Chapter 6

“Get your ass in front of me right now or I will force you out of your hiding place!” I said to Prince Jude which is clearly nowhere to be seen. Well, he has the power to control nature, that’s why he’s just somewhere in this field because this field was enchanted and if you don’t finish what the master says, you will never be able to get out of here no matter how powerful you are. Teleportation won't work.

“I think you want me to find you,” I said, then stomped my feet on the ground and it began shaking. I analysed his power earlier and got some of his abilities, that’s why I was able to control nature too.

The tree moves, then its root begins to go in one direction.

I smirked, then whistled. The roots of the tree with a captured Prince are now in front of me. 

“How did you control the tree?” he asked.

“Thanks to your power, I was able to have this kind of ability,” I said while smiling, then I started to walk near him.

I gestured my hand to move the Prince’s hand to me and the tree did stretch out Prince Jude’s hand. I put my hand on his wrist and I put a mark on him, then I gestured my hand again to let the Prince go.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“Well, you know my friend… you won’t be able to get out of this training field without her permission… and I already warned you earlier not to make her mad… now you will experience hell in this room until she lets you go,” Lucas said.

“You will be staying here until you made up your mind whether to stay in our guild and work under me or not… if your decision is to not be part of this guild anymore, that mark will erase your memory of my face and informations about this guild, but if you desire to stay and work under me, that mark will be removed, and you will be able to get out of this room… don’t worry, while you’re given a chance to choose, you will face quite a few monsters here so that you can control your powers,” I said before turning my back on him and leaving the room.

We have a lot of rooms here which I enchanted to connect to some areas wherein it can be used as a training field and that room earlier, is for someone like the prince.

“You should’ve given him much more difficult punishment,”Lucas said.

“No can’t do… he may be planning to join this guild, but we must not forget that he’s also a prince, just like the two of you,” I said as we walked.

“Empress, you mentioned dark magic earlier… may I ask for more information about it? I mean, the seal that was used to control Jude’s power was dark magic… and we, the royal families of different kingdom, knows that if you use dark magic, you will be punished, either through death sentence or torture,” Leo said.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but that is as far as I know… I don’t know any information like why they use dark magic, but I know that they used it on Prince Jude,” I said, then we entered my office.

“Why not send someone to investigate?” Lucas suggested.

“We can’t… It would be dangerous especially if you’ll be up against the dark mages,” I said as I stood by the window and looked as the sun started to go down.

“We never had lunch… let’s go down and eat,” I said, then towards the door, but Leo and Lucas blocked my way.

“You can’t eat on the first floor,” Leo said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Feel your surroundings and you’ll know why,” Lucas said. Even though I’m confused, I tried to know and see what’s going on in the third floor.

What’s the Grand Duke doing here? No, that’s not the Grand Duke… it's his son?

“What’s the Grand Duke’s son doing here?” I asked.

“We don’t know, that’s why we can’t go down there,” Leo said.

“I’ll go and take a look, but for now stay here… I will also tell Pi to bring your meals here,” Lucas said.

“Not my meal, but our meal,” I said before he nodded and left the room.

“Come,” Leo said as he escorted me towards the couch.

“Leo, I have to tell you something and you must never tell it to Lucas,” I said.

“What is it?” he asked.

—--

“Clementine!” someone barged in, then he hugged me as he entered the room.

“Get away from her!” Lucas said and threw a ball of fire towards us. I used my power to nullify the magic, then fiercely looked at him. I gestured my hand for everyone to leave. The others did leave, but Leo and Lucas did not.

“Please let go of me, Young Master Whistleton,” I said.

“Oh, yes, sorry,” he said, then he let go of me, then smiled at me.

“Please have a seat,” I said. Lucas and Leo stood behind me while the Young master sat on the sofa on the opposite side.

“May I ask who you are and how you know me? Have we perhaps met before?” I asked.

“Come on… you’re my cousin so why should I not be familiar with you?” he replied.

“What?!” me, Lucas and Leo shouted.

“Wait a minute, young master–” I said.

“Please call me Damian or big brother,” he cut off my words.

“Sir. Damian… I grew up in the orphanage, never knowing who my real parents are and never knew if I have relatives, no matter how many times I told my comrades to gather some data about me, but now, you’re appearing in my guild and saying that you’re my cousin?” I said with both my eyebrows meeting each other..

“Oh… have you perhaps met my father already?” he asked.

“Not yet, but I will meet him next week… may I ask why?” I said.

“If that’s the case, then I’ll see you next week… you might know everything that you need to know there… and I suggest that you go there alone and not with Prince Leo, Prince Lucas, and Prince Jude, who seems to be getting out of control with his power,” Sir. Damian said before disappearing.

“Oh my head,” I said as I massaged the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes.

“Are you okay?” I heard Lucas ask. I opened my eyes and I saw Lucas and Leo kneeling like a knight in front of me with a worried face.

“I changed my mind… go back to your palaces and be back here tomorrow if you have nothing to do in your kingdom,” I said.

“We can’t leave you here after what happened,” Leo said.

“You will leave,” I said, then tap their shoulders to send them back to their kingdoms. I also sealed their teleportation magic until tomorrow morning, so that they will really not come back here until tomorrow.

“Here’s the meals,” Pi said as he entered the office with 3 plates of meals.

“I’m sorry Pi, but I already sent the two princes to their kingdoms… I’m sorry for wasting the food,” I said.

“No worries, master… this can be eaten by our pets, I guess they are now hungry,” he said while preparing the meals in front of me.

“What’s with that hellish place?! I almost destroyed half of the mountains there, yet you did not come to that room?!” Prince Jude entered as he breathed heavily.

“I guess you should leave another meal here… It seems like Prince Jude chose to be here,” I said, then Pi nodded and put another plate of meal on the table.

“Why don’t you take a seat first and drink this,” I said, then I handed the small bottle of potion. It is to recover your body physically and of course, the power that you lost after using it.

Pi got the potion from my hand, then he handed it over to Prince Jude who’s currently sitting on the opposite side, which is in front of me. Prince Jude drank the potion, then his body glowed.

“Thank you for serving us our meal, Pi… you may go now,” I said.

“I’m just doing my job, empress… if you need anything, just call for me,” he replied before leaving the office. I started to eat my meal, but stopped halfway due to Prince Jude’s stares.

“Why aren’t you eating? Do you think that even though it looks delicious and luxurious, it won’t be tasty?” I asked him.

“It’s not like that,” he replied.

“Then why aren’t you eating?” I asked again.

“Why did you not come back to that room when I get out of control?” he asked.

“Is that it?” I asked too.

“What do you mean by that? I might destroy that room if I wasn’t able to have my powers under control awhile ago!” he shouted, but I just smiled at him.

“I did not come back to that room because I trust that you will be able to control your power… that training? That's just the first step of your training and that monster that you encountered was a lowly monster that your fellow royalties captured," I told him, then I continued eating my food.

"Then, if you'll excuse me," he said, then he ate his food as if he wasn't able to eat for a week. I looked at him surprisingly.

"By the way, I'll send you back to that room tomorrow morning… don't worry, I will tell Pi to wake you up and prepare for the second step of your training… you will be using the same room, but you're going against a much more powerful opponent," I told him. I'm already finished eating and so does he, that's why I rang the bell on the table to summon Pi.

“But I wasn’t even able to rest even just for a day,” he complained.

I calmly looked at him while smiling.

“You will follow my order, or do you want me to send you to my friend in the demon world?” I asked him. I saw him flinch.

“I… I’m going to train tomorrow,” he said, then someone entered the office. Pi cleaned up the table and while he’s cleaning it, I spoke to him.

“Pi, escort the Prince to one of our rooms here and wake him up early in the morning tomorrow, then send him to that room again… another, once his training finished, send him back here so that I could give him his codename,” I told Pi.

“I will do as you wish,” he replied.

“Shall we, Prince Jude?” Pi asked Prince Jude, then Prince Jude nodded as an answer, then they left the office.

I went back to my table, then continued my work.