"Tell me, do you know why Empire sponsors all those stupid tournaments?"
Sarah sat down on the most elaborate chair in the room. She held a small stack of papers in her hand and kept her eyes crossed despite a relatively short skirt.
Yet, despite being in a room full of men with only her friend to serve as a support of the same gender, she didn't fear the men's stares.
After all, they dared not to look away from the floor they were kneeling at.
"To raise the public morale, princess." A fifteenth rank old noble pressed his forehead against the floor.
"That's not true at all."
Sarah's voice was cold, icy cold. But it was her eyes that hinted at the true extent of her fury.
"The empire holds those tournaments to boost commerce. Would you like to venture a guess why?"
Mera, now in a proper, new attire, shifted anxiously from her position behind Sarah's chair.
Even with the white cloth of her mask covering the saintess's face, she couldn't help but feel her face burn with a blush of unease.
Despite holding an extremely high position in society, she really disliked all the politics that came with it.
Still, as the companion to Sarah, the seventh princess of the Melion empire, she hardly had any say in that matter.
"By boosting sales during the event?" the old noble attempted to appease the furious princess with a professional answer.
He was of a high rank and spent years of his life managing things around town. For a noble of the old man's rank, he accumulated quite a few positive deeds with only a few minor demerits appearing on the report Sarah received from her shadow units.
"Once again," Sarah slowly blinked her eyes, like a predator lazily tracking the movements of its cornered prey. "Not at all."
Sarah breathed a heavy sigh.
"Mera, could you?"
"Yes, my princess," Mera lowered her head before taking two steps forward right as she took in a deep breath.
"The standard rate for the tournament cost stands at five hundred imperials. The average boost to tax from commerce during the event only amounts to fifty imperials."
The second Mera started to drop numbers, her voice changed to the dignified persona of a saintess that she was trying to fake.
With the exception that there was nothing fake about her voice.
This was how the world perceived her, and in the middle of acting, Mera completely turned into what the world desired her to be.
"All the secondary bonuses are irrelevant," Mera shook her head. "The one most important reason why the empire pays for those tournaments is to find a spokesperson for the people."
Sarah heaved a sigh and waved her hand at her friend, beckoning her to stop.
"In times of war, we can request the champion to join the army to promote recruitment. In times of food shortage, we can make him distribute food. In times of…"
Sarah cut her voice after listing just three incomplete opportunities.
"And in times of escalating tensions in the east, we could've turned him into a tool to calm things down when the unrest grows too hot," Sarah concluded her lecture before casting a sharp glance down at the kneeling noble.
She then switched her legs, moving her left over her right as she crossed them again.
"So tell me, where is the champion right now?" Sarah asked while forcing an obviously fake smile on her cold face.
Mera was so nervous she struggled to stay still.
The one thing she hated the most in her life was confrontations like this one. Regretfully, as Sarah's companion, it was a common occurrence.
Still, it was because of her curiosity and request that Sarah was washing the heads of the local nobles right now.
Sarah's question sounded out in the room, but the noble didn't answer.
"I…" when the silence prolonged, the old noble muttered while his forehead covered with sweat.
"Do you know what happened to him when he left the castle? Where did he leave? Where is he going? What are his plans?" Sarah unleashed a barrage of questions, each in a snappier voice than the last.
The old noble struck the ground with his forehead, daring not to speak.
"I will tell you what happened."
Sarah suddenly calmed down.
Her friend's soft yet cold voice caused Mera to nearly jump on her spot.
'She knew something already?' Mera thought, fidgeting while sensing the approaching climax of the encounter. Her eyes then drew towards the papers in her friend's hand. 'She keeps on reading them… but just how much could there be for her to read in those few pages?'
"The moment he left the castle, the champion that the empire invested half a thousand imperials in rushed towards the greatest crowd he could find. There, he was last seen heading east."
Sarah raised her eyes to the noble.
"That's what your guards told you, isn't that right?" she asked with a vicious smile.
"That's…" the noble struggled to utter a single, cohesive sentence.
But what could he do?
In theory, his rank was the same as the princess. But just like a slave couldn't outrank his master, the new generation of nobility could never outrank the royal blood of the empire they were serving!
Such was the difference between each of the five classes that the blessings were split in.
A commoner stood below the citizen. Then came the artisan class followed by the noble and lastly the royal class.
With twenty separate ranks in each of the classes, it was theoretically possible to advance through them by sacrificing between five and ten ranks of one's status.
But the royal class was different.
And no matter how hard this old noble could try to resist it, Sarah could fully suppress him with a single thought.
"From what my people learned, our champion ran around the city for a while, ending up short of a hundred meters away from where he started. Then, he paid a visit to the local branch of the Imperial Express."
Sarah revealed the news about the missing champion as if it was something a random person on the street should be aware of. But…
"Sadly, that's where the lead disappears. I didn't see it fit to enforce my authority and command them to give the man up."
Each of Sarah's points turned into a nail to the noble's coffin.
It wasn't even because of the missing champion… but because this local powerhouse dared to waste an equivalent to the yearly pay of an entire legion!
'It's hard to say whether he was just abusing his power or outright sabotaging the operating of the imperial city,' Sarah thought before taking a deep breath to calm down.
"Listen now and listen well," the princess stood up from her makeshift throne and took a few steps forward, stopping right in front of the old noble's head. Then, without even a second of hesitation, she moved her foot up before pressing her shoe's heel into the side of the man's skull.
Bit by bit, she started to increase the pressure, paying no mind to the growing unrest of the guards and the silent torture the noble was going through.
Still… He didn't utter a sound, even when the bones of his skull started to crack.
"I'm not going to lift a finger to find him, but find him you will," Sarah whispered, finally releasing the pressure and simply resting her weight on the noble's skull. She then took a deep breath and clicked her tongue before raising her foot, turning around, and moving back to her chair.
"You have a day to find him. And don't get me wrong," Sarah sat down on her throne only to instantly lean forward and pierce the crowd of the spectating nobles and guards with her furious stare. "That guy is smart. He knew you were out for him so he first lost his tail. If my guess is right, he happily paid a huge prize to buy the cooperation of the express."
Sarah released another heavy sigh.
'This is going to be so much work…' she thought before using the fresh air in her lungs to exert herself one last time.
"It might not be easy to find him, but if he senses any hint of hostility, or rather…" the princess suddenly paused. Then, she closed her mouth and took a slow, steady breath.
The fury in her eyes ignited. She looked down, at the noble lying just a bit away from her feet.
"If you antagonize him any further, then don't expect me to hold back. I will get what's my money's worth from this city, one way or another." Sarah threatened before relaxing back as she fell deeper into her chair. "Now, get the fuck out of my castle."
Despite being only a guest, Sarah chased the actual owners of the fortress out of the prime chamber.
She was a royal, after all. No noble would dare to go to sleep if they were to have better bedding than the princess in their city, after all!
"It will be done, my princess," the old noble managed to utter before gathering himself from the floor and escaping from the room. Soon, an exodus of all the locals followed, quickly leaving only the two girls in the room.
"Haaa…" Sarah fell even deeper into her chair as she released a long, exhausted sigh. "I'm sorry, dear, I didn't expect he would move so fast."
Mera finally allowed herself to relax, dropping the perfectly straight back and lowering her forehead.
Once again, she was allowed to be a normal person in the privacy of the now-empty room.
"Is he really that special?" Sarah suddenly asked while staring at the room's ceiling.
"He won against a ninth rank…"
"I know, I know," Sarah cut Mera off. "But that's not what I'm asking about."
Sarah's face relaxed before turning still as she looked her friend deep into her emerald eyes.
"Is he really that special?" the princess asked.
Mera lowered her eyes and jogged her memory.
She could vividly remember the short interaction she had with the man when healing him.
And how there was something… strange about him.
"He… his…" Mera struggled to put her feelings into words.
"Are you sure he wasn't simply cute?" Sarah joked a little to help her friend calm down and relax.
Mera replied by casting an annoyed glance at her friend.
"No. That's not it. He was…" she thought for a little longer. Then, she raised her eyes back at her friend. "He was special."