Seleria sat on the railing and tilted her head towards the sky.
"In Leran, the ruling family is the one with the most wealth in the country. And my family has held this leadership for many centuries. Although before the elemental war, another family ousted us, and their aggressive actions sparked the conflict. They were destroyed during the war. All the noble families of Leran paid the Assassins to wipe out the entire family and all their heirs in one day. It was cruel, but necessary. And since then, the power of our family hasn't been threatened, until recently. The Oregol family, which had resisted us in the elections for the new ruling family even after the war, began to gain power."
"If they were equal to you two thousand years ago, I doubt they could have become wealthier than the royal family in these years."
"You're right, Kat. Even the head of this family would never have risen like this. But in the last sixteen years, they have become incredibly rich."
"Sixteen years?" Katrina squinted doubtfully, "please don't tell me it's connected to you?"
"Yes, I investigated, and they made a huge profit from trading enchanted items and exporting them from distant lands, possibly even from the empire."
"But that's impossible for ordinary people!"
"Exactly!" Seleria raised her finger with meaning, "but it's within the power of red dragons."
The red princess let out a sigh of sadness.
"They cannot claim the throne according to our laws, but that doesn't mean they can't put their puppet on the throne. They helped him rise to unheard-of wealth in just fifteen years and planned to overthrow our family from the throne. But the Oregols decided to go their own way. A year ago, the head of their house proposed a lawful marriage that would unite our families, and their heir would rule the kingdom."
"The dragons must have been furious."
"They didn't show it since they couldn't openly support him. Besides, I understood the significance of this marriage."
"And you agreed?"
"I would have agreed if it weren't for one 'but,'" Seleria grimaced with malice. "I wouldn't have minded marrying the son of the head, Samuel Oregol. He was two years younger than me, a nice lad who practiced martial arts, and in our childhood, we met a few times, and he wasn't as corrupted as his father."
"But it wasn't the son?"
"No, the head of the clan, Voren Oregol, personally desired to become the king, which is why he wanted to marry me. Besides being a fifty-year-old, fat, and ugly old man, he was also an incredibly vile person."
"He didn't care about your feelings and only wanted money?"
"Worse, I knew he had a mansion somewhere with an enormous harem of slaves from all over the world. And what's even worse, this monster loved to torture them, beat, and even kill them for pleasure."
"A truly despicable person."
"The problem was that many nobles knew about his inclinations, but my father couldn't refuse him; otherwise, the situation in the country could have worsened significantly. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands."
A sly smile slowly spread across the red princess's face.
"If I couldn't act openly, then I could attack from the shadows. As you know, I have friends in the thieves' and assassins' guild. I asked one of the best thieves in Leran, Fire-eyed, to help me."
"Such a powerful name. Does he shoot fire from his eyes?"
"No, it's more prosaic than that. He conceals his identity, possibly because he's actually some high-ranking noble. The only thing known about him is his expressive red eyes, which some say even glow in the dark. He's known as a noble thief and only steals from those who behave cruelly and unjustly towards their subjects."
"That sounds amazing; it would be great if such a person joined our guild."
"Well, maybe I'll ask him at some point, heh-heh," Seleria chuckled and continued the story. "Voren wanted to make a formal proposal on my sixteenth birthday and, as a wedding gift, present me with Leran's most beautiful ruby, the 'Heart of Flames'. Then he planned to craft a wedding necklace with it, like a collar for his finest achievement. It wasn't just an expensive gem; it could buy several large cities and rebuild them. It was worth a quarter of his fortune."
"Was it that big?!" Katrina's eyes widened in surprise.
"I wouldn't say it was very large, smaller than my palm, but it earned its name for a reason. They say it possesses incredible magical power, allowing even a commoner to become an all-powerful fire mage. I don't know if that's true, but just because of those rumors, its price was always inflated three or even four times. He won this ruby at an auction in the Academy for an exorbitant amount, and of course, it was kept in the most secure place. In his harem in the desert, he had a treasury. An open landscape, impenetrable walls, half a thousand guards, and magical traps at every step, oh, and an adamantite door twenty centimeters thick. All of this made his fortress impregnable."
Katrina's eyes sparkled with anticipation of an interesting story.
"But the great thief wasn't deterred. Two days before my birthday, he infiltrated the palace. He put the guards to sleep, bypassed the traps, and blew up the vault door. He took only the magnificent ruby from there but before leaving, he freed all the slaves of that despicable merchant and offered them to take as much as they could carry from the treasury. And imagine, by the appointed day, the Oregols' wealth was reduced by almost half."
"But he would have found the girls and cruelly punished them if they tried to sell the stolen goods!"
"Of course, but my father stood up for them. He said that even slaves have rights and shouldn't die for their master's pleasure. Since Voren was no longer second or even third in wealth, he couldn't oppose the king. My father granted freedom to all the girls and allowed them to settle in an old city on the border with Verania, abandoned after the Great War. My engagement was broken off, and those girls still live as a united community in a fortress there. They spent the money on decent security to avoid Voren's revenge and earn good money by catering to caravans traveling between our countries."
"I'm glad you managed to break off the unwanted marriage, but I can't defy my father. It's not that simple for us; I doubt I can persuade him to cancel our engagement. And I'll have to lose this fight," Katrina said, guiltily lowering her gaze, only to receive a firm tap on her nose.
"Kat, you're forgetting the most important thing!" Seleria wagged her finger at the princess. "Before Alfred faces you in the final, he'll have to fight Krito. Do you really think our necromancer will so easily let him win?"
"Krito," Katrina blushed and smiled tenderly.
"He'll definitely win, and then maybe you'll face each other in the final. Don't forget that you still have to defeat our impenetrable necromancer! And that's where the real challenge begins."
"Yes, but you know, I'm already thinking about how to deal with her."
"And if you're lucky, you might even reveal her true face to us."
"Who knows."
The girls cheered up and headed downstairs. I hid behind the door, and they didn't notice me, and I wanted them not to know about my presence.
Katrina was engaged, and it was inevitable. She went to the Academy to postpone the wedding, but I doubted her religious father would ever cancel it. Whatever I did, she would always be a princess living in a world different from mine. It would be better to simply disappear, but I couldn't leave them now; only I could stop Alfred and prevent him from becoming the champion. And then... then I would vanish; I didn't want to trouble them anymore. However, I didn't want to leave them defenseless. If not me, who would protect this foolish, naive, and sometimes a bit mad princess?
I sat on the floor, and something small and round fell from my pocket. It was a perfect golden sphere, a precious gem won in an honest battle. The topaz, which was the third stone in the queen's ring, was flawlessly round without a single crack. An embodiment of lightning, just as perfect as Katrina. If I were not by her side, I should at least leave a way for others to protect her.
I took out a small piece of paper from my pocket, where a request to enchant weapons for the captain of the Varengard guards was written. I could entrust it to the princess.
My thoughts were interrupted once again. A powerful explosion shook the building, blowing off the door behind which I had been hiding. The shields held, and the lower floors remained untouched, but the upper levels were in shambles. I tried to stand up, but my legs wouldn't obey; my head was spinning, and darkness crept into my vision. Staggering, I managed to reach the laboratory.
"Oh, I forgot to turn off the burner," I said as I approached the lab table. Before leaving, I had placed a small dish with a few drops of Ragni's blood over the burner. They had partially evaporated, but what remained had mixed with other combustible substances, creating an incredibly powerful explosive. The blood itself wouldn't explode under any circumstances, but the mixture of evaporated blood and other substances produced the desired effect. I spent the entire night organizing and obtaining the necessary substance.
Two days flew by unnoticed. Since there were only three of us left, we trained separately from each other and hardly ever met. The third day of the competition crept up unnoticed.