Surprisingly, Louis didn´t lead me into a room inside the royal palace, but rather outside, to the place where all the carriages, including mine, stood.

“Where are we going?” I asked, slightly concerned about my own mental well-being. Spending too much time with the prince was certainly good for my reputation amongst the commoners, but seriously made me question my life choices.

“To the noble wall. There is a friend of mine who will watch over the first challenge.” A biased friend probably, but whatever. What was more important was the number he mentioned.

“First? Not second or even third?” I asked while he led me towards my carriage, much to my surprise.

“The first two were a test if it would work.” I struggled to find an answer to this for several seconds.

“I see … and why are we using my carriage?” A butler, standing right beside the door, opened it and gave the prince a nice view of the elf who was dozing off inside.

“Your highness, this is Hannah. Hannah, this is the second prince.” Both were discontent with the situation. Hannah immediately panicked as she saw him while the prince froze and then slowly turned his head towards me.

“We can take your carriage if you want.” I said, a beaming smile on my face.

“No, I´d rather talk with this … lovely lady here.” I assumed his father didn’t allow him to go out because his personality was rather problematic at times. Still smiling, I waited for Louis to tell the driver where to head. After the prince boarded the carriage, I accepted the help of the butler like a proper lady and followed suit.

A mere second after the door closed, the atmosphere turned even frostier. Hannah inched closer to me while Louis, seated on the opposite bench, crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked out of the window. We were already on our way out as I remembered that I was supposed to be kind and cheerful.

“So, what are we going to do?”

“Archery.” Not my strong point, to be honest. Arrows lose all functionality if you fight against someone adept at dodging everything, including spears flying faster than they should be allowed to.

“I don’t know how to use a bow.” I said. Not exactly the truth, but Lucy White wouldn’t know how to use one.

“Not my problem.” Louis said, still ignoring us for the most part.

“Hmm … I guess I need to learn how to use a bow then.” I stated and could feel the conversation dying instantly. His disgust for Hannah and me was phenomenal. The prince and we didn’t interact during the rest of the journey. Instead, I talked with Hannah about mundane things, even though she wasn’t the most talkative person at this point. Apparently, this alone got on the nerves of the second prince, because he basically stormed out of the carriage the second it came to a halt.

It was so satisfying to watch that he couldn’t bear our presence any longer. Smiling, this time for real, I jumped out of the carriage and waited for Hannah to follow.

“Do I have to come with you?” She asked timidly. I understood her reasoning perfectly well. I didn’t want to go there either, but a shared misery was better than shouldering it alone. That was also a great point for wreaking as much havoc as possible instead of very little … although this reasoning may be wrong.

“No…” I said but still pulled her out of the carriage. My actions and my words didn’t fit very well, but I had to lie somehow. Together, we walked towards a tower and climbed the staircase while Hannah looked incredibly pitiful. She didn’t want to be here at all, most importantly because she was scared about the power of the prince. Only my protection saved her at this point in time as she started to become known amongst the nobles. I didn’t know if she understood that or not, and it honestly didn’t matter that much either. She had to rely on me, that was all that counted.

I didn’t walk directly towards Louis and his friend, but rather leaned onto the wall battlement and enjoyed a nice autumn breeze with Hannah. The city below us was bustling with life, merchants were selling their ware, children played around and somewhere, a few kilometres away, guards held off anyone from entering a quarantined area.

“Have you heard of the mana sickness?” I asked Hannah.

“T- That’s when there is too much mana at a place and humans cannot handle it, right?” She said. Her answer was correct, although it usually happened outside large cities. Even then, it usually went on for a few days and was linked to a single location in which the humans would feel unwell and could potentially even die. To conclude, the mana disease in the merchants’ district was highly unlikely to go on for so long in such a densely populated area.

“There is one inside the merchant's district right now … I just hope that everyone is doing well.” I said, continuing my lying streak.

“You are too kind.” I smiled happily and turned towards Louis who approached us with two arrows while his friend prepared a simple target in the middle of the walkway.

“We are doing a best of three. You go first.” He said drily, denying me any chance to see how it is done properly. Either he was really scared I would learn it way faster than expected, or he was so fed up with me that he wanted to get over with it fast.

I took the bow and an arrow from him, looked at it with curiosity and waited for his friend to approach us.

“Milady.” He bowed shortly but otherwise made no move to help me out at all. Clumsily, I prepared everything and drew the string. I tensed up a bit and then let loose. The arrow didn’t come far as I let go of it. It fell onto the ground a few metres away from me. Shrugging, I handed over the bow to Louis who was already sure of his victory. With admittedly alright precision, he hit the target after a few seconds of preparation.

I was going to lose, but I never wanted to win in the first place. His friend retrieved both arrows, but stopped on the way back and gazed east.

“Do you hear that?” He asked and apparently listened very closely to something.

“What?” I asked, slightly frustrated about my bad hearing.

“The siren.” It was already happening, there was no doubt. I didn’t know when exactly they would do it, but it wasn’t too surprising that they did it on this date. Everyone was away, so they could perfectly execute their plan. Even before I could answer, before I could raise an eyebrow, I heard them, or rather what they did.

The siren stopped at once, only to be replaced by the sounds of an explosion even I could hear. In the distance, houses upon houses exploded one after another, sending debris flying everywhere. It was a few kilometres away, but even I could see how whole houses were destroyed in a matter of seconds.

It was a breathtaking sight. Flattening a part of the merchant district was one of the best ideas I ever had. With hidden glee, I ran towards the battlement and leaned over it, trying to catch every part of it. I was so excited, so thrilled that I could barely contain my mad laughter.

I loved destruction, I loved this. Strangely though, I was alone with my emotions as the others stared in shock, and even a hint of fear.

The explosions naturally didn’t continue into all eternity and were soon replaced by a huge dust cloud that blocked off any vision.

“This is …” I muttered and leaned back as I got a grip of myself again.

“What in the world …” Louis said, flabbergasted by the explosions.

“We have to … no we cannot help.” I said, seemingly just then realizing where all these explosions came from. The area was completely devoid of any life, going there would be of no use.

“I need to go back. I´ll take your carriage.” Louis said. Finally, I got rid of him as he dashed to the stairs, leaving Hannah and be behind. His friend was equally dashing away, probably to his superior. Hannah and I continued to stare into the distance, probably for very different reasons.