Oryn had watched the princess for several years now after a few years of her birth. He knew very well what the prophecy foretold and it cannot be left alone unobserved considering its contents. Thus, someone had to go into the human kingdom and closely watch the girl with white hair and crimson eyes.

However, they couldn’t risk being seen by the humans, especially that they were different. In addition, there were not many species in the Mystic Race that could infiltrate the palace where the princess resides.

For the exception of elves whose ears are what only made them blatantly different from humans. However, they couldn’t simply walk in with their long and pointy ears. If they wanted someone to watch the princess closely, someone had to get inside.

But no one was willing to cut off their ears that were part of their very being, what made them an elf. With the exception of Oryn who was so anxious about the prophecy that he wanted to closely watch the opposition.

And thus, Oryn made a hard decision and cut off the pointiness of both his ears. He could still clearly feel the pain as a main characteristic of his species was removed from his body.

Then as a choice, to remember what he truly was, he kept his true name as he infiltrated the palace. It took a lot of effort to climb up the ladder until he became the second prince’s assistant. He had interacted with a lot of humans and even made ‘friends’ with them. However, he felt nothing for them.

Humans after all were insignificant, they were weaklings in general, inferior lifeforms. Unblessed by the gods. All his focus was pointed only towards one girl.

At first she was but a toddler, a harmless being, no one could think that she would be the cause of his race’s annihilation. There had always been the option to kill her while she was but a child, however, they all decided to leave her be. Her death after all, was also predetermined by prophecy, by fate. It was best to leave her be and await her death.

Then she grew older and her beauty also became greater. But her utter innocence remained which only annoyed Oryn more. How could a dangerous girl be so innocent? For some time he began to doubt that what the prophecy foretold would even happen, but he didn’t falter.

Now that he thought about it, she was starting to resemble someone, from the story about the Goddess of Blood. Or otherwise known as the River of Life. However, she was also known by another name that would tell her rank amongst the gods, it was the Ruling Deity of Blood. That being said, she was not a god looked fondly by the Mystic Race for certain reasons.

Then came the day foretold in the prophecy that would be her death. Fate was also assisted by the Elf Ambassador, Lieren, with her fate altering power at a cost of her own, and so it was completely certain that the princess would die.

With fate pressing into her, the princess fell down the stairs, a deadly fall it was supposed to be. However, bafflingly, shockingly, and unbelievably, the princess survived.

Impossible. Utterly impossible. The prophecies were absolute as was proven by those before. No one can escape them. Then how? Why? Why did the princess survive?

Oryn couldn’t accept it. It was completely unexpected. True the prophecy did somewhat sound inconsistent, however, everything that is told happens. And death was irreversible, the prophecy told of her death first before about the mystic race. Therefore, she should have died, resurrection was utterly impossible in this world.

But in the end, she still survived.

Thus, they became wary. They wanted to assassinate her directly, however, something changed the prophecy. That must absolutely not be underestimated.

They, even Oryn, could think of one that could possibly change the prophecy.

That was a god.

Only a god could change something like this. In other words, the princess was under the protection of a god, or perhaps gods. It was impossible to be the Deity of Blood. If not the lady, then could it be the lord? No, that was also impossible.

Then who could do it? Which god? They were all clueless. They knew all the gods with power to the prophecy, but they were all on the sides of the Mystic Race. In addition, they were among the highest in the hierarchy of gods, and no other lower gods would dare go against them.

But Oryn and the others couldn’t arrive at an answer. Therefore, they decided to watch for a while, and be very careful. A being in the level of a god was to be incredibly wary of.

Then Oryn became uneasy when the princess decided to learn magic. It was surprising that she decided to learn magic when she didn’t show any interest in anything except being alone.

Then everything became tense when information about a traitor spread throughout the palace. Oryn was restless and uneasy about it, it was like a fog gathering around him and slowly approaching to choke him. He didn’t know how that information started, but he felt threatened.

So threatened. Time seemed to be running low. However, he decided to calm down. They wouldn’t easily pinpoint it was Oryn. There was nothing that could lead to him being exposed as an infiltrator.

So he calmed down. However, a growing anxiety was still within him.

Then came the time the princess spoke to him, and her words stuck to him.

He forced himself to shove aside his fears, and push away the anxiety.

Time was running out. It would only get worse, now that the princess was learning magic. He must carry out his duty. Everything else doesn’t matter, the most important thing was to kill the princess, even if a being may strike him down after doing so, it doesn’t matter.

So he scouted the palace, searching for weak spots and thinking of how he should kill the princess. But it wasn’t easy, she was strictly protected.

He thought about coming into her room from the outside at night. However, the annoying Cursed Children were all around her during the night when their dark fog couldn’t easily be seen. It was impossible to kill her that way, the Cursed Children were too much for him to handle alone.

And from within the palace, it was too difficult with all the guards.

However, there was another easier way. That was to wait for the princess to approach him. The princess always thinks about her brother, and she has been visiting the prince’s office frequently. But he had to be wary of Vernon. In contrast, there would be another chance outside the office, but it was rare.

Then the opportunity came, the princess came to the prince’s office with Vernon alone. When she was inside by her lonesome, he only needed to wait until she lowered her guard. But Oryn didn’t need to be careful of that.

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The princess was clueless and naive. She was not a direct threat to him. It would be easy to kill her once unguarded.

And so, he took the chance.

With the power of the wind gathering in his hand, he prepared to strike. But before he could, the princess asked a question that he never expected.

“Oryn, are you an elf?”

Oryn froze with a surprised expression.

What?

Why did she suddenly ask that? Elves were merely myths in the world of humans, and it was not commonly talked about. So, what was baffling of all, why did the princess specifically ask that to him?

“You’re surprised, and unable to answer. In that case, you are one, aren’t you?”

Oryn was speechless. As elves were only myths, everyone didn't believe they existed. And the way the princess sounded certain, it was as though she believed they existed, and certain the Oryn was one.

He suddenly felt chills.

“And you were just about to kill me.”

Oryn took a deep breath. There was nothing to fear from the princess. With that thought in mind, he swung his hand upward unleashing a gust of sharp wind towards the princess. This will be a quick death, even the princess wouldn’t even be able to react to an attack this fast and sudden.

And so, the attack hit the princess. However, there was no blood that splattered in the air. Oryn’s eyes went wide upon seeing a crimson barrier covering the front of the princess. Oryn was familiar with this spell, however, the princess… she didn’t even have her hand raised.

There could theoretically be a way to not cast the shield without holding out one’s palm. However, they would need to have exceptional control of mana.

But it's impossible that she would be able to do it in such a short time?!

Even knights will find it difficult, then no less should a useless princess.

The princess winced as she held out her shield, then she shouted.

“Vernon!”

At that instant, the door blasted open. However, as powerful and skillful Oryn was, he was able to control the wind as some sort of small barrier in front of him and raise his arms to protect his face where Vernon was aiming at.

With that, he was sent flying towards the wall, prompting Oryn to groan in pain.

Vernon immediately went between the princess and Oryn.

“Wind? Magic? Oryn, you never even mentioned you could do such a thing. And trying to strike the princess. You are a betrayer then.”

As Oryn returned standing on the floor, he gathered the wind around him.

“You are nothing, Vernon. Stand aside and you will live.”

Oryn sternly said towards him with a fierce glare.

“Hm, you say that but I just sent you flying.

Indeed, however, in the end, Oryn was not hurt from Vernon’s attack. Vernon saw that and was on highest guard as he positioned his one foot forward.

Oryn was also on guard, yes, however, he knew Vernon stood no chance against him. He moved his gaze towards the princess behind Vernon, her eyes were wide with fear. It was unexpected that the princess was able to guard herself against his attack, but it won’t happen again, this time, he’ll give his all in a strike to kill her.

What he only needed to do was take Vernon away from the princess.

As Oryn was about to strike again, he heard footsteps and immediately raised his hand while covered in sharp winds, a sword then collided with his wind. He glared towards the newcomer.

“Oryn! What the hell!?”

It was the prince he served.

“O prince, so you never went to the knights?”

The prince was apparently confused as he stared intently towards Oryn.

“Why?! Since when?!” He sounded like he was in pain.

But Oryn didn’t care about this human’s emotions.

Oryn used his other hand to launch a harmful wind towards him, but Estevan saw this and stepped back while a barrier emerged from his palm which shielded him. Immediately, the prince shot forward and swung his sword but clashed with Oryn’s wind.

The prince’s refined swordsmanship was keeping up with Oryn’s wind as the latter used both his hands to deflect the prince’s every strike. Estevan cast his armament magic sending streaks of flashing slashes with every strike, but those were in turn blocked by Oryn’s magic.

Oryn grimaced by the intensity of this clash as strong winds blew away papers all around the room, then all of a sudden he saw Vernon charging towards him.

The bludgeoning fist of Vernon pushed him back but luckily, Oryn regained his footing. However, the prince’s blade had reached him. It was about to pierce him. However, all of a sudden, the prince’s blade slowed down.

He hesitated!

Seeing this opportunity, Oryn used more of his mana and with a wave of his hand, a blast of wind erupted sending both his opponents flying away from him. The furniture was also blown away, the windows blasted away outside.

Estevan, what an idiot.

As Oryn was about to attack the princess, Vernon suddenly shouted.

“Princess, run!”

The princess looked rattled as she looked between Vernon and her brother standing up, but then proceeded to run out of the door.

“I won’t let you escape!” Oryn shouted.

With the support of the wind, he moved forward in fast speed, however, before he could reach her, a kick from Vernon hit him on the stomach pushing him back with a wince.

These two are indeed stronger than normal humans.

“I won’t let you get past me.”

“I won’t let you hurt Estel.”

Vernon and Estevan said as they both blocked the door. No good, the princess was slowly getting away. Oryn didn’t want any more knights coming. It would be hard to try and kill them here.

Therefore, he decided to only hold them back. However, he would need to maintain the wind and would thus consume his mana every second. In addition, he would weaken. Even so, he need not a lot of strength to kill the feeble princess.

Oryn clenched his fists and launched forward. He evaded Vernon’s fist and blocked Estevan’s sword. At that moment, he gathered the wind and blasted them away with sharp winds. It left cuts on their arms and torso, but it didn’t do any fatal damage as expected from two combatants.

Immediately after blasting them away and before they could touch the ground, Oryn pulled them with great force using the wind, causing his two opponents to collide with each other.

As expected, these two would be hard pressed to kill Oryn. Vernon was about to strike again, as experienced as he was, he was able to counter attack. However, Oryn was able to protect himself with his arm, then before anything else, he blasted them away again causing new cuts.

At that moment, he used a great amount of his mana and gathered around Vernon and Estevan, levitating them from the ground. A wind barrier imprisoned them.

“What?!”

“Tsk, a barrier of some sort!”

Estevan and Vernon exclaimed as they both tried to strike it down. However, both of their attacks did no damage.

Seeing that his plan worked fine, Oryn ran after the princess with the support of the wind, ignoring the yell of the prince behind him. At the same time, he sent wind to the hallways, where they would form a barrier and block any incoming knights, and thus also block the princess.

In no time, he caught up to the princess. Then he moved himself all of a sudden beside the princess and raised his arm inward.

“You're done, princess.”

After saying so, he swept his arm towards the princess as a wind blasted towards her. A crimson barrier blocked his attack, but it was so strong that it sent her flying into a room, breaking the door. Oryn was sure that it would have hurt her.

He eased up as he walked towards the inside of the room where the smoke of debris was in the air.

“You know, it was thanks to you princess that I finally had the resolve to do this.”

He stepped inside and walked further in. The princess should be at the edge of the room.

“I suppose a thanks is in order,” he added.

Then he noticed.

Isn’t this too much smoke? No, wait, there shouldn’t be this kind of smoke here.

A white smoke. The princess crashing here shouldn’t make so much that he could barely see.

It was then an emotionless voice reached his ears.

“Then, you acted the way I wanted.”

What?

It was at that moment that a crushing force suddenly filled the very air. He grimaced, it was a force and pressure so powerful that it caused his feet to waver from standing. Confusion struck Oryn.

Then he sensed a presence behind him, but it was too late as a bolt of forceful flames hit him, blasting away his layer of wind. He was about to regather them, however, before he could do anything else, a hand chopped his throat causing his breathing to stop.

“Gh!”

As he choked, a punch suddenly struck his ‘solar plexus’ immediately followed by a kick at the back of his neck. After all the pain that was inflicted upon him while a crushing force was hitting him, he was left sprawled to the floor. As he was about to stand up, an incredibly strong kick hit his lower chin that almost felt like it almost broke his jaw, causing him to lie down and look up at the ceiling.

Oryn was in a state of shock that his brain was trying to catch up to what was happening. They were quick and successive attacks. Plus, an attack he didn’t see and feel until it was too late.

He heard footsteps, as they got a little closer, the force which was crushing him became stronger.

There was only one other person here. But he couldn’t believe it.

“I suppose thanks is in order, Oryn.”