A few weeks later, two new teachers arrived at the Palace. One was the new Magic Teacher, she was around 30 and comes from the Mage association. The other one was a very tall and muscular Swordmaster, his body was graced with many scars. He was a mercenary and former lieutenant
of the Arts Kindoms Army. They both were the new teacher for the third Princess Irene. She will have 2 Magic lessons and 2 Swordmanship lessons each week plus the already attending Magic history lesson with Sir George.
Irene couldn't contain her excitement the whole week, she was like another person. She was happy, talking and jumping around in anticipation. The new lessons could not come fast enough for her.
Her week stared with her Magic lesson. The Teacher was called Miss Nenra. She started her lessons with a lot of theoretical information about Magic and Mana. Unlike the other lessons Irene had, she paid attention to every word and asked questions about it every time she got a chance.
After 6 Hours of Magic an mana theory, Miss Nenra placed a crystal ball in front of the little princess. "With this we will test your Elemental affinity with the spirits to see, which forms of magic you can use. The crystal will shine in the color of the element you can use, if you can use more then one kind of element, it will shine in different colors, just place your hand on the ball and concentrate." the princess nodded and placed her hands as described on the crystal. She closed her eyes and thought about Magic, Mana and the Element-Spirits.
Once she heard her teacher shocked gasped she opened her eyes again. The crystal ball had four colored parts. One was Blue, the second one was green, the third one was white and the last one was grey. "I don't understand, what does this mean?" she tilted her head with visible question marks over her head. The teacher still stared at the crystal with her mouth open from the gasp she let out a while ago. As soon as she heard the princess question, she closed her mouth straightened her back an dusted of her dress.
"Well little princess, this means you have 4 Elemental-Affinities. The blue one is for Water-magic, the Green is wind Magic, the white one is for Light-Magic and the grey one is the non-elemental magic. But i must say. I have never seen anyone with Elemental and non-elemental Magic affinities. The Princess must be a genius."
Irene's face lightened up at the comment from her teacher, never has anyone called her a genius. She couldn't wait till she tells her father, mother and brothers about it. As if the teacher read her mind she asked "Do you want to go to your father and mother and tell them about it?"
The princess nodded and went to see her father in his study.
She told him about this news and run off to find her mother and brothers, leaving Miss Nenra and her Father alone in the study.
"Is it true? i never heard of something like this!" the King asked the teacher still unbelieving of what his 10 year old daughter had just told him.
"Yes, your highness. It is all true, i saw it with my own eyes, but its not just that" she took a deep breath "She has a lot of Mana, so she can use really big magical spells. If she wanted i think she could be a Magic Sage."
The Kings eye widen on the news. he let out a sigh and thanked the Teacher for her Information. A Magic Sage. Mages will always be requested to join the battlefield to fight against the Void-Monster and Voidlings. This was not the kind of future Aiden envisioned for his youngest daughter. Maybe she likes Swordmanship more then magic and is not that good at it. Let's see what tomorrow holds.
On the next day Irene was waiting Eagerly on the training grounds. Instead of her usual dress she wore Pants and a Shirt which will be easier to move in. She impatiently walked up and down as she waited for the new teacher.
As she turned around wanted to start roaming again as she run against something really hard, hard as a wall.
She stumbled backward as she rubbed her forehead. As she looked up she saw a big muscular man with leather pants and no shirt. His arms and chest were graced with scars, a lot of them.
„Hey kiddo!" he said in a dark voice. „I'm Dagen, i'm gonna teach ya how to wield a sword." He laughed while stemming his hands in his hips.
„So what am i learning first, how to swing a sword, how to stab someone?" Irene asked excited as she looked up to the nearly 2 Meter Tall Man.
He laughed again „a feisty lil kiddo you are, but sadly we can't stab someone yet, first we get ya some muscles" he said as he flexed his biceps. „If ya don't have any muscles ya can't even lift a sword." he flexed his other arm too. The little Princess nodded eager. „What do i need to do first?"
„First we gonna start running around the field. Then we start boxing some dummies made of hay."
‚Running?' she thought, when was the last time she ran, she can't remember. Even if Irene was just a 10 year old girl, she wasn't like normal girls her age. She never really liked to move her body, she really liked to sit or lie down and read books. But if she needs to run to wield a sword, she's gonna do it. She nodded at Degan and started to run along the training field. She completed the first round, and her breathing was already getting heavier, her cheeks flushed red. Some of the Families soldiers of their Army sat on the benches on the side of the field and watched their little princess running. The shouted some lines of support an cheered but Irene couldn't hear them because she was to focused at running. As she completed her second lap around the field and stopped before her teacher. Put her hands on her knees and was trying to catch her breath.
„Dear Orin" he said as he looked down as the nearly stumbling little Princess. „We have to do a lot of training if ya wanna hold a sword lil kiddo."
The Princess still catching her breath, nodded „yes... i really.. want to.... hold a ....Sword." Degan started to laugh again. He laughed so much that Irene started to pout. He ruffled through her hair and calmed down his laughter „no need to pout kiddo, we're gonna get there, no worries. Take a little break an then run one more round. After that we will do some boxing." the white-blond haired girl nodded and fixed the strains of her hair out of her face and got ready to run again.
The training went on till the sun rises high in the sky. A young Lady in a Maid uniform walked towards the training field. She stopped as she saw her 3rd Princess lying on the ground, breathing heavily . „Goodness your Highness, is everything alright?" She asked in a concerned voice. But to her surprise the usually gloomy princess, smiled from ear to ear. Her face flushed red and her eyes. „Yes Alva, i am fine, i feel really fine to be true." she huffed and smiled really brightly. Alva smiled at the exciting little girl. „Let's get you cleaned and some new cloth." She helped Irene up on her feet. „Till in two days Mr. Degan" Irene bowed in the direction of her teacher. He just smiled and waved hat her as he turned around and walked away.
The following weeks went by really fast. She got more and more proficiently in her Mana control and spell casting and is even allowed to wield a wooden sword now in her Swordmanship classes. The praise for the little princess effort came from every corner of the Castle. The King and Irene's mother Nora were really happy to see her daughter work so hard, and makes a lot of effort for her interests. Her brothers Ethan and Aaron were really impressed as they saw how much their sister improved, she was better in using magic than both of them, and she catches on really fast on the Sword training. Both of them were really jealous of her Teachers. They only got to trained by the general of the army and the army instructor and didn't get a personal Teacher. So they went and begged the King to let them train with their sister and her teacher.
„If you get your sisters permission its ok alright with me." was the answer they got.
As they went to the training field where their sister was smashing a wooden sword against a dummy made of hay.
Ethan asked Irene about their joined training session and her eyes sparkled with excitement. She finally had someone to fight against. The brother gulped as they saw their sister with flames burning from her eyes.
And so the years went by. They trained magic and Swordmanship, Irene got even better an stronger even her brothers could not beat her anymore. The 3 children even started to train with the Soldiers of the Royal Army as Degan went back to his mercenary life. Even most of the Soldiers couldn't hold a candle to Irenes fighting technique, she beat almost all of them, except her father an general. But it was still shocking that a 16 year old girl could defeat the Royal Knights and both of her older brothers. She even went to an expedition to the border of the territory. On the expedition she gained her first combat experience by fighting Voidlings. Voidlings are the smaller form of Void Spirits in Monster form, who didn't fully transform into the Monsters yet.
The whole family sat around the dinner table. The King sat on the head of the table, on the left side sat the Queen Elena, as her son the first Crown Prince Noah and his now Wife and crown princess Emilia. Next to him sits the second Prince Ethan.
On the other side there was the second Wife Concubine Nora, next to her Irene and her twin brother Aaron. They silently ate till the King Aiden broke the ice „so... Ethan, Aaron soon it will be time to join the army to fulfill your duties as princes of the Arts Kingdom?" Irenes ears perked up as she heard her father speak. War? Army? Exciting!
„Yeah, we will go in twwoo weeks" Ethan answers while still chewing on his food. His Mother Queen Elena glared at him to which he gulped down the rest of the food inside his mouth before continuing „ How long will we be gone again?"
„It will be around 2 years, after that your welcome to stay longer in the army or return and look for a bride" Elena answered.
‚2 years of war, battling and fun! i want that too. They are so lucky.' Irene thought as she listened to their conversation in silent.
Her brother next to her snorted „ 2 years, isn't that to long? And then what, look for a bride? Sind big bro Noah and bis sis Emilia got married, i thought we don't have to?"
„ You don't gave to get married for political reasons, you can look for a loving wife, and the duty to serve the Kingdom as the children of the King is an old tradition. You should be honored!"
Duty of the children, huh? That should include me as well right? She grinned. She put her cutlery down and banged her hands on the table as she stood up. All eyes turned towards Irene.
She grinned wildly as she proclaimed loudly „I decided!" she looked around „since its tradition, I'm gonna join the Army too, since i am also a child of the King, and you can't say anything to stop me!"
She saw everyone gasp around her and her mother and fathers face lost all their color. Irene stood there smiling, not taking back her decision.