As the name escaped my lips, the King smiled even further; he couldn’t suppress his glee. Something about me saying my name made him extremely happy while it sent shivers down my spine. His daughters looked at me; one with pity, the other with a weird shine in her eyes.

King Hya whispered something to a subordinate behind him. The nobles looked at me as some sort of object. The Princess, Zinnia – I think – gave me an excited look; that surprised me, but I kept quiet. I am fairly good at self-control, if I say so myself.

“Lady Parker, is that right?” My right eye twitched as he uttered my alias.

“Yes,” I said, with a doll smile plastered on my face.

King Hya shuffled his legs as if contemplating something. He studied my face and muttered something under his breath. I tilted my head, confused as I didn’t hear him. He simply shrugged off my confused look as he continued, “Everyone in the Dahlia Kingdom, including the summoned champion, can use a spell called [Aura] which allows us to see your magic through a manifestation, the spell formed by the Goddess Athena. Every living being has an invisible magical aura detectable or visible through spells or tools. Now, show me your magical aura.”

I swear this is getting more and more cliché by the second! I screamed internally. So I drew closer to him, trying to read his expressions as he beckoned me towards him. My feet dragged through the red carpet as he appeared to get larger and larger, until I was in front of his throne. 

As I was close to him, I said, “[Aura.]”

….

A few seconds had passed.

“Try it again?” The King said, confused. The twin princesses looked at each other; I could see the question marks on their heads.

“[Aura.]”

Nothing came out.

“Hm….” His eyes furrowed, “You there,” He called out to a random noble, “Show her your magical aura.”

“Yes, my lord,” A male noble, dressed in white garbs, scurried behind me. I turned to him and noticed a slight glare beneath his eyes. “[Aura].”

The king turned to me and pointed at thin air, “Do you see it now? That’s how you use [Aura].” I just looked at the two, confused and miffed as though they were trying to teach me how to walk, but I was too idiotic to learn. He looked at me, expecting me to say ‘Yes’ as if it were obvious.

I shook my head slowly, “I’m sorry, but I don’t see it.”

King Hya groaned, clearly annoyed and muttered,“...The Sage and I are going to have to talk about this….” He snapped his fingers and one of his personal maids instantly jumped up and ran to his side, revealing a small transparent crystal ball from her bottom maid pocket.

Are these maids ready for everything?

“Here, hold this. This mana jewel shall show both your element and amount of mana once you touch it.”

Without kneeling, I grasped the crystal. It stayed transparent. “It’s not changing color.”

He raised an eyebrow, confused. Everyone else looked at me like some kind of freak. Princesses Zinnia and Amaryllis had funny faces plastered on their pretty little annoyingly cute faces; fitting for bratty royalty. Though that might just be my bias talking.

“That shouldn’t be possible…it can’t detect your mana? Or you don’t have mana in the first place? All living things should have mana…All the previous incarnations of the hero had an outstanding amount of mana…what is this blasphemy…Is this woman an undead?...did we...fail?”

And there it was. They all looked at me as if I was some sort of failed weapons experiment. I knew those gazes, those glares of contempt.

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At first they were looks of envy, but now, their eyes were saying, ‘What a waste of space’.

I hated it; it made me feel sick. I incurred their displeasure, but what angered me was that they had the audacity to try to throw me away after dragging me here against my will.

Chalk it up to my anger management issues, I don’t care.

The King held his chin in contemplation. He looked at me, then looked at the Knight Captain. “Albert.”

King Hya shooed both the maid and the noble as Albert made his way to him. “Test Lady Allyson. I shall head to the barracks with you soon, I want to have a good grasp of her strength.”

“Your grace,” He bowed respectfully. “Come,” Albert turned to me, “We’ll go to the barracks where I will train you.”

Train, he says. Sure, buddy. Why not. I snarled sarcastically. Well, I kept a poker face throughout the entire ordeal though.

As I followed him out of the throne room, with the maids following close behind, I heard a sickeningly sweet voice speak, “Father…can I go watch? I’d definitely love to see Lady Hero in action!”

“Very well, Zinnia,” Narci’Hya heartedly laughed, “I’ll let you scratch your curiosity, but stay close to me.”

“Seriously, sister?” Who I presumed was Amaryllis voiced, “Why do you enjoy watching these barbaric acts?”

“I…I think it’s honorable to watch two warriors fight each other. We can learn from the-“

“We don’t even know if this Lady Hero is even capable of fighting Captain Albert! Did you forget she has absolutely no magic?! She’s a freak who doesn’t even have a spec of magi-“

Hm…I’ll manipulate this Princess Zinnia to the best of my ability, then.

I turned my attention away from them as I walked behind Albert. I noticed he had his hand on his sheathed sword the whole time. He was ready to strike me down at any time, it seemed. When it comes to that, he’ll die, I nodded to no one in particular.

My eyes scanned the interior of the castle closer than before. I noticed violet drapery over some of the windows. I took a peek outside before Albert caught on that I was lagging behind him. It was an eerily gray morning. The clouds blocked whatever sunlight tried to seep through.

“What gloomy weather,” slipped out of my mouth.

Albert suddenly noticed I was far behind him. He stopped and waited for me. The Captain was quite the gentleman, wasn’t he?

He studied what I was looking at and noticed I was peered at the sky through the window. “The weather is entering the cold season.”

“Oh? I can see that,” I responded, not all that interested in what he just said.

A heavy sigh escaped his throat as he urged me to the barracks. Honestly…I didn’t care at all that he was annoyed at having  to escort me; it was his job.

The captain ushered me forward.

We finally arrived at the barracks with a mentally exhausted Albert. I supposed it was because I stalled him a lot. He looked annoyed when I kept straying away from him. The maids giggled at watching the source of Albert’s frustration, a.k.a. me.

What can I say? I enjoyed the scenery. It was so…medieval. Well…it was medieval. Sort of. More like magically advanced rather than scientifically.

The barracks were a wide-open room with tons of knights training against wooden dummies. They held wooden swords. Sweat poured out of their palms, with their hair visibly tangled with all the sweat. The stench of the room was near-unbearable.

It was at that moment I learned I was going to miss air filtering; not only was this place hot, but it also stunk. It took everything I had not to pinch my nose in disgust; I had to bite my lip.

Welp, I thought, Should I hide my abilities, or go all-out?

“Are you Lady Hero?” A man scurried towards me. He must’ve been a knight-in-training because he looked quite young. Maybe in his early twenties? Possibly younger. He gave me a bright smile. A little closer and I’d think you’d be flirting with me, knight.

“Indeed I am, but I’ll let you call me Parker.” My tone was very arrogant.

“A-ah, yes, Lady Parker.” His smile stiffened a little, but overall maintained his graciousness. He probably didn’t expect my cheeky tone. Well, sorry for not being your stereotypical ‘hero’, kiddo.

Recollecting himself, the younger knight said, “My name’s Gerald Stein. I’m a big fan of the hero legends! To think you’re the first female hero! I’m finally experiencing something historical!”

“Well, nice to meet you too, Mr. Stein,” My bemused tone set him off again. He started to sweat buckets. I simply tilted my head, feigning ignorance as I smiled thinly at him.

The other knights started to walk over to us when Captain Albert exclaimed to the others, including wimpy Stein, “Clean the area! His Majesty and his daughter Princess Zinnia are going to watch a match between Lady Parker and I!”

They all stood stiff for a moment, but quickly collected their bearings as they started carrying mops and buckets to clean the smooth marvel floor from the excess sweat.

I heard some shuffling behind me and noticed the maids preparing some high-end chairs. I completely forgot those girls existed. Whoopsie.

After about a good hour or two of barrack cleaning and kingly throne-preparing, Hya and his overeager daughter Zinnia appeared. They sat on those two fancy-looking throne chairs with a couple of servants (butlers, to be precise) and a dozen royal guards. Amaryllis was mysteriously absent. Neither were Amaryllis or the Sage present.

Lilia scurried over to me and brought me a fancy-looking cup with a transparent liquid in it, almost like water. I placed my nose over it. Smells like wine, I thought as I drank it. Tasted like white wine. It was good quality, but I only had a sip. I returned the wine cup to Lilia, who frowned a bit at how little I drank. I’m not the drinker type.

The two royals and Albert had the same drink given to them by Claire, Alicia, and the other two maids – the scaly maid and the black-haired elven maid whose names I didn’t know. Well, the scaly maid brought food to them – mainly a large bowl of fruit with a bunch of grapes, apple slices, and other condiments in it.

After Hya and Zinnia got comfortable, the King asked (more like demanded) the Captain and I to begin the duel. Two knights – one of them Gerald, brought two wooden swords. Albert grabbed the unknown knight’s sword while I took Gerald’s; he seemed a bit happy I took his sword.

“Veena,” Albert addressed the scaly maid. Oh, her name’s Veena. “You will announce the start of the match.”

“Yes, Sir Albert.” She bowed respectfully towards him. Huh, he can command these maids freely.

Albert took a ferocious stance with the sword. He looked extremely focused as a strange blue light encompassed the sword. Magic? I thought to myself, Interesting.

Although I couldn’t use magic, I wasn’t the least bit intimidated.

Honestly, the longest blade I’m comfortable with were daggers– an assassin’s tool. This will be a good experience, I smiled.

I held up the sword to match Albert’s. However, I was keenly aware at how Claire, Zinnia, and Gerald were looking at me with sparkling eyes.

To focus, I looked straight into Albert’s eyes. He looked at me like a predator would to a quarry, but I returned the same glare. He seemed a little surprised.

Before starting the match, Albert asked me a question. “Are you experienced in swordsmanship, Lady Parker?”

“Can’t say that I have,” I smiled. I held up the sword closer to him, and slowly closed my eyes. I waited for the match to start.

“Reeaaaady!” Veena’s voice reached my ears, “Start!”

It’s time to command respect.