Sword and Lily

"She is holing herself up in her room again." uttered a clearly concerned, yet gruff voice. It was King Ren of the North Blossom Kingdom, said to be one of the most prosperous in the world of Heralldia - renowned for the invention of the , said to have reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship. This technique originating from hundreds and hundreds of years ago from the founders of the North Blossom Kingdom had been passed down throughout the years. However, for the first time in centuries, there was one heiress to the throne and the Art who refused to take any of that stuff seriously.

This was Princess Hokuto, the 37th Heiress to the , who was actually raised by her parents King Ren and Queen Tyris with minimal amounts of spoilage - both were proficient in the martial way and knew it was good to instill the values of discipline from a young age. Unfortunately, nothing they did seemed to give Hokuto any sense of urgency to perfect the fundamentals of using the sword. She did not take training very seriously, and seemed to be more interested in other things, often holing up in her room and never allowing anyone to enter.

Queen Tyris looked at Ren with the same amount of concern. "Honey, she has refused to tell us what she is so interested in, that she would refuse to take her swordsmanship training seriously. She is already 10 years old, yet she has such intelligence and cunning. Did we give birth to an anomaly?"

Ren's eyebrows twitched. "Don't say such ridiculous things. No matter what, dear Hokuto is our child. Surely there must be a way to convince her to come out and put more effort in her training." Ren looked deep in thought as he suddenly walked away from the wooden door before him - the door to Hokuto's room. It was locked from the inside. Tyris followed him, wondering what he was planning.

Meanwhile, Hokuto herself was reading some books on the ancient art of sorcery which she had nicked from the library. Despite her preference towards magic, she still did admire swordplay. She would often ask her parents to recount the legendary tales of the 25th Queen, Yagyu, who valiantly sacrificed herself on the battlefield to defeat a terrifying threat to the kingdom. However, the mystic arts simply fascinated her a lot more, and she would always think up of ways to excuse herself so she could pore over the books pertaining to magic and sorcery.

Unfortunately, despite her intellect, she was unable to perform even the smallest of cantrips. Any expert could easily see that Hokuto had no aptitude for magic, despite sorcery being just as common an affair as martial arts and close combat. However, as a 10 year old child, curious about the world, how could she know this? Though blessed with mental capabilities beyond her years, her mind was still that of a child's. She refused to mention her interests to anyone who might rat her out to her parents.

This was what developed Hokuto into the problem child she was today - reticent, cold, calculative and most of all unwilling to share her innermost thoughts. She was not an ungrateful child. The reason why she did not want to say anything was precisely because she knew her interests were in direct conflict with the interests of tradition and her kingdom.