She Belongs To The Devil

It was times like this when Adeline would find her mind conflicting with her heart. She had asked her father to share the details of the test with her fearing that Edwin would take over the throne out of all the heirs. But now that he was almost out of the picture, unless he recovered miraculously, she felt as though she had an unfair advantage over all the others.

Though her mind would tell her that she had resorted to taking advantage of her father\'s knowledge only because she had the best interest of the people of Wyverndale, her heart would still call her a cheater at times like this.

All her other brothers and sisters were also equally dedicated as her for their test. They had prepared for this test for their whole lives and she, the lastborn, had an unfair advantage over them.

Though Adeline told that she was not being taught anything new, her brothers and sisters didn\'t seem to believe that she was being taught the same old stuff. It was because they had heard the rumors from the maids that when returning back from the training session with General Osmond, Princess Adeline would be covered in bruises, even on her face.

But they wouldn\'t see the bruises when they would meet her the next day. They didn\'t think that the rumors from the maids were baseless. They believed that Adeline had access to some kind of medicine that would remove the bruise within one night.

Of course, that medicine was none other than Hawisa\'s makeup.

Dissatisfied with Adeline\'s answer, Claudia asked the next question to her again, "We heard that you return back to the quarter with bruises all over your body after you train with General Osmond. Is that just a rumor? If it is then we should punish all those who are spreading such baseless rumors about our beautiful little sister."

And as though Kaela had no idea about that at all, she interjected in between and asked Adeline, "You get bruises after training with the General? I hope he is doing nothing bad to you." She then went over to the side of Adeline and whispered, "He isn\'t taking advantage of you, is he? If he is harming you in any way then you can tell us. We will get rid of him for you."

Some frown lines appeared on Adeline\'s forehead because Kaela was thinking a little too much. But she didn\'t want to be rude so she smiled and politely refused such outrageous accusations towards her teacher.

"He is more nervous than me regarding the test. And he likes to test me sometimes. The bruises might have been from a test when he threw some punches and kicks on me to test my pain resistance, that\'s all. There is no need to worry."

"That\'s a relief then," Kaela gave a smile to Adeline but Adeline felt as though that smile was pretentious.

Nefriti then sighed loudly and said, "This test is such a pain. Why couldn\'t the King just choose one of us and make us the future ruler? They had to act so secretively and won\'t even tell us a thing about the test. I wonder who is going to test us."

Adeline felt a tingle in her heart because she knew most of the things about the test and she was keeping that a secret from the others. If it was Nigel then she would have already told him, but she didn\'t want to tell anything to the ones with whom she was walking right now.

Claudia was sharp enough to notice that sudden change in Adeline\'s facial expression that lasted for a fraction of seconds.

Meanwhile, Raphael sarcastically answered to Nefriti, "Are you the only one to not know who is going to take our test? That is the one and the only thing that we all know and that is not kept a secret from us."

Nefriti raised her brows and then gave a side-eyed look to Raphael, "You mean you believe that the deity is going to take our test? Grow up, Raphael!"

Raphael instantly gave an answer, "Of course I believe that the deity is going to take our test." He shrugged his shoulders and then asked, "Why would our elders lie to us about the one thing that they told us regarding the test?"

Nefriti stopped on her track and turned around abruptly to face Raphael. She then fisted on her hips and she asked challengingly to her brother, "Have you ever seen a deity till now, Raphael?"

Raphael rolled his eyes and answered with an irritated look on his face, "No… but I believe that they are real."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Nefriti shook her head with a disapproving look on her face, and she talked down on Raphael, "Don\'t be so naïve, Raphael. Deities are just myths that the elders told us so that we would practice harder in fear of something which is nonexistent. They are just like ghost stories that are told to scare the children to get to their bed early."

Kaela also chimed in to the conversation and agreed to what Nefriti was saying, "I bet that some of the councilmen and the Generals will take our test in the training ground itself."

But Raphael was not ready to believe that the deity was unreal. Else the King would have denied the rumor that they were told as kids. "You two believe whatever you want. But I believe that the deity is real and that we are going to be tested by the deity himself or herself."

"See! We don\'t even know if this deity is a male or a female. Have you ever seen some kind of statue or paintings of this great deity that is going to test us? Do you even know what they look like?" Nefriti pointed out the fact which no one was seeing. "We have not even seen a symbolic representation of this deity that you are talking about. So stop believing that suddenly we are going to see him or her in real."

Suddenly, Nefriti\'s words made Raphael think hard. "Oh god! Why didn\'t I notice that till now? We never worship any specific statue or drawings... All we do is offer some food while facing the hills during the festivals."

"Exactly! That was why I was telling you that it is nothing more than a myth." Nefriti turned around again and began to walk while feeling victorious.

Adeline was listening to all that debate in silence. She knew the truth but she didn\'t dare to speak.