Chapter 99: I am Above You Now
[3rd Person POV]
The night did not wait for the meeting between the two leaders to end as it continued to go deeper, however, Sophia and Roselle also did not care about time as they started to form a rather beautiful friendship, or at least that is what Roselle was thinking. And at the same time, in a corridor that connects to the queen's chambers, the other Queen of Kamatayan is walking rather leisurely.
_The last time I was here, I was a subordinate in name, now I am walking as a royalty._
Eleanor looked around the decorated way as she continued walking forward, the maids walking past her panicked a little as they bowed at her, leaving her quite satisfied and wondering if this is what prideful people like Sophia feel when people are saluting or bowing to them. At the same time, she cannot help but remember the times when she was still serving the King of Gjallarhorn, she went from being oblivious as to why her mother Urduja is not visiting the capital often to alienating herself in Heimdall because of the hidden hostility between her family and King Roselle.
_However, this time, I am strolling around as a double agent... of some kind._
Eleanor doesn't feel guilty at all, after all, she has already done things inside the Five pronged forest that made her able to swallow her conscience, and it's not like she is doing anything that will harm Heimdall or Gjallarhorn, she is just visiting the current queen and her close friend, Queen Khearsenbelle I.
_She's a very rebellious royalty, I hope she will not be caught up with all of this._
Almost all of the nobles in Gjallarhorn have a similar training regime for their sons and daughters, and that is for their children to become adventurers, as a noble herself, Eleanor also received such training and one of her first party mates was the then commoner Khearsenbelle, the said lady is the one who thought her to be a little more proactive that led to her staying in the forest in the search of her test subject and later wife, Sophia.
It can be said that besides Urduja who made her a strong fighter and a reliable healer, Khearsenbelle gave her the strength to proudly tell the world that she is the daughter of humanity's strongest hero.
_Will Sophia be jealous if I told my thoughts to her, I wonder._
The still rather relaxed Eleanor thought so as she continued to walk towards the room of Queen Khearsenbelle, suddenly she squinted her eyes and could not help but remember the current predicament and the very timely sickness of her friend. She subconsciously made her movements faster, making her arrive at the periphery of the bedroom in haste.
Her heels clacked as she started to walk towards the bedroom, with excitement and worry evident in her eyes, so worried she was that she did not even notice any abnormality, and only when she felt a danger aimed at her nape did she ducked suddenly, covering her head, such an action lasted for just a second, her eyes immediately darted upwards to see the assailant, her seemingly subconsciously rage-filled eyes widened as she saw a dagger with an engraving of the coat of arms of the Spy network of Gjallarhorn.
_Prince Noire!?_
Eleanor was shocked for a second as well confused, for she did not expect the leader of the spy network of the Kingdom and the youngest sibling of the King to attack her, however, such shock and confusion only lasted for a second as she immediately twisted her body and performed a roundhouse kick to the prince who have just clicked his tongue and looked at her with ferocity and lingering fear.
_I wonder what was that about..._
Eleanor thought so to herself as her foot landed right on the cheek of Prince Noire, causing several teeth to spew out of his mouth alongside some blood, because of the momentum of the powerful kick, he also found himself flying towards the wall, something that he failed to stop because of the tension he was currently feeling.
Eleanor looked at the prince, seemingly angered as to hide the questions on her mind as she immediately controlled the wall at the back of the prince, creating a spear that pierced through the two shoulders of the prince.
"ARGH!!!"
The pain of being penetrated (Author:?) immediately formed a large shout from the bottom of Prince Noire's vocal chord, the unknown origins of the tension he is feeling seemed to explode as he shouted with anger, looking at Eleanor, effectively his subordinate who have just pierced his shoulders as guards started to surround the area.
Seeing this, the pinned Prince immediately shouted.
"You dare attack your prince!?"
Eleanor looked at Noire for a full second as something within her, presumably her pride took a blow as she shouted back.
"YOU dare attack a QUEEN!?"
The Prince looked at her with shock and then noticed that the guards were not putting up their weapons and pointed them toward Eleanor, he then was hit with a realization.
Eleanor is now a queen! In short, she is above him now! And what's more, Eleanor's spouse is a person mad enough to fight Urduja one on one, and come out of it alive!
Just as the terrifying realization of his mistake dawned on him, Eleanor continued her angered speech.
"Well, any reasons?"
The Prince tried his best to escape the two spears of bricks in his shoulders as he started to regret his decision or more like impulse. He started to regret it all as he desperately tried to get out of his predicament.
_I JUST WANT TO SCARE THE HERO AWAY!_
Just as he thought of that, a soft gale emitted in the space between Prince Noire and Eleanor, a small lady then wrapped her hand around Eleanor's waist and protected her against the guards and the man in front of Eleanor, her rapier drawn. Sophia doesn't even know what happened, but she is sure that she will side with Eleanor even if her wife decides to draw blood from these soldiers just as she has done to the man.
Sophia then looked at the man, her eyes sharp like a blade and her voice sounded like a deity finding a suitable subject for her wrath.
W̸̩̓̎͗̓̎͐̍̎͠ͅh̵̘̣͓͓̱̼͆̇́͆̓͆̀͑̀͠a̴̻͎̜̩̝̪̼̙̰̻̪̤̣̅̀̾̽̽͑̈́͛͛̅͒͊͝͠ṯ̵̨͖̝͇͔̦̲͍̞͌̄͒͌ ̶̨̡̙̫̮̼̻͕̞̻̰̊͋́h̵͔̦̙̘̭͋͋͛̂ǎ̵͉̩̭̳̊͝͠v̸̤̖̳̙͇̝̗̹̬̻̺̽ę̴́͂̆̈͝ ̵̥͉̯̗̪̂̂̀̓̉́̉̏̕y̶̛͙̖̦̟̜͓̱̠̰̥̟̓͂͂̏̿͌͆̿͂͛͛͜͜ȫ̸̡̢̹̗̩̬̀̑̋͆́̆̂̄̎͋͌͠u̷̗̺͕̍͋̔̇͊ ̶̢̡̡̛͈̣̫̭͓͍̗͖̲̙̎̏̒́̓͘͠d̵̢͎͙̥͈̘̩̱̳̈̂̍̂̈́́̊́̋͘ǫ̶̜͙̒̾̒̕͜ͅn̷̛͙̟̲̹̭̩͎̂̇̇̒͜ë̴̡̧̛̯̮̣̟̫͈̤̱͈́̈́̓̏̌̽̓̏̃̚͘͜͜͝͝͠?̸̼̦̣̰͉̦̍̅͒͐̒̿̀͘ (What have you done?)
As she said those words, she pointed her sword at Noire and if seen from an outsider's perspective, one will see a pitiful prince being picked on by two queens, but because Noire knew that he was in the wrong, he could not help but shudder uncontrollably, his eyes wanted to escape the staredown with Sophia but the fear of the unknown powers of the new hero kept him from doing anything remotely rebellious to his fate.
Luckily for him, he still had a brother of equal standing to Sophia, King Roselle did not even hesitate as he blocked the field of vision of Sophia, successfully breaking the eye contact of his brother and his diplomatic friend. He then smiled and looked at Sophia a little awkwardness evident in his eyes and said.
"Hey, it seems that there is a misunderstanding, perhaps my brother is drunk or has been drugged by some people wanting him dead, causing him to act rashly, please let me deal with this matter personally."
The King looked at Sophia, his Adam's apple moving as he gulped because of nervousness, Sophia saw this and thought that it was not worth it to fight over "trivial" matters (as she saw that Eleanor was one poke to the heart away before killing Prince Noire), so she nodded and sighed as she answered: "Alright, we shall go to our quarters."
Just as the love birds were walking, Eleanor could not help but ask, her tone had an evident worry on them.
"How about the queen?"
Sophia just looked at her and smirked, as they continued walking with her hand still grabbing the slender waist of Eleanor, then replied.
"Didn't you see the two maids on the two sides of the Queen's door? They are looking at nothingness with stern expressions even though there is a commotion and a prince almost dying at a foreign monarch's hands. This affirms that there is something wrong with the queen, and because we are not sure of the whole situation, it is best if we don't interact with the queen for the time being."
Eleanor immediately turned sad as she nodded weakly, again like the last time she had her unexpected violence, it was as if she had not just almost murdered a prince, all she thought of was her friend, Khearsenbelle.
However, Sophia still feels so angry towards the prince that she does not bother to know his name, so she contacts Bakunawa and orders.
"Freeze the room of the prince that will go out of the throne room."
______
In the throne room of King Roselle, he alongside his back-haired brother stared at each other as the two important figures of the Gjallarhorn Kingdom seemed to be in a deadlock, one was at the seat of power, and the other was kneeling in the floor with his shoulders still bleeding like a fountain, after a while, King Roselle sighed, nodding.
"So this is what happened, you are not satisfied with me asking Hara Sophia's assistance and want us to resolve our problem on our own, so you plan on abducting Queen Eleanor without knowing all the things that she has gone through, supporting Sophia in her conquest of the great forest and later on capturing her heart, so you got injured instead and almost died in the hands of her wife, yup I understand it fully, makes sense."
Prince Noire, who is still on the edge due to his lingering fear, smiled, for he did not expect his brother King to be able to understand where he was coming from.
"I... I know you would understand me brothe- ARGH!!!"
Before Noire could even relish in joy, he was struck by a bolt of lightning that descended from the ceiling of the room.
"Like hell I do."
The blue-colored eyes of Roselle sparkled, causing further fear to his already wary and somewhat cowardly brother to cry as he continued to pour him with electricity, pained and begging cry reverberated through the throne room and only the noise-canceling spell could hide the "argument" between two brothers. Only after five minutes of continued electrocution did the King stop, leaving a charred corpse in the throne room, however, the charred corpse suddenly dispersed and revealed a fully healthy Noire, though he still looked at his brother in horror.
"Listen, I am not our ancestors, I am not a hero, I cannot protect this place alone, neither can you. Did you listen to me when I talked to you about this? Our most reliable homing spell was not able to detect the appearance of our greatest enemy's subordinates, if they wanted to, they would have destroyed this place already, if that happened the two of us could only fight a losing battle. And now that I have found a ray of hope, you are still pushing your damn pride over my face?"
The King did not even let his brother reply, he continued.
"Hey, are you listening? If you ever destroy the relationship of Kamatayan and Gjallarhorn, you will cease to become my brother, do you understand?"
The king's voice has a very unique charm to it, it doesn't sound furious, but when one is to hear it, one will immediately feel if the King is mad or happy, thus Noire immediately knows what to answer.
"Yes... Yes, Your Majesty!"
The King sighed and then waved his hand.
"Get out."
Prince Noire immediately hurried out of the throne room and ran towards his room, he did not even complain about the treatment of his brother towards him, afraid that the servants would tip him to the King, resulting in him suffering more. Finally, he returned to his room, gasping, even though he has above-normal cardiovascular endurance, he also felt the air around his room somewhat thinner and colder, but he ignored it as he looked at his table, a piece of paper was neatly folded there.
The Prince immediately went towards the paper and opened it, the paper had a simple set of words: "You are too hasty, meet with me at the usual place."
The prince's eyes immediately turned sharp, different from what he had been earlier as he burned it using a matchstick in his drawer. He then silently went to the bed to sleep. However, little did he know that he would have the coldest night of his life because he had angered the last person he should have.
[Sophia's POV]
The next day arrived As I and Eleanor slowly got up, nothing happened after that incident except for the fact that the two of us learned of the queen's abnormality, I did not immediately order any investigation because like I said, I want to exaggerate my help, also because I asked questions about the queen, what she normally is and all of that, si that I'll be able to point out her abnormalities soon.
Just as I was looking back at what I was doing last night, [Guide] suddenly sounded in my brain.
[3rd Person POV]
Meanwhile, while Sophia and her unique skill are conversing, a conversation is also happening in a certain dark place in the palace.
"Good Day, Sir Loki."