"Vanadis?"

Everyone was about to get up, probably to bow or pay respects, but:

"No no, forget the formalities. Too much hassle."

Everyone relaxes on their chairs.

"So this is the white mage Servant uh?"

He is looking at me with a smile on his face, checking me out like I was a racehorse. He's also nodding to himself.

"Good, good." - He gets closer to me while I maintain my eye contact with him - "I also heard you used Inner Magic the other day. I can't wait to see what else you are capable of."

"..."

Every fiber inside me is telling me to not get along with this guy. But I also don't want to piss him off so I better keep silent and not say more than I need. As much as it hurts me to admit it, he completely owns me. He can just order Nora to force me to do whatever he wants... And that's probably what he is planning to do from now on.

Or maybe she is not forced to obey him? If the Nightingales are that powerful, maybe he has little to no control over her...? Anyway, that's too many maybes. I should assume the worst case scenario and that he can actually order her around.

"Not much of a talker are we?"

"..."

"Well, doesn't really matter." - He walks around with his right hand on his chin and a pensive face. He mumbles to himself: - "How to keep things interesting..."

"..."

"You know, Alddan, the tournament is a good way to earn money. It's held in the coliseum in the capital and it's good news for everyone. The capital gets tourists, the shopkeepers and inn owners get money, the royal palace gets the taxes and everyone gets their fun. You will double the money and fun for everyone. Who is going to miss the first ever S rank Servant competing in the tournament? Few people, of course. More tourists, more money."

"..."

"However! There is a problem... White mage Servant, ranked S no less, plus his red mage Master... You have too much power, and we don't want you to ruin the fun and easily win every match... No fun, more problems... Hmm..."

Looks like he already decided I am going to enter.

"... What if... Yeah... Of course! So simple yet I spent so much time thinking about it! How stupid of me."

"Don't forget you are assuming that I agree to participate."

"Oh, I'm not assuming, you will participate! Of course, you can refuse but..." - He gets his face closer to my ear and whispers - "I will kill her and force you to form a contract with me. Don't even think you will be able to resist, dying from lack of mana can be worse than dying from hunger. Trust me, I'll make you wish you were never summoned."

"...Tsk."

The fucker has me by the balls. Even if I manage to not form a contract with him, or kill him, I will get in serious trouble.

"Get away from him!" - Nora gets up and speaks that to Vanadis - "He is my Servant and I will not let you force him to play your games."

Vanadis backs away with both hands in the air.

"I wasn't doing such a thing, I swear! I was just telling him why he should participate in the tournament. Isn't that right?"

He looks at me as he asks that with a wink.

"... Yeah, I guess it may be worth participating."

"See? He agrees."

Nora looks at me. It's obvious she didn't buy it.

"That's what I always liked about you Nora. You are not scared to speak your mind to other nobles. I can still remember when you said to my mother that her shoes were ugly in front of everyone. Haha... Oh, the scandal! Puhahahaha--."

While Vanadis is laughing, Nora is trying to keep her composure.

"... You used to be better than this Vanadis..."

"You say that because you still haven't gotten used to the new me."

He shrugs his shoulders with a relaxed smile.

"We'll catch up later."

He starts to walk in the direction of Musclehead and his Master. As he walks past me, he puts his hand on my shoulder and says:

"Win the tournament and I will personally give you a nice present. Loose on purpose and I will be quite angry with you~~"

He says that with a jokingly tone, but I am smart enough to know what he is implying. Mother... Fucker...

He gets his hand off of me and walks to Musclehead.

"So that's the White King! This year is certainly--..."

As he is talking with Musclehead and his Master, I start thinking and completely loose my attention to the world around me.

This feeling of hatred... This feeling of frustration... This feeling of powerlessness... These feelings mixed together were what started the whole thing and turned my life around 180º... I almost forgot how they tasted together... This fucking guy... He only met me and he managed to crawl under my skin...

"..-y Al. Al, hey!"

"Uh... Uh?"

Nora was calling me.

"You alright?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I was just thinking to myself."

She looks at Vanadis and then at me.

"C'mon, let's go to our room."

"You still haven't eaten everything."

"I lost my appetite. C'mon."

"... Alright miss."

We get up.

"Uhm, Karli, we better postpone what we planned tonight."

"Ok Nora. Take care."

As we start walking, Vanadis speaks to us:

"Oi champs! Don't forget that's my wife, so you watch yourself."

... I didn't even bother to look at him...

.............

We finally reach our room.

"What did he say?"

"Uh?"

"What did Vanadis say to you?"

"Nothing worth mentioning."

"It's worth mentioning. Please tell me!"

Did she avoid giving an order?

"He didn't say anything. Don't worry about it."

"*sigh*..." - She has a disapproving look. Then she looks outside the window. - "He wasn't always like this. He used to be funny and carefree. I had more fun playing with him than my own sisters..."

"..."

"But then, he started to change and became possessive and manipulative. He always gets what he wants... Everyone says he will become a great king that will be remembered for generations. Personally, I also think he now has what it takes to be a monarch, but I don't like what he has become."

"... If you don't like him, why are choosing to marry him over the others?"

She looks at me.

"What do you prefer? A devil that you know... Or a devil that you don't know?"

"... Fair point."

After a moment of silence, she says:

"Look, I am not going to order you to tell me, but please, I would really appreciate it if you could trust me a little more."

"..."

I have nothing to say to that. It's not a matter of trust between us. If I want to convince her to join my cause, I will need to completely destroy her belief on Vanadis, the queen, her family... The current system. And telling her that Vanadis threatened to kill her isn't going to cut it. At most that will just make her to be on her guard or nervous around Vanadis and he might use that in his favor. I need to show her hard evidence, by catching him the act or something... If I do that, she will at least leave him on the spot. And then it will be easier to convince her to join me.

I lie down on my bed and look at the ceiling.

"*sigh* I'm going to take a bath."

She enters the bathroom.

*********

Vanadis definitely threatened him. Al is too powerful so there's no way he threatened Al himself directly... He probably used me...

I get my clothes off and open the faucet.

I have to protect Al. Today I failed and he was forced to participate in the tournament. I will not let this happen again.

I pour mana into the Heat Crystals.

"..."

In the last 2 days, I only had 1 dream yesterday. It wasn't really helpful. It just showed Al pranking his siblings and maids. And I didn't experience that strange part from the dream 3 days ago. A man pointing something to another... What could it mean?

I put my finger in the water and it's at a good temperature. I enter the bathtub.

"In the last dream, Al family was going to receive the princesses next day. I wonder if I am going to dream about during or after they receive them..."

......

"Good night."

"G'night"

Al and I are already in our beds after our baths. I suck the mana from the Light Crystals.

-----

I see a room that seems like an entrance hall. In there I see Al entire family greeting 2 young girls, both are orange mages. Al's mother speaks:

"Welcome to our home. I'm Jane, my husband is Baferth. These are our 4 sons and daughter."

She starts introducing her sons and daughter by name. Finally:

"This here is Alddan. I hope you can get along with him."

"Uhm, hi..." - Al says timidly.

"Hi..." - Both girls reply.

Baferth speaks:

"Why don't you 3 go to the gardens to play? A maid will bring you toys and lunch."

He practically pushes them towards the gardens behind the mansion. Once there:

"I have some things to do. If you need anything, come to my office."

"Uhm, yes father..."

Baferth leaves them alone and goes inside.

Al and the 2 girls look at each other. They don't know what to say.

Finally, Al breaks the awkward silence:

"So uhm... You are Aldorah right?" - He asks the taller girl, same height as him. She seems to be the older sister, which means she is the same age as Al. She has blue eyes and a ponytail.

"Ah... Yes."

"Then you are Lilliana."

The other girl nods. She has golden eyes and long hair.

Awkward silence again. Then:

"Well... Uhm... What do you do for fun?"

Aldorah replies:

"We uh... We play with dolls..."

"Dolls... Yeah... I never played with dolls so... I don't know... What about balls and sports?"

"We never played sports..."

"Oh..."

Awkward silence again. Lilliana this time breaks the silence:

"We also play with magic!"

"How?"

"We use air magic to levitate ourselves or toys. And then we make rules, like... Controlling dolls with different kinds of magic for example."

"Oh I see. That's cool. Let's do something like that!"

A maid comes with a chest full of toys. Balls, dolls...

"Here, young master."

Al picks up a doll and levitates it with air.

"Yeah, I also can levitate things, but how do you control it?"

The doll Al is levitating is spinning around randomly.

Both girls pick up a doll each and levitate them. Aldorah explains:

"You are levitating it by simply pushing air upwards. We do it this way."

She creates a little air "ring". The air is rotating clock-wise around the "ring" center.

"If you do this, with just the right speed... The air will pass through inside the ring and go upwards. Now we just have to make 4 or more rings to manipulate the doll."

She creates 3 more rings and puts one ring below each leg, and 1 vertically in front of the doll and another behind.

"With this, the 2 rings below support the legs, and the other 2 don't let it fall. Look, I can make it wave!"

She makes another ring to push the doll arm upwards. Once the arm is high enough, she lowers the speed of the air inside the ring, making the arm fall down, and increases the speed again to push it again upwards...

Spoiler : (author note: this was tough to explain and I am not sure I explained well enough... She is basically doing something like this. Aang (the boy name from Avatar), uses air to levitate a small object inside the ring. Yeah, I don't know if this works in real life the way I said it worked, but... Let this one slide in case it's bullshit :P)

"... Wow... I don't think I can do that..."

Lilliana speaks:

"It's simple! Look, I'll teach you."

She gets closer to Al.

"First you have to make a little tornado... And then... Aaand... Then... Aaaa... Aaaacho!"

"Woooah--!"

The little tornado turns into a gust and throws Al a few meters into the flowers.

"Oh no! Sorry!!! Are you alright!?"

Both girls run towards Al. Al, still lying on the flowers, sits up.

"That... Was... AWESOME!"

"Eh?"

"You just gave me an idea for a prank!"

Both girls look at each other.

"Today, at dinner... Hehehe."

"You shouldn't do pranks..." - Lilliana says.

"But it's fun! Oh wait... I just got a better idea! Please teach me how you do that trick!"

"Eh? I uh... I'm not so sure anymore... Sister...?"

"Me!? Uhn..."

"Please please please! I'll do anything you want!"

Al is on his knees bowing to them.

"Umm... Ok?"

"YEAAAAH!"

Al gets up and hugs her excitedly.

"Thank you thank you thank you!!!!"

He finally let's her go and starts to mumble to himself while walking in circles.

"If I use the dolls, some lanterns and levitate them during the night... It's going to be awesome! I can't wait to see their faces!"

Both girls are perplexed at the sudden Al change, from a shy boy to an energetic one. They start giggling.

Al notices them.

"You think this is funny? Just wait until later tonight! It's going to be great! Hahaha!"

They continue laughing and playing. They became friends fast...

-----

I wake up. Al is already awake and is putting on his coat. It's morning.

I also sit up on my bed.

Aldorah... Aldorah... Orange mage... Wait... Queen Aldorah IV?!?!?!?

*******

Here's the new chapter as promised. :D

Next one coming up either tomorrow or Saturday.

Now... For a well deserved drink...