I would have loved to dramatically jump out of bed and go dramatically start the brutal murder of some rodents but unfortunately my body would not allow it.

  “Oww” I groaned as my left collarbone jerked itself back into position, my right still aching as I watched my mana count drop back down to nothing. Unfortunately that left an aching knee and left shoulder from the healing process that wasn’t fully complete, a roaring headache as regeneration had decided that my head had needed some healing as well, unfortunately even my significantly increased Mana count was still not enough to heal myself entirely. Clearly there was some other disadvantage to this regeneration as almost immediately after my stomach groaned in protest.

  “Well, this is problematic” I muttered to myself slowly dragging myself out of bed. Fortunately my not fully healed and still very swollen knee could still bear my weight and I slowly dragged myself over to the door, grabbing the meal outside, for some reason startling the guard standing outside my door.

  Stuffing my face full of food in a very undignified manner, I sat down and looked in the mirror over my dresser I almost gasped aloud at my appearance, understanding immediately what the guard had been shocked about. I was a mess, particularly for a princess. Several long scratches and cuts marred my arms and the protective light armour I had worn out had clearly been hit several times. I even had a scabbed over scratch on my face from when I took a dive around a corner to hide coming back. My hair was in knots and I probably had never looked less dignified in my entire life. And of course before I could do anything that’s when Lady Xing came in.

  ***

  “I’m still really upset at you” I muttered as I hobbled along an hour later after Lady Xing had wrangled me into a dress and had hidden as much of the scratches and scrapes as she could. Unfortunately none of that could hide that I was hobbling around like I had a poorly made peg leg on a pirate ship.

  “You may have mentioned it but shockingly enough your still alive” Lady Xing muttered just as quietly nodding at a pair of guards looking at me strangely as I hobbled past. “And in the end despite what your family’s supposed honour, chivalry as they walk over each others throats for a crown, that’s the only thing that really matters.”

  I stopped at that and turned around to look at her. “From my understanding of my father’s comments, your entire purpose is to push me into this race for the crown?” I asked raising my eyebrows.

  “If you can win it and he deems you a suitable successor, otherwise I am to get you killed or to rescind your position in the running.” She said looking at me seriously “and at this moment you are neither powerful enough or have a class that puts you in a good position to take it.”

  “Your already trying to push me out?” I asked curiously “That seems slightly early to make such a definitive decision considering my father is not going to be rescinding his crown for several years at the earliest.”

  “You would need at least 20 years to be able to handle the weakest of your siblings in direct combat at the rate your progressing” Lady Xing said darkly

  “I didn't think I was quite that far behind” I muttered “do you seriously consider throwing in the towel now is the best option?”

  “Now?” Lady Xing said looking shocked “absolutely not, you are still royalty right now! Keep being that for as long as you can last! Just be prepared to give it up.”

  “I still think I will surprise you” I muttered as Lady Xing dragged me into the main ballroom to meet my horrible fate for that day, to actually do princess things.

  ***

  I gritted my teeth whilst I used the 60 mana that I has generated over the past half hour to heal my right shoulder back into position whist using the rest of it to fix my limp. Following after Shenyen

  the head of the Royal Ballroom as he described to me his plans for my birthday ball whilst trying to hide the pain had been an exercise in torture.

  “And as per the latest trends I absolutely think we should have some of the new cinnamon dish coming out from the west that is gaining significant popularity at the moment” he finished “do you have any thoughts?”

  I had many actually, however most of them were not fit for polite conversation and had no relevance to the situation. Quickly thinking it over I came up with a snap decision. “Hmm I think what you are describing is excellent!” I said looking at him “however I have another suggestion. Rather than going off what is popular right now, I plan on doing something more traditional. Use the purple and gold colours but add some black decor for the modern touch as that seems to be popular at the moment.” I was completely making this up to give myself the least amount of work possible but black was always popular so I couldn’t be wrong?

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Base it off my father’s coronation ball. It will show how I am becoming a true adult and taking my responsibilities as princess seriously. Add some modern touches in the food and meals and obviously don’t copy the coronation ball from scratch but that is the concept I’m planning on basing this on.”

  “An excellent suggestion princess” Shenyen said his quill moving seemingly impossibly fast over his page. “However I will point out that this is very… untraditional for such an event” he finished tentatively

  “Thank you for your opinion," I said completely ignoring him. It would be easy for me and would be less likely to cause me any problems so I wasn’t bothered otherwise, I had other priorities now. “I can count on you to make this happen of course?” I said looking at him raising my eyebrow.

  “Oh of course my princess” Shenyen replied stuttering “it’s just, it’s very traditional for the party to be very modern to show off the latest trends to start your journey to the academy!”

  Curious at his mention of the academy, usually reserved in conversation by people in the know I identified him and got nothing back. Curious I thought to myself.

  “Yes that is tradition, however showing strength is much more important at this time” I said to him, there are talks of potential conflicts at the moment and it’s important we show our national pride and strength! I will come back a few days before the party to check on your progress.” Of course I didn’t actually know about any potential wars coming up but we are always sniping with our major neighbours so it wasn’t a particularly big step to assume.

  “Of course my lady, and if we have any problems?” Shenyen called as I turned to leave

  “I’m a princess, your current job is to solve my problems!” I said, channeling my siblings' energy “If you really need anything, go to Lady Xing.”

  And with that sorted out and planned with as little involvement from me as possible I left.

  ***

  As I left the castle a few hours later completely healed and again full of mana I felt watched. As I headed towards the sewers that the mutated rats were known to reside I kept on looking over my shoulder and around and despite seeing nothing out of the ordinary I was certain I was being followed. Even using both fade and silent footsteps didn’t throw off the sense. To comfort myself and to letting my stalker know I was aware of them I drew my pair of daggers. And other than people giving me a much wider berth nothing seemed to change.

  Thinking carefully I decided to take a detour, taking myself back to Shade’s house. to hopefully collect a fully complete mask and gear combination and hopefully get my stalker to back off. After all, he is much higher leveled than me even if he is not combat focused. I thought

  Quickly I rushed over to his house and as I did the feeling only grew, to the point I was looking around constantly for any hint of a change.

  I got to the front door of the store and almost threw it open off the hinges in my fear. As I shut the door however I felt the feeling dissipating and I leant back against the door sighing in relief.

  “What do you want, oh it’s you” Shade said stumbling out from the door that lead to his residence, smelling strongly of alcohol and stumbling as he headed towards the counter.

  “Hi Shade, your looking … well” I said watching him attempting to straighten up his clothes to minimal success.

  “Oh get off it” Shade said shaking his head “I always look like the back end of a sheep, what do you want?”

  “Can’t say I have heard that one before” I remarked. “And I just came by to see whether you had finished any of the regular mask and armour suits?”

  “Of course I have, what do you take me for some second rate amateur” Shade grumbled “come back here and I will show you the ones I have done.”

  Following him into his living area he remarked “Surprised you came, I was under the impression that Crimson was coming to pick them all up?”

  “She probably will be,” I admitted “however circumstances encouraged me to come earlier and pick up one for myself to use now, also” I added as an afterthought, I thought I would return the original mask in case you needed it.”

  “Bah just keep it, there will always be some point where you will want to hide your identity but not get into the full getup” Shade said waving me off.

  “Here you are” he remarked grabbing a black mask with the classic silver tear coming down from the eye from what appeared to be his work table and passing it to me.

  “So do I need to get changed or what is the best practice, also how much do these cost if I was in need of a replacement?” I asked, wanting to make sure I didn’t damage anything, skill based items were notoriously finicky and had funny rules for their use, and I definitely didn’t want either him or particularly lady Xing on my bad side if I broke one.

  “It will only work if you are wearing things that can go under armour, so right now your shoes, leggings and chest plate will need to go.” Shade said “and they generally cost around 2000 Gold crowns”

  I almost gasped hearing that, whilst I could afford that with my allowance I had saved it was almost the price of a reasonable house in the city! Note to self I thought don’t break this. Also look into buying a house for a base outside of the castle. As far as I was aware my siblings didn’t know about me yet but they would soon and I needed a safer base for myself when they inevitably found out.

  “Well do you have anywhere for me to change?” I asked, looking around and not seeing a good place to go for any amount of privacy.

  “You can always” he started saying with a lecherous smirk that I immediately cut down with a glare, causing him to backtrack “let me go out the front so you have the entire room here!” He finished, backing away carefully and almost rushing to the door as soon as I stopped my glaring.

  “I thought so” I muttered watching him leave and making sure he wasn’t coming back in by placing a chair under the door. Effectively locking him out of his own house I smirked to myself. taking off my shoes and stripping off my pants and shirt, and as I did so a white page fluttered down onto the floor. Curious as I definitely didn’t leave with any paper I quickly reached down and picked it up.

  As I grabbed and opened the folded piece of paper I saw a symbol of an artistically rendered scull with red eyes. I was still surprised as I read the letter.

  Your application has been accepted

  Simon Matterson

  84 Florets street

  Stabbing

  Tomorrow

  No further contracts will be taken out on your life