Chapter 8 - Prince Steel

She stared at the injured prince as he continued to cough until she see some red blood in his mouth. Pheia gasped and the first thing she said was.

"Why are you here? You're supposed to be healing!" He glared his eyes at her as if saying "You're supposed to say THANK YOU!"

Maiden then recovered herself, looked at him, and said, "Thank you for saving me."

Then she walked towards the wolf who's been frozen to death and pulled out her knife that was frozen too. Even though she exerted more effort, she couldn't pull out the knife from the wolf's flesh. She struggled and even guided her feet as an anchor of strength to pull the knife but still, nothing happens. And for a while, she became frustrated and ends up stomping the frozen wolf.

The Prince who had been coughing at the side witnessed all of her struggles. Watching from the side while clutching his abdomen. Probably, the supposed to be healed wound suddenly opens up because of his effort of traveling away from Pheia's house to here and even using his magic. Tsk. Not even thinking.

Prince Steel caught her look of ridicule and knew what she was thinking. But, for some reason, he himself thinks that this chubby girl in front of him is to be ridiculed also. She was exerting force on a magically frozen thing, seeming stupid as it was impossible for a certain commoner without attribute to shake it. However, he was also amazed at this chubby girls fighting ability. When that wolf pounced her, he was watching at the sideline. He was certain at that very moment that it was over for her but he was wrong. She'd make it through, although with gashes and injury, that until now hadn't sunk to her mind as she continued to pull the knife out, without experiencing pain from her injury.

After pulling some time, Maiden finally comes to realize, when you're just a commoner, even if she was once an assassin, she couldn't even taint a single crack on the ice. What a life of a non-magic user!

In these past few days, aside from exercising Pheia's body, she had spent her time reading things about this world. Although, her mom is there to give further details, what she wrote in the novel was quite the broader idea. It does not explain the 'real' happenings here. So she needs to learn and start from what Pheia's memories couldn't remember or literally doesn't know.

And what she found out can explain why she couldn't pull the knife out from the frozen wolf. It is because it was cast by a magic-user. Oftentimes, what a magic-user cast, may it be fire, air, earth, water, ice, etc., it can be easily broken or extinguished if you're a magic-user too but if you're not, then you would spend half of your life to break, extinguish, destroy the magic, and you can never fight with it, too. It's too powerful for normal people. It can even put them, the non-magic user, on the brink of danger or sometimes death without even struggling. Moreover, from the readings she'd got from the public libraries of the kingdom, there is a certain thing called allex inside the magic user's body where he can store magic energies. It can be compared to the dantian in ancient China's Wuxia stories or mana in some Japanese anime.

Allex as it served as storage requires some time to form and solidify. It needs the power of will and patience to fulfill. Although some were born to have full allex like the royalties some also like ordinary people -commoners, for example, has little allex inside the body- but since it was not easy to cultivate and takes quite some time, maybe about 10 years to fill the first level out of the fifth levels. That's why, mostly, commoners just let their allex as is because certain things as livelihood are more important and practical for their concern. However, some commoners also have special cases,  some breakthroughs at such a given small amount of time. But it was so rare amongst the commoners that's why, if it was found out to have one among the commoners, celebrations will be made for them. They will be praised, worshipped, and idolized but with the respect they're receiving they still knew that -as spiderman say, Great power comes great responsibility. It is the magic user's responsibility to take good care of the non-magic users.

On the contrary, the royalties or nobilities often limit people's cultivation because, of course, how are they going to rule with an iron hand if all of them has specific powers of equal strength. They will never agree with that. That's why for a couple of years, they decided to brainwash commoners that livelihood is better than having magic powers. Actually, what Pheia found out about cultivation amongst the commoners, it just takes 2 years to lead ones allex into the first level but because people believed that it would take ten years they never yearn. That is what her mother and some hidden books inside the library said.

Also, what royalties really fear was that, unlike, a commoner who practiced cultivation, once they damaged their allex it can be repaired but the royalties can't. It was their foremost secret that Pheia have known from her mother. Just like this prince who is heavily injured, there's a great possibility that his allex was damaged, but since he can still freeze the big bad wolf it might have recuperated. Maybe, a little bit portion of his allex was just damaged.

And back to Pheia's knife, as she was redeeming that knowledge, it is still stuck and she can't help but look at the man who freezes it.

As if sensing what Pheia wants, the ice around the knife that was embedded on the Wolf's limb gradually thawed. After all ice around the knife melted, Pheia pulled it out successfully this time and thank the prince again.

The prince continually coughed with blood and Pheia walks towards him. As an assassin, she is used to seeing blood. That's why she just walked towards him rather gracefully and asked him, "Why did you get out of bed? Does my mom know that you're awake?" As she said these words the prince looked at her, puzzled.

"So you escaped." Pheia sighed and look at him accusingly.

Maybe mom's in a panic right now! Tsk.

"Do you know that I was the one who carried you from here towards my house? And do you know that you're in House Edame's territory?" With those two questions, his already puzzled face becomes even more puzzled and soon replaced with realization and cautiousness.

He stepped back, ready to run away but Pheia caught his wrist and said, "You don't have to be worried Prince. Although I and my mom lived here in House Edame's territory, we didn't plan to report or tell them about you. In fact, we already decided if you haven't woken up, we will bring you out of here and send you to your Kingdom, just like a smuggled good. So you don't have to be cautious around me. You should be thankful that I saved you, and I and my mom are ready to help you." His face hardened and yanked Pheia's hands away from his wrist. And, in spite, putting down a bit of his caution, he is still guarded.

Well, even if Pheia is an enemy of him, and even though he's injured she is still no match with his magic. That's what she wanted him to know.

"What do you want in return for helping me?" He asked coldly. "Do you want rewards of money or gold? Just say it so you don't have to bragged that you've saved me." When he said those words, Pheia gripped the knife in her hand. Is he insulting us?

What an arrogant jerk?!

"We are not penniless. And we don't need your money nor your rewards," she said with a little fit of anger but put her face in cold mode. "Since you've woken up, you can go back to where you're supposed to be. To tell you honestly, we don't need your reward because you're just a burden and a threat to us, PRINCE." She walked past him and stride back to their house.

What does he think of us? Beggars? He should not act as if we're the ones who are in dept with him. Rather, he should be thankful. What an ungrateful jerk!

Pheia walked away and left him until she reached the edge of the forest. Clutching her shoulders and chests that are still bleeding due to the claws of the wolf, that she hadn't noticed back then. She noticed it not until she walked inside the forest where ferocious beasts are staring at her. But thankfully, they just stared at her, because if they don't, she really is now a dead meat.

When she reached the edge of the forest, someone noticed her bleeding shoulder and chest and offer some help. She is an old woman, carrying a bunch of bags in her cart.

"Why are you injured, lady? Are you attacked?" She asked.

"Yes, I am attacked with some wolf in the forest," Pheia said casually and shrugging her shoulder in the process.

Seeing that she was not worried at all about her injuries. The woman sighed and said, "You should be careful especially in that forest. A lot of beasts are roaming in there recently. You're just lucky, with that blood oozing out of your shoulder and chest, you stayed out alive."

"I also wondered why I stayed out alive, I even saw some of them staring at me fiercely, but backing away as if they are scared," Pheia said nonchalantly.

"What did you say? They just stared at you?" She asked and then continued, "That's unbelievable because we all know that blood can ignite their excitement for prey. It boils their inner self and they are willing to die just to get it. But what you said really was unbelievable, unless, you're a magic-user. They will absolutely not attack you unless, of course, you're in your weak state. Instead, they will fear you."

"I am not a magic-user, so why did they fear me? And if I am a magic user, I shouldn't have suffered this injury." PheiA laughed mockingly at herself.

As if shocked with her half-hearted mocking, the woman deliberately inspected her and the next second a sudden realization is shown in her eyes. "You may not be a magic-user, but your aura was covered with ice element. Have you encountered an ice magic user, lady?"

"Yes, I do. Why?" The old woman sighed and said, "You are just so lucky to meet that person, he cast an aura on you, so any beast will not attack you. But you know? It takes a lot of allex to cast that magic. It consumes more than a fourth of your allex. That person must be really powerful." She coils the last bandage on Pheia's shoulder and chest and pinned it. She must be a wandering doctor. As Pheia can see much of the doctor's tools in her cart. But does she really need a bandage? I just see it was just a scratch, the Prince's injuries should be the one given the banda---- wait the Prince. He is injured and coughs blood and... and he even cast magic that consumes a fourth of his allex...

Stupid Prince!

Pheia hurriedly gave her thanks to the old woman and excused herself because she have to save the prince. And scurried back to the forest while the old woman shouts for her to stop.

But there's no time to stop, she needs to save the Prince..... again.