Mei Ruan March 15th, 20XX

Lillian burst into the office with an uncharacteristically anxious expression. Her wings fluttered at such a frantic pace that she hovered back and forth despite having already come to a stop in front of my sister's desk.

" Duchess Jaya. They've found the Prince!"

The heavy book I carried in my hands dropped to the floor and a wary expression floated onto my face. It only took a look at my older sister's malicious expression to turn mine into one of resignation.

By now Jaya had stood up and glared Lillian down from her out-of-character frenzy.

"What do you mean they found him? Was he lost in the first place? Where did you hear this?"

Her surprise at the news only went to show how little she cared about her work and status as the Duchess, but none of us were in a state to call her out. Lillian quickly composed herself properly and fixed her posture, dropping onto her left knee and softly folding her right-wing into her back.

"The messenger we sent to the castle intercepted a scout and heard the news. I'm unsure of exactly where they found him or where he's been, but they mean to bring him back within the month."

My elder sister turned to me and locked gazes with mine, a malevolent glee lighting up her copper-coloured pupils.

At first, I turned my head away and tried to avoid her stare, knowing what she was about to say but eventually her thin vines of magic, so thin that they were almost imperceptible to the eye, grabbed both sides of my head and made me face her head-on.

" Mei. It's time. Make preparations immediately."

I remained silent, unwilling to oblige but unable to defy her.

She sensed my resistance and tensed in anticipation of a fight, but I folded in my right-wing and bent my back in a slight bow before she could draw out her wand to 'enforce' her authority.

I didn't need to execute a full bow as I was still her sister and not her subordinate, but her eyes narrowed at the action and her grin tilted downwards in irritation. Once again, I pretended not to notice and looked downwards as I bowed to her.

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"Understood sister. I'll be ready."

The vines moved from the sides of my face and down to my chin to lift my face. She let out a low chuckle, not wanting to demean herself by yelling at me to 'respect' her properly but also needing to pad her fragile ego by teaching me a lesson.

"My dearest younger sister, try not to worry too much. Even though you're all but useless, you are pretty. You'll serve well next to the prince as a puppet"

She provoked me multiple times as she spoke and forced me to remember that the price of fighting her was currently too high to undertake. I stayed silent and tried my best not to show the anger that I felt building up within me.

"What? Do you disagree? Dare you disagree with me? You, a wretch that was born to a half-blooded father and couldn't even stop ageing until twenty years of age."

Jaya's eyes flared with rage, despite the light tone she used to insult me. She threw each sharp insult like a needle into my heart and revelled in the unfortunate fact that I could not speak against her.

I sealed my mouth shut with a silent spell and kept my gaze blank like a doll until she finally got bored and dismissed me.

Not wanting to wait until she caught a second wind, I walked away as quickly as possible, unwilling to be anywhere close to my elder sister.

Once I reached the relatively safe yards of my building, Lillian slowly emerged from the shadows, fully dressed in commoner wear, and handed me my gear without a word.

I accepted it and we two headed towards the battle arena.

I changed into the combat clothing Lillian had bought and tucked my hair into a head cap and secured the bright red wig. Lillian helped me tie the complicated mask onto my face.

It was a pain to change how I looked manually, but the arena had wards against things like disguising magic to hide their existence from people like myself, who might want to shut them down.

There were more status appropriate places to relieve my stress, but the battles were less fun and too tied up in interfamily politics for me to enjoy myself.

We arrived at the arena and were quickly walked into the weapons room. I heard the buzzing of the crowd as they placed their bets and waved Lillian off to do the same. I took stock of the weapons and decided on a Glaive, My sister abhorred the weapon and scorned it as 'crude', but that was one reason I loved it. At least no one could guess the great general Ruan would be in a place like this, using such a weapon.

The crowd roared as I stepped into the ring, and the noise intimidated my opponent. She visibly stepped backwards and gripping her weapon tighter than before. She was a large fairy, and her wings had signs of tears in multiple places.

For a moment I almost felt bad for her, thinking that it was unfair of me to fight in such a place with my advanced military training and superior quality of magic. As bad as I felt, a malicious pleasure quickly replaced the feeling as she threw her mace, an even more unsophisticated weapon than my own, at my head.

Such a violent starting attack heated the crowd into a frenzied intensity, and I could feel my magic run through me like an angry beast, ready to be let out of its cage.

I raised the glaive as the countdown began and once the bell rang, I launched myself onto her, thinking of nothing else but completely obliterating the opponent in front of me.