Sun Kingdom
A lady in red was watching nature, from her balcony as she enjoyed her evening tea inside her room. She had a slight smile thinking about the event which was bound to happen.
The lady was none other than the queen of Sun kingdom, Queen Lili. She was known to be playful, kind and loving which is the reason why the citizens of the kingdom loved the royal family.
Her playful tricks against her own family were well known to everyone and this was one of the main reasons why the king fell head over heels for her.
She chuckled thinking about her elder son when a knock disrupted her thoughts, she called out, "Come in."
The maid opened the door and calmly announced, "Your Highness, your sister princess Julie has arrived."
A smile bloomed on Lili's face as soon as she heard her darling sister arrived. She motioned the maid to let her in and got up to welcome her. Both the sisters hugged each other warmly.
They sat down and soon Julie started to gossip while Lili listened to her sister. There was nothing odd here as this was their usual activity whenever they meet.
Lili while being active, doesn't explore out of the palace whereas her sister, who is yet to be married, explores the world and comes back to her to share her news.
Julie laughed, "Sis, how did you even convince Usui to attend the competition?"
"Why is it so hard for you to believe !!! My son always listens to me and this was just a small matter. Why wouldn't he listen to me?" she smugly said.
Julie smirked," Is that so? maybe the maids were lying when they said how you threw a tantrum when he didn't agree. I heard that he even told ' What nonsense' but was forced to agree to your condition just to stop you from crying."
Hearing this, the queen dropped the cake she held while her face flushed and shouted, "WHAA...Nonsense."
While she cursed inside and planned to talk to the head maid.
Julie bellowed in laughter as she saw her sister's face. She couldn't help but say, "Come on sis, how long do you think I know you."
She ignored her sister grumbling and continued, " I have heard that princess Hazel is a beauty and that the tests they planned out for the competitors are not easy. They have to face the Thunder Squad in the second round or so."
" Sis, have you heard about the thunder squad?"
Lili shook her head cutely which made Julie groan, " Sis, trust me, someday or other you need to get out of the palace."
The Queen stuck her tongue out at her childishly which made her sister doubt her husband's eye.
Lili rubbed her sister's head, " Why are you worried? It will be hard for others but not for my son. I'm sure he will win the competition and get married to the princess. I'm happy that I will have a beautiful daughter-in-law."
" Ahh...They will have such adorable kids." she squealed.
A soldier knocked and when he was allowed to enter, he kneeled," Your Highness, We have received news from them."
The sisters looked at each other before Lili leaned forward and asked excitedly, "Tell me fast... How did it go?"
"The first prince passed the first round within seconds and the second round is about to start soon."
Both the sisters hugged each other and laughed out loud.
Lili looked at her sister proudly," See, didn't I tell you not to get worried?!"
Julie rolled her eyes at her but soon, noticed the weird expression on the soldier's face and asked him," Is there anything else? "
The soldier awkwardly said," There was also another news from them."
Instantly, Lili asked," What is it? Did my son court the princess? Did she like him?"
The soldier's eye twitched, " Not exactly my Queen."
" Tch... You made me excited for no reason." Lili said as she leaned back and took a sip from her tea.
" Rather the opposite happened, the first prince rejected the marriage proposal, at the welcome banquet, saying he's only interested in fighting with the Thunder squad members enraging the royals who were present."
Lili dropped the cup on the floor and stood up shouting, "What did you just say?!?! "
Julie laughed uncontrollably which made some tears escape her eyes," That kid sure knows how to turn the situation in his favour."
Lili was enraged," That brat..I'm going to banish him when he comes back. "
Julie motioned the soldier to leave before she calmed her sister.
" You know how Usui is, you can't say it was unexpected. It was strange enough that he participated in the competition."
She sighed, " Now, you have lost your last chance in persuading him."
Lili smirked evilly, "As if... He will not come back here without a girl."
Julie asked slowly, " What else did you do?"
Lili smiled, " I just sent an additional person to make sure Usui marries the princess or he would have to participate in some feasts."
Julie chuckled thinking about the "additional" person's dilemma.
....
Crystal Kingdom
Zelal sneezed, "Achoooo..." he wondered who was talking about him.
He looked at his brother who was resting when the final results were announced. Five royals were selected and proceeded to the next round.
The four who passed had a decent amount of strength and magic level. Since they had an extra number of people and Freya was supposed to only battle in the third round. One among the other four - Liz, Jinha, Hak and Zeno, would battle twice as it didn't matter to them whether they had to battle twice or thrice.
Hearing that one person will fight twice, the four royals were enraged that they were not taking them seriously which was ignored by others.
Freya came forward and on her hand, there was five papers and four sticks. She gave out the papers to the royals and told them to pin their number to their clothes.
When she reached Usui, he smiled at Freya which she ignored and handed his number. Then, she returned to her troop and made them each pick a stick, and the one who wasn't picked by them would battle any of the four.
As they picked their stick, Usui was left out which meant that he was to battle any of the four which made him grin.
As to who was to battle twice, before the pondering happened, Jinha raised his hand, willingly volunteering to battle twice.
Jinha smiled wickedly," I wanted to beat the crap out of him for so long and God has given me this lucky chance ."
Zelal ran to his brother's side and asked cautiously, "Bro, Can you beat him?"
Usui looked at him and within a second, Zelal changed his question, " Bro, Can you beat the crap out of him?"
He was waiting for the chance to beat this guy for the way he interacted with Liz. He didn't even care to identify what he was feeling, he just wanted to beat that guy for provoking him and wipe that grin off his face.
Usui was surprised to see the animosity on his brother's face. He sighed, " I'm not sure."
but he patted his brother's shoulder and said, "I will try to give him a beating though."
According to him, Jinha was on par with him and he wasn't confident about whether he could defeat him or not. What troubled him the most is that he couldn't imagine how long their battle would take nevertheless, he was excited to fight against them.