Back in the great hall, at present time, Kasif sweated buckets like the Old man had toiled for a whole day as finishes recounting without skimping out on any details. Leon had eyed him with a playful smile whenever he reached a crucial point.
"And that is pretty much everything...."
Kasif mumbled towards the end with his head lowered, afraid to face the Elizabeth directly. Elizabeth wore a placid smile throughout his recount that made it hard to guess her thoughts even if he did look directly.
"Kasif, when was the last time we sparred?" Elizabeth said, while maintaining her placid smile.
"Hmm? I believe it was 20 years ago... why do you...?" Her expression was unreadable. Kasif couldn't understand her question... wait! Kasif's eyes widen in horror at a sudden terrible premonition.
"I suddenly feel like sparring again!" Elizabeth said with gritted teeth, while stretching her limbs. Her fist was clenched and shook uncontrollably. She was clearly very furious! But she had restrained herself due to Leon's presence.
"No wait! Your Majesty! The ignorant is not guilty! Had I known he was the prince; I would not take him to the underground for testing!" Kasif paled, he turned and made a mad dash for the great hall entrance.
The thick iron doors of the great hall shut tightly and did not budge even under his pounding. Inside the iron fortress, escape was futile.
"Just not that? So, you still hoped to make him your disciple!? If you think you are not guilty then why did you try to run!? Come back and accept your beat- spar!" In the end, her calm facade was unmasked with fury.
Kasif almost fainted under Elizabeth's words. Spar?? Who would believe that? You were about to say beating just now, right!?
"Your Majesty! These old bones won't be able to endure your blows!" Kasif made a last-ditch effort to plead for mercy.
The entire great hall was composed of metal! There was no earth for him to draw strength from. He wouldn't be the Queen's opponent even if he was at the same level as her, not to mention she was 2 stars above him!
What kind of concept was 2 stars? It was twofold increase in overall abilities. Putting aside elemental abilities, just raw physical strength alone, equates to 1800-jin force.
To further add onto his worries, her majesty is a metal-user! Metal-users specializes in strengthening and sharpness and such abilities could be applied to their own body, granting them both great offensive and defensive capabilities.
Kasif's body would not be able to withstand a blow!
"Not only have your bones grown old, you have also gone senile from old age, right!? Do you even know how to respect the wills of others? How dare you ignore his opinion and snatched him like you were picking wild herbs from the mountains! Hmph! Come over here! You Old Goat!"
There was a reason, Elizabeth always called him an Old Goat. His grey pointy beard and curly split fringe gave him great resemblance to a curly-horned goat from ancient times, thus how he earned his nickname.
Kasif didn't mind Elizabeth's provocation. So, what if he minds? He wouldn't be able to do anything about it even if he did! He can only grit his teeth, clench his rear and take the beating!
The inside of the great hall was sounded especially tragic. Whatever grievance Leon felt inside was abated as he even started to feel pity for the Old man while he was getting beaten black and blue.
"Ahhh! Aaahhh! Baahhhh!"
Outside the great hall, the palace guards could hear the gut-wrenching cries and wails from the Old man that was akin to pigs and lambs being slaughtered.
Amelia finally arrived outside and glanced at the two palace guards guarding the entrance dutifully.
"What's going on inside?"
"Umm..."
The palace guards were also at a lost. Recent gossips and rumors among palace guards and maids have been flying all over the palace of the crown prince's return. But considering the usual coldness of the Queen, they don't know exactly how the reunion would turn out.
"Maybe the Queen is slaughtering a beast to celebrate her happy reunion...?"
One palace guard made a wild assumption.
The Queen was known for her ruthlessness and cold-bloodedness from killing the nobles. The return of the crown prince was a joyous occasion, worthy of kingdom-wide celebration. They wouldn't be surprised if the Queen was doing another killing, albeit for another reason.
"Are we going to be having mutton beast meat?"
The other guard's eyes lit up at the thought of beast mutton, which was considering one of the finer delicacies in the palace. It didn't come as a surprise to the guards as the royal family having been keeping the beasts in captivity and rearing them as livestock.
"Why would the Queen slaughter beasts in the great hall of all places…? Never mind. Open the door. I will go in and see" Amelia didn't entertain their funny notions and ordered them to open the iron doors. Her answers can be found directly behind.
"Ah? Y-Yes, your Grace."
The two palace guards pulled on the door handles but the iron doors until their faces were red like tomatoes, but the door refused to open. Why was it suddenly so hard to open?
…
Back inside the great hall, Kasif was sprawling on the ground, while he continued his painful wails; with each new one sounding more terrible than the last. Kasif had only suffered light fleshly wounds and nothing serious that wouldn't heal over a 2-day period. He was faking his pain to make Elizabeth lighten her blow and end the beating sooner. In fact, he was so caught in his act, he didn't realized Elizabeth had long stopped beating him.
Although she was furious, she did not lose her reasoning. Star-ranked awakeners were the real foundation of their race. She wouldn't do anything that would undermine it. Just a light beating was enough to exercise her muscles back into shape.
"My son, see that wretched thing? Don't take that thing as your master. Mother will is a better teacher."
Elizabeth gave her first motherly lecture. The Old goat was so shameless. She didn't want such a person to corrupt her son. She also wants to make up for all the missed years of spending time with her son.
Leon glanced at the wailing Old man, whose face had become blacker than a pigsty from all the facial pounding and twitched his lips.
"I won't."
Leon was once a Divine-state practitioner. Such level of cultivation was akin to be a deity in the Crawford Kingdom. It was practically unheard of. As such, Leon didn't think the Old man qualified to be his master. It should be the other way around.
"Good." Elizabeth nodded with a smile, before frowning, "How long are you going to continue acting for!?"
She sent out a kick and sent the Old man flying towards the entrance.
"Ah?" Kasif was startled out of his act before he realized he was caught red-handed. "Ahem… has your anger subsided, Your Majesty?"
Kasif scurried back on his feet and asked in an ingratiating manner, while rubbing his hands together.
"Kasif, you are hereby temporarily relieved of your position and duties. Do not return until you interacted 1000 people normally without causing them harm. Your vice-leader will take over until you are back. Scram!" Elizabeth said strongly with a tone of annoyance. The iron doors flung open with a wave of her hand.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Kasif answered happily as he finally able to get away from this dastardly place. He shot straight out the entrance as soon as the door opened. The faster he got away, the better. His appearance was horrifying from all the bruising, but no real damage was done, thus his movements were not affected. It will heal in no time.
…
The doors to the great hall was suddenly flung open and a black-faced thing suddenly shot out straight at Amelia. She was so startled and horrified, she swatted it to the side instinctively.
Kasif was caught unprepared and was slapped flying into the distance. Who would that someone would standing in front of the door as soon as it was opened? How unlucky! Screw it, he will just treat it as part of his punishment for offending royalty. He didn't want to linger in the palace anymore as he followed the Queen's instruction and headed towards the Upper District. He suffered enough abuse, while he was here. Sigh, young people these days have no respect for the elderly.
Elizabeth and Leon were right behind and naturally saw what happened. Leon similarly thought what a pair of sisters, his mother and mother-in-law was. Both had no respect for the elderly. He forgot he was the cause for the Old man's abuse.
"Is he going to be alright?" Leon asked incredulously. He felt like they might have went a bit overboard in abusing the Old man. Would he have a grudge against them?
"Don't worry, he is tougher than he looks." Elizabeth saw what her son was concerned about and continued, "He might have a lot of bad traits, but if there's one thing that is good about him, it is his loyalty."
"I see."
Amelia was originally stunned from offending such a master but listening to her sister's words, she sighed in relief. She looked at her hand and savored the feeling of the slap. Discovering that she was able slap such a rude person, the bottled-up frustration she felt previously was abated.
"Sister, you ran very quickly eh?" Amelia said.
"Come, my good sister, we still have a lot to discuss."
Elizabeth's eyes were bright as colors have returned to her eyes after finding who she had been missing. She pulled both Amelia and Leon by the hand as they returned to her personal courtyard. She was a tea connoisseur. Their previous discussion on tea was not over yet.
Amelia wanted to discuss the matters of the capital, but perhaps, there was nothing to worry about.. The foundation of the royal family was immeasurably deep and there was many things she have yet to learn.
