Saintess? Not Anymore! I'd Rather be a Destroyer-Chapter 49 - 36: Fair

In a large room was a crystal round table and around it sat eight people all donned in expensive armor or clothing. The most noticeable one was a breathtakingly handsome middle-aged man. His hair was black, with a few faint gray shades that were tied into a ponytail.

His skin was fair. The man had a muscular build and an angular chiseled chin. His eyes were green, almost like emeralds. He wore a red bedazzled suit with small magic circles that were constantly moving on his clothing. He sat on a huge chair like a throne and he wore a crystal crown on his head.

The other most noticeable thing about the other seven people in the room was the tattoo of an emerald with three swords piercing it on their necks.

"King Girsal, people from the Drumel kingdom have started to make their move." Advisor Chu announced calmly as he stood before King Girsal.

Advisor Chu’s skin was olive and his deep black hair glittered under the afternoon sun rays. He wore a blue suit and had the look of a schemer. He stood up to 6’3 feet tall.

In his right hand, he held a glowing stone tablet. He used his left hand to straighten his glasses which covered his mesmerizing purple eyes.

"Oh, have they? They sure took their sweet time," King Girsal chuckled as an evil grin spread across his face.

His cold green eyes scanned the hall, but the officials stared at him unfazed but still with smirks of their own.

"Soon they’ll come to our Kingdom, stating that a kingdom using magic is an abomination to the gods," Advisor Chu continued with a hint of mockery in his voice.

"It seems my plan worked," King Girsal smiled.

"However, this has taken two hundred years, your Majesty. To lie to twenty human kingdoms and change their history so that the heroes who saved their kingdoms despised magic. This would make them attack each other for the unification of the continent, giving us the opportunity to strike hard when they come and attack us," Duke Melissa stated with a hint of interest in her voice.

She is a young woman with short blonde hair and a pair of deep blue eyes. Her flawless brown skin contrasted with the platinum armor she was wearing, which revealed some of her curves. On her hands were large metal claws and on one foot was a soft fabric shoe, while the other had a metallic shoe.

King Girsal got up from his throne, his black armor gave him an air of dominance, "It’s finally time to expand Sandeph once again. All my father did was expand it from a city, to a nation, to finally a kingdom. He could have made Sandeph greater but gave up. I have increased our resources, military strength, and quality. Even so, I could not have done all this without those standing before me."

"Your majesty." they all cried in harmony, almost tearing up.

"Now it’s our time to turn Sandeph from a kingdom, to an empire and then into a High Land." King Girsal boomed as everyone in the room placed their hands to their chest.

"As you wish, your majesty! As your loyal subjects, it’d be an honor to help you achieve your goal." A slim, fair skinned man who wore a long black robe bowed.

He had black hair hanging down to his waist and a pair of soulless black eyes.

"Thank you, Marquess Green. Once Sandeph becomes a High Land all our past humiliation will disappear," King Girsal announced, making the Marquess smile.

King Girsal then turned to a burly man in heavy white armor, "Duke Huns, you must start getting the magic builders and architects ready. As soon as we defeat the neighboring kingdom we will take over their lands and build great walls around them."

"Yes your majesty." Duke Huns answered.

He appeared as a middle-aged, brown-skinned man, with short pink hair and a bushy pink beard. His bulky and muscular body underneath his armor gave him an air of dominance and strength, despite the pretty coloring of his hair.

"Should we prepare the army, King Girsal?" Duke Antya, a fair woman with short, light blue hair and a pair of orange eyes asked.

She wore a white and green colored jumpsuit with a cape behind it and a pair of black knee-high heels. In her right hand was a staff shaped like a sphere that was as tall as her and in her left, she held her fan in front of her face as she spoke.

"Just prepare two thousand knights. Those ants don’t deserve to be faced off against our best warriors." King Girsal chuckled and Antya smirked.

"Of course your majesty." she replied, nodding slightly.

"We already have information about their armies, land resources, and their leadership. You did a good job with this document, Antya," King Girsal praised as he picked up the papers before him.

"Thank you, your majesty," she beamed.

The king then walked towards the window, where he could see his kingdom and the sea.

"Duke Oswald, how many soldiers are on route?" King Girsal asked, turning to face him.

"The Drumel Kingdom is coming with one hundred thousand men." Oswald stated unfazed by that sheer number.

Duke Oswald was a burly man with brown skin and long red-orange hair tied in a ponytail. Compared to the others he looked quite young, appearing to be in his teens.

"When will they arrive?" King Girsal asked curiously.

"In three weeks, your majesty."

"Impatient aren’t they? Oh well, make sure to inform all my children currently in Sandeph that a battle will take place, so they should come back and be ready for the battle ahead." King Girsal said.

"Yes, your majesty," Duke Oswald nodded.

Antya looked at King Girsal anxiously and asked, "Your majesty, are you sure that your children should be involved with the war? They could die!"

"Are you worried about them, Antya? All of Girsal’s children are monstrous geniuses! I wish my children were like his." Duke Huns chuckled and Antya felt at ease.

King Girsal nodded and looked at Antya with a smile, "Don’t underestimate my children."

"Finally, my dream of building a fair kingdom, where my people would never suffer is soon going to be a reality," King Girsal declared as he touched the glass window.

The Royal Guards stood by the windows watching as well, not doing much else.

"You’re all dismissed! Go back to your homes and prepare for battle." King Girsal ordered.

All the officials departed, leaving King Girsal behind...

______________

A few months had passed after the matter of Mavis. Since Aurianna wasn’t interested in tea parties or reading useless books, she tried to focus on her studies with Eva and her other teachers. However, studying wasn’t as easy as it seemed. After every week of studying Eva would assess her with an exam and when Aurianna failed Eva would force her to study or she would receive the nastiest knock ever.

But she couldn’t protest since she was the one who asked Eva for this and wanted to become smarter. And Eva’s teaching made it easier for her to understand a lot of stuff, gradually helping her to get better and better. Well, that was for the elementary stuff.

The afternoon sun rays passed through Aurianna’s curtains brightening up the room. Aurianna wore a pair of light shorts and a baggy top as she lay on the bed staring at the book before her in confusion. The book was about the kingdoms’ currency and Aurianna stared up at Eva whose attire consisted of glasses, a white dress, and a black pencil skirt. She straightened her glasses and used her stick to point at the screen before Aurianna.

"One hundred copper -> one Silver.

One hundred silver -> one Gold.

One hundred Gold -> one Platinum.

One hundred platinum -> one tier one Crystal coin.

One hundred tier one Crystal coin -> one tier two Crystal coin.

One hundred tier two Crystal coins -> one magic coin," Eva narrated pointing at the paper money and coin on the screen.

"To be honest, I don’t understand why you guys call it a coin when it’s clearly paper money, but the same value as the coin," Eva criticized but realized Aurianna was too quiet.

"Did you understand that Aurianna?" Eva asked, turning around just to see Aurianna almost dozing off.

She frowned and immediately gave Aurianna a hard knock, "No sleeping in my economics class!!!"

"Yes, ma’am," Aurianna woke up abruptly and clutched her head, a small tear sliding down her cheek as she rubbed her aching head.

"I never knew I was so rich. It’s understandable that those pathetic commoners would be jealous of me," Aurianna smiled and Eva just rolled her eyes. Aurianna has surely been getting more and more narcissistic after her transgression.

"Says the person who used to give to the poor," Eva taunted.

"Well, they don’t deserve it. They should just rot, I see no need to give my money to people who would bring me no benefit."

Aurianna heard a knock on her bedroom door and closed the economics textbook she was reading.

"Who is it?"

"Princess, please it’s me, Head Maid Risca."

"Come in then!" Aurianna yelled, before getting off her bed and walking towards the couch in the room as the Head Maid entered.

After finally being able to sit comfortably on the couch Aurianna crossed her legs and looked at the Head Maid with a cold smile, "I wonder what brings the head maid of my mansion here. It must be very important."

"Afternoon princess," Risca greeted calmly as she stared at Aurianna.

"I just wanted to announce that your father has requested that in a few weeks you’ll be showing your capabilities in a war."

"A war against who?" Aurianna asked curiously, despite knowing already.

"The Drumel kingdom," Risca answered.

’I remember in the past I threw a tantrum and didn’t go, but now I won’t do the same. This is a good opportunity to test my abilities in actual combat,’ Aurianna grinned, causing Risca to shiver.

"That sounds interesting, like how the knights duel each other," Aurianna beamed clasping her hands together.

"Yes, but you’ll have to kill the enemy," Risca added nervously.

"Oh, that’s much better than I expected."

"Would you not train, princess? You could die." Risca asked with a worried expression, but Aurianna did care.

"Which princess or prince has died when father sent them to fight?" Aurianna asked, looking at Risca.

"None," Risca answered.

"That’s right. I won’t die, that’s for sure. So you may leave," Aurianna dismissed Risca who curtseyed before leaving the room.

"So Aurianna, what is the Drumel Kingdom?" Eva asked curiously sitting by Aurianna.

"Didn’t you say you watched me from when I was a child? In which case, you should know this already." Aurianna squinted her eyes as she stared at Eva. She didn’t understand why Eva was always asking her questions despite proclaiming that she was smart and also watched her life in the past.

"The king of the Drumel kingdom and all his generation believe that magic only belongs to the gods and not humans, so they want to kill off all magic users. Quite a stupid idea if you ask me," Eva stated and Aurianna just sighed.

"Aurianna, I ask you questions because I want to interact with you more," Eva added and patted Aurianna’s head and smiled.

"Well what you said is correct, they want to keep non-magic classes, yet want to kill magic classes and other races and magical creatures. Fools..." Aurianna grumbled and Eva nodded.

"Living in a world of magic and wanting to kill off those who benefit society with their magic, thinking that magic is evil, sounds weird to me," Aurianna pondered, placing her hand on her chin.

"Oh, why do you think that Aurianna?"

"As I critically think about my last life, I remember a few kingdoms, like the Drumel Kingdom, which all seemed to despise magic classes and they attacked Sandeph," Aurianna contemplated and Eva nodded.

"Think hard, kid. What if someone initiated the war?"

"You’re right, King Girsal!" Aurianna declared and Eva nodded.

"What makes you think it’s him?" Eva asked and Aurianna thought hard once again before saying, "Well in my past life when there was war, It was as though King Girsal was fully prepared. Until the attack of the demons."

"Bingo, because why would you have a lot of Chaos and Arc Humans here, despite Sandeph being just a kingdom?" asked Eva and Aurianna looked surprised.

"A lot of Arc Humans how?"

"Are you serious? Can’t you use ’Identify’ on monsters?" Eva asked, confused.

Aurianna looked at Eva nervously and scratched her head, "I thought it wouldn’t work with humans."

"Try looking at that female knight there," Eva said, pointing at the female Knight guarding Aurianna’s door. Aurianna stared intensely at the female knight and the woman turned towards Aurianna a bit confused. Unfortunately, Aurianna was concentrating too much to notice the Knight’s discomfort.

’Did I do something wrong?’ the knight thought as she cried in her head.

[Name: Amelia ]

[Age: 164 ]

[Race: High Human ]

[ Level: 286 ]

[Class: Magic Knight ]

[ Tap to see more ] a system notification appeared and Aurianna eased her stare at Amelia causing her to feel relief.

"I didn’t think the knights were that strong!" Aurianna said in surprise.

"Can everyone do this Eva?" Aurianna asked with sparkling eyes.

"If everyone could do this, would people pick unnecessary fights?" Eva stated bluntly.

"Probably not. I’m feeling more special," Aurianna beamed.

"I didn’t say it’s unique to you," Eva crushed her feeling of being a unique individual with reality.

"So, I’m not special," Aurianna slumped on the ground as she drew unseen circles. Amelia stared at Aurianna confused. Unable to understand the princess’s emotional outburst.

"Back to the matter at hand," Eva snapped her fingers and Aurianna got up from the floor and sat down on the couch. She picked up a book beside her and opened it, as she directed her attention to Eva. Doing this made sure that she didn’t seem crazy, as though she was just making expressions without doing anything.

Eva continued, "Seeing as how only your bedroom knight is a High Human, I did some research. And it seems that an average adult human’s level is ten no matter what class they are, unless they’ve gone through rigorous training and have fought monsters for exp,their levels won’t increase much." Eva concluded as Aurianna listened attentively.

"Hmm...then the Divine Knights who followed me. How strong are they?" Aurianna asked curiously. She knew they were strong, but how strong?

"Well the evolution of a person to take the path of a knight is from Soldier-> Knight-> Magic Knight/ Saber-> Divine Knight-> Arc knight -> Paladin -> Holy Knight. With evolution like this, it means the Divine Knights are definitely strong."

"No wonder there haven’t been any assassinations, like what I hear other kingdom’s have to go through," Aurianna stated. "But why would they attack Sandeph if we have strong fighters?"

"What is Sandeph’s current reputation?" Eva asked Aurianna.

"Well in the neighboring countries Sandeph is known as a Kingdom of magic. Relatively peaceful and focused on technological and economic advancement," Aurianna answered.

"So.....," Eva asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That’s it! Sandeph’s military strength can’t be predicted since the King hasn’t gone to war for years," Aurianna said.

"Good job," Eva praised Aurianna with a clap.

"Still, aren’t they being dumb? Did they not hold any investigations?" Aurianna asked, rather bewildered.

Eva floated up and stood before Aurianna, "With how smart King Girsal is he’ll probably forge a false investigation."

"I’ve certainly learned a lot today. Thank you, Eva," Aurianna said gratefully.

"Heh, you should be thanking me more for my awesome intelligence," Eva declared proudly.

"Yeah, yeah..." Aurianna rolled her eyes.

"So what would be your approach to this war?" Eva asked.

"I’m definitely going to show off!" Aurianna said smugly.

"Then you should start training. I’d recommend the training grounds," Eva said excitedly.

"I think I’ll pass on that one," Aurianna shook her head.

"Why?" Eva asked, a little shocked by her response.

"Well I just don’t feel ready yet," Aurianna stated as the thought of meeting Carol again demotivated her. Carol tried to eat her once. What if she tries again? Carol could even track her no matter where she was on the Training grounds.

"Well, it’s all up to you," Eva shrugged.

"Thanks, Eva," Aurianna smiled.

Suddenly Aurianna and Eva were interrupted by a bird chirp. Aurianna’s eye twitched at the constant chirping. She walked over to her tea table by the window to climb it with the help of the chair on its side. Once she reached the window curtain, she pushed it open to reveal the garden behind it.

A white bird perched on Aurianna’s window sill as it stared at her curiously. She stretched out her hand with a sweet smile.

The bird stared at Aurianna for some time before hopping onto her palm, though it was immediately crushed when she clasped her hands. Aurianna watched the bird’s blood and guts slip from her hands and spill onto the ground, staining the floor red.

Aurianna immediately tapped a button on the wall and five maids rushed in.

Aurianna stretched her hands towards them and instructed, "Do clean me up. And clean that mess on the floor. I found this animal to be quite a nuisance because it wouldn’t stop chirping."

"Yes princess," The maids answered, their voices a bit shaky when they witnessed blood dripping from the princess’s hand.