Royal Secret: I'm A Princess!

"IT SEEMS like hanging out a lot with Princess Neoma has made your tongue sharp, Duchess Quinzel."

"I won’t deny that Princess Neoma has so much influence in my life. But I’ve always been like this, Lady Crowell," Hanna said, smiling. And, yes, she addressed Neoma by her title like she would always do in front of an audience. "Princess Neoma only helped unleash the real me."

"Ah, is that so?"

Hanna just smiled, not wanting to continue this conversation anymore.

Because this just makes me want to kill this crow.

But, unfortunately, she had to hold back for now.

"Duchess Quinzel!"

Thankfully, Duke Rubin Drayton finally arrived with a few knights behind him.

"I apologize for greeting you late, Duchess Quinzel," Rubin Drayton said, bowing his head towards Hanna. And then he glanced at Regina Crowell with cold eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"You’re hurting my feelings, Rubin— no, it should be ’Duke Drayton’ now, isn’t it?" Regina Crowell said, taking a step towards Rubin Drayton. "I just wanted to see you..."

Regina Crowell wasn’t able to finish her sentence because Rubin Drayton suddenly unseathed his sword, the pointed blade of his sword pointed at the crow.

The knights behind the young duke also pulled out their swords.

Moreover, Hanna also noticed the archers fron all over the walls pointing their arrows at Regina Crowell.

It was a fascinating sight.

She wished Neoma were there.

She’d love to see Duke Drayton growing a spine in front of Regina Crowell.

"Can’t I visit you anymore, Duke Drayton?" Regina Crowell, acting like she were hurt. What a good actress the crow was. "Are you really throwing me away now?"

How dramatic.

If Hanna would borrow Neoma’s words every time Neoma would see an interesting "scene," then it would be...

I wish I had ’popcorn’ right now.

"Stop with your act, Regina Crowell," Rubin Drayton said coldly. "That won’t work on me anymore."

Hanna could see that the young duke was about to attack Regina Crowell, so she stopped him.

Of course, it wasn’t because she wanted to defend the crow.

"Duke Drayton, we are currently in a ceasefire with the crows," Hanna informed Rubin Drayton. "We can’t be the ones breaking the temporary peace."

It wasn’t like she was treating Rubin Drayton as someone on their side.

He’s not our ally since we can’t trust him completely yet, but it’s better off this way. Duke Drayton is rich, and they also have excellent knights. We can use them to help the Imperial Family protect the empire.

"Is that so? I’m sorry, I didn’t know," Rubin Drayton said, putting his sword back in the sheathe. "I almost committed a mistake."

After that, the young duke also gave a signal to his knights to drop their weapons.

"You know that we’re in a ceasefire right now, Lady Crowell," Hanna said sternly, looking at Regina Crowell threateningly. She was already wasting time meeting Rubin Drayton, so she didn’t want to waste more time dealing with the crow. "Leave for now. We’ll have plenty of time to "play" later."

"Very well," Regina Crowell said, looking back and forth between Hanna and Rubin Drayton. "See you later, then."

***

NEOMA already expected that Helstor would insist on including the Ancient Devil as his Battle Representative.

She had already seen that bastard using the loophole that the Ancient Devil was currently using Noah Solfrid’s body to justify the Ancient Devil being human. Of course, Ruto and Trevor— her quick-witted allies— would have thought of the same thing, too.

And that was obviously the reason why Ruto and Trevor were insisting that the Ancient Devil couldn’t qualify as human.

It wasn’t like they weren’t confident that their side would win.

However...

Only Ruto, Trevor, and I have a chance of winning against the Ancient Devil. But even us have to be careful because that fossil bastard has the Black Ocean that he’s threatening to release at any given moment.

It would be nice if they could exclude the Ancient Devil from the fight.

But if they couldn’t, then...

Let’s do it this way.

"Alright— let’s include the Ancient Devil in this shit show."

Ruto and Trevor immediately stopped talking.

Obviously, the two men would trust her decision, even without discussing her plan in advance.

"You’re scaring me, Princess Neoma," Helstor commented while giving her a suspicious look. "What do you want in return for allowing the Ancient Devil to join as my Battle Representative?"

"No death match."

Neoma’s quick and firm answer made Helstor shut up.

"Hey, that’s boring!" Arien, the stupid God of War, complained while slamming his hands on the table. Thankfully, the table didn’t collapse. However, his hands created craters on the surface. "What’s the point of a war if blood won’t spill?! I don’t want to watch a boring match! If you’re doing that, then I won’t stand for it—"

"Shut the fuck up, you muscle brain," Neoma said coldly. "I’m not yet done talking, so shut your mouth before I make you."

Arien looked like he wanted to talk back, but just one glare from Ruto and the God of War completely shut his mouth.

"Let’s not make the Battle Representatives do a Death Match," Neoma continued, looking at Hesltor directly. "If someone surrenders, the fight immediately stops. And if the other party kills their opponent by accident or on purpose, then they’d automatically lose."

"Princess Neoma, you didn’t think that I’d agree to that, right?"

"Hear me out first," Neoma said, placing her elbow on the table and putting her chin on her hand. "Helstor, the only ones doing the Death Match is the two of us."

This time, Ruto and Trevor turned to Neoma with a disbelief on their faces.

Of course, she just ignored the two men.

"And, if I lose, you’re not only allowed to kill me— the lives of the entire Imperial Family also falls on your hands."

The two major gods gasped out loud.

Even Ruto and Trevor froze in their seats.

The only one who had a stupidly excited look on his face was Helstor.

"Please elaborate, Princess Neoma," the God of Eternal Darkness said, already grinning from ear to ear. "What do you mean that if you lose, I’ll get to get my hands on the entire Imperial Family, too?"

"Exactly as it sounds," Neoma answered casually, as if she wasn’t betting her entire family on the line. "You can give Nero to the crows. Experiment on my mother and the Spirits. Make a slave out of my father and his Soul Beasts. Turn me into a living Aether. Or you can kill us. That’s up to you."

As expected, the greed in Helstor’s eyes shone brightly.

"But, if you lose, you have to give me something of similar value."

"Just get straight to the point, Princess Neoma," Helstor said, laughing. Obviously, this bastard god already knew that she was aiming for something. "What do you want from me if I lose to you?"

"First of all, I guarantee that I’ll fucking kill you during our Death Match. You have nothing that I want," Neoma said bluntly, making Arien laugh out loud. "But, when I kill you, I want the Ancient Devil to hand over the Black Ocean to me. And, until our match is over, I want a clause in our contract that says that bastard isn’t allowed to release the Black Ocean in any way."

"Hmm. I’m confused, Princess Neoma. I’m sure you don’t think that the Imperial Family is only worth the Black Ocean. Are you sure that you only want that as your "reward" if you manage to win and kill me?"

"Of course, the Imperial Family is worth the Black Ocean. But, like I’ve said, you have nothing that I want, Helstor."

"Are you looking down on me too much? Yes, the Black Ocean is terrifying. It’s Impure Mana mixed with Malice. I understand why you’d be wary of that. But I am the God of Eternal Darkness, Princess Neoma. I can drown the entire world in Absolute Darkness— and I’m confident that I’ll win in this timeline."

"Hey, you already failed during the Ancient Period when I wasn’t born yet. What makes you think that you’d win in an era where I, Neoma Roseheart de Moonasterio, exist?"

Hesltor looked too dumbfounded to respond to her.

"How arrogant," Astrid said, scoffing. The Goddess of Beauty even crossed her arms over her chest. "Is your arrogance the reason why you put the entire Imperial Family as collateral?"

"It’s not arrogance when I have the skills to back it up, Lady Astrid."

The Goddess of Beauty just scoffed.

On the other hand, Arien burst out laughing again.

At least, one of us is having fun.

"I feel bad for the Imperial Family," Helstor said in a mocking tone. "Do they even know that you’re here playing with their lives?"

"Of course," Neoma said, smirking. "Do you want to know what they said after I told them that I’ll be using their lives as collateral?"

***

NERO couldn’t help but laugh when he remembered the last conversation that he and his parents had with Neoma, before Neoma went to the Upper World.

"Your Imperial Majesty, have you lost your mind... ah, yes. You did a long time ago."

Nero was in a good mood that he didn’t mind Melvin Luchessi’s sarcasm.

In fact, he even relaxed in his seat and raised his head to look at the Imperial Chamberlain.

"Melvin."

"Yes, sire?"

"Did you know that Neoma said she’d surrender the entire Imperial Family to Helstor if she lose in the war?"

And Nero cheerfully shared the funny conversation with Melvin Luchessi, who suddenly went pale as if he’d faint at any moment...

***

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