Eleanora was so small when I just met her, but she had grown to be a beautiful young girl. 13 this year, she was taller than other girls, her body lean and packed with muscles probably from all the training. Her pink hair has been always up in two ponytails at the side of her head. Though some would say it's childish, but I think it suits her. To be honest, I was jealous of her pink locks of hair. For the 16 years of my life, I still have not gotten used to the short silver hair that I had, though I try keeping it slightly longer at the back, touching the nape of my neck. I really missed my blonde hair back in the days, where my servants would brush through every morning since it was so long.
I keep my silver hair out of the way with a red ribbon, and adorn my usual training gear, as I head out to the backyard, where both the Brandharht and Black's backyard connects. As expected I already see Eleanora swinging her sword, warming up at 6 am in the morning. The sun rises late in this period of time, so the only light source was the moon. She looked stunning under the shimmering silver light. Her pink hair almost ethereal translucent and sweat trickled down her forehead delicately.
"Eleanora, morning." I gave a greeting, despite her beautiful looks, I know she's a fiery woman who's not to be messed around with. I'm a little afraid of her at times.
"Oh, morning." She stopped, looking back.
"Today's the day." She continued.
"Hm?"
"The registration for the Royal Knights academy competition."
"Oh, yes. Are you participating?"
Eleanora paused to think, a look of unease crossed her face as her brow furrowed. I've always known her as a girl who followed her father's footsteps. If she truly liked swordsmanship, I didn't know.
"I... To be honest, I want to become an adventurer."
Oh yes, adventurers are people in this world that does jobs that normally require manual labor, like killing of pests/monsters, collecting herbs, or even finding a missing cat. It's typically odd jobs, and in the Earl Kingdom, adventurers were not treated well, it was considered to be a job nobody wants, and only goes to people that had low education but good fighting skills. Many people who failed to get into the Royal Knights Academy or military that are poor end up as adventurers. There are about 10 adventurer guilds in Earl, pretty less considering Earl is a huge Kingdom.
The reason for Eleanora to be uneasy about her decision was because her father would definitely not allow her to take up the job. Being an adventurer, you would be exposed to a high death rate, probably higher than being in the military or the Royal Knights.
"Is this what you truly want?" I know the feeling of being not able to do what you want to do. I was the 8th princess and the title brought many restrictions. In my opinion being an abandoned son was even more carefree than life in the palace.
"Yes. It's— It's not just a phase. I even talked to my father about it... but he didn't agree with me." She threw her sword on the ground, and leaned againt the wood post she was using for practice. Eleanora heaved a sigh and put her hands to her face. She was a strong willed girl, seeing her like that, I was a little dumbfounded.
"Look, if you really want to be an adventurer, there's no stopping you. You are a great swordstress, one day you might even surpass your father— or me. I'm sure you'll be able to protect yourself out there."
"Surpass my father, sure. But you? You're a monster. I've never won once against you." She sniffed.
"I thought you didn't like me taking it easy against you."
"You better not." A small smile appeared on her face. My words of encouragement could only go this far, to be honest, it's her path and she should be the one deciding where she'd end up in. A word of encouragement was all she needed, back then, how I wished I had someone to encourage me, or even talk to.
"Your father will understand one day. He will realise he brought up such a talented girl." I reached over to pat her on the head, which was rather odd to me, but it felt right at the moment.
Our paths will be very different from now on.