Eryndor continued eating the grapes, his eyes still fixed on the paper in his hand.
He didn’t look up at her.
“So?”
His tone was bored.
“Have you thought about what your work will be?”
His eyes remained on the paper as he waited for her answer.
His mind briefly returned to the previous day.
Her hands.
He remembered the feel of them when he had ordered her to show them to him.
Soft.
No calluses.
No scars.
Hands that had never held a weapon or worked hard.
‘She has never done anything before.’
At least, nothing that her hands could prove.
His eyes moved lazily across the paper.
‘So what exactly does she think she can do now?’
a very slight nearly not appearing motion of his lips upward before fading like it didn’t happen
He took another grape before speaking again.
“Your hands prove nothing except that you’ve lived an easy life.”
His voice remained indifferent.
“So what are you going to do now?”
Only then did he finally lift his gaze from the paper.
His eyes met hers, a faint trace of interest replacing the boredom in them.
There was something about her that still didn’t make sense.
She didn’t smell exactly like the humans he knew.
He had left her in the dungeons for an entire day, partly to see whether the strange difference in her scent would disappear.
It hadn’t.
She still smell the same.
‘Which means she is either a new kind of humans…
A threat….
Or …
‘
His jaw tightened slightly.
‘…or something I haven’t decided yet.’
“So what do you want me to do?”
She lifted her chin slightly.
“I’ll do what you want.”
She glanced down at her hands before looking back at him.
“And my hands being smooth doesn’t mean that I’ve lived an easy life.”
Eryndor’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“You’ll do what I want?”
His voice dropped..
“Then prove that your hands aren’t useless.”
‘She offers submission…
far too easily.’
His gaze shifted toward the room’s door.
“Come.”
The guards standing outside straightened immediately.
She recognized the one who had brought her here. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
She followed with her gaze as he entered the room stopping after three steps inside the room still near the door
Morning light filtered through the windows, casting some warmth across the golden walls.
“If you want to survive here, you’ll serve my kingdom.”
“Starting in the kitchens.”
His green eyes fixed on her.
“Fail, and you’ll return to that cell.”
His voice hardened.
“Permanently.”
One of the guards stepped forward.
“Your Majesty, a human in the kitchens !!
Th-”
“Will be watched closely,” Eryndor interrupted.
She glanced at the guard.
“Are guards here allowed to interrupt the king?”
She looked back at Eryndor.
“I’m not even a cook.”
She hesitated, then quickly added,
“I…
I can be a guard.”
The words came out before she could think them through.
She looked at the guards around her.
“What about that?”
Eryndor let the paper in his hand fall onto the table.
He leaned forward slightly, his green eyes boring into hers.
“You think you can be a guard ?”
There was the faintest hint of amusement in his voice.
“With those soft hands and that fragile body?”
‘She knows nothing about combat.’
‘Delusional.’
His lip curled slightly.
“You can barely speak without crying.”
The guard who had interrupted earlier shifted uneasily.
“Your Majesty, perhaps—”
“Silence.”
Eryndor didn’t even look at him.
His attention remained fixed on her.
“She’ll work in the kitchens.
If she survives a week without causing trouble, then we’ll discuss her other supposed skills.”
He turned his gaze toward the guard.
“Take her to the head cook.
Tell him this human is on trial.”
She interrupted before he could say anything else.
“Is he your personal guard?”
Her eyes moved toward the elf beside him.
“I can defeat him in a spar.”
She looked back at Eryndor.
“If that would prove it.”
“You think you can defeat one of my guards?”
His voice was dangerously quiet.
“You, who can barely stand without trembling?”
‘Is she foolish?’
‘Doesn’t she mean physically since she can’t use magic?’
‘Does think she can use magic somehow against him?’
But she couldn’t use magic.She doesn’t have any trace of magic around her
‘Then she must mean she can defeat him somehow physically.’ his curiosity increased slightly about the way she is going to do this by
His gaze shifted toward the guard beside him—the same one who had interrupted him earlier.
“Kael.”
The elf stepped forward.
He was at least a head taller than her, his broad frame made even more imposing by the armor covering his body.
“Give her a training sword.”
Kael hesitated.
“Your Majesty—”
“Do it.”
The guard immediately obeyed.
He disappeared down the corridor and returned moments later with a wooden practice sword.
He held it out toward her.
She took it.
Eryndor crossed his arms over his chest, watching her with considerably more interest than before.
His gaze briefly shifted toward Kael.
“If you lose, you will be punished for losing to a human.”
Kael stiffened.
“And for interrupting me twice.”
His expression remained completely calm.
“If you win, I will remove the punishment.”
Kael said nothing.
Eryndor’s eyes returned to her.
“Now…”
A faint glint of interest appeared in his eyes.
“Show me.”
Eryndor’s eyes remained fixed on her.
For a moment, there was something different in his expression.
Interest.
He had been prepared to dismiss her claim as nonsense and send her to the kitchens.
As she insisted he wanted to know.
Could this strange human actually fight?
Or had she simply been lying to him?
His expression hardened slightly.
“Lying to the king is not a mistake that comes without consequences.”
His voice was calm, almost indifferent.
His gaze sharpened.
“If you loose, your head will be taken for wasting my time with a false claim.”
Silence filled the room.
He studied her carefully.
He didn’t know which outcome he wanted.
But he knew that if she had been lying…
He would be disappointed.