As planned, Muriel approached Nigel and struck up a conversation with him, “Hey Nigel, why don’t you pair with me today?”

Nigel didn’t really like the twins. In fact he didn’t really get along with other Princes or Princesses. He was glad that Adeline was finally five years old and would accompany him every day from now on.

Now that Adeline was here, Nigel didn’t want to pair up with anyone else. To add to that, General Osmond had directly ordered him to pair with Adeline. So he refused the offer of Muriel, “No thanks! General Osmond has ordered me to pair up with Adeline.”

What Nigel didn’t realize was that Muriel was just trying to distract him to give chance for Margery to lure Adeline away.

The moment Nigel turned his back on Adeline to face Muriel, Margery had snuck past him and was whispering in Adeline’s ear, “Come and play with me. If you play with me, I’ll give you a strawberry.”

“I don’t like strawberry.” Adeline had just spoken the truth about her dislike but it immediately triggered Margery who hated Adeline for being father’s favorite.

“How dare you speak down on me? Well I don’t like YOU, you little brat.” Margery didn’t care about the gazes that were coming towards her and kept on shouting, “Do you think you are so special just because father visits you every day? Guess what? You don’t even have a mother but we do.”

Hearing such harsh words made Adeline’s heart sour and she started to cry. Adeline didn’t remember her mother’s face but would often daydream about her mother. Though King Dragomir tried his best not to make Adeline feel lonely, he was unable to fill the void. And when Adeline was reminded that she did not have a mother, she felt extremely unhappy.

Nigel quickly ran over to Adeline and hugged her. “You also have a mother Adeline. Don’t listen to her. Isn’t my mother your mother as well? She loves us both equally.”

But Muriel interjected immediately and shouted in a piercing voice, “If she really was her mother then why doesn’t this brat live with you guys?”

Adeline started to cry even louder. No one had ever talked to her like this and hurt her.

Nigel was now really furious with the ill-mannered girls in front of him. He stared at them and shouted, “Just go away both of you. You don’t have to be so mean to everyone. The two of you are not the only Princess around.”

Nigel turned his back at the twins and bend down on his knees to wipe the tears of Adeline, “They are always mean like that. Don’t ever listen to them.”

But the twins were still in a mood for some battle. Margery went near Nigel and pushed him from the side. Nigel fell down on the ground and hurt his elbow.

Adeline, who was crying until now could not stand what she just saw. She didn’t like the way the twins pushed her dear brother and bruised him.

And for the first time Adeline felt like something inside her was burning. She immediately ran towards Margery and then pushed her just like she had pushed Nigel.

And to everyone’s surprise, the tiny girl was not only able to push Margery but she was also able to make her crash with a thump on the ground. Seeing Margery on the ground, Muriel dashed towards Adeline in anger and tried to push her. But Adeline resisted. And in another second, Muriel was the one who had crashed on the ground.

Adeline didn’t feel bad for pushing the twins at all. She felt a sense of empowerment. She felt like she was able to protect her brother and was proud of herself.

Now it was the twin’s turn to cry. Because of the force they were pushed with, they had few bruises on their back and for a few seconds they had difficulty while breathing.

Meanwhile, General Osmond was returning with two waster sword which was of the same size as the roundel dagger. It would be of perfect size for the little Princess.

But that was when the General witnessed Margery pushing Nigel to the ground. He started to walk faster to stop them from fighting with each other but he witnessed something very interesting. Princess Adeline was able to push two girls to the ground. They were bigger than her but Adeline managed to take them down, that also with a great force.

“This is getting more and more interesting. I wonder where such energy comes from in that little body.” Seeing Princess Adeline capable of defending herself from other’s attack, Osmond decided to hide and watch how the situation would unfold from a distance.

Osmond pondered upon his strategy to take the revenge with Queen Lillian, “My decision to take my revenge through Princess Adeline was not wrong after all. She has great potentials, I can already tell.” Osmond also wanted to know the friends and foes of Princess Adeline so he kept on watching.

Edwin, the oldest among the royal children, was also watching the fight that was going on. He was getting ready to practice with his younger brother Alan but he decided to go towards the fight scene instead.

Edwin helped Margery and Muriel get up from the dusty ground and narrowed his gaze at Adeline. “Are you that spoiled that you are picking fights on the first day of your training? My mother was right, the King has pampered you a lot and turned you into a horse without a lease.”

Princess Adeline did not understand what her brother said to her but she knew that he was speaking badly of her. His expression was saying it all.

Adeline was about to cry again but Nigel immediately protested and spoke on behalf of his sister, “Edwin, it was not Adeline who started all this. These twins came to us and started picking fight with us for no reason. If you want to shout at someone then shout at the ones who made a mistake.”

Edwin gritted his teeth and walked closer to Nigel to intimidate him. “Don’t you dare teach me what to do, you mama’s boy. You are no better than this little brat. All you do is follow your mother around and skip your training sessions.”

Both Edwin and Nigel were clenching their fists and giving each other a cold piercing look, ready to break into a fight. Adeline tugged Nigel’s uniform because she didn’t want him to get hurt again. But the twins were smiling slyly and were enjoying the chaos they brought.

Alan saw what was about to happen and he rushed in the middle of the two boys and tried to calm them down. “Whoa! What are you guys doing? Osmond will arrive any minute now. He will punish everyone if we fight while training. You guys don’t want to take another 15 laps around the ground now, do you?”

On top of the Hill of Grimmer Death, inside the Devil’s Cave, Theodore was sleeping soundly on his warm bed. But he was woken up with sourness in his heart.

“What is this feeling? Why do I feel sad for no reason?” Theodore got up from his bed and rubbed his chest. But the feeling didn’t go away.

Theodore’s eyes opened wide with a hunch. A thought crossed his mind, “Could it be…?”