The Crown Prince Thinks I'm a Guy

The Nature of the Test (Part 3)

The song continued on wordlessly. Well, I wouldn't exactly say it was wordless, because there was definitely a certain language involved. But whatever it was, I didn't know of it.

"Do you recognize the words?" I asked my companion. Alas, I was replied by an incredibly inappropriate sound coming from the pre-adolescent boy.

"Excuse me?" I gasped out in disgust. However, to my dismay, the boy was apparently out of it. He was staring off into the distance, his black eyes glazed over. I approached him and poked him on the shoulder. "... Albert?"

"Wha-Ahuh?" He jolted awake from his daydreaming and looked at me with frightened eyes. "Who are you? What's a girl doing here?"

Unconsciously, I flinched and stepped hard on his foot. "Who are you calling a young girl?" I whispered at him harshly.

This time, he yelped from the pain and finally became fully awake. "O-Oh! Eleftherion! Where are we? What happened?"

I immediately started to tell him everything from the start of the travel, but before I could even tell him about the troll, his eyes began to glaze over again. I slapped him on the cheek, but alas, he was still pretty much gone. In fact, when he had straightened up from when I had hit him, he immediately stumbled into a walk.

"Wait! Albert, where are you going?!" I shouted after him. "Albert!"

Unfortunately, my little bout of being enchanted by serious anger issues had left me weaker and without magic. So, while the prince was older and taller, I was much smaller and had a lot of trouble keeping up with his brisk pace.

Soon enough, I realized he was heading closer towards the source of the song, and most unfortunately, probably deeper into the forest. The trees were now so dense and tall that I couldn't even see where the sun was. Even the sky looked darker from the low lying clouds.

"I really don't... think we should be g-going there," I panted out, although my voice seemed too soft even to my own ears.

My heart began to pound even harder and my steps heavier. If a trainee assassin were to decide to attack me now, I'd probably end up dead in a second. It seems like the longer I walked on, the worse my condition became.

'What kind of entrance test is this?' I thought. 'This is meant for kids, right?!'

Noticeably, however, aside from the fact that he was acting like a zombie, Albert didn't look as fatigued or pained as I was.

"Al! Albert!" I shouted out in a last desperate plea. "Wait for me, you sophisticated doofus!"

And... I crashed into an innocent bush.

I groaned as my mind swirled. I still haven't recovered from crashing against that tree, and now I had this weird sickness. Barely able to move, I could only watch as Albert's back disappeared into the cover of the trees.

"This... sucks," I muttered into the leaves.

I allowed myself 10 seconds to rest, knowing that any more would be detrimental to my companion's safety. Then, I forced myself to get back up. My head was still as bad as ever, but at least I didn't pant anymore from exhaustion. But I needed to find a solution... fast.

'Why am I in this condition?'

'Well, I bumped into a tree... hard.'

'Yeah, sure, but I'm not a normal girl, aren't I? I can't get this hurt just because of that.'

'Sure. I'm practically halfway through my assassin training, and I could strengthen my body with notes...'

"Notes!" I shouted aloud. I realized I've been trying to pull in that magic ever since the start of the test. Even though I didn't feel any notes coming near me, I've been unconsciously doing the process anyway...