The Rival Queen

Chapter 9| Engagement With The Soon-to-be Dead Brother

"You must be onee-sama !" Catherine practically squealed. I glanced at my younger sister. She indeed is truly beautiful just like her mother. But she got our father's personality. Which is to say, very very talkative as the rumors say. As more nonsense came out of her mouth, I wondered how in good heavens was I assigned to sit with my sister while waiting for the IQ examiner to come.

I quietly pretended to listen as I thought of the possible outcomes of this IQ Ceremony. What will they do ? How will they test me ? Those thoughts were loudly interrupted by Arthur and his little friends, though I'm about their height as well.

"So little Catherine has made a new friend ~" Arthur taunted the now red Catherine, "who is the unlucky person this time ?"

"Arthur, please don't fight with Catherine" Simon, still with his naivety as a child, scolded the young prince for bullying my sister. I inwardly giggled. So this is the people who could cause my downfall ? Remir and Simon both look so innocent that I wonder how their still living. They look like they could follow anything, no matter how dark and suspicious it is.

Before I could hold a conversation with them however, a boy about nine years old walked towards us. I immediately recognized him as Lucas, Simon's soon-to-be dead brother. Simon fidgeted slightly at the sight of his brother. Interesting.

"B-Brother" he bowed, as all younger siblings must do to their older sibling. Even Catherine bowed at me when both of us were assigned on the same section. The older boy began examining us, most likely sizing us up as Simon's entourage. His reaction towards me was priceless.

"Rein ?" He squeaked out. I looked at him, confused. I was brought back to memory lane, remembering a boy visiting my and my family's mansion with a woman. I vaguely remember a small pinky promise of marriage. Why did I even do that ? I must have been giddy that time that a boy had came after living with women for three years straight. Maybe that's the reason. Pushing reason aside, how did I even convince Lucas to get engage with me ?

"L-Lucas ?" Blushing faces became apparent on our faces. Both of us must remember that promise. The small group of Catherine's looked at us in confusion, especially Simon. He must be wondering why we were blushing so hard. Our blushing was kindly interrupted by the heightened voice of the IQ instructor. Thank God for that interruption. I think one more second of blushing, we would have exploded and ran off to who knows where.

Bowing quickly, he ran off like I thought I would and with a frustrated sigh on my charm, I went inside my assigned tent. The ceremony took an hour. I soon found out that it was separated into three parts. The first part was a written test (which sadly reminded me of Semester Exams), the second was an oral competition and lastly, I would fight with an adult who is the same as I, a water mana user, but more experienced and would go easy with me.

I surprisingly aced the written exam and oral competition. Luisa, who was at the sidelines at the oral competition, was shouting so hard she was pushed out of the first row and to the last row. I laughed as North's exasperated face was inconveniently seen by I.

It was now the last round and my partner was a woman with scary cat eyes. I shivered as she looked at me longer and longer. Not bearing it longer, I unconsciously threw highly skilled water blades, much to her surprise. I soon learned that if I could put what I learned in my books to my mana, I could potentially spar with the person in front of me and win. Changing my water blades into a sword, I rushed at the person who was still confused by my seemingly high experience.

Before she knew it, she was already under my foot with my blade on the tip of her neck. The coach stuttered that I won and I released the woman from my grasp. That was a good show. I looked at the other fights and saw that not only were they stopping from fighting, they were watching me at awe. I scratched my nape and chuckled nervously.

Was it something I did ?