—Snow Palace, Ivory Realm—

In her two thousand years of existence, Iian had never witnessed such a scene. Rather, she believed it wasn't possible.

The moment her father recognised Dragneel, she watched as the squires turn white as her gown. Then it was her father’s stern face, his orders and them complying without a squeak.

It was the fastest court assemblage in the history of Dragonix. The Great Aide, the mightiest Dragon, settled on his stairs and gazed down at the bandaged squires, who dared not groan for fear of his wrath. Dragneel acclimatized on a stool, one leg over the other, brought by the servants at her request, and Iian stood on her left with a board and quill in hand, officiating the court, frozen with shock. Her father was sitting on the stairs…Unbelievable!

The Great Aide suspected her uneasiness and smiled at her gently. “There’s no shame sitting wherever in your house, Iian. Especially for a quick judgement.” He ran his eyes over the rows of bandaged squires. “Let me hear from those who apparently graduated to guards, but I. Didn’t. Know.”

The crowd flinched in plain sight.

“So, what happened there?” The Great Aide tapped his foot on the stair.

The atmosphere resembled a classroom, with the Great Aide as a teacher and the squires as students. A guard raised his hand from the crowd. He struggled to stand with his knee scraped then bandaged, trembling like a fawn. “This girl picked a fight with one of my mates! We went there to help him, but then she thrashed us all.”

The squires sitting adjacent raised their eyebrows at his choice of words. Like, who describes it as ‘thrashed’?

Bloom gazed at him with a plain expression and popped her knuckles. “Do you know why were we fighting?”

The guard gulped and shook his head for no.

The Great Aide pointed at him to sit. “Does anyone know what happened before?”

Another hand peeked out of the crowd and rose to his feet. “The person at fault is him.” He pointed towards that arrogant brat, trying to shrink and hide to get away from their attention.

When he heard his colleague’s sudden accusations, he was caught by surprise. He scrambled on his legs with difficulty. The squires in front helped him stand. “What the hell are you spouting?”

“Language.” The Great Aide glared.

He gulped the lump in his throat, his eyes flickering. “He is lying. These are false accusations.”

“Is it so?” Bloom spoke accusingly for the first time during the entire session. Her eyes locked on him, and he shivered under her gaze. She had the scariest eyes he had ever seen. As if she was judging his life and death, depending on his words.

“Ye… yes.” He shuttered to even say a word.

“Why are you scaring him?” Iian folded her arms and scowled at Dragneel. “Or are you scared of something?”

“When did I scare him? If he is speaking the truth, then there’s nothing to fear.” Dragneel matched her gaze with her own. She turned her attention to the man.

“Did we fight?” Dragneel closed her eyes and stretched her neck. “Yes or no.”

“Yes.”

“Did you accuse me of theft and impersonation?”

“No.”

Bloom opened her eyes and smiled coyly. “So, you didn’t accuse me of either of them. Then why did we fight?”

The squire’s eyes roamed from the Great Aide’s neutral face to Dragneel’s midnight-blue eyes and then at his fellow mates. “We…You didn’t go through the protocols and I caught you. So, you…you were angry, and we fought.”

“Very well. I shall put forth my word, then.” Dragneel jumped off the stool and turned to the Great Aide. She shouted, “If what this squire claims is true, the guards should be hanged for their mistake! This is a serious breach in the Snow Palace’s security.”

The tension in the air thickened with nervous murmurs amongst the squires as the guards burst through the doors into the hall, panting, their hearts in their hands. No, my Lord! We had inspected the Miss, and she even passed the lie detection test! We did nothing wrong!“

Dragneel turned to the panting guards. “And how do we believe that?”

The guard pushed back his helmet. “Ah! The VIP card…The VIP card got registered in our system. We can bring out the records for a check!”

Another set of murmurs rang through the hall. Now that the guards had offered the records from the system, they didn’t dare lie about it. Then did the squire lie?

“Now, let me ask you this. What were you doing at the front gates, which isn't your post to begin with? Don’t tell you were playing hooky cause that’ll bring in a whole committee to punish you.”

“I..I..” He broke into a cold sweat. His shoulders clambered in an awful dance. “Yes, I did. I was wrong! I plead guilty, my lord!”

“You–” Her eyes sharply glowed. “–called me a lowly existence.”

He shuddered. That wasn’t a question, it was a statement. It caused all that drama on the Palace premises.

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Iian’s eyes grew wider. She looked back at the guard. He wasn’t attempting to defend himself; he accepted the accusation.

“Who gave you the right to call me a lowly existence?”

He squeaked. “No, no one!”

“Ryuoketusai, please punish all of them according to their mistakes.” Dragneel sighed, massaging her temples.

The Great Aide announced the suspension of Unit Six for their rash judgement and Captain Martin got penalised and demoted to a guard for no less than a year. A year in Dragonix meant ten months of thirty-five days each. Each month dedicated to a realm and the tenth month dedicated to the Emperor.

Iian gawked over Dragneel’s retreating figure with slight intimidation. She felt a clear distinction between the ‘Unrecorded’ she knew from the legend and the current ‘Dragneel Bloom’.

So, who was the real one, hm?

----------------------------------------

—Great Aide’s Office, Snow Palace—

“Of course me.” Dragneel glanced at her face and smirked. “I’m no goody-to-shoes like the character you found in Tests of Unrecorded.”

Iian flicked her head towards her father, sitting on either sided of Dragneel, and the Great Aide looked away. She gritted her teeth and glared at Dragneel. “Father talked big about you, but now I find them nothing but tall tales. You’re nothing akin to what he told me. You’re a big bully! Who’re you to command decisions in the presence of the Great Aide in his abode?”

Her father turned his head, surprised at Iian’s reason for annoyance. He exchanged side glances with Dragneel, who broke into a fit of giggles. Her head pressed into the comforting fabric of the peacock diwan, the reverb vibrating inside the four walls. Bloom slid the palm off her eyes and locked eyes with a blushing Iian, who felt embarrassed at her own outburst.

A soft orange had just set on the horizons. The foundation of the Snow Palace absorbed the hue. A fine colour played in the Great Aide’s office, complimenting Dragneel’s headful of scarlet. Well, she was pretty. Iian would give her that.

“Unrecorded and Dragneel Bloom are the same people.” Bloom closed her eyes. “But both play different roles in Dragonix. Unrecorded was a warrior who, when commanded, slayed Dragonix’s enemies. She had no place in politics but in warfare. Dragneel Bloom has a pivotal role to play in Dragonix’s politics, its people, warfare and Dragonix’s existence itself.”

The Great Aide smiled at Iian, his peacock irises shining with amusement. “Another thing, Unrecorded at that time, was so unhinged, you wouldn’t have been alive the moment you accused her of…” He exchanged another look with Dragneel and emphasised the last words. “…being a bully.”

“Seriously, what do you think a warmonger looks like, anyway?”

“Yeah.”

Iian raised her hands up in surrender. “Okay! Fine! I’m sorry for having any assumptions about you. So just stop ganging up on me! You too, Father!“

Dragneel shook her head as if in a matter of fact. “Well, it’s fine to have assumptions and prejudice. I’ll let you judge me however you want in this course of time. But Princess, that won’t stop me from doing what I need to.”

Iian rolled her eyes. “Throne Frontier is so thrilled to have you as their newest addition.”

Dragneel locked eyes with the Great Aide for a second. “Throne Frontier…Maybe.” She smirked back at Iian. “But nobody told me Princess had sass in her.”

“In private, yes. But I think I know well enough to carry myself professionally…” She scowled at Dragneel. “Unlike somebody. For the first time, I feel like there’s someone I can’t stand.”

“Oo~Scary!”

“How did you even become a Dragneel?” Iian banged her palms on the center table and leaned into Bloom’s face, her eyebrows in a cross. “A Dragneel is the honour awarded to the strongest, smartest, creative and durable person in the Universe. What have you even achieved to be a Dragneel?”

The playful smirk dropped from Dragneel’s face. Her eyes turned cold, unblinking, and shining. She leaned forward and touched foreheads with Iian. “War. I have led wars against Obsidian, our second neighbouring universe, and won. All of them. Just with the meager resources available at that moment. What have you done to question me? Two thousand years behind a desk…Hm?”

The Great Aide clapped once and the doors and windows clapped back as gusts of wind left them flinging against each other. “Sit down, Iian. Just as Dragneel said, you can judge her afterwards, in action. I won’t allow a single extra word from you.”

The Great Aide folded his arms and shifted his legs under the cassock. “Dragneel, where were you these days? A teleportation doesn’t take days, does it?”

Dragneel said, “Did you get a report about Teleportation Gate malfunction?”

“That person’s still missing, if I remember.”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

Iian nodded subconsciously, agreeing with each statement until she heard the last one. Her contemptuous evaporated with her widened eyes, worry lacing her tone. “And you’re alive.”

“Yeah. I am.”

“We had traced the teleportation to Nyctoph.” The Great Aide blinked once and looked at Dragneel as he realised. “You didn’t blow up that place, didn’t you?”

Dragneel waved her hand. “Nah Ryuoketusai! I’m a peaceful lady now. Found a person who would help, and I teleported here before King Rael Ozmer realised.” She pondered over a thing and said, “I want info on a person.”

Iian pursed her fingers, her eyes shining with curiosity. “Who are we talking about?”

“A dragon aristocrat named Night. He said that he was under house arrest on the order of King Rael Ozmer.”

“Night, an aristocrat...in Nyctoph?” The Great Aide pondered. His eyes suddenly widened at the possibility, which could be catastrophic. “Black, short messy hair, stone-grey eyes and ashen tone?”

“Yes; black, messy hair, stone-grey eyes and ashen tone.”

“In Nyctoph, amongst the dragons, when a royal child is named, no other dragon can have the same name. Night. There’s just a single dragon with that name. Night Ryder, Crown Prince of Nyctoph Dragons.” Iian stared at Bloom’s face with concern. “Does that feel like trouble?”

She took a paper out of a stack and showed it to Bloom. It had a small image in the top left corner. It was Night, Night Ryder.

“Yes, it is him. And no, we aren’t in trouble. We had a deal and he would be too scared to come after me.”

“He is the Candidate for the Throne from the Nyctoph Realm, the chosen heir to the previous Nyctoph King, Nite Ryder. He’s your fellow contender.” The Great Aide added into the further explanation.

“Candidate for the Throne...” Bloom muttered.

The Great Aide rose to his feet, the beige cassock brushing past his ankles. He walked up to a cupboard and pulled out two files covered in leather covers. He handed one to Dragneel, one to Iian.

“Dragneel, the Ball ceremony is a two-night, one-day event beginning tomorrow night and the following morning. The first night is the night of the Grand Ball. This file contains the details of the person you’ll be affirming tomorrow. All the Candidates, Kings & Queens, and other important delegates will attend the night. Observe them and create your course of action for the actual ceremony the following morning.”

Iian stepped forward, expecting a thorough.

“And Iian, I don’t need to explain you much. You know what documents to prepare for the ceremony, and I believe it will be impeccable as always. Also, help Dragneel with anything she needs.”

Iian nodded and with a convincing smile said, “Consider it done, sir.”

She exited the room with an armful of work, mindful of thoughts. Somewhere in her heart she felt she wronged Dragneel. Indeed, fiction and reality were two different realms. “I’ll apologise tonight. Then, everything will be fine, right?”

Inside the office, the Great Aide and Dragneel were finally left alone.

“Dragneel, I’ll head for the Monarch Palace to analyse preparations. You know what it means.”

Bloom faced the Great Aide and smirked. “You won’t come back tonight. Don’t worry, I’ll protect Snow Palace in case something happens. After all, there're all kinds of stuff happening right before the main event. I promise.”

The Great Aide sighed a sign of relief. “I know you don’t break promises. I trust you with my abode. Just don’t blow it up.”