Chapter 4: Princess of the North

I'm here again, a starfish in my bed staring up at the ceiling.

My outing was good, yeah. I enjoyed my time buying enough food for 3 adults, being recognized by all the vendors as the "Genius Lightning", and learning that the asshole who called me a fly an a pig was little Marquess Li of the Eastern Empire.

I haven't even entered the academy yet but my life already seems to be going downhill. Well, what does the little marquess have to do with me anyways. All that happened was I ran into him and he was an asshole.

I rolled over to my side, grabbing the pillow my head was on to hold my head.

Little Marquess Li was known as the handsome bachelor of the Eastern Empire. He's one of the few noble heirs who isn't officially engaged even at his age, and many ladies across the eastern hemisphere and even some ladies from the western countries has come knocking on their door. Marquess Li -- the father -- is a known war hero who lead the Eastern Empire throughout their conquest of the east over 50 years ago, and now the son is known for his perfectly balanced yin and yang water resonance. What does that mean to be perfectly balanced? Well it means you can utilize both yin and yang water. Yin water allows you to cool things down, utilize ice and snow in various forms like weather, it can nurture the growth of wood and even heal wounds. Yang water allows you to heat things up, create steam and thermal energy, it can be used to buff your body for extra strength or powers, and this is only touching the surface. It's no wonder that he's famous for his abilities. There were even rumors that he cured some incurable diseases with his water.

I rolled back to face the ceiling and let out a long breath.

There's a lot of impressive people at the academy, and many more that will become impressive in the future will be at the second exam with me. Even people who obtain high scores from the first exam might not pass the second exam so I'm getting ahead of myself thinking about my school life. Anyways, I'm not sure why any academy would even accept someone like me. Yang Lightning. That was only good for destruction. It was yin lightning that provided electricity to power the lights and other electronics, and most people who resonate with yin lightning become electricians or electrical engineers because there's not much else they can do. Yang lightning is different. It doesn't flow as a current. It's the lightning strikes that come down from the sky to burn up a tree, it's explosive, instantaneous, destructive. The worst part, it's not very flexible. It's only capable of doing one thing and that's destruction.

Sadly, the world is relatively peaceful and the last wars happened over 50 years ago with the Eastern Empires conquests. My destructive nature and power? Pretty much useless. I would have to start my villain arc to make sure of what I have.

I closed my eyes and sighed again, the darkness enveloping me.

---

A loud, annoying buzzing sound woke me from my slumber. It should be my alarm. I reached over to grab my phone and pulled it under the covers, checking the time. 7:00 AM. There's still lots of time.

---

I sprung up in bed and looked out the window. Why does the sun look like it's so high up in the sky already? I looked down at my hand still holding my phone. 11:48 AM.

Wait. 11:48? I dropped my phone on the bed and scrambled out, tripping on the covers that fell on the floor in my panic, falling straight onto my knees. The second exam starts in 12 minutes! At noon sharp! I'm going to be late, it takes like 15 minutes just to walk to the academy grounds from here.

I got up, the adrenaline muting the aching pain on my knees. Threw a dark red sleeveless corduroy dress over the white shirt I wore to sleep and some white socks. Stepping into my penny loafers I ran out of my attic inn room and almost rolled down the stairs. I waved to the innkeeper behind the counter as I ran out.

I need to fly.

Running with all my might, my eyes watering and stinging from the wind, I ran past the bridge, through the busy lunch time marketplace and straight out towards the clearing between the other side of the town and the Academy entrance.

A crowd had already gathered in front of the Academy entrance. It must be all the everyone who passed the first exam. It looks like the second exam has already started as potential students were queueing up on all sides. The crowd got closer and closer and as I slowed down, and blended in, pretending I wasn't late.

I wiped my eyes off and tidied up my unruly hair before getting into the back of a queue. I'd missed the entirety of the instructions for the second exam, maybe someone will help me out?

I tapped on the shoulder of the student in front of me. Her cotton candy pink hair was tied up like a pom-pom, it almost hit me in the head when she turned to face me.

"I ... was a little late to get here..." I stuttered a bit, staring into the grass below my feet "do you mind letting me know what the instructions are for the exam?"

Her body turned to face me.

"Sure!" her voice was like bells, chiming in the slight spring breeze "they just said to line up, they'll give us individual instructions when it's our turn." she seemed bubbly "say, aren't you the Lightning Genius from the the first exam?"

I looked up from my entertaining view of the grass below my feet.

"How did you know?" she had a small face, round blue eyes and a cute button nose, looking at me with a mischievous grin.

"You're pretty famous you know, with your long silver hair and all. People have been calling you the Princess of the North, now I can see why" she giggled, covering her mouth with her left hand.

"Princess of the N- hey!" she turned around and started walking towards the line that had moved away from us "what do you mean by that?"

"There were rumors that the royals and nobles of some conquered kingdoms in the north had light colored hair so people have adopted that nickname for you, since the color is so unusual." she said nonchalantly while typing into her phone.

"I'm just a commoner..." I didn't want these nicknames, I just wanted to lay low.

"I don't think people really care so much about who you are, just that your circumstances are pretty interesting." she looked up from her phone and smiled at me again "I'm Seranna, call me Anna, let's be friends, I like you."

"I'm sorry?"

"No, I'm Anna."

"No, I mean.... nevermind, I'm Yin."

We walked forward with the examinees as more were ushered into the examination area inside the Academy grounds.

"Yin huh, matches your hair color."

We'd reached the front of the line, and the examiner gestured for her to enter.

"Make sure you pass, I'll see you at the academy!" she twirled around to wave at me while walking backwards into the testing area.