She had heard a disturbance from outside her room just before she was about to fall asleep.

"What in the world was that?"

Lisa was cautious at the sound of footsteps, she had also heard some murmuring coming from outside of her room and decided against opening the door. This wasn't the first time such an incident had occurred, even though she had experienced it before though, she still felt a cold chill run up against her spine at the thought of what lay behind that door. Her fears were soon calmed as the voices she had heard outside were soon vanquished as she heard the sound of blades clashing before the voices disappeared. She had assumed it was the guards who had arrived and taken care of the intruders.

Just to be extra careful though, Lisa decided to wait a little while before she opened the door. She had heard of tricks by certain attackers that lured their victims out using that false sense of security. After around 5 minutes of waiting, Lisa decided to open the door and head out to confirm what had happened. However, right before Lisa could exit her room, she heard the deafening sounds of an explosion occurring not too far away from her. She turned around and saw the explosion occur right before her eyes.

"What in the world..."

There wasn't any time to worry about the explosion though, right before her eyes, another silhouette of a man dressed in black attire covering his entire body appeared before her. It was almost as if the spectre of death had crept up right in front of her.

"You've got to be kidding me? I would've hoped you were asleep despite the explosion. Now I've got to deal with more incessant screaming."

Drawing his blade, the man groaned at the increased difficulty of his job since Lisa was now awake.

"I'm not sure how the rest got done in so quickly, but it doesn't matter, it just means more money for me."

Immediately Lisa attempted to make a run for the door, just before she could exit it though, she felt an icy wind blow behind her, reaching the door and freezing it whole. Her only escape route from the assassin was now gone. It was only then that she knew it was basically over. She had zero chance of fighting back against an assassin, much less against one proficient with magic. She braced herself for what would be a painful but quick end.

"So this is it?"

She questioned why it was ending this way, an uneventful life she had grown used to, the peaceful courtyard and quiet atmosphere she had grown accustomed to in the palace and here. She had never wanted to be a princess nor did she want any sort of power. All she wanted was to live quietly. The world wouldn't grant her such a privilege though, she knew now that being a princess meant that the life ahead of her could never be quiet or peaceful. She had always relied on her servants and guards to protect her, yet with death right in front of her, she realised how powerless she was. There was nothing she could do but accept her fate. Yet she couldn't just stand there.

"I...I don't want it to end like this."

It was then that she realised what she wanted to do, she wanted to get stronger so she wouldn't have to be in such a situation again. She never wanted power, yet she needed it to survive in this world. She was chosen as a lancer despite never wanting it, yet now was the first time she wanted the powers that came with being a lancer, the powers she had heard so many tales about.

Just as the attacker was about to strike her with his blade, he noticed a strange light coming from her body. She seemed to be glowing. He didn't have time to respond though, since he was immediately flung back by a strange force as the light expanded out of her body.

"Impossible! She can manipulate mana? I thought the reports said otherwise."

He had suffered a few bruises from being flung into the closet, normally he would be fine but he hadn't reinforced his body with mana thinking it was going to be a quick and easy job.

She felt exhausted, all the emotions and feelings she had were spent. Noticing the attacker had been flung across the room, Lisa was confused as to what just happened.

"Did I...just..."

Before she could say anything else though, the attacker rose to his feet and in what seemed like a fit of rage, charged at her.

"You're dead for that."

However, like history repeating itself, the man was once again thrown back to the wall at the opposite end of the room. Lisa realised the door had been broken through and had been thrown at the man.

"My lady are you alright?"

Running up to Lisa, Charles noticed how exhausted she looked as well as her exasperated expression.

"Charles...?"

Lisa had completely forgotten about him during that entire ordeal, it was only then that she remembered him being there. His concerned expression brought her a little bit of relief that help had arrived.

"I'm...fine...more importantly...how in the world did you get through the door."

"Don't worry about that for now. I'll take care of the last attacker."

Looking back at the man buried beneath the door, they watched as he used mana to push the door away as he stood up.

"That's it! You've screwed with me enough!"

He was clearly fuming. Charles knew this and decided to take care of him before he did anything rash like kill himself with an explosion like the previous one. Charles immediately rushed the attacker as fast as he could, surprising both Lisa and the attacker as it seemed like he teleported. The attacker, however, managed to regain his composure quicker than expected. Instantly, he prepared an icicle and shot it straight at Charles who had less than 3 metres to react. Charles, however, simply smashed the icicle without any hesitation as he clashed blades with man.

Blows were exchanged as the two engaged in a fight. To any onlooker, it seemed like a completely even fight but the attacker knew that with each blow he traded with Charles, he could feel his entire body writhe with pain. Every single one of Charles's attacks felt so heavy and strong, almost as if he was taking the force of a hundred men.

"This is nonsense! Who in the world are you?!"

Just as the man began to lose his composure again, He raised his blade to the sky and attempted to strike Charles down, quickly seeing through it though, Charles parried the attack and knocked the blade out of the man's hand. Giving him no chance to react, Charles lunged at him before slicing his throat and ending him.

The man grabbed his throat as he stumbled around for a second before collapsing to the ground. Just like that, it was well and truly over.

(Seems like you can still perfectly cut through magic attacks even without any mana. Although I was a little surprised when he used magic without an incantation.)

"Yeah, I didn't expect it either. Although we hadn't taken into consideration the prepared spells stored in his spell caster. Charles reached for the man's arm and checked the spell caster on his wrist.

"Yeah, he had 5 pre-casted spells prepared."

(Well, that explains it.)

Turning around to check on Lisa, Charles noticed her exhaustion had turned to shock.

"You...can fight?"

"I didn't mention it before?"

"No...you didn't...but...I'm glad...thank you."

It seemed like once the adrenaline had worn off, the exhaustion had truly set in and Lisa fell unconscious as Charles carried her to the adjacent room and let her sleep in the bed to get some rest. He reported the entire incident to the guards who had all been put to sleep using a certain sleeping agent. Charles, however, decided to report that it was the guards who had taken care of the intruders. He didn't want to draw too much attention to himself and believed that was the right call.

"Well, what matters is that the princess is safe."

"Yeah."

Marcus, who had arrived the next day learnt of the incident and reported it to the king. He thanked Charles for keeping the princess safe during the entire situation and after confirming she was fine, departed for the palace to report the incident.

A day had passed and Charles had decided to watch over Lisa and the entire house the whole night after the incident to ensure that there was no follow-up attempt. The next few days also consisted of a series of interrogations. The 6th assassin had managed to enter the house unnoticed because he had used a teleportation seal that had been already planted in Lisa's room. The staff were interviewed and subsequently, a contradicting statement led to the capture of one of the maid staff. Turns out she had been bribed by someone from a shady organisation. The difficulty was that connecting the incident to the said organisation was difficult since the middle men had been used as scapegoats, freeing the organisation from blame.

Being called into her room once again in the morning, Charles was greeted with the sight of Lisa still in her nightwear. Though it wasn't uncommon for her to walk around at night like that.

"Are you feeling better my lady?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot for saving me last night. I would've died if you hadn't come."

"It was thanks to your own abilities that helped buy time for me to arrive."

"To be honest, I didn't even know I could do that, I've never used magic before. It was more of an instinct and desire that culminated in that attack."

Her voice was confused and lost, it seemed even Lisa had a hard time understanding the situation that had unfolded last night. She likely still had conflicting thoughts about it as well.

"If we know anything about what you did last night, it's that you have great potential considering you've never learnt magic before."

Charles tried to assure her that it was a good thing, to be able to even manifest your mana into a physical form with no prior knowledge of the techniques on how to is something only the most talented mages can do.

"Thanks...By the way, Charles. I passed out before I could really tell you this but..."

"Hm?"

Her face seemed a little red and she clutched her elbow like Charles noticed she usually does when nervous.

"Seeing how well you handled yourself...do you think you could teach me how to fight too."

Charles was taken aback by such a statement. He had always believed Lisa was someone who never wanted anything to do with power. Wanting to learn how to fight meant she wanted to get stronger. He was confused as to why she had a change of heart. Yet he couldn't refuse, he was after all now a servant to the royal family whether he liked it or not.

"If that is what you request of me my lady, then I will gladly do so."

"Really?!"

She seemed elated after hearing such a response, likely expecting a rejection.

"Yeah. After all, I'm pretty sure you're the one who can give orders to me."

"Thanks again...also..."

"??"

"You can stop calling me lady already. Just call me Lisa."

"Eh? I can't exactly do that though. I'm still a servant no matter how you look at it."

"Yeah I know that...but when it's just the two of us. I grant you the permission to call me Lisa."

Charles was quite flabbergasted by such a request, yet it seemed like it was another successful breakthrough in his attempt to get Lisa to open up to him. He was glad she was gradually opening up more and more.

"Well then, I will do that Lisa."

"Good..."

A few more days passed and the day before the two were set to depart had arrived. Charles was once again keeping guard like he had been every night since the incident. This time, he was strolling the courtyard. His location didn't really matter since he could detect any presence of mana and his eyes allowed him to pinpoint their exact location.

(I'm just telling you this before you go and get yourself killed but just because I'm supplying you mana for those eyes, don't go using them as much as you want. They still take a serious physical toll on a human body.)

"Yeah, I know, these eyes were never meant to be used by a human after all."

(I'm quite surprised by the request the princess made today. Seems like she's had a little change of heart. Well maybe her chance encounter with death had changed her mindset.)

"I wouldn't doubt it, although Marcus told me this isn't the first time she's experienced an assassination attempt. Although, it was probably the closest her attackers ever got to finishing their mission. Either way, it's a good thing she's decided to get stronger, I felt a strong sense of determination from those words of hers."

(Yeah, same here. Seems she's got potential and spirit huh?)

While Charles was busy pondering with Pandora over the true potential Lisa could achieve as a mage, he felt another presence enter through the barrier set up around the villa and its surroundings.

(Someone's here.)

Immediately, Charles drew his blade out from the golden globe. Yet the moment he did, the attacker had already arrived next to him. In a flash, he was behind Charles. He didn't move though, Charles had positioned his blade so that he could strike the person behind him if they moved.

"Who in the world are you?"

There were few people in the world who could move fast enough that even Charles was caught off guard. Though he wasn't the fastest person Charles had encountered, he was certainly up there.

"Few people in the world would ever point a blade at me, even fewer would ask the question you just did."

Just as he said that the man behind him moved to strike. Charles's blade quickly clashed with the man's blade. It was the first time Charles got to look at his face. It appeared awfully similar to Lisa's. His crimson red hair and beard gave off the look of a veteran soldier. He was clearly a few times Charles's age. Quickly backing off for a moment, Charles kept his stance ready to defend or strike if needed.

(Careful Charles...this guy has an absurd amount of mana. Almost as much as you...although, I swear I've seen his face before.)

"Impossible!"

Charles now realised just how big of a threat the person standing in front of him was. He had considered taking Lisa and fleeing. He didn't believe he could win in a fight like that, not when he couldn't use magic. The two once again engaged in constant battle, each sword strike almost cutting through the other yet never able to reach. Charles quickly recognised this style of fighting, it was the sage style of sword fighting. Each strike was masterfully performed and the style was more focused on finding your opponent's openings and striking. It was an extremely difficult sword style few had mastered. Yet it was one Charles had fought against and therefore held his own very well against the coordinated and masterful strikes.

After a while of exchanging blows with a few close calls on each side. Charles knew it was a fight he couldn't win. He could certainly hold his own but winning seemed too difficult.

"Splendid! Truly splendid! It's been a while since I faced off against such an opponent."

Charles was stunned at the sudden outburst of energy the man had put into his speech. He was full of joy and seemed like he had just found treasure or something.

"I must ask, where did you learn such sword skills?"

"An old friend of mine."

(So now I'm just an old friend? I see I see...)

Charles could hear the anger welling up in Pandora's voice yet he pushed it aside for now. He could just make up with him by giving him some new treat he discovered in the 2 months he had spent eating Pavonian cuisine.

"I understand. You may lower your weapon, Charles."

"You know who I am...?"

"Of course, why wouldn't the king know the names of his subjects?"

"The king..."

It dawned upon Charles then that he was in the presence of the king of Pavone himself. Immediately he knelt down and showed respect to the man who ruled the entire country he now stayed in.

(Oh, so that's where I recognised him from. Those books I was reading from earlier.)

"You could've told me that earlier! I just pointed my sword at the king."

(Well, you asked me to study so it's your fault you're in this position.)

"Oh screw you."

Charles quickly silenced himself as the king slowly approached him.

"Now now, there's no need for such formalities. I have come here on my own with minimal guards. Besides, I wanted to spar with you ever since I heard about you easily dispatching 6 assassins. I didn't believe for a second that those lazy countryside guards could do such a thing."

"It was nothing, your majesty. Those assassins were easy prey compared to what I just experienced."

(There goes your low profile strategy.)

The king burst out laughing at such a statement, clearly enjoying himself.

"You flatter me. To think that someone could so skillfully deal with my sage style is truly a rare sight. It seems my daughter is in good hands. Like Marcus, I was originally sceptical about hiring you. Of course, I couldn't refuse Victor given how much the royal family owes him. Seeing your strength today has given me a new layer of confidence. Lisa will do just fine with you."

"I shall do my best to make sure she becomes a great lancer."

"That's good."

After a little more small talk, the king decided to depart for the night. He had chosen not to wake Lisa up just to greet him, claiming she would need all the rest she could get before her journey starts tomorrow.

(Lawrence Comonor. A frightening man. Before we find a way to regain your former strength. Don't make that man an enemy.)

"I don't want to make any enemies."

Charles decided to head to bed for the night, getting a measly 2 hours of rest before they were set to depart the next day. The sun was still rising when Lisa had arrived at the front gate with the supplies she prepared packed and ready. Charles was waiting for her at the gate.

"Did you not pack anything?"

"I've got everything I need stored away."

"Oh...well then, should we go?"

"Of course, your journey to be a lancer starts from here."

"Yeah."

Just like that, the two began their journey away from the peaceful life they had been experiencing.