Ryden’s POV

I stare intently at the girl who was now just revealed to be the princess of the shadow empire.

How can she be the princess? The one revered as the most powerful royal born in over a century?

Now, as we make our way to the transport device on the outpost border of the human realm, she is trembling like a little leaf and I am supposed to believe that she has the power to wipe out hundreds of warriors single handedly?

Well, I guess it is possible, ’cause if not for the effect of the Ilulo crystal, she would have killed the Gigan shadow without flinching and might have tried to take the king's neck if her friend didn't wake back up.

I have no clue about what she has been through, but I can tell her friend means a lot to her.

For the fact that it was her friend being in danger that brought out her powers we initially thought that the sight of the humans being in danger would have been enough but I have a feeling that if her friend wasn't in the arena, she might have not cared.

And that just makes me more interested in her.

We arrive at the castle and I stare more at her as she stares at the castle. She looks like she is in awe at the beauty of everything, and I honestly can't blame her. The castle is really beautiful.

A lot of things I didn't notice upon first sight are coming together like how she looks identical to Aeren, who is her actual twin. And she does share a resemblance with the royal family, but when I saw her brown eyes, I thought I was imagining things.

But now everything makes sense.

I watch as they all make pathetic attempts at introducing themselves even the feared shadow king and first prince are sweating bullets because of this little girl. I found it really amusing.

Then I see her reaction when she looks at Aeren and realizes she's a twin. She looks so beautiful even when surprised.

But I am not a patient person, so I interrupt their teary reunion by introducing myself as well.

"I am Ryden Flintmaw, third prince of the Dragonian empire. I am 22 years of age and also 6'7 in height."

I feel so weird, especially when she gives me a once over, but I will myself to stay expressionless.

I read in a human book somewhere that girls like guys who act nonchalant to their beauty or something like that.

The room falls into an awkward silence, and her friends break it with an introduction that made me learn she is one of the victims from the incident of five years ago.

And then my goddess introduces herself as well. I learned her name is Miri. What a beautiful name. It fits her so well.

And then she adds that she is also a victim of that incident, and I felt like going to hug her because of the pain in her voice when she made that statement.

Now I understand why she is so close with her red-haired friend which I now know is Alira. They share a trauma.

She ends her introduction by saying we can ask her whatever, and thanks to Tarin I could learn that her adoptive parents are brave and good people who taught their daughter how to survive alone even before they died.

So it was no surprise to me that she refuses to change her name and leaves only the compromise of changing her surname. That must be her way of honoring them and their memory in her heart.

I watch as my goddess is led away to her room by Aeren. I watch until her back fades away, before I turn to look at the king and the remaining six princes in the room with me.

We move this conversation to the throne room and shortly Aeren comes back to join us.

The king starts.

"My girl must have been through a lot. I can see the distrust in her eyes."

Aeren speaks next.

"Both Miri and Alira were so happy just from the size of their rooms. They must have seen a lot of things."

Then Tarin,

"Another issue is that Miri is understandable as she is a Shadow and was going through her 19 years change, but her friend Alira is a mere human but the way they fought against Gigan shadow, perfectly in sync. Alira is a full human. How can she possess that much strength? And then how did they move like that, as if they had so many years of practice?"

Renn then speaks.

"That girl beside Miri, Alira, is not as simple as we think. But at least she has no bad intentions towards Miri, I can tell that much."

Rian supports his claim.

"We just got her back. I would never let anyone harm her, but they are really attached. It won't be good to separate them. So let's just watch for now. If anything goes wrong, we can easily remove her."

The mood becomes tense as every prince worries over a human by the side of their princess.

But luckily, Lior lightens the mood.

"But our little sister is so cute, especially when she gave me that death glare. Instead of worrying over a human, shouldn't we be worrying about what kinds of things we have to get for her and her banquet that we have to plan? ’Cause our girl has to shine. And we also need her to open her heart to us. So instead of being so uptight, we have to try our best and get her to actually like us, and not look at us as if she were to say the wrong thing, we would kill her."

And for the first time, everyone agrees with what Lior has to say.

"So how would we know what she likes?" Fenn asks.

And I answer.

"Seems like we are going to need help from the human you all are on guard against. And it might not be my place to say, but our little princess is not as simple as you all may believe."

That earns me a glare from everyone but to my surprise, Malric supports me.

"He's right. She doesn't trust us and might be like the hundreds of humans who blame us for most of their misfortunes especially considering the fact she was one of the victims from that incident."

"Alright. Tomorrow, after breakfast, all of us will sit and talk and clear the air and ask whatever questions we have. That is how a family should settle things. And that is what we are going to do. Does everyone agree?"

The king asks, and everyone nods in agreement.

"Alright. It is late and we all had a hectic day. Everyone we shall speak tomorrow."

And we all stand and bow to the king before we disperse to our own individual rooms.

And then Tarin approaches me.

"How do you feel about all this?"

"Well, I feel this castle is going to be more lively than ever," I say with a smirk