She Belongs To The Devil

After the illusion faded away like a puff of smoke, all the soldiers who were down on the ground then got up at once as though they had all been playing hurt or dead.

"What the…" Adeline had almost believed that all of them had ganged up on her to scare her and make her emotionally unstable in the middle of the fake war.

But then she remembered the test. She was greatly hurt during the first part of the test but as soon as the illusion of Azriel wore off, so did the wounds and blood.

Adeline glanced at her hand to see that it was not soaked with blood anymore. "As I thought." Adeline glanced towards the platform where Theodore was standing and thought with a faint smile on her face, "If he had asked the soldiers to act then we would be fighting tonight…"

After all of the soldiers were back on their feet, General Osmond screamed at the top of his lungs, "Those who were still standing by the end of this exercise, well done. Try to maintain the same in the coming training as well. And those who were defeated, try to do better the next time."

"That\'s it for today from me and Prince Theodore. Rest for a while and your lieutenants will look after your further exercises." General Osmond concluded the training and all the soldiers dispersed from the ground.

Adeline looked around to search for the wolves. She saw them entering two of the tents. "Why are they going– Oh! They have to get dressed. But finding a place to hide or change the uniform is a little impractical for them if they were in a real battle..."

Adeline took a deep breath in and headed towards the platform. She could feel her soldiers glancing at her as she walked.

She met their glance and when she did, they didn\'t dare to speak to her. However, that didn\'t mean that they just glared at her or turned away. They proudly bowed to their Princess.

Adeline smiled and gave a polite nod to them.

After reaching the platform, she was greeted with a proud smile from General Osmond.

He walked in front of her and praised her, "Adeline that was not bad at all. I was worried if you would be able to react in time. And I was also worried that you would get angry at me after finding out that I had concealed some information about those illusions."

Adeline chuckled and shook her head. "Why would I get angry? I know that no matter how much we train, there will still be surprises on the actual battlefield. We might not have access to all the information. So the concealed information gave me a jerk of reality."

Osmond proudly patted Adeline\'s shoulders and said with a wide smile, "But you did well compared to how the others did on their first day. Even Nigel took some time to get used to the fake vampires. But you managed to kill around a dozen of them on the very first day. Well done."

Adeline gave a slight nod to her teacher and said, "It is all thanks to you, General Osmond. You trained me well."

General Osmond felt really happy when he heard the praise from the Future Queen. However, he was also a little worried after watching her kill those vampires left and right. Though he couldn\'t quite make out her expression from that far, he could tell that she was killing them mercilessly.

And he was a little worried that he might have created a ruthless killer out of Adeline.

"Adeline, do you…" Osmond was about to ask something to Adeline but he stopped midways when he saw her eyes.

The little sparks of excitement that she had in them a while ago were already gone. She now looked like she was thinking back to how she killed those illusions. And he thought to himself, "Maybe it is slowly starting to pull her down – the weight of those she killed."

So he instead said, "Adeline, take some time to reflect back to the exercise as if it was real and not fake. Think back to what went right and what went wrong. And try not to bury yourself in guilt. Wars are like this, you will see deaths all around you. But you need to learn to forgive yourself."

Adeline took a deep breath in and nodded her head.

General Osmond then took his leave, "I will go and talk with the soldiers now. You should also rest."

Adeline glanced at Theodore. He was standing a little further in front of her. The moment her eyes met his, he averted his gaze from her and looked at his hands as though he was growing a tree there.

Adeline stood in front of him and glared at him without saying a word.

And Theodore instantly blurted out, "I know I shouldn\'t have done that on the very first day and scared you. And I know I went a little overboard with all the vivid details. But I did that so that you will learn more about the brutal truth of the war. All wars are nasty and there will be a lot of unexpected turn of events and I wanted to make sure–"

Adeline clenched Theodore\'s cheeks and made him stop mumbling on and on. She indeed was angry at Theodore but she knew that he was doing it for her sake. "Theo, thank you for not cutting me any slack just because I am your wife. Thank you for treating me like any other soldiers."

She smiled at him and continue, "I don\'t want you to go easy on me on the training because that will only make me weak in the real battle. Come at me with the hardest hurdles so that I can be the best version of a changeling."

Theodore released a huge sigh as if he had been expecting Adeline to lash out at him for the stunt that he pulled in the battleground. "Oh, I am so glad that you aren\'t pointing your sword at me for using Rebekah."

Adeline pouted her lips and said, "But yes, that was a bad move. I almost lost my breath. I panicked that much after seeing her."

Theodore looked down again and apologized, "I am sorry for scaring you. I thought that you would also need to get rid of your trauma by tackling her directly." He glanced back at her and whispered, "I sometimes hear you mumbling in your sleep."

Adeline bravely smiled and nodded, "Yes, that day still haunts me. But that doesn\'t mean I should always run away from that memory. This might just be a way to get used to the harsh reality and possible future reality that is undoubtedly coming my way."

---

"Your Majesty," a vampire that Reginald had sent to scout the border bowed to the King after returning back to the Palace.

Reginald had deep frowns in between his brows when he asked, "Tell me you have news that I want to hear."

That vampire nodded his head and briefed the King, "Yes, Your Majesty. There aren\'t any barriers on the border now. I successfully went to the other side of the hills."