*PREVIOUS CHAPTER*
"You should know that I'm not going soft on you!" My eyes were burning with fire, this man was going to get his ass kicked by me
***
He jumped off his horse and drew his sword.
"A fierce lady... How fun! You're going to die here!". His and my sword clashed into each other, he was really fast. I could block his swings just on time but it was tiring, my body wasn't that strong and so I was at a big disadvantage. I had to save my energy to use magic on him.
The 'boss' suddenly backed off and put his sword on his shoulder. "You should come with me before you're dying, you won't regret it" he said with a creepy voice. I clenched my spirit weapon and made it fade away.
"Giving up?" He sounded happy and he put his sword back in his scabbard. He was distracted and it was the perfect time to attack him.
I summoned fire magic, it was black fire. The leader backed off and fell on the ground. I spread my arm and burned the man, it didn't kill him but he was in a lot of pain.
The two girls were looking at him in shock and looked at me, they couldn't understand what was happening to the man.
I put my arm down and looked at the man, his mask was burned away. I grabbed him by his cape and lit a flame on my finger. I put it closer to his face and immediately dropped him.
"Sir Philip?" I said with a shaking voice. Out of all the people that could betray the Florys's I never expected it to be Philip. He was the butler that the duke trusted the most.
"Duchess Florys? What are you doing here?" Philip said, he looked innocent and clueless. I frowned my eyebrows, was he trying to pretend to be innocent?
"How did I end up here? And what happened?" He got up and held his head, he wasn't acting. "Do you happen to know how you came here?" I said and Philip shook his head.
"Master, his mask is covered in black magic" Naralia said, making Philip flinch. "I was a puppet?" Philip asked, I nodded. He looked terrified and trembled.
"Celestine!" The duke and Qin came running to me. The duke saw Philip and pointed his sword at him.
"Duke, it isn't like that! Sir Philip was controled with black magic!" I put his sword away and pointed at the mask. The duke sighed and grabbed my hand.
"You should know that you could've get hurt" He said in a soft tone. I smiled and nodded.
"Qin, send the king a magic letter with what happened here. He'll handle the situation" Qin gave the duke a nod and left. I looked at the mask and burned it to prevent any black magic from absorbing it.
"Duchess, how did you know about magic..?" Philip asked. I sighed, I didn't feel like telling him how and changed his memory. Instead of me burning him in his memory, I hit him unconscious.
Some guards took Philip and put him under watch. The duke and I sent the two girls home and took a walk in the forest. It was a starry night with the moon shining through the trees. After a while, we found the perfect spot.
"We finally found out who the so called 'boss' was" I laid down on the grass and put my arm over my eyes. "Yes, but we still need to get to the land in the south soon" The duke said and my mood dropped. I still didn't like travelling with carriages.
"I heard there are a lot of rebellions in the south lately" I said and the duke sighed. "Yes, the king wanted to build a military base on the border there" The duke sat down on the grass and threw his head back.
"The king is foolish, old and can't handle things like that" The duke closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "He was also worried that the I would become an obstacle for the crown prince" I raised my eyebrow.
"You won so many wars for Maryvil, why would you be an obstacle?". "Because my popularity is higher than the crown prince's" I felt like a stone fell on my head. 'Is this man more popular than the crown prince?...' It felt unrealistic.
"Our house is raising in status and our wealth is increasing a lot. The Royal Palace's status is decreasing" The duke was in deep thought. "The king will try to do things to us, we should stay alert" I gave the duke a nod.
"You should rest well, you fought great today" I looked over at the duke. 'Did he just compliment me?' I smiled and nodded. "You too, we have a long way to go" I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.