She Belongs To The Devil

Nefriti was the most frightened out of them all. She looked as though she would faint at any moment now.

"How did the King find out that we had gone to the market?" Claudia asked Adeline.

"I had gone to take his permission to visit the market. And he found out after he talked with me." Adeline simply revealed the truth. And she thought to herself that they had indeed snuck out of the Palace the last time.

Nefriti sneered and snapped at Adeline all of a sudden, "How could you? I thought you were going to keep that a secret!"

Adeline scoffed and instantly replied in a stern voice, "Why are you shouting at me when you were the one to deceive me saying that you had already taken permission from the King? Had you been truthful to me, I would have asked the permission myself."

"And besides, I was the one who convinced our father not to punish us. So, don't accuse me of anything." Adeline narrowed her gaze at Nefriti at that sudden outburst.

She could not take it how Nefriti was the one who was at fault but she was the one raising her voice. Nefriti was treating her as though it was her fault that the King had caught on to their lies.

Nefriti was also glaring back at Adeline while breathing heavily. She wanted to say something back but she knew that it was her fault all along. And Adeline was speaking nothing but the truth.

Raphael and Gustin glanced at each other and then slowly took a few steps away from Adeline and Nefriti. If a fight was going to break out then they were ready to look the other way and walk away. They did not want to be in the middle of the fight between the girls.

But Kaela courageously stepped in between Adeline and Nefriti and said, "Hey, stop glaring at each other like that!" She dragged Nefriti away and said to her, "The King didn't punish us, did he? So quit it already. It was not Adeline's fault."

Nefriti finally calmed down a little. She glanced at Adeline with softer eyes and spoke somewhat hesitantly, "I'm sorry, Adeline. I shouldn't have lied to you… and shouted at you."

"It's okay," Adeline gave a mirthless smile to Nefriti. Then she pointed towards the direction of her quarter and said, "I will leave now."

Raphael gave a sweet smile to Adeline and then waved his hand, "See you tomorrow, Adeline."

Adeline gave a warm smile to Raphael before walking away from there.

Claudia kept on staring as Adeline kept on walking further away. The others had already started to walk in another direction that would lead to their quarters. Claudia walked away only after Adeline vanished from her view.

She sprinted towards where Raphael and the others were headed and caught up to them.

Claudia had asked all of them to go out on a dinner with a plan to interrogate Adeline some more. She knew that delicious food was Adeline's weakness and she had plans to use that as a way to pamper Adeline and extract information out of her.

She was still suspicious that Adeline knew something about the test that they didn't know. And she wanted to know what she was hiding from them. But as the dinner plan was shattered because of the argument between Adeline and Nefriti, she thought of a different plan.

She walked alongside the other Princes and Princesses and said, "How would you all like it if two of the strongest contenders for the throne were out of our way?"

All of the others glanced at her questioningly.

And Claudia began to poison their minds with greed, "One of the strongest contenders is already weak." She could feel the glare from all the others and she nodded her head, "Yes, I am talking about Edwin. Without him, we are one step closer to the throne. And who is the other person who is even stronger than him?"

Nefriti clutched her fists and gritted from between her teeth, "Adeline!"

A sinister smile lurked on Claudia's face because she could feel that Nefriti was already in her pocket. She had chosen the right time to plant the seeds of jealousy in Nefriti's mind. And even though Nefriti had been closer to Adeline for the past few weeks, she was the first one to jump in at whatever Claudia was cooking up.

"I know that when we fight alone, we are no match for Adeline. But what if we all work together to weaken that strongest contender for the throne?" Claudia raised her brows and gave a questioning glance to the others.

Raphael had deep frowns on his forehead. He looked as though he was trying hard not to slap Claudia then and there. He clenched his fist and spoke in anger, "I will pretend I didn't hear that." He wanted to say something more but he forcefully pressed his lips together and then stormed away from there.

Claudia then glanced at the remaining others. She could clearly see it on their faces that a fight between their morality and their greed was going on inside of them.

Then she decided to appeal to their morality and spoke slyly, "I am not saying that we beat her to her death or we do something severe to her." She faced all the others and spoke slowly so as to make an impact, "She is strong in a suspicious way… she almost has superhuman strength as compared to us."

"What are you suggesting then?" Kaela asked with curiosity.

Claudia could feel that Kaela's mind was already vulnerable and she thought to herself while trailing her eyes towards Gustin, "Two down, one more to go."

Claudia then replied as though she was saying nothing wrong, "I am just saying that we bring Adeline down to our level so that the fight will be fair. She shouldn't be having that monstrous strength in the first place, so we won't be doing anything wrong here."

Everyone was just assuming that they would be dueling with each other and the last one standing would win. If that was the case, Adeline could easily be the winner.

Finally, Gustin took a deep breath and said in a monotone, "If we aren't killing her then I am in."