When she was merely five years old, she was admitted to a secret school, one that taught in the ways of combat, survival, a.s.sa.s.sination, 'behind the curtains' strategies, hidden ways, and all the way up to even gambling. Many of the students that attended this school are those of her age and their statuses are all but normal. All of them either end up as the Kings or Queens of key nations or existences equivalent to them. Even this secret school's alumni included an Alliance Master, a t.i.tle above Kinghood! If it weren't for the Arendale's rules regarding the main heir, Regalus could have found himself in this school as well.

Ira Ignus proved herself a prodigy at this school. Though her scores academically were far lacking, her combat skills found none wanting. She topped the school in the arts of the bow and arrow and saber, of which she took a liking most. Her talent in combat surpa.s.sed all of her peers and she beat everyone in terms of speed, strength, and grit. When she reached the age of seven, it only increased it even more as she added cultivation on top of that. Reaching the 4th Chi River Stage in just a year, she took down the best of the contemporary geniuses. If she hadn't been called back by her family, she might have gone up even further.

Chained by familial duties, even her own family felt wronged, much less herself. Sadly, they themselves knew that Ira may have never reached where she was at without the support of the main family, so they had no choice but to accede.

---

By the age of 9, she came to the main household, became a maid, and met her protectee. She was ordered by the King, Lent Arendale, to stay back and observe his behaviors and habits before officially become his personal maid. From her observations, aside from being with his family, all he did was read books. It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration as a second national library. The oddest part was that it contained no stories or the like people of his age usually read about. Instead, it was full of atlases, indexes, star charts, maps, and the like. He also had an odd interest in machines, creating many odd mechanical objects.

The only praise Ira could think about him was his intellect, which she did not care much for, and thus severely looked down on him. How could some book be greater than a 20 pound, sharpened metal backed up with unhindered brute force? It made no sense to her as someone who truly believes any problem could be solved if you kick it/him/her hard enough.

----

For the past three days, most ch.o.r.es related to the crown prince was delegated to her. She stood in front of a steaming bath as she carried some towels and a cotton robe. From what she had heard from Her Majesty, it appeared that the crown prince had great endurance, surprising for a bookworm, but she paid it no mind. She could do the same trip as he did a hundred times faster when she was at his age.

Seeing him stand up and leaving the wooden tub, she could clearly see his muscles already taking form.

'What a great tub of water,' she thought after seeing the great effect of the water. Sadly, after being used by the prince, it's been rendered useless, otherwise, Ira herself might have gone and used it for herself. She felt the saying 'A cow eating a flower' being applied to this situation, too bad she can't say anything about it.

Despite her wronged feelings inside, her outward appearance showed no change and showed nothing but the hospitality any maid ought to have. She stepped forward and offered the towels to the prince. However, after taking the towels, the prince looked at her intently for a few seconds, taking a look around her body, but looking most of the time at her hands.

Ira wasn't as naive to think that he was looking for her body. The prince never showed any history of showing licentious behavior, nor did his eyes show any manner of l.u.s.t. What it did show, however, was curiosity.

Ira didn't show any change in her face and merely let him look after affirming that he didn't have any unwanted intentions, though a bit displeased inside.

"A swor- no, it's too deep. A saber ought to be it. The bow and arrow as well if I'm not wrong," the prince muttered softly before he walked out of the bath wearing the cloth robe.

Ira stood there fixed in her position. She would have left to go along with him but she still had to process what happened. The prince muttered extremely softly, to the point where it was just a hum, no normal human could hear it, unless it was directly to their ears. But she was no normal human, thus could hear it as if he was meaning to tell it to her.

'H-How did he know?!' she thought. The greatest weapon anyone could have is to have something that their opponent doesn't know about. There is nothing more disastrous than expecting to meet a spear, but receiving a sword instead. Yet, he could tell with just a few seconds of looking, and it wasn't as if she actually brought a saber or a bow with her. She only brought a small dagger hidden in her sleeves just in case.

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She looked everywhere he did and found nothing that could discern her profeciencies. She looked intently at her hands. They were far from being fair and soft, but instead had deep callouses from training.

'Did he see all through that just from my hands?'

While intently looking at her hands, she noticed a wooden bathtub from the view between her fingers. She suddenly remembered where she was at and where she needed to be. She rushed up to the prince's room. She silently opened the door and creeped silently inside, with the intent to pretend that she had been there to supervise him the whole time.

As she was creeping she suddenly noticed the prince, fully dressed, looking at her with an amused look on his face.

"Heh. Cute," an unexpected statement came from him.