Royal Secret: I'm A Princess!

"YOU'LL rot in that beautiful terrarium until you become the perfect fertilizer for my baby," Neoma said, her hands raised while putting another layer of Sphere to make sure that her terrarium wouldn't be broken both from the inside and the outside. "Goodbye, Larissa."

She turned her back on Larissa, currently trapped inside the deadly terrarium that she made, and walked out of the training hall leisurely.

Of course, she wasn't done for the night yet.

"Your children are already waiting for you," Ruto said, extending his hand to her. "Are you really sure about doing that?"

"Uh-huh," Neoma said, grabbing Ruto's hand. "I've already asked for Papa Boss, Mama Boss, and Nero's permission in advance. Why, babe? Do you not like my pettiness?"

"It's not petty."

"I knew you'd say that," she said, and then she let go of Ruto's hand only to wrap her arms around his waist. Then she buried her face against his chest. "Ruto, what about the other thing that I asked you to do for Nero's coronation?"

"It's already done."

"Thank you… and I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"You know why," Neoma said, sighing. And then she looked up at Ruto with an apologetic smile on her face. "I'm sorry for making you take the difficult path."

"What are you talking about? Any path I take with you is the flower path," Ruto said, wrapping his arms around her. "The paths I walk alone is what I call the difficult path."

Aww.

She was moved by her man's words.

"Ruto, you can really say the sweetest stuff," Neoma said, laughing while shaking her head. "But my head is only filled with lewd thoughts when it comes to you."

As expected, her man's face turned red immediately.

"Don't say it," Ruto warned Neoma playfully, gently flicking her forehead. "I can't afford to get distracted, Neoma."

***

"PRINCESS NEOMA, we've cleared the entire palace."

Neoma smiled and nodded after hearing Paige's report. "Thanks, Paige."

The palace that Paige mentioned was the Larissa Palace, the empress' official residence.

[It's disgusting how the empress' official residence was named after that bitch instead of the Light Goddess.]

Neoma wanted to change that.

"We've rounded the place five times, Eomma," Greko said cheerfully. "We're 200% sure that no single soul is inside the Larissa Palace at the moment."

It wasn't like she didn't trust her children.

But Neoma still used her power to detect life in the area.

Fortunately, just like what Greko said, there was no one else in the area right now except for their group.

[And everyone here can protect themselves.]

"Alright," Neoma said, sitting on the fancy chair that Lewis prepared for her. "Go feral, my children."

"Yes, Your Imperial Highness."

And Neoma watched her children destroy the Larissa Palace.

She put on a pair of dark sunglasses.

It was already late at night, but it didn't bother her because she could see well in the dark anyway.

[Heh~]

Neoma enjoyed watching Juri wreck the palace with her beautiful sledgehammer.

[This is the first time I've seen Juri in action in a long while.]

"Slay, Juri! You're doing great!" Neoma cheered her "daughter." "Destroy everything! We'll send the bill to Nero for the damages, so don't hold back!"

Nero was richer than Neoma anyway.

[My children are doing the physical work, so he should foot the bill.]

Anyway, her children were having fun "working."

After Neoma praised Juri, the others suddenly felt motivated (and competitive, it seemed).

Lewis threw powerful kicks that easily destroyed a few pillars instantly.

Jeno used two guns to shoot at the weak foundation of the palace.

Xion used his daggers to cut things here and there.

Paige, obviously, used her magic to make things explode.

Baby Greko didn't use violence. Instead of breaking things, he offered support by replenishing his siblings' Mana.

The golden dust around the children was from Greko's healing power.

[My children have good teamwork.]

Although it was obvious that they were competing, they worked well together that they avoided accidentally hurting each other.

[They deserve some praise.]

"You're doing amazing, sweeties!" Neoma said, clapping her hands enthusiastically. "One-kick Lewis hasn't gone anywhere! Paige, your explosive spells are cool! Make it colorful next time! Xion, you've become more agile! Good job!

Jeno, wow! Your shooting accuracy has improved a lot! And Greko, baby, you're doing a great job supporting your hyungs and noonas! I'm so proud of you all, my children!"

Her "children" seemed to have been motivated because their attacks had become more powerful.

As a result, the entire Larissa Palace collapsed quicker than expected.

It was then…

Huh?

Neoma immediately got up when she felt a strong and ominous energy threatening to explode. "Children, come here!"

Fortunately, she didn't have to say it twice.

In just the blink of an eye, all her "children" were already hiding behind her.

Neoma created a Dome as fast as she could even though she wasn't sure yet if an explosion would really happen or not.

But she was glad that she did.

Something from below the palace had exploded – causing a pretty strong earthquake.

Tsk.

[I hope no one gets hurt from this!]

The explosion didn't last long, but the ominous feeling remained.

And then Neoma saw it.

A red gem the size of a basketball shot up the sky.

[The fuck is that?]

"Stay here, kids," Neoma said in a hurry. "I'll be back."

Before anyone could respond, Neoma had already disappeared.

She left her "children" inside the Dome where they could stay safe.

Neoma shot up to the sky, her wings protruding from her back, and then she stopped.

She found out that she was no longer alone while suspended mid-air.

Tteokbokki, in his human form, was on her left side.

On the other hand, Ruto was on her right side.

And, yes, the three of them were suspended in the air while facing a huge red gem that was sparkling like a ruby.

[It's pretty…]

Neoma's thoughts were interrupted when, suddenly, the red sphere "spat out" something.

It looked like a piece of bone at first glance.

But that "piece" of bone suddenly turned into several bigger pieces until all of them realized what it was.

"A fucking dragon?" Neoma asked in disbelief. "What's a dragon skeleton doing here?"

It seemed like it was the skeleton of an adult dragon.

[And it's in pristine condition...]

"Argh!"

Neoma immediately turned to Tteokbokki and found him clutching his head as if he was in pain.

"Shut up!" Tteokbokki said, his eyes shut tight. "SHUT UP!"

Oh.

It looked like something was messing with Tteokbokki's mind.

Neoma carefully grabbed Tteokbokki's shoulder.

"Neoma, no!"

Ruto's warning came a little too late.

As soon as Neoma touched Tteokbokki's shoulder, she found herself in face-to-face with the big red sphere in a dark room.

Actually, it looked like they were floating in the galaxy.

[Woah.]

"Neoma de Moonasterio, do you want to set the world on fire again?"

"Oh, you can talk…" Neoma trailed off, and then the realization hit her. "You're a god's eye…"

Haaah.

Why did she only realize it now?

The red sphere that sparkled like a ruby was too beautiful to be a mere gem.

However, it also looked different from the other eyes of gods that she had seen so far.

[And it gives me the creeps.]

"Kill the Red Dragon."

"Tteokbokki?"

"Kill the Red Dragon and the world will end right away."

Haaah.

Neoma raised her clenched hand– ready to throw a punch. "No, thank you."

But, all of a sudden, the red sphere exploded before she could even punch it.

And then the broken pieces of the beautiful gem turned into letters.

Those letters then formed words– words from the ancient language, to be precise.

The next thing Neoma knew, she was already reading the full prophecy about the de Moonasterio's first empress regnant and the Red Dragon who needed to die for her to ascend the throne.

[What ancient bullshit is this?]

***

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'M SO SORRY FOR THE SUDDEN HIATUS.

February hasn't been kind to me.

I was scammed at work, I had to fight my bank to return my money, and five out of our six puppies passed away from parvo, and I recently sprained my wrist (thankfully, the left one and not my dominant hand).

The loss of our puppies hit me pretty hard, so I got into a slump. I'm so sorry for wasting your coins.

The only stories I was able to update this month were <My First Life as an S-Class Guide> and <Let's Not Divorce> because of the MGS. I'm so sorry about that. BTW, <Let's Not Divorce> is about to end, and it has some minor spoilers about how Royal Princess ends. You may want to check it out.

Anyway, I'm hoping for your kind understanding.

I'll make it up to you. :(

PS: You may redeem this code. I think it's "first come, first serve" type of thing: ABDHY9DAEFDNAFLWA

---sola_cola

***

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