Royal Secret: I'm A Princess!

"YOUR MAJESTY, how old is Princess Neoma now?"

"My daughter is nine years old, but she'll be ten in a few months," Nikolai answered Paige Avery's question. "Is that relevant to the current situation?"

"It is, Your Majesty," Paige Avery said while frowning at him. "The curses sealed in Princess Neoma's soul are older than her current physical body. If she wasn't a de Moonasterio, and if she didn't have overflowing Moonglow, she would have been dead by now."

He clenched his hands after hearing how dangerous his daughter's situation was. "I didn't know," he said weakly. "The late Madam Hammock, my daughter's personal Healing Sage, noticed nothing strange in her soul."

"Hammock? The family that produces affordable medicine for the poor?"

"They still do that," he said. "But the Hammocks are now known to produce the best Healing Sages in the empire."

"A Sage tends to focus on a person's physical condition," the mage said. "How about a mage? Your Majesty, have you ever asked the Royal Mages to give Princess Neoma a thorough check-up?"

"The situation didn't allow me to do so," he said sternly. "After all, we have to keep Neoma's identity a secret."

"In short, His Majesty trusted the sage too much."

He frowned, hating the fact that he was being scolded by a young mage.

[But if she has been trapped in the Hisa Tree for fifty years, then this mage is actually older than me.]

"I'm not saying that His Majesty was wrong," Paige Avery added calmly. "Anyway, it's not important at the moment. As a mage, I'll do what I can for now." She raised her staff as if she was showing it to him. "Your Majesty, I will enter Princess Neoma's soul to wake her up."

He nodded, giving the mage the permission to do what she needed to do for his daughter. "I understand," he said. "If I feel something is off, I will wake you up."

The mage smiled as if she was impressed by his intuition. "I'm relieved that Your Majesty is a lot more competent than the previous emperor."

He scoffed at that. "I'm insulted you compared me to my father in the first place."

Paige Avery just laughed softly as a response. "I apologize for slapping Your Majesty."

He waved his hand dismissively. "If you're sincere with your apology, then go and save my daughter."

She nodded politely at his request, then she turned to the young boy standing beside her. "Greko, I need your assistance."

Greko's face beamed at the mage's words. "How can I help you, Paige noona?"

Nikolai almost sighed. [Neoma taught the child strange words, huh?]

But his daughter should teach her children to not speak foreign words in front of other people because it was rude. Especially in front of him. He was still the emperor, after all.

"I will take care of Princess Neoma's soul, so you take care of her physical body," Paige Avery said to the little boy. "You can't touch Her Royal Highness because of the strange barrier protecting her at the moment. But you have elf blood in you, little Greko. You don't need to touch a person to heal them."

"Yes, noona. Aurora, my Spirit Animal, taught me well," Greko said cheerfully. "I will do my best to stop eomma from crying blood."

Nikolai was impressed while watching Greko and Paige Avery work together.

[Neoma's "children" are pretty competent.]

***

[TSK.]

Sienna clicked her tongue when she saw Yoan cry blood while staying still.

He was still sprawled on the bed, and he finally stopped screaming from pain. But his eyes were open, and he was crying blood.

[That means Neoma de Moonasterio remembered a fragment of her memory with Yoan.]

"This is why I told you to never show up in front of Neoma de Moonasterio until she's eighteen years old," Sienna scolded Yoan, then she put a hand on his forehead. "If Neoma de Moonasterio ends up retrieving her old memories from the Dead World, you'll end up forgetting yours. If that happens, our plan will go downhill."

Their mistake in Neoma de Moonasterio's first life was treating her like she didn't exist to protect her from the eyes of the higher beings who meant harm to her. But in the end, those evil beings still ended up realizing the neglected princess's true worth.

This time, they treated Neoma de Moonasterio with much importance. But it looked like they cared for her too much.

[Whatever we do to hide her, she still stands out.]

"I will enter Neoma de Moonasterio's consciousness to block the flow of her memories," Sienna informed Yoan, then she closed her eyes. "Leave everything to me, my lord."

***

[WHAT a strange world.]

When Paige Avery entered Princess Neoma's consciousness, she found herself inside the strange world of her soul. It was a place filled with tall buildings. The princess's consciousness called it 'skyscrapers.'

But only those buildings surrounded her. Not a single soul was there. But it didn't mean the place was empty.

"Having Darkness attribute doesn't automatically make a being evil," Paige Avery said while twirling her cane-shaped staff like a baton. Then she looked up and met the gaze of the being who had been observing her ever since she arrived. "But a Dark Elf like you gives Darkness attribute users a bad name."

The Dark Elf, who was standing on the rooftop of a tall skyscraper, smirked at her. "I've been hiding in here for the past ten years, and none of the people who had checked on Princess Neoma's condition have seen me," he said in an amused voice. "Are you a mage?"

"I am, indeed," she said calmly, then she used flight magic to levitate herself until she was at the eye level of the Dark Elf. "You occupy a small portion of Princess Neoma's soul like a roach. If you didn't purposely disrupt the little princess' soul to mess with her, I would have a hard time finding you. But thanks to your recklessness, I found you easily."

The Dark Elf just laughed as if he found everything amusing.

[Hah. He's handsome. Too bad he's evil to the core.]

Short ash brown hair, silver eyes, pointed ears.

Those were the Dark Elf's features that stood out the most. The dark robe that the elf wore was infused with magic. It was probably created from materials that could repel magic attacks.

[It won't be easy fighting him.]

But her goal wasn't to fight or kill the Dark Elf, so she should be fine.

"What's your name, young mage?"

"It's rude to ask for my name when you haven't introduced yourself yet, Dark Elf," she said, then she let out a smirk. "I bet you'll regret it once you find out who I am."

"I bet I won't, since you look like an interesting person." The Dark Elf laughed once again. "You found out I'm a Dark Elf right away, even though I'm hiding my hostility and my dark force."

"An elf corrupting a portion of a child's soul couldn't be a good elf," she said with a shrug. "I'm not saying all Dark Elves who use Darkness attribute are bad. You just reek of evilness."

Once again, the annoying Dark Elf laughed. "My name is Lukas."

"My name is Paige Avery."

Lukas's smile vanished, then he consciously took a step away from her. "Avery?"

She finally let out a burst of rich laughter. "Didn't I tell you you'd regret it once you find out who I am?"

Why wouldn't he?

After all, she was an Avery– and the Averys were the natural enemies of evil Darkness attribute users like this arrogant Dark Elf.

"Impossible," Lukas claimed in disbelief. "The Averys have vanished a long time ago!"

"Well, Princess Neoma found and saved me," she said sweetly, then she stabbed the sharp end of her staff to the ground. Of course, the floor immediately cracked, and the cracks quickly spread all over. "I will introduce myself again– I am Paige Avery."

The building that she was standing on collapsed right away.

Of course, she and Lukas remained floating in the air without eye contact. But the two of them had different facial expressions at the moment.

She was smiling confidently.

On the other hand, the Dark Elf was sweating as if he was suddenly nervous.

"I am a Light Mage," Paige Avery declared proudly. "And I am here to purify this space that you corrupted, you evil Dark Elf."

"Purify?" Lukas snarled at her. "Try it if you can, Light Mage!"

"I won't try it– I will do it."

After her bold declaration, her turquoise eyes glowed at the same time the cane in her hand turned into crystal. She filled it with her Mana until the glass cane broke into hundreds of pieces. Then those pieces turned into colorful gems.

"Scatter," she ordered the pieces of colorful gems floating around her. "Scatter and purify all the evil that exists here."

The colorful gems then flew away from her and attached themselves to the surrounding skyscrapers. Earlier, the surrounding buildings were of dark colors. But as soon as her colorful gems attached themselves to the skyscrapers, each one of those buildings began to turn transparent.

Lukas, on the other hand, clutched his chest with his hand and coughed up a chunk of blood. "How dare you…"

"I should be the one saying that," Paige Avery said, her whole body was slowly being covered by her Light attribute at the moment. "How dare an evil elf like you mess with my new master, huh?"

***

Hi. You may now send GIFTs to our Neoma. Thank you~

***

Please ADD my story to your LIBRARY to be notified when an update is posted. Thank you! :>