Elara's POV Nora had turned to leave, her dismissal of me complete, but my words made her freeze mid-step. For a long, terrible moment, she stood perfectly still, her back rigid. Then, slowly, she turned around. "What," she said, her voice dangerously quiet, "did you just say?" My heart hammered wildly in my chest, but I forced myself to stand straighter, to meet her blazing eyes without flinching. "I said," I repeated, keeping my voice as steady as I could manage, "that you can ask me to do anything and everything. But no one can stop me from training. Not even the kings." Gasps rippled through the room. The staff members exchanged horrified glances, their expressions screaming that I'd just signed my own death warrant. No one spoke about the kings that way. No one dared. But I couldn't back down now. Nora's eye twitched, a tiny, barely perceptible movement that somehow made her look even more furious. "Hara is my instructor," I continued, pushing forward before I lost my ne
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