84. Warrior Bride

The sun dawned with the hope of some revelation of true identity. Nora, as usual, was forcing her to vent her anger at her failure to grab the heart of Dev, who looked wild in her training field.
Nora considered the training field as her real battle and started to attack her opponent with all her potential. Indigo remarked, "My lady, this is just the warm-up. You will lose your strength if you try hard to warm yourself up."
The royal guard announced, "All hail our Queen of Ayruzglow."
The White Queen, along with her maids, visited the training field to meet the bride for her son and also to look over her kingdom’s level of warriors. Nora was attacking her opponent ferociously with her sword.
The White Queen praised her, "Well done, Nora. You are the gem of our kingdom."
Nora stopped her attack and looked at the White Queen. She removed her veil, which she used to cover her face, and dressed in black, she tightly wrapped herself in her garment.
Nora bowed at the white queen, "My queen, I am always submissive to you and our kingdom"
The white queen addressed the princesses, "Is anyone willing to fight with our female general?"
"Who wants to mark us with bruise marks over our bodies?"
"Nora seems ferocious; she would surely attack us for mocking her yesterday." All four brides nodded in agreement, except D'Rona, who stepped forward, "I will."
Nora looked serious and agreed to combat with her, "Whenever you are ready, princess."
After numerous attacks and defenses, D’Rona raised her hand to accept the defeat. She even said, "Nora the Night Fury is indeed a warrior, and she is a precious gem to the Ayruzglow kingdom."
Nora’s head rose in pride and attitude with the chorus of congratulations, and the white Queen asked the crowd gathered, "Did any brave man here defeat our female warrior?"
Nora spoke, "My queen! Since all the princesses up to the bride selection aren’t capable of winning over me, I hope you can announce the result of the bride of our crown prince."
The crowd murmured, and none came forward to combat with Nora, who gave her a new level of energy that no one was there to combat. Even the men denied combating Nora.
Mirabella, the white queen, nodded, "Since other brides from the allied kingdom are not willing to combat with Nora, I want to see your sword skills, which have acted as an iron shield for our kingdom."
Nora smiled yet was confused and thought to herself, "Did I win or not?"
Mirabella gave her word to invite Dev to watch her sword skills with Nora. Her word flew faster to the ears of Dev, who was indulged in worries of reshaping his love life in his absence.
"Ivan, what should I do to win her back?" Dev asked his friend Ivan who was analysing the current situation.
"Dev, are you asking me? Huh, when did you lose your siren to win her back?" Ivan was pointless in his question.
"Don’t you see the space between Sara and me?" Dev asked with knitted eyebrows.
Ivan recalled once again and replied, "She stood leaving some space."
"Didn’t you sense the emptiness between us?" Dev asked again and again.
"Dev, look, I didn’t see any empty objects between her and you." Ivan pleaded with Dev, and Dev replied, with gritted teeth, "Quickly find your mate. You are so... empty in your brain."
A solider interrupted them with a message from Queen and Dev dragged Ivan by the neck to the training field, "Dev, leave me. I need to take a rest. The Queen invited you to pick your bride, not me."
Dev lamented on his way to the training field, "My bride is suffering in the dungeon and I am marching towards the training field to choose my bride. She turned as cold as icicles in the Frozen Crescent. How am I going to melt her cold heart?"
"Uh?" Ivan thought for a while, "You felt her heart cold? Weird indeed. I thought humans had a warm heart."
Dev rolled his icy blue eyes to praise Ivan and said, "I think we need to go back to the Forbidden Tower."
"Forbidden Tower! Why? Did you leave anything there?" Ivan asked bluntly.
"Yes, your brain." Ivan stopped his legs and denied going with Dev, and Dev continued with a sigh, "I feel like wounded..."
"Wounded? Where?" Ivan checked out Dev's hands and legs, for which Dev pushed him away.
"Ivan, stop acting innocent. My love life is wounded and I can’t find any way to fix it, though I am a healer."
"You are exaggerating it." Ivan said it without thinking, and Dev listened to it as if it had a deeper meaning it in.
"Yes, I am exaggerating it. May be I shouldn’t bring her from witch palace. Everything might have been different by now. I should let go of everything and her too." Dev hurried his legs to the training field with long face and Ivan regretted for say those words.
*****
In the training field, Dev sat besides Queen and didn’t speak a word. He simply fixed his eyes on the ground, thinking, "Where to take her? Though she was brought up in a witch's palace, it’s not her safe place. Not even Frozen Crescent. How about taking her to an island where humans live? Anywhere is better than being with me."
Before Nora’s century-long dream come true, Indigo brought a person wrapped everywhere around the body in white cloth having a veil covering the face and claimed, "My queen this person is eligible to fight with my lady, Nora."
Nora looked at the person and turned her eyes towards her maid. Indigo winked and nodded, and Nora agreed to combat with that person with the evil smirk blooming on her face. "Indy should have brought the dungeon girl to revenge her for humiliating me in the courtroom."
The white queen decided to watch the show. Nora and the person in white stood opposite and bowed to each other to begin their sword fight in the training field.
Nora took the initiative to attack first, the person defended perfectly well. Nora was shocked to receive such defence from her attack since all her opponents were knocked out in her very first move.
"How is this possible?" Nora grunted.
The second attack by Nora was even fiercer and knocked the person down. The person took hold of her attack and observed every attack of Nora, predicting the next move and acting accordingly.
The third attack was more ferocious and could not be handled by the person in white. He withdrew the attack by taking a few steps backwards. Nora was overwhelmed by joy, and her ego blinded her. Nora decided to plan her next move.
To her wonder, the next move was launched by the person in white, and it could not be able to withstand Nora. Soon, the crowd murmured about the fight. Nora’s temperament was hiking to its peak, and Nora was losing her control over her to attack wildly.
The clanging and swirling of swords filled the atmosphere. Everyone enjoyed the show of sword fighting.
Ivan felt sorry for Dev and tried to converse with him; "I am sure Nora would win... But I am unaware of who the other person is."
Ivan placed his commentary, "Dev... Who dared to challenge my sister, Nora?"
After a long time of silence, Dev replied, "Nora is good with her swords."
The person in white and Nora were fighting vigorously to defeat each other and prove their talent. Nora's mind voiced, "I’m sure this isn't a dungeon girl. She would fall when holding such a heavy sword. Not to think of challenging me in statics moves."
Ivan stated, after reading Dev’s facial expression, "Dev... the person in white has the familiar move of yours. I think that person is copying you."
Dev’s mind sparkled, and he soon lifted his eyes to look at the person in white. He smirked with overwhelming pride, "Wait till the end... Don’t rush to judgement, Ivy"
Nora was puzzled and wanted to reveal the person in white. Nora thought to herself, "Who the hell is my opponent? Dare to fight me? I could sense some familiar moves in the swords."
While Nora was indulging in her thoughts, the person in white took the sword from Nora’s hand and carefully moved their sword aimed at Nora’s neck.