By evening, Anna wanted to crawl into a hole.

Turns out, being Princess was hard work. After the endless meetings and diplomatic talks, it was finally time to begin her treatment of Leon.

She didn’t even have time to check the System and use her bonuses.

Or properly welcome Azul, even though he insisted he was okay.

Anna finally arrived at Leon’s chambers. Bella waited outside as she went in. The General was at his desk, working.

Anna’s nose wrinkled. A workaholic. Like old Anna. We would have gotten along for that if he didn’t hate me.

"Hello," Anna said, clearing her throat firmly. She looked around his room quickly. It looked normal, everything was neat and orderly. Although his bed looked barely slept in.

Wordlessly, he got up from the desk, walked over to the bed and sat.

Anna huffed. She found his attitude annoying. He’s the one that tried to kill her and he acts this way?

Nonetheless, she walked over to him. "Take your shirt off," she said.

He shot her an icy glare. "I refuse."

She rolled her eyes. "This works better with skin to skin contact."

"Refuse, your ."

"Are you going to be difficult? Please don’t make this harder for me. I’ve had a very long and shitty day. Don’t add to it."

Leon didn’t react. He also didn’t take his shirt off. He remained seated, his back straight, his eyes sharp and angry.

Anna had the feeling that they would never get along.

With a soft sigh, she stepped back.

Have it your way then.

Closing her eyes, she focused on her spores.

She still didn’t have any information on how to control them, and all she had going was pure instinct. She recalled the time in the hall where she had turned her spores yellow, and she focused on that emotion.

When she opened her eyes, warm yellow spores flowed out of her marks. She watched, fascinated as they moved, quickly saturating the air and filling it with a soft, tender scent.

"Damn," Anna whistled under her breath. She felt a wave of respect for the scientists 5000 years ago who thought about making Beastblooms. They were really impressive.

As Anna worked, Leon watched her.

His mind was in disarray, filled with so many thoughts.

He had ran simulations of how she would behave the moment she stepped in and she did the exact opposite.

First, she looked exhausted. He had never seen the Princess look anything but controlled and primed.

Second, she was staring at her spores like they were a foreign concept. Princess Anna knew herself down to the very liters of blood that flowed through her veins. Anna was a true scientist, she studied and kept notes and carried out experiments.

Maybe she hit her head too hard and became dumb.

That was the most logical explanation.

Leon’s fists curled. His analysis quickly turned sour the moment he recalled what this woman had done mere hours ago to his dear Liora.

And somehow she’d been able to get Azul on her side.

That traitor.

Unknown to Leon, his shoulders relaxed and some of the tension eased from his body. He noticed this and forced himself to sit even straighter. He didn’t want to let her know that her spores felt relieving.

He would never let her know.

On the other hand, Anna began to feel tired. More tired than she’d felt all day. Keeping her eyes open became difficult, and yawns built in her throat. Still, she continued. She’d talked to the doctor, and he told her that she needs to do this for Leon everyday for at least thirty minutes without missing a single day.

According to him, onto the Princess knew the full extent of her spores, and he only knew the basics.

I can’t keep this up for thirty minutes! Anna thought. Hold on. You’re Anna Carson. You spent twelve hours on a project that took normal people two months. You can do it!

She fed herself words of encouragement and kept going.

Not only did she keep it up for thirty minutes, she was still able to stand after she was done.

Leon didn’t say anything to her. He simply got up and walked back to his desk.

Anna, too exhausted to pay any attention to him, walked out and collapsed in Bella’s arms.

"...room..." she mumbled, her face buried in Bella’s neck.

Meanwhile, Bella was close to having a heart attack.

What is the Princess doing?! She’s touching me?! Oh heavens! She’s going to kill me! What do I do?! Do I drop her? No, she’ll still kill me!

Tears clouded the servant’s eyes and she was so close to bawling. She had younger siblings! She couldn’t die now, who would take care of Tak and Mira?

"P-Princess?"

"I’ll take care of her." A calm voice spoke.

Bella exhaled, thanking the high heavens. She quickly bowed as Ray came into view.

"Thank you so much! I don’t know what happened she just..."

"She’ll be fine," Ray said and he gently carried Anna. "Go ahead of me and prepare her bath. She’s wilting again."

Bella didn’t wait to be told. Anything to be out of the Princess’ presence. She bowed and sprinted ahead.

Ray glanced down at Anna. She was half asleep, mumbling something about how she wasn’t yet tired.

The bat beastman didn’t know how to categorize his feelings.

Even though he was mostly absent, he still listened. He heard everything. He heard the fight, more like one sided beat down, between Azul and Leon. He heard the council’s verdict. He heard everything.

And the more he heard, the more he doubted if this was the real Princess. Or maybe she had a change of heart and decided to be good.

The collar around his neck, hidden under his clothes, begged to differ.

If she had really changed, she would remove all the collars.

With his mind made up, and his heart hardened, he looked away from her and began walking to her chambers.

"Ray..."

He glanced down at her without pausing. "Yes, your highness?"

"Why...why are you nice to me?"

Ray didn’t reply. Not because he didn’t have an answer, but because he didn’t know how best to deliver it.

"I’m not nice, your highness."

She chuckled. "Ah. It’s the collar making you seem nice?"

He didn’t need to affirm what she already knew.

"If I removed the collar, what would happen?"

"I don’t know." He replied immediately.

She was silent for a minute.

Then she said "Liar."

And she was right.

An hour later, Anna had taken a long and delicious soak in the bath, her spores were back online, and she felt brand new. It was finally time to view her rewards.

"System! let’s do it! Fuck me, I’m exhausted!"

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