then, I would be able to mix it with my Ki and become a new person. Thinking about all the incredible things I could do with all this knowledge got me quite excited.

As I continued my information adventure through the books, time passed by and soon it was evening. I got back up and started looking for the Emperor's room.

It took me a while but as I sensed a special aura, I climbed upstairs from the balcony and finally found the Emperor. He was in a huge bedroom filled with the most expensive furniture and decorations.

I opened the door slowly and then went inside. Suddenly, an incredible pressure paralysed me. It came from the man sleeping on the bed. He had messy black hair and looked extremely pale. If not for my powers, I would have been crushed by his monstrous aura. So this was the great Emperor of Athalone.

As I made another move inside, he suddenly woke up. Had he sensed my presence? I took a deep breath to focus. I had to get my act together beneficial situation. And so I turned into the fragile little girl I used to be before gaining back my memories. Then he got up slowly and turned to me.

"Who...?" he said in a small dry voice.

Then he stopped and stood there speechless as he stared at me. His eyes were of a deep bloody crimson red and he looked so exhausted he looked quite dead.

"Koralina... It's you, right? How did you enter?" he asked as he walked towards me slowly.

"So.... you do remember me even after all this time," I said.

I did not expect him to. But perhaps this could be a good thing.

"Father... I won't ask why you abandoned me.... nor will I resent you... But could you please listen to my request... I will not bother you ever again after that. And if you want me to, I will even disappear from your sight," I said.

"W... What? .... Why... would I want that?" he asked as he finally reached me.

He suddenly started swaying and finally crumbled onto me.

"Father? What's wrong?" I asked then I felt the high temperature emanating from him.

He was burning with a hot fever. I thought he never got sick since he was this strong. How was this possible? And just when I went to meet him too...

He started moaning in pain as he breathed heavily. This was very bad. He was slowly losing consciousness in my arms and seemed to be in extreme pain. Just what happened to him?

"Who is there?!" exclaimed a man with pastel green hair.

He then ran towards me as he saw father's state. There were a bunch of doctors and maids behind him and one of them called the guards. The man with pastel hair quickly grabbed father and brought him back to his bed while the guards grabbed him.

"Don't harm her, she is the second daughter of the Emperor," he said.

But the Knights were being rather hostile towards me.

"Not even the Empress is allowed in here how did she get in?" they whispered among them.

"Princess, what happened here?" asked the pastel man.

"That's.... my question... why is he ill? He is supposed to be the strongest how did he get sick? I heard he never even catch a cold but why.... why just when I finally get to meet him, he is in that state? That's unfair!" I exclaimed as I glared at him.

"Princess....," he whispered.

The oldest doctor then shook his head, "you should not let this kid here. The Emperor needs peace. Especially when he has evil forces channelling through him," he said as he went to father.

"Evil forces? Are you sure?" asked pastel hair.

"Yes, I've felt it ever since I came in here. It is evil inside the Emperor. And to get rid of it, we should probably call the Holy Temple. Magic is not working on him," said the old doctor.

I stared at him in shock. What did he just say?

Evil? What? He was sick because he had evil forces in him? And pastel hair man believed in his nonsense?

Oh no..... this world was doomed...  It did say in the books that this Empire was quite religious. Not only did they have several Gods, but their religious establishment was also powerful enough to intervene in Imperial decisions. Therefore, if that quack of a doctor said that, then of course that other man would believe him.

I clenched my fists as my anger rose. This situation was ridiculous. I did not have time for this, I had important things to do and a well-devised plan that would help me start a new life. I got this opportunity so I could not waste it, especially while listening to such an idiotic diagnosis.

"Let go," I said in a small voice.

"Silence! You should not disturb the elders," replied one of the Knights.

I took a deep breath and then let out three per cent of my aura, dropping the temperature of the room.

"I said let go you fucking moron," I groaned coldly.

Everyone looked at me in shock.

"Pastel hair, are you the aid of my father?" I asked.

"Yes, I am!" he replied.

"Right, you look like an aid after all. Good then get rid of all these stupid people. Not one of them can cure him," I said.

"What?! How dare you little brat call us highly qualified imperial doctors, stupid?!" exclaimed the old man.

"You said that my father had evil forces channelling through him. That's just bullshit," I replied as I walked towards him.

"Wha- Bullshit?! How dare you?!" he snapped.

"I dare because I am a right old man. Evil forces aren't the cause of this," I replied.

"Then what is the cause princess?" asked pastel hair.

"Well, I can only know that once I inspect him," I replied.

"Huh? You? A small girl like you should just go help her mother at home. You don't even have any manners, what are you even babbling?!" growled the old man.

"I don't have a mother to go help and I do have manners but morons don't deserve to receive any form of etiquette or respect from me," I said.

"What?!" he exclaimed, ready to cut my throat open.

Suddenly the bed shook as father punched it and got up slowly.

"That's.... enough! Insult that kid... one more time.... and I'll have your head exposed on the exterior wall of the palace," said father.

Everyone stayed silent then he looked at me, still breathing heavily.

"Do you know what I have?" he asked.

"You look exhausted, deprived of sleep and proper nutrients. So my guess is that you are having backslashes from living an unhealthy life. From the look in your eyes, I can already tell that you are an insomniac and from your pale skin and the coldness of the hands that I felt earlier, you are probably anaemic too. But I need to take a closer look to know exactly what's wrong.

However, I can say these simple facts based on my observations, you probably cannot eat well. You are a picky eater because food makes you nauseous. As I said, you have insomnia but that's because you are affected by nightmares or heavy memories that haunt your conscience. And you probably hear voices in your head every time you let your thoughts wander for too long. You have post-traumatic syndromes from the multiple wars you participated in," I said.

I knew this well since I had it in my past life. He stared at me then slowly fell back on the bed.

"Your Majesty!" exclaimed his aid.

"Marcus.... have her check on me thoroughly. She was able to say all these things accurately with barely what she saw," said father.

"Your Majesty you cannot be serious, she's just a kid," replied the doctor.

"A kid would not even know what post-trauma is. She has earned my trust," said father.

A small light of hope lit up inside me. I quickly went by his side as he fell unconscious once more. I took his hand in mine, then used my ki to infiltrate his body. I could not vividly see inside his body and found something quite horrifying.

He had a fiery monster locked up inside her. It was so powerful that it could be if it were unsealed. And it seemed that his high temperature was due to this monster. As for his insides, wee they were not in good shape. He was dehydrated, lacked nutrients and was completely exhausted. It was even incredible that he held out for so long.

I opened my eyes then took a pan and paper and wrote down the ingredients I needed to make his medicines.

"Bring me these so that I can give him the right medication. I was right there are no evil forces inside him. His body has just given in to all the exhaustion he accumulated during all these years," I said.

"Really?" asked the aid.

I nodded, "go get the ingredients already. It might just be exhaustion but he could die if we let him be," I replied.

He then quickly headed out and he took the doctors, maids and Knights away as well. Now I could finally have some peace of mind. Who would have thought I would end up curing him...

I guess the rumours about him killing his employee were just a rumour to cover his sickness. It reminded me of my past life once again.