In the royal palace, Prince Elwin, who was sitting in the hall, eating evening snacks after his meeting with the council head, froze in his place when he felt the overbearing power of his elder brother coming out.
Though the hidden palace was more than 300m away from the royal palace, his wolf could feel the awakening of the monster, and he quickly placed the food back on the table.
He fished out his phone from the pocket and quickly dialed Jacob's number.
"Hello? Yes, Prince Elwin," Jacob said from the other side of the phone.
"What's going on, Jacob? Is everything alright? Is brother alright? Why did I feel the presence of his monstrous wolf? Is Maximus there or is my brother taking over?" Prince Elwin asked one after the other, and Jacob, who had yet to go upstairs and see what was going on, sighed.
The subordinate was about to answer Prince Elwin that he should ask all the soldiers to line up and start the evening training in case their Elder prince wanted to make his presence known in the royal palace too, when the man in question appeared on the top stair, making Jacob gulp.
"Elder Prince," Jacob immediately bowed, sitting on his right knee, making the man look at him unfazed as he started descending the stairs.
The man's overbearing aura was like a battle zone with his wolf suppressing everyone.
"Are you talking to Elwin, Jacob?" His voice was cold and curt, like a grim reaper ready to announce a few death sentences to people around him.
Jacob nodded, sweat beads appearing on his forehead.
This was the first time when the elder prince was making his presence known without prior notice, and though it could be just because he wanted to see the world, it was still unnerving to everyone. After all, he wasn't just a regular wolf.
"Yes, sir. Prince wanted to know if you would like to make your presence known to the royal Kingdom and training grounds," Jacob asked and the elder prince hummed.
"Bring my mask,"
The Indication was clear, the Elder prince wanted to take a tour of everything.
Prince Elwin, who was still on the line, hummed to himself before he asked the chef to take away the plates and the maid's to ensure everything looked clean and alright.
The maids looked at the usually unbothered Prince Elwin, walking towards the exit in large strides, and immediately knew that the supreme royal power wanted to come out of his den, his hidden palace.
It was the only time when their Prince Elwin became so serious.
Everyone started to do what they were told without showing a hint of laziness. Their job was more precious to them.
Meanwhile, Katherine, who quickly washed up since her dress got a little bit dirty in the forests, looked at her system sitting on the bed and scowled.
She wore an orange-colored floral dress that reached below her knees with white wedges before looking at Delilah's atrociously long hair.
"So now you finally have the time to make your presence known? What were you doing all this time when I was with Maximus? And what was with that voice? Why did I feel that sensation?" Katherine asked one after the other.
Daisy didn't answer and just kept looking at her feet like a kid who knew it misbehaved and Katherine looked at the system before sighing.
"You know, I really hate it when people keep me in the dark about things. What is Delilah's deal for real? Now that I think about things, many things don't make any sense at all. Will you -" Katherine stopped talking when she heard a knock on the door.
She walked to the door and opened it, looking at the maid with a confused expression.
"Miss Tianna -" The maid who was looking behind herself immediately paused when she noticed it was Miss Delilah's and not Miss Tianna's room
"I am sorry. I wanted to go to Miss Tianna's room," The maid said.
Now that Katherine opened the door, she noticed the weird ruckus in the royal palace and stepped out.
"Hey, wait. What's going on? Is something wrong? Are we under attack or something?" Katherine asked.
The maid looked at her as if she had grown two heads before leaving.
Katherine stood there, unsure.
What was that? Why are they acting like rats after seeing a cat?
She walked further downstairs to see what the ruckus was all about when she noticed the main soldiers coming out of the East wing and rushing out towards the backyard.
Katherine sighed and was about to walk back inside, thinking it was none of her business after all and she didn't want to get in any trouble with her broken hand when she saw her cousin walking downstairs, dressed in one of the most sophisticated dresses she has ever laid her eyes on.
Her brows furrowed.
Was she going somewhere? Does that mean this was her chance to get her hands on some documents in the palace and find out more about the Black OPS? Katherine's eyes beamed, and she rushed to her cousin.
"Sister Tianna, are you going somewhere with Prince Elwin?" Katherine asked and Tianna looked at her sister with a troubled expression.
"Delilah, what are you doing here? You should go back to your room," Tianna said.
"To my room? Why?" Katherine asked, the smile still on her face.
"Well, I heard from the maid that the elder prince might make his presence known in the royal palace. I don't want you to get into any kind of trouble with him. He is not like the rest of us. If he gets offended, he will kill you and no one will be able to do anything to him," Tianna said.
Katherine's smile faltered.
The elder prince? A.k.a the cursed monster of the royal Kingdom? The one defined as the strongest of all, his powers almost similar to gods?
He was going to make his presence known? But why suddenly?
As far as she heard, the elder prince only used to come out of his hidden palace when it was an occasion or something like that.
"Do you think I will get you into trouble too?" Katherine asked, masking a hurt expression, and Tianna pressed her lips into a thin line.
However, before she could say anything, some men walked inside the royal palace.
"What is she doing here? Get her out of here. What if the elder prince gets offended? He is coming to the royal palace after a month. He doesn't know about her at all. Do you want to die?"
It was the commander's voice, and Katherine didn't need to be told twice who he was talking about.
"You don't need to worry about me. I was leaving already. I am not interested in getting anyone killed," Katherine smiled forcefully before she walked towards the other side rather than going back to her room.
The commander looked at the haughty girl who didn't even look at him and felt a little weird.
Earlier, she used to find a chance to talk to him all the time, but she didn't even look at him today. It was almost as if she would be anywhere but in a place where he was. Was she for real? Or was she pretending? Can someone really get over someone else so quickly? The commander sighed. He had more important matters at hand.
Katherine walked towards the forest.
'What are you doing?' Daisy asked Katherine when she noticed how she was walking aimlessly.
"I don't know. I actually wanted to rest in my room, but I came out in the heat of the moment, and now I don't know what to do," Katherine scowled at herself before looking at her cast.
'You know, your hand is healed,' Daisy whispered after some time.
"Healed?"
'Yeah... The tingling you felt earlier was because of that only. You... *Cough* "cough* absorb powers from nature,' Daisy said in a hurry, and Katherine furrowed her brows.
"What did you say? Come again. Delilah does what?" Katherine asked, and the system looked away before repeating.
"Delilah had an elemental wolf. They absorb powers from nature and -"
"Does it say 'stupid' on my face?" Katherine asked, stopping the system from saying anything else.
"What do you mean?" The system asked.
"I am Katherine Moon, the leader of the Nocturnals team of Black OPS. Do you think I didn't study enough about wolves? The elemental wolves can control one of the natural elements depending on what element has chosen them, but they don't absorb powers from nature, not to the extent where they can complete the healing of 5 days in a couple of minutes," Katherine said, and the system looked away.
That was what the demonic system worried about the most.
Katherine was intelligent. And she knew to question things that didn't make sense to her. But the main problem was, that she knew about things a hell lot more than any normal person because of her previous job, and fooling her was next to impossible.
'What is going on Daisy?' Katherine asked, her expression serious and void of any mischievousness.