Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Corva was sitting in one of her parlors and stared out the window. Ever since she heard about her mother's condition, the lady of the house had not returned to her forge below the mansion.

Seeing her savior in such a state left Yue in a somewhat distraught mood. She also no longer had her older sister, Snow, with her to help her talk to Corva. Yue was the primary caretaker for Lady Corva, but somehow Snow had a way of speaking to her that would easily bring Corva out of moods like this.

For what must have been the thousandth time already today, Corva sighed to herself. She was still dressed in her night clothes, not having the energy to even prepare for the day. Not that she really needed to. People did not visit the mansion often due to how out of the way it was.

"My Lady," Yue called out gently. "You have correspondence from the capital. I have already screened it. It is not regarding your mother."

For a moment, Corva remained silent, but she eventually waved for Yue to read the contents out to her. The letter contained a request for her presence at the palace in the capital city. It was written on behalf of Lady Voltara al Famyn, the leader of the Wisteria Concord.

According to the information contained in the letter, Lady al Famyn was allying herself with Corva's sister, Letheya, to oppose Ayalla's isolationist regime. Voltara indicated that they were bringing in outside help to assist Letheya.

"And who is it that they think will bring me to the palace and risk being forced to admit my loyalty?"

"A young man by the name of Lucius Kane?" Yue was puzzled at this name. It seemed familiar to her, yet she did not immediately recognize its importance.

Corva, it seemed, did. Her low-energy demeanor changed instantly to one of interest and excitement. "Truly? That man is going to be there?"

Yue felt a nervous lump form in her throat. "Is this man someone who caught your interest?"

"Indeed. He might be the most interesting person I have ever met." Corva was getting more excited.

At this point, she stood from her window seat and flew up the stairs to her room. Yue followed after her, her rabbit-like ears bouncing with every step. Despite running, Corva seemed keen on continuing the conversation.

"I never thought I would see the day that my lady expressed interest in a man. He must be excellent husband material to distract you so." Yue breathed out once they reached the inside of Corva's room.

When Yue suggested a romantic interest, Corva ceased digging through her dressers and armoires. "Wait a minute… Do you think I'm romantically interested in this man? Not in the slightest. I assure you. No, what interests me are his abilities. Lucius Kane is the person who destroyed Τιτανοκτόνος (pronounced: Titanoktónos, meaning 'Titan Killer') and is its namesake."

Corva huffed at Yue's suggestion of the possibility of having a romantic interest and returned to gathering different types of clothes. Of course, she had to assist Corva in the packing. Otherwise, the woman would simply bring pajamas and clothes meant for working in the forge. Since she was visiting the palace, she needed to ensure that Corva had appropriate clothes.

"I swear, my lady, you are just a handful. Don't worry, I'll attend court with you. I am curious to meet this person who impressed you so."

Both women dug through the piles of clothes that Corva had created on the ground. Yue assisted in folding the chosen outfits into different bags to take with them and then called to the coachman that they would be heading to the palace. The coachman understood immediately and rushed to get the horses and carriage ready.

The smell of sulfur and soot started to waft through the manor's air. When Yue turned around, she saw that Corva had once again disappeared. She had run into her smithy and left the door open, exposing the space's nasty smells and heat to the rest of the prim and proper house.

Some of the maids wrinkled their noses as they walked by and performed their daily tasks. However, everyone was used to such an event and said nothing negative about it. In fact, many of them simply had tired smiles on their faces at their lady's antics.

Corva reappeared from the depths of her forge, wearing a new storage ring and holding a large warhammer in her hands. Yue recognized the object as something that Lady Corva had been working on since returning from Aedrider.

"I'm ready! Oh, this will be fun!"

"What are you planning to do?" Yue asked hesitantly as if she already knew the answer.

Corva blinked at her and said the words Yue feared she would as if it were the most normal thing in the world, "I'm going to challenge Lucius to a rematch, of course! That shouldn't be a problem. Besides, everyone in the palace knows about my loss against him. So if I challenge him to a duel, then it's like the reason I showed up was 'cus of him and nothing else! Two birds, one stone, and all that."

There was no reason to argue with this point, mostly because the woman was right. As wild and unpredictable as Lady Corva could be, she was not stupid. However, Yue had no doubts that the reason for this offer was for the rematch and not for the cover-up of her appearance at the palace.

Yue could not help but sigh and join Corva in entering the carriage that had been sitting outside the mansion's main door. The ride to the palace was rather short, and since she was a royal family princess, they were allowed to take the paths up the mountain rather than wait for the lift like others were required to.

The checkpoints simply waved them through without a hassle. Under normal circumstances, using these pathways without express permission was a grave crime. With Corva being who she was, though, it was a non-issue.

Because they were riding along the pathways up the mountain, it took them an hour to reach the palace gates. Had they waited for the lifts to ascend, it might have taken them most of the day.
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The palace gates stood before them and swiftly opened to allow Corva into the main palace. Yue could see the excitement basically falling off her lady as they approached the beautiful and ornate structure. She almost thought she could hear the woman muttering something about how she hoped Lucius wouldn't hold back this time, but Yue chose to ignore it and play it off as a trick of the wind.