The Cruel Queen [On Hold]

12| The Training

Rewritten
***

"Cyra, I can't train the Rares," said Keir. "I know I agreed to help train the Champions, but I don't know how Rare abilities work. You'll have to train them."

"Keir, I am a little busy finding a new council. It's only been a week since I got rid of them. And how am I going to train them in five days? The First Task is less than a week away."

Amara slapped her forehead. "Can we talk about something fun? Every time we're in the dining room, we talk about important, work-related things."

"Okay, Amara. Let's see how much fun you're having sitting in a prison cell in the Eastern Continent," Cyra suggested. She crossed her legs and tucked her hair behind her ear. It was the first time she dared to leave it open outside her bedroom, and it was a struggle she didn't know how to handle. "We have to talk about the war, the competition, the economy, the food supply, and the people's interests. Otherwise, Carralliz is going to suffer."

"Alright. Calm down. What's got you so riled up?"

"Amara, don't test my patience. I am not in the mood."

Amara gulped wine from her goblet. Her ring-bearing fingers wrapped around the glass so tight her knuckles turned white. "Cyra," she said. It was a threat. "You need to relax and take a break once in a while. You brag about getting healthy amounts of sleep, yet you refuse to give yourself a break. I bet you dream of military strategies in your sleep."

Cyra slapped her hand on the wooden table. "I don't want to hear any more of your nagging. If you want to speak with me about something that matters, I'll be in my study."

Cyra exited the dining room.

Keir called, "Cyra. You have that conference with the Daemonium Sureiyas tomorrow. Be ready for it. Train the Rares too."

"Aye," she replied. If she was lucky, she would bump into that boy she met at the library at the conference. She'd been meaning to ask Kai something.

She found a servant with a tray too large for the girl to carry in the hallway. Who'd hired such a little girl to be a servant?

"Hey, servant," Cyra said to the girl. "Give me the tray. Go tell the Rare Champions to go to the training room at once."

The girl hesitated.

Cyra snatched the tray out of her hands. "Shoo."

She walked to the kitchen earning eyes whenever she passed by a different hallway. She left the half-eaten-food-filled tray in the kitchen. She checked the small piece of parchment to see where the tray was coming from.

On the parchment laid Duke Ambrosia's name in perfect calligraphy.

How he managed to annoy her without even saying anything or being nearby?

The queen headed to the training room. She would give them a free consultation and a small lesson on Rare abilities. It would be much easier if Jae were here to teach. He was the one who'd gotten the concepts through her thick skull when she was a princess.

She opened the grand doors of the room and climbed the stairs of the dais. Cyra sat on her throne, tapping her fingers against the armrests, waiting for the twins to arrive.

Cyra'd already conversed with them enough to know they would drain her energy. The shorter one more than Dara.

Dara was sensible, even though she was an Ergastula. A prisoner, a criminal, and taller than she was.

Sherwood opened the door, the bags under his eyes visible even from such a distance. The pairs of footsteps echoed on the wooden floors of the training room.

"Your Majesty," said Sherwood, bowing lower than necessary.

"At ease."

Sherwood rose from his bow, glaring at the twins for not doing the same. Drayce shrugged and Dara's eyes smiled in fake-apology.

"Sherwood," Cyra said, her voice aloof. "Leave. I'll train them myself."

With slight hesitation, Sherwood bowed once again before leaving the room.

"Alright, Ergastula. We have some training to do. First, I want to see you kill yourselves."

Drayce rushed for the arsenal, eager to get this over with. He was quite a bit surprised when Keir came to tell him the Cruel Queen would be the one to train him from now on.

What a useless queen if she had so much time on her hands.

"Hurry it up," the queen called, somehow reading his mind. "I haven't got all day. I have to get ready for a meeting tomorrow." She clapped her hands together, telling him to pick up the pace. "Dara, do you plan on standing there the whole time?"

"I'm waiting for my brother to get an instrument to kill ourselves with." She smiled, and it burned like how those councilmen smiled. A fake, political thing, twisted with fraud.

Cyra still needed to find new council members, but she had nothing to go off of. Many people withdrew their applications when she sacked all twenty-one members. Women got pressured by their husbands to not take the job. They couldn't stand women becoming financially stable with a job of high ranking.

A job that keeps the queen in check.

And there was this stupid law that Cyra couldn't find a way to change. Females under eighteen are not allowed to get a job.

Not a single female would be able to become a council member at this rate. Most women belonging to lower castes got married before they turned eighteen.

Then the middle class and nobles had money dripping from them like sweat. Like their egos.

No matter how hard she tried, Cyra could not stop the rich from getting richer and the poor from becoming poorer.

Drayce returned with two swords. He had no fear when he plunged one in his chest as he passed the other one to his twin.

Whenever Jae got hurt in a critical location like his chest, he would pass out. The twins remain unfazed.

Even with blood dripping out of their mouth.

The Alchemists that created the Immortal Zone were more powerful than the one who gifted Jae.

"Great job," said Cyra, her smile reaching her ears and its peak of evil. "Allow me to show you my ability in a form that might kill you."

***

Thanks for reading "The Cruel Queen." Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed the chapter.

Word Count: 1111