An alarm rang in a room. Two bodies were disturbed and moved, annoyed by the sound released.
Siduo rose up and turned it off. Jianyu, who was in the same room, ignored it and went back to sleep.
She put on some quick clothes and went into the common room. There, she found an equally sleepy person waiting for her. It was Karni. He had some hot cocoa on the table prepared for her.
Karni bought this yesterday, when he was touring the city. He was amazed when he saw it, because he hadn't seen it back on the Douluo Continent. He immediately grabbed it, to see if it had a similar taste to the ones on Earth. Amazingly, they did. He was already thinking of ways to bring Cocoa back to Douluo.
Siduo sat next to him and grabbed the drink. "Thanks."
"You're welcome." Karni simply smiled, while reading some local newspapers to learn about the town. This is only their third day here.
"You don't have to wake up in the morning for me, you know?"
"I wake up to cultivate Purple Demon Eyes anyway, while I usually go back to sleep for another hour, it doesn't hurt to do this either."
Siduo didn't reply to this. She just enjoyed the steaming cocoa in her cup. It warmed her hands up.
"Will you have time today to go over some of the things we learned from Hop and Solaria?"
Siduo shook her head. "I think I'll be staying there for the whole day for most of our time in the capital. I'll probably not have any time for spars, or even Mecha Engineering for that matter. I likely won't be able to gain Purple Demon Eyes either, even though I shouldn't need too long."
Siduo was at about the same quantity as Karni was in terms of contribution points of Tang Sect, but if this intense training was going to continue, then she wasn't sure what she could really do. Well, it was not just the training that was the problem.
Karni leaned back and went into thought. If she had time, there would be many solutions to this problem, but the problem itself was exactly time, so he couldn't really help her in any way.
It seemed that for this next half a year, the two of them won't be seeing much of each other at all. All the more reason he's up in the morning.
After the two finished their breakfast, Siduo went and got ready, as did Karni. Before they left the hotel Siduo heaved a big sigh.
"I really don't want to go."
Karni chuckled. It sounded like something he would have heard in his previous life. Not wanting to go to work, or to school; in this case, it was the Royal Palace.
"Well, I've got a date with the Tang Sect Mecha Engineering room for next week, so I hope you have fun with the great princess." Karni laughed and left her alone before the door.
Siduo had an impulse to hit him. If there was anyone getting the most benefit, it was definitely her, but that didn't mean she had more fun than him. Karni was definitely having a more relaxed time, and she would gladly switch places with him right now.
She got herself to the Royal Palace with a lazy pace, reaching the entrance in about 5 minutes. She circled around it and went through a side door where a guard stood.
The guard saw her, nodded, and let her in. She quickly went inside, but instead of going into the palace itself, she went to the side.
In another minute, she reached a special, mechanised building that seemed to compare to that of a Tang Sect's building. At least when it came to technological advancement.
She entered it and inside were two people, both adults. They were two women. One had beautiful blonde hair, just like those of the royal family, while another one had pitch black hair.
These were her two instructors. Both of them were trainers of the royal family and belonged to the branch of the royal family as well. She had two teachers for a simple reason. One was for her Hell Cat, while another was for her White Tiger.
Siduo glanced around, looking for another person. The inside of this room was truly modern. There was a video tape on the wall that went back 6 seconds so one could see how they were doing from an outsider's perspective, and had many different environments that it could emulate for training.
"Is the princess not here yet?" Siduo wondered. Did she come early?
The two teachers looked helpless and shook their heads. "Her highness is still asleep, so until the princess comes, this will be a one on one."
Siduo looked at them weirdly. Sure this was a princess, but wouldn't this be directly detrimental to the princess' development? Even if spoiled, there had to be limits!
But it's not like she could do anything about it, nor did she want to, she welcomed the princessless morning. "So, what are we learning today?"
"We'll be teaching you about soul fusion. Since you're the first that can fuse with your own martial souls in the family, we'll have to do some testing, but we have a few guesses already on how we'll train. For now, watch how we use our soul fusion."
The two teachers fused, a great Hell White Tiger appeared, looking completely different than her own. For starters, they were brighter and darker at the same time. They were also bigger and had giant feathery wings on the back.
They executed some moves. Siduo noticed that they were using both of their transformation abilities at the same time. The abilities themselves were fusing as well, giving an even stronger effect together.
It was similar to how she joined her second and third soul ring in her Hell Cat, or how she fused her abilities with Tang Sect techniques.
Their soul fusion lasted for quite a while as well. They showed her many ways to use her abilities while fused. Some of those techniques were something she hadn't even considered yet.
The two women finally stopped and separated, a bit of a heavy breath in the midst, but they were clearly used to this.
"Now. To begin, we want you to attempt and imitate a few of the things we did. It's best if you figure out what to do for yourself, but you should try and push yourself out of your comfort zone. We'll be here to watch over any problems that might occur."
Siduo nodded and her two martial souls began fusing, slowly but surely, her body shined and a Hell White Tiger appeared; one much smaller than the one derived from the teachers, but mighty nonetheless.
She had a few minutes at most, so she quickly hurried into her mind and analysed her abilities. There weren't any soul rings around her at the moment, but she could feel all of them floating inside her.
She had to admit, she felt stronger than usual. It must've been because of the Soul Bone and her new Spirit Soul.
What to fuse first? Better to start with something she was used to. Start out simple. She used the first soul ring of both of her martial souls. Strength and speed. At first her muscles almost spasmed for a second, but she quickly focused and stabilised her body.
She ran around with speed and strength. The two were complementary. She was the fastest she's been until now. If she had this on the island, she might've been able to run away.
"Dream on." A feminine, calm voice answered in her head.
"Brother Hop's teleport ability has great range, maybe you would've been even with me, but you wouldn't have the upper hand. Once you can fuse all of your abilities, then you'd be able to jump through the hurdle of ten thousand years and combat us fair and square."
Siduo nodded on the inside. This was Solaria who answered her. Just like with Karni, her Spirit Soul became a sort of teacher for her.
To this aspect, she tried to add the Diamond Body Layer. Her skin was starting to turn lustre and shiny, but it was faltering, the three put together were becoming unstable.
She quickly deactivated that skill, then deactivated the other two as well. It was time to try other skills. One step at a time, she can start fusing different aspects once she's used to normal fusions.
If this were compared to before, she was using each of the skills individually. Normally, when activating strength and speed separately, both were active, but the two didn't really fuse together. They worked like additions in maths.
What she was attempting now, would in a similar manner be called multiplication instead. It wasn't just activating the abilities and letting them run, but fusing them together just like her martial souls.
She tried to fuse her Diamond Light Wave and her Hell Blade. Her blade came into existence, then started to shine with a diamond layer on top of it. It was much larger and sturdier than usual. It was similar to the fusion of Mysterious Jade Hands and Hell Blade, but stronger.
She released the blade from her claws, sending it out as a ranged attack, just like a normal Diamond Light Wave.
The teachers nodded, seeing her experiments. This girl had talent comparable with the princess, she was quick on the uptake.
After a few more minutes of experimenting with other combinations, Siduo couldn't hold her fusion for much longer. The teachers came next to her and the three sat down in the circle so Siduo could catch her breath.
"So, how did it feel?"
Siduo breathed heavily. "It felt quite good. I never thought of actually fusing the abilities themselves. It felt like I was fusing soul rings themselves."
The two teachers nodded. "Because that's what you were doing. Since you're fusing with yourself, you're able to fuse soul rings without too much difficulty when they belong to opposite martial souls."
"I see. Until now, I only looked at it from the perspective of being able to hold all of the skills of my martial souls, like a twin martial soul master would be able to if they had a tool and a beast system. But I guess this is even better."
The two nodded, but Siduo wasn't finished. "However, whenever I tried to fuse a third soul ring, it started falling apart. I always had to stop it, otherwise my fusion was in danger of breaking."
The two teachers nodded again. "That's because they became imbalanced. You had more of a single martial soul in the fusion than the other, so one was trying to take over. Tomorrow, try to fuse four at the same time instead. Two from your Hell Cat, and two from your White Tiger. But don't go above that. That has the potential to be dangerous for you right now."
Siduo understood it easily once it was laid out for her. It was just like the problem she had when she first tried to fuse the two martial souls without having soul rings on one of them.
Just as she was about to ask more questions, the door to the training area was suddenly opened.
"Wu Siduo! Come with me!" A beautiful figure with long blonde hair, blue eyes and a mischievous smile entered the room.
"Princess! You finally showed up. Let's start training."
"Not today. I'm taking Siduo to show her around the castle!"
Siduo sighed in clear annoyance. "Princess, you already showed me around yesterday and we got no training done because of that."
"That's not a problem. I finally have another girl in the palace, so we'll be having some fun!" She dashed towards Siduo and started dragging her out of the practice area.
The two teachers frowned. "Your highness! Your father ordered us to teach you together because you requested it. Please don't cause trouble."
"I requested to train together and now I'm ordering you to let us have fun for today. Come on, Siduo." The princess smiled. She was genuinely excited. Like a child getting a gift they've wanted for years.
Siduo didn't really know how to react, but she wasn't hiding her annoyance.
The princess took the two of them to a pond area that had a nice garden and a truly expensive looking picnic area beside it. The two sat down. Tea was already waiting for them.
Siduo smelled the tea. She found it appalling. She wasn't a fan of it, she preferred something with milk as well, but this tea wasn't with that. Even then, she wasn't sure she'd like milk tea either. Right, she'd prefer something like that hot cocoa Karni made her today. That one was just right for her.
The princess giggled at her reaction and Siduo finally began to voice her concerns. "Princess, why do you insist on hanging out with me?"
The spoiled princess answered as if presenting a fact. "Like I said before, because I finally have a friend of the same gender in the palace!"
Siduo sighed. "I mean what's the real reason?" She held her hand in exhaustion.
She received a mischievous smile back, much like the one she usually shows to Karni. "Exactly because of the way you're acting right now. You're honest and don't pretend to be nicer because I'm around."
Siduo wanted to say that she is being nicer than usual, it's just that the princess wasn't aware of it, but she was sure it wouldn't end well, so she stayed quiet instead.
"Ugh. Don't we have something with milk instead." Siduo drank the tea and tried to change the topic. No matter what, she felt like she'd lose in this confrontation.
The princess simply laughed. "You'll just have to accept it. But come on, that's not what I called you for. What I really want is some girl talk!" She looked at Siduo excited.
Girl talk? Siduo already felt like she was getting a headache. If anything, she was fluent only in 'normal talk'. She didn't hang out with many girls, Ma Fai and Hu Fuya were perhaps the exceptions, but they really didn't converse that much. Karni was just perfect for her. The two were quite mixed in their hobbies, so they had neither boy talk nor girl talk. They just had the good old friend talk, talking about whatever came to mind.
If anything, at times it seemed like she'd be more fluent in boys talk than a girl, while Karni would be the opposite. She was the reckless one, Karni was the one with a lot of sympathy, even towards his enemies. Though perhaps not as much as he once was.
Seeing Siduo not even answering her, the princess was quite direct in her interests. "So do you have any boy that you like?"
Siduo spit out the already disgusting tea. Thankfully she turned her head last second so she didn't spit on the princess.
"Excuse me?"
"You know, like love? Do you love anyone?"
"That's not something someone like you would need to know."
"Oh? So you do like someone! Is it that boy that came with you?"
"Ugh."
… … …
Next day morning. Siduo was just leaving the hotel and entered the Royal Palace. Yesterday she spent the whole day at that table. The two didn't even move. She was really itching for some exercise today. At least the early morning was somewhat soothing for her.
As soon as she entered the training field, she went into the fusion with the teachers overlooking her.
She wanted to fuse four things. For now, speed and strength and the blade and the light wave.
She started with strengthening and the speed. It went much smoother than yesterday after she had the prior experience.
Then she focused on her attacking skills. She focused on them together, but didn't fuse them together, instead of fusing the two together, she fused them directly into the already fused soul rings.
She was standing still at the moment, so she could focus on her body. Her body bulged, yet became leaner, then her claws started to shine. The muscles seemed to amplify it much more than before. A diamond layer was similarly making itself visible over the black energy of the claws.
She opened her eyes. She succeeded, but she could feel this was her limit. She could barely put the four together. She jumped and swung her claw, sending the attack into the wall.
The teachers whistled. "Good! Now try to fuse two skills, one strengthening while another an attacking skill, feel the difference."
Siduo nodded, but a voice was called from the entrance.
"Wu Siduo! Let's go out to drink! I've gotten something with milk for you!" The princess entered.
Siduo ignored her. She stood still with her eyes closed. Her muscles bulged as hundred claws attacks were whipped out. They were clearly unstable.
She stopped and closed her eyes again. Then repeated the attack. It was better this time around.
"Wu Siduo!" The princess called out again.
The teachers shook their heads. "Siduo. Let's finish here for today. The princess is calling for you."
Siduo looked at them surprised and finished her transformation.
"We talked to His Majesty yesterday, but he just told us to let the princess do as she wanted." The teachers explained, clearly exhausted about the situation themselves.
Siduo immediately gave a hostile look to the princess, to which she only received an embarrassed look in return.It seemed fake. The princess was just playing around and doing what she wanted.
"Be careful. She's still the princess." One of the teachers reminded her.
Siduo calmed down. Now she really disliked this princess.
The two came to the garden this time. In a greenhouse. Siduo had to admit it was beautiful. The stone floor complimented the natural feel.
"So, will you tell me who you like today?" She smiled as she pointed at the multitudes of milk-type drinks.
"No." Siduo just gave a short answer and chose coffee, even though there was cocoa there as well. She didn't want to ruin the taste she had this morning by this interaction.
She took a sip of the drink and sighed. It felt just as bitter as this situation.
… … …
"She's doing what?" Karni laughed out loud in the morning, but quickly lowered his voice, remembering that it is in fact, barely sunrise.
"She's a pain in the ass, that's what she is. I've barely been doing anything, but I've already progressed in my understanding of my martial souls. Imagine how much I could've progressed if I'd actually have the time to learn the whole day. I'd rather do Mo Qing's punishment the whole day, everyday, instead of this."
Karni was just snickering on the side, as if telling her, now you know how I feel.
She left faster than usual. Everything was irritating her today, even Karni. Though it was pleasant to rant to him if nothing else. And the cocoa. The cocoa was better than yesterday. Was he trying out different things? Or was she just that frustrated.
She reached the entrance and a person waited for her there today. A tall, young man that seemed in his late teens. His face looked oddly similar to the princess.
"Greetings. I'm Dai Yueyan, the Crown Prince. I'm hearing you've been hanging out with my little sister a lot these days." A sincere smile appeared on his face. Sincereness that spoke of its fakeness. It was well practised.
Siduo stopped and bowed. "Yes. Though it's more like the princess has been hanging out with me."
The man laughed at her answer, immediately relaxing a little. "No wonder she considers you a friend after such a short time."
"I wouldn't really consider us friends." Siduo said in a monotone voice.
"Well, I'm sure you'll become one in due time. She's been much more cheerful lately. I came here to say thanks."
Siduo looked the crown prince in the eyes. His eyes were truly sincere this time around. On the other hand, there was complete neutrality in her eyes. Dai Yueyan was taken aback.
"I think you're mistaking something, Your Highness. I'm just a plaything. I'm a fun toy for the princess. Friends? Not even close. I don't even know the princess' name yet."
She bowed without saying goodbye and left. She's said enough. Based on this quick interaction, she could tell this person was levelheaded. He most likely didn't take offence to that. Perhaps he'd even be able to talk to the princess in private. It was better to make such an impression, than to feign happiness.
Siduo really didn't know the name of the princess. She felt like she was told about it on the first day, but it wasn't important information for her at the time, so she didn't remember it. As for the princess, she had never given her a proper introduction, even during the first day; she expected Siduo to know everything already.
Dai Yueyan was left in thought, while looking at the leaving figure. "Yun'er, you might be too excited this time around. You're hurting the people you don't want to."
But he wasn't going to talk to her. This might actually be beneficial for his spoiled little sister. None of them had the heart to truly teach her of etiquette, perhaps this child will.
Siduo reached the training field, but she was frozen in front of the door. The princess was waiting for her.
"Let's hang out today. You can have a little break right?"
"A little break? I've barely done anything this week. I'm going to train. If you would please move away." She entered the building, only to find it empty.
"Don't worry, I already told the teachers that they can take a little break today."
Siduo could feel something pop in her head today. She almost summoned her martial soul out of anger. She barely managed to hold herself back. "This is the princess of an empire. This is the princess of an empire." She kept telling herself to calm down.
… … …
She came in the next day. She was in a bad mood. She was really hoping that today wasn't going to be a repeat of yesterday. Even the cocoa didn't bring her spirits up. Karni didn't tease her either today, noticing how bad her mood had gotten.
She came to the training area, her heart felt like it could breathe again when she saw the two teachers. Even they had an apologetic look when they saw her enter. But seeing that her eyes glowed bright when she noticed them, they felt relieved.
"Today, we're going to try something different."
Siduo came close and listened closely. Looks like the princess noticed her mood yesterday, so she let her be today. Hopefully.
"In your fused state, you're able to have different abilities active at the same time, even without fusing them. It's what you were using before, correct?"
Siduo nodded.
"This time, we'll try to apply that, but without you going into self-fusion."
Siduo's eyes shined even brighter. "So I could use all of my skills at the same time?"
"Yes. In theory, it should be possible. You need to call out both of your martial souls to a degree, but not fuse them. You'll need to strike a balance. To be more correct, it should only be a half fusion. As you can only have one martial soul called out. It's usually impossible to keep skills of different Beast types active for twin martial souls, but since you can fuse yours, it should be possible to figure out a way."
Siduo thought out loud. "Right, so it's like the people that have at least one or two tools, they can have both summoned and can activate abilities by switching, while keeping the previous ones active as well."
"That's the goal, yes, though in your case, you'll probably have a greater consumption, since you need to fuse them to a degree to keep the abilities active in the background."
"That's fine. Let's begin."
The teachers showed her to the ground. They all sat together. The teachers in front and behind, and Siduo in the middle.
"We'll help you to keep the balance, as it might be dangerous. We'll stabilise you if a dangerous situation occurs, but be focused. If you can't control yourself with our help, there's nothing we can do. You can become seriously injured, in the worst case scenario, if your body can't take the unstable fusion…"
"I might die. Understood. I'll immediately go into complete fusion if I sense the destabilisation going too far."
The two teachers nodded. It was a good feeling to have such a smart student.
They put their palms onto Siduo and she started to call out her martial souls. Just as they began to fuse, she, along with the teachers, began to suppress that effect.
Siduo started to sweat. This really was a strain on her mind and body. It felt like her very soul was rejecting their actions. But it wasn't unstable yet. Right now, she was only rejecting the natural process.
She circulated her soul power. Divided it in two, and only let a few sections overlap as compared to her normal circulation of soul power. Those parts could fuse, but without the full circulation active, martial souls couldn't fuse.
In her own mind, she could feel all of her abilities available to her. She opened her eyes. She saw that the two teachers were sweating as well. Without them, she couldn't have divided her circulation so smoothly.
She smiled. This might be even better than what normal twin martial soul masters have. If she keeps this state, she doesn't even have to switch martial souls in between to activate different abilities. She had all of them available at once.
The teachers nodded to her. Urging her to try out the theory. She activated her first soul ring of Hell Cat. Hell Rush.
She didn't activate the other ability yet. She waited to see the changes within her. It didn't destabilise. Though she did sense for a second that the Hell Cat tried to push through the connection, only to fail.
She called out her White Tiger. White Tiger Diamond Transformation. She could feel her first ability still active, unlike usual. Looks like this was going to work. Just as she was about to activate the transformation of White Tiger, she heard a mental "Boom." in her head.
A giant mental explosion. She was frightened. What just happened? It didn't hurt, but her spiritual energy became a mess. Her soul power turned into a mess. Her mind was unstable. Her martial souls were unstable.
"Fuse!" The black haired teacher shouted.
Fuse. Fuse. She couldn't. She had no control over her body. Her energies were completely out of control! No! She had to take this head on. Strengthen her body. The transformation of the White Tiger should work!
Her face went pale. She couldn't sense it. With her martial soul unstable, she couldn't even call out to it. Shit! Her body might explode!
The two teachers were looking in horror as they saw Siduo starting to bulge. She was slowly stretching like a balloon!
"The Skull Bone, Siduo!" Solaria called out to her.
Siduo quickly summoned it. She couldn't afford to hide it right now.
Spiral Blood Red Horns appeared on her head. They looked like the horns of a devil. Her muscles bulged, became red as well, even her inner organs strengthened.
She forcefully returned the balance to her own body. She suppressed the incoming explosion. Opening her eyes, she spit out a mouthful of blood.
"Eh?" A young voice was heard from behind.
"Princess?" The blond teacher finally noticed her.
Siduo heard this. The princess. That 'boom' sound. It couldn't be.
Siduo didn't stand up. She just asked. "Was that you? Boom?"
The princess could feel the anger in Siduo's voice, though she didn't see her face. She only saw the horns on her head from behind. "Ehehe. Oops."
Siduo saw red when she heard that. She stood up, turned around, and appeared in front of the princess immediately. Despite it hurting like hell.
Slap.
The princess fell onto the ground. There was complete silence in the hall.
"Y- You- You hit m-"
"You're the most insufferable little bitch I've had the displeasure of meeting."
The princess saw Siduo's eyes now. The pressure she was releasing was absolutely terrifying. Her eyes were red. Her skin, bulging. Those horns. It really was like she just rose up from hell. In such a moment, the only thing she knew what to do, was what she was used to.
"I- If you dare to continue this, you won't be allowed to enter the palace ever again! You think they'll let you in when I tell them about this!" A small droplet of blood left the princess' mouth as well. Siduo wasn't light in her slap.
"Like I give a shit. The only thing I've been doing in the palace is wasting time and almost getting killed."
The princess trembled. Realising what Siduo just said. "G- Getting killed. I…"
"There's nothing to say. I'll be glad to never return." Siduo left. The longer she stayed, the more anger she felt right now.
The princess felt like crying right now. She turned around on the ground and shouted towards the leaving figure. "I- I only wanted to be friends!"
"Princess!" Siduo shouted, turning around and looking her in the eyes. The amount of kindness she had left in her right now, was a grand total of absolute zero. There was pure anger in her. "I don't even know your name." She didn't shout. But her voice travelled far.
The princess was silent.
"How dare you hit the princess!" The two teachers finally realised what had just happened. They were so shocked they didn't even process everything. They wanted to support Siduo's claims, but they might lose their heads if they don't defend the princess right now.
"Stop." The princess said quietly.
"Leave her be. Leave me be. Just go. Don't tell this to anyone." She didn't look the teachers in the eyes.
As for the teachers themselves, they didn't expect that reaction at all. Was this really their princess?
… … …
"You… You slapped the princess?" Karni was speechless.
"Mm. And now I'm going to bed, because my innards are still messed up and I need to rest."
Karni just looked at her. It was rare to see Siduo so shaken up. He decided to go to sleep as well.
The next morning, he woke up like usual. Started creating cocoa for himself and Siduo. It's been their drink in the mornings on this foreign continent these days. It was turning into something of a ritual. He's also been playing around with it before making it, trying out different percentages of cocoa beans and milk.
He waited for some time so that Siduo would come from her room, but when the usual time hit, she wasn't there.
He was worried and quietly opened the room. Siduo noticed him.
"I'm not going there anymore. There's no point. I'm just going to sleep in today if it's okay with you. I still feel sore." She whispered.
Karni just nodded and closed the door. He understood how she felt.
… … …
"She's not coming." Two figures stood at the entrance at the palace.
"Big Brother. I'm going to go out for a bit."
The said big brother looked at the girl in surprise. "I wish you luck. Just remember."
"I'll be honest and consider her feelings this time… Yes." She nodded and headed outside of the Royal Palace as she touched her own cheek.
… … …
He drank the cocoa alone and then went to Tang Sect. Today's one didn't turn out as good as the one yesterday.
As he went out of the room, he passed a girl his age. Her hair was blond. He didn't really pay much attention to her, but she did to him.
"Excuse me, are you from Wu Siduo's room?"
Karni turned around and nodded. Some realisation quietly hit him. Could this be the princess? He looked at her face. The princess seemed tired.
"Though I would warn. She's still asleep with her little brother, and he'll likely wake up in about… three hours? Give or take."
The girl turned around and nodded. Karni went on, but when he turned around, he noticed that she was only standing there, not doing anything.
Well, it wasn't for him to worry about.
… … …
The princess stayed in that hallway for the whole three hours, meditating outside, focusing. Looking at the clock every now and then.
Finally, when three hours were up, she knocked on the door.
Siduo was the one to open up the door. She looked a bit surprised at the girl standing there. She didn't say hello though. She just stepped out and closed the door. Then stared at the princess' eyes.
The princess stood there a bit awkward. Avoiding the girl's gaze. "I… I'm Yun'er."
Siduo's eyes went wide. Before she burst out laughing. The princess, in the midst of her laughter, continued. "I'm really sorry."
Siduo stopped for a second, but there was still a smile on her face. "I don't forgive you."
The princess' eyes went wide.
"I almost died, you know? If I wasn't lucky enough to have gotten the soul bone before departing, I wouldn't have lived."
The princess just avoided the gaze. There was finally true guilt on her face.
Siduo decided to wave her away. She opened the door and went inside. The princess just stood there.
Siduo reopened the door a second later. "I'll be there in two days as normal, I have to rest as I'm still injured. Don't bother me during this time. See you in a few days, princess."
Then the door was closed, and the princess regained a semblance of a guilty smile.
… … …
After training. The princess trained for the whole day in what seemed about years since she'd last done it. She still wanted to have a drink with Siduo, since she hadn't seen her for a couple of days, but when they were having it, she wasn't sure what they should talk about.
She really liked Siduo. She wasn't pretentious like the other ladies her age, she was honest and also highly talented, fearless. But now, for the first time, she was afraid that she'll be the one who's pretentious.
Siduo glanced at the princess and sighed. Those eyes reminded her of someone. "The boy I like. His name is Karni. I liked him after I heard him playing a song. Well, afterwards I didn't for some time, not in a romantic sense. It was weird, he was different from what I imagined, but now I sort of like him again, definitely as a friend at least? Romantically, I'm not quite sure… I mean recently… he's been charming." Siduo blushed a little bit. What was she doing rambling about this to a child?
The princess' eyes shone. "Tell me more!"
Siduo looked at the excited eyes and realised why she had trouble holding a grudge. Those eyes shined just like her little brother's.