In the fight against Seraphina, she also felt frustration when she lost, but above all what she felt that day was fear, and that she deserved that defeat for having underestimated her. Because of that, she managed to move forward even with the fear of Seraphina growing whenever she looked at her.
'Why? Am I really that weak?'
Tears of frustration ran down her face as she slammed both fists into the ground with force, causing a hole. Her eyes turned toward him with even greater anger when she saw that arrogance of Aurélius.
"It seems the heiress doesn't know how to choose subordinates."
"Siena, kill him."
With a speed that left Aurélius without reaction, Siena appeared at his back and split him in half, while Elowyn had an irritated expression at the attitude of a mere copy of a real illusion of a former subordinate of the first king.
"I hope the others aren't as irritating as this one."
A panel appears above Elowyn's palm showing the score from zero to one in the middle, declaring that they had already started losing the third phase. Siena wiped her blood-covered sword with boredom, her expression returning to normal.
'Of course she could eliminate him easily, the strongest here is two circle six.'
[This will be easy for you and Siena then.]
The First King was considered one of the three strongest of ancient times, and his subordinates were also strong, but currently these real illusions that appeared were from the time when they were young.
'That's why some of them must be quite arrogant, since most were considered prodigies at twenty years old.'
[If they are considered prodigies at that age, then this generation is a complete aberration.]
'If you look at the fact that this is the protagonist's generation, then yes.'
Aurélius was someone who was about to reach circle six; he would not lie if he said he was surprised by Narisse's strength.
'Besides, she managed an ego weapon at circle five, that honestly surprised me in a good way.'
[Of course it would, now she is certainly useful for your plans.]
'Actually, everyone is useful for my plan, system.'
Enrico approached a frustrated Narisse and helped her up. Elowyn, who had her back turned, began to walk forward upon seeing out of the corner of her eye that he was helping her subordinate.
[What an irritating princess, she could at least say something.]
'That wouldn't be positive with her personality; her apologizing to Velka was already something surprising.'
Besides, he was sure Narisse knew how Elowyn was feeling and worried a little about her, since she was the one who had stayed by her side since childhood, and it was exactly because of that that she was so frustrated to the point of drawing blood from her lips.
"Try not to get hurt, I'm sure the princess wouldn't like that."
"…You're right, Miss Enrico."
She let herself be helped to walk by him, while Velka behind stayed a few steps behind Enrico, not wanting to get close nor stay too far from him. All because her former companion was there; she knew exactly how she must be feeling, but she felt no pity for her.
'It seems that… I really hate them… even though the princess saved me.'
Her thoughts about having immense gratitude toward the one who saved her even though she was evil were diminishing, because everyone of that type had done something bad to her, and this was possible because Enrico seemed to be someone quite different from the previous two.
'I've only been with him for a few days and I can already perceive the difference.'
In a way, things were getting better; just like Enrico, the princess was better than her previous savior. That was why she didn't want to disappoint her by running away years ago and accepted the punishment while trying to convince her.
'I can't lose like Narisse… but I'm useless now.'
With self-loathing, she looked at the ground while behind her Siena observed the two girls with sad looks and a neutral face.
'Great, now we have to deal with two girls who are down.'
It would be bad if they lost the next one, but the second battle she was sure they would win, because who Elowyn chose to be next was Siena herself, since the second was the strongest subordinate of the old king.
'It seems they wanted to make everyone despair right away by winning the first two fights, but it's a shame that won't work.'
She watched closely as Narisse clenched her fist so hard that blood came out. Since they would be companions at Elowyn's side as queen in the future, she decided to help her become stronger.
'I wanted to show Enrico how good the knights are and train him, but Miss Virelle wouldn't allow it.'
They arrived at the next zone, which was completely different from the previous one. It was called the Amphitheater of the Last Breath, a circular field surrounded by ruined stands covered in thick mist, and on the ground plates of solid vapor appeared and disappeared. On the horizon shown to them, incredibly even though they were inside a room, it was never the same twice; everything there existed only for moments.
"Siena, now it's your turn."
"Of course, my Lady."
Calmly she entered the zone, calmly drawing her sword. There was only one reason for her to have truly accepted being one of Elowyn's subordinates. The little princess promised that she would bring glory to her family, which had lost all its money because of her incompetent father, and the best promise was that she would give her good fights in the future.
"Could you show up already? I want to finish this quickly."
With a certain trace of laziness at fighting such weak people, she watched that place remain silent, with no trace of mana in the air or movement.
"I see, you're that type of opponent…"
Raising her sword a bit, she gripped it tightly, preparing a strike. Determined to end this fight quickly, she used her ego weapon to the maximum. The blade was red, and pulses of magic constantly came out of it.
"Ego weapon: Scarlet Sword."