She Belongs To The Devil

A few more days had passed with the same strict routine. With every passing day, the test of worthiness was approaching closer and closer. The Princes and Princesses were preparing rigorously for their final test, the test that would determine their future, the test that would decide whether they were worthy to rule the Kingdom or not.

Adeline was training even harder than before. She would wake up at 4 in the morning and without wasting any second, she would start revising the theories like 'The Art of War', 'The Kingdom and Its People', 'Trade', 'Royal Laws of Wyverndale', and many more that she was taught since her early age.

After the revision, she would take a quick bath and take Rion out for a race. When she would complete 4-5 rounds of the race track, Adeline would stand in front of Rion and pretend that he was her opponent.

And then she would practice some of her fighting moves. Rion would sometimes respond by trying to kick her with his foreleg or trying to push her with his head. Adeline loved it when he acted that way.

She would return back to her quarter after that and eat some breakfast.. Then she would leave for the group training session. Her brothers and sisters were getting even more competitive with her, now that the test was approaching. The test had all of them on their toes.

She had begun to utilize the gap between two of her training by visiting the village. She had even made some friends in the village, apart from the witches of the Mystic Coven.

They didn't know that she was a Princess but they loved her because of how kind she was to them, and how beautiful she was. Even though she would dress up as modestly as she could, the villagers thought that she was a noblewoman from another village because of how well-behaved she was.

Adeline found out that the Royal Guards and the tax collectors were not bothering the villagers lately. She guessed that it was because Edwin was sick and thus he didn't have the energy to carry out his treachery. Though she felt a little bad for Edwin, she was glad that at least one of her problems was reduced for now.

Right now, Adeline was in the group training session with her brothers and sisters. As their test was approaching, the Generals were making them train even harder.

Adeline and Raphael were standing while facing each other. Both of them were holding double-edged arming swords in their hands. They were going to have a duel as a part of their training.

As soon as the General gave them a signal to begin the fight, the two opponents began to circle each other slowly. This time, Adeline was not going straight for the attack but she was going to play defensively to put what General Osmond had taught her for the last few days into practice.

Raphael also noticed the sudden change in Adeline's tactics but he saw this as an opportunity to defeat Adeline. "I see that you are playing defensive all of a sudden. Let's see how well you fare," Raphael thought to himself and smirked.

Then he charged towards Adeline and slashed his sword forward. Adeline waited for the perfect moment and just when the sword was about to land on her chest, she quickly blocked the attack from her brother.

She swiftly pulled away and took a step back. Then again, she waited for Raphael to attack her. Like before, she managed to deflect his attack with little to no effort, a few seconds before the sword would land on her.

The attacking and defending went on for quite some time. Raphael would feel as though he would get Adeline when he would see his sword inches away from her but she would block them at the last moment.

"I hope you are not making fun of me in your own silly way, dear sister," Raphael was screaming in his mind because of the frustration of not being able to land a single attack.

Because Adeline was not attacking vigorously and wasn't trying to end the fight quickly, the duel lasted longer than it normally would.

"Okay, I think this is enough for now," Adeline thought to herself as she felt that the two of them were taking too much time of the training. Then she dashed forward as she would usually do and swung her sword.

The sound of the swords clanking against each other was echoing throughout the ground. And gradually, the clanking sound sped up.

Raphael was having a hard time countering all the attacks in time and eventually, Adeline had her sword pointed at his neck. Raphael raised his hand and accepted defeat while joking, "Try not to kill me, sister. That sword is a real one."

The General clapped his hand and then announced, "Adeline is the winner, as always."

Adeline and Raphael climbed down of the platform and the General looked at the other Princes and Princesses and asked, "Now, who wants to go next?"

After the other two pairs also had their duel session, the training session came to an end.

Adeline waited for all the others so that they could leave the training ground together. She had been doing that for a while now because she also wanted to blend in with her brothers and sisters.

All six of them gathered together and were ready to leave towards their respective quarter.

While they were walking together, Nefriti was clinging to Adeline as usual. And Nefriti asked to Adeline, "Adeline, how is your personal training going on with General Osmond? I heard that he was teaching you something new and also that you were training really hard."

Adeline didn't know how Nefriti could tell that the General was teaching her something new. But she didn't think much of it. She just thought that everyone was on edge because of the upcoming test and they just wanted to know how she was doing.

Adeline could feel that everyone was keenly waiting to hear her answer. She smiled sweetly and then answered so that all of them could hear her, "The training is going quite well. It's nothing new. The General has been teaching me the same old stuff but just intense than before."

She didn't say what the General was really teaching her because if she told that to them now, then after taking the test she was sure that they would know she had access to the insider detail about the test beforehand. She didn't want to be called a cheater. And she definitely didn't want any fingers raised towards her if she would be chosen as the future ruler.