"Master is alright, so just be relaxed for now Suho! There is no need to worry." said Anne. He can't be relaxed as this is not his exact reason of worry. In a totally stone walled room, there is an old man lying on the bed, under the influence of given medication, placed in the middle of the room. Beside him, a young lady, and a man, both of the same age around, was standing there. The old man was not only their Master, who has trained them for several years in the academy but the person who has done their upbringing for all these years, their Godfather Master Schwan. He runs this academy all alone by himself. But in the mid of this whole chaos, there was still one thing which has not been seeming right to both and that's there is a deadly silence everywhere. Deep inside them they knew that this is the silence of the fore coming thunderstorm and there was just the need of this thought, suddenly, 'Bang!' The door opened fiercely. "Master is alright, you don't need to worry." Suho said worryingly. His reason of worry was standing right in front of him, at the threshold of the door. A girl in the late puberty, age same as that of Suho and with fierceness in her every single move, coldness in her eyes, assassinating look on face, golden brown hairs tied up in the ponytail, wearing a black jammie and chemise. "That bastard......time for some payback......." she thundered out of the room. "Eso, Eso, Eso......Stop.... just listen...... for once, wait.........for God's sake just listen to me once..." He sighed. This is bad. The words looped in his mind with every slow, circular motion his fingers made on his tense forehead. "Just take a chill-pill man, she is going to be alright......she is the author of her own story...Queen of her own chaos.... " Still after saying these encouraging words to Suho, deep down Anne is also worried but she knows that there is no means by which they can stop her, it's all going to be useless. To the gentle, she was a sanctuary. To the cruel, she was the apocalypse made flesh. Her anger was a celestial fire, a force older than stars, and she was merely the vessel—one that had stopped trying to contain the inferno. They all are afraid of her anger, but they also care for her too and love her, after all she is still that old friend of theirs.

They all are afraid of her anger, but they also care for her too and love her, after all she is still that old friend of theirs

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After stepping out of the master's room she crossed the Master Gallery (*Well let me, tell you guys a little more about this Master Gallery. As its name suggests, this is a long gallery having the portraits and description of every single master of this academy till date, but moreover this gallery also have the portraits of all the emperors of their empire, but it has no worth now) and frantically entered in her room which is at the end of the gallery. She puts her cloak on. It was some special kind of one, as it has a hood on the back and hers was in black color. She hooded her face and only her crooked smile is visible now. She directly headed towards THE GATE, which is meant to be opened only once for someone's lifetime, only by the master when the right time (when someone will be totally ready according to the master) will come. "Open THE GATE", Eso commanded the students on the patrolling duty. "We are sorry, but we can't give you the keys", one of the students piled up all the courage and answered their Goddess. "Are you guys, saying a 'no' to me?". Just a look of hers and they immediately opened THE GATE. Afterall no one has that much courage to face her. No one knows when someone will come, who will be able to stop her. She just barged out of THE GATE but still she was able to hear the whispers of the keepers, "...whose death is coming...? ". She ignored it and moved ahead. This empire, emperor, royalty means nothing to her. For her the master, academy, Suho, Anne is everything. It is same for every other student, as each student thinks this academy as of its own family. But still there is one doubt in the core of the heart of every student and it is that why did they need to get trained? There is no existence of their own empire. Ages ago, there was a time when it is said that their empire is the most powerful one but suddenly one day the royal family disappeared into air. No one knows what happened to them. Suddenly the empire fell into the hands of their neighbor, Drakon Empire. No one knows what happened exactly but after this incident there was not a single soul who's live was not changed. The life turned out to be hell for the people. The taxes reached their peak, droughts occurred, no implications of the law left, there was no one to whom they can approach, and there is nobody to listen to them. The whole country turned into a chaos. In this new empire there is no check on the powerholders, very bizarre laws are being followed like you can't take the name of their original empire, you can't question a royalty etc. This Emperor deliberately kept the previous dynasty's palace, not as an act of preservation, but as the ultimate insult. To announce that their legacy was now merely one of his properties. But no one is allowed to enter the palace except the very close royal family members. No one has ever entered this palace for years, but suddenly two days back the crown prince has come over here to celebrate his birthday here. It seems like he has invited the royalty of the whole world over here and the party has been going for continuous two days. Due to this not a single person in the academy is able to sleep properly for two days and master's health also deteriorated due to this reason. But no one dare to speak to the prince, after all, this academy is running on the expenses given by the emperor, but its existence is unknown to the other people except a few one. But everyone knows that the royalty is the bunch of werewolves masked under the face of beautiful humans. It was even her own first time seeing the world out of the academy as she didn't even remember when she has entered this academy. When she reached the royal garden "Oh damn it", that was very first remark of hers. It seems like the whole alcoholics of the world has been gathered here for the meeting of Alcoholics Association. Every single person was totally under the influence of alcohol. In this whole royal scenario, she didn't forget her reason to come here. While she was making her way through the royalty crowd, she brushed hard against someone, but she didn't even feel sorry. But she heard something, "......You f**king b*t*h......." She turned back to glance at the commentator. 'Calm down! Calm down Eso!! Dogs are in the habit to bark. He doesn't need to be the target of your wrath.' she said to herself. She controlled her anger for the sake of this world. At last, she reached the palace, it was totally stuffed with masked sparkling luxuries wandering here and there. 'Where the hell is the reason of this whole chaos??'. Everyone looked almost alike except the white sparkling gem in the whole crowd, nearly as the age of Suho but sharp features, blue eyes, dark black hairs, wearing a golden mask which was matching exactly to his white and golden royal dress, holding a glass of red wine and was surrounded by a huge crowd which was a contrast of Suho who has green eyes, sharp jawline and brown hair. So here is the prey of the birdie. Eso swiftly moved near him, and very smoothly she locked his arms back, then 'Splash'. Wine glass hit the ground and catches the crowds attention.

For a heartbeat, the world froze into a perfect, silent tableau. Then, like a crack spreading through ice, the realization shattered the moment—an intruder had not just challenged but had successfully laid hands on their invincible crown prince. A silence, cold and sharp as the steel now gleaming in the sun, fell over the courtyard. In a single, fluid motion that was more instinct than thought, a ring of blades was bared, a deadly constellation of points all aimed at the heart of one man. The air, once warm, grew frigid with promised violence.

The intruder stood motionless at the center, a dark rock in a swirling river of hostility. The only sound was the soft, menacing whisper of polished steel sliding from scabbards. Commander Valerius stepped forward, his own ornate longsword unwavering. The tip came to rest not merely near, but against the intruder's throat, a frozen kiss of death. A single droplet of blood welled up and traced a thin path down the man's neck, a stark crimson line against his pale skin.

"You dare?" Valerius's voice was a low, dangerous rumble, like distant thunder before a storm. It carried not the heat of anger, but the absolute zero of contempt. "

You blind, blithering fool. Did your wretched life flash before your eyes before you committed this final, unforgivable sin? Do you have any conception of the sun upon which you have dared to cast your shadow?"

He leaned in closer, his eyes burning with cold fire. "The man you touched is not a man. He is the Crown Prince of the Drakon Empire. He is the heir to a throne that has stood for a thousand years. He is the future we are all sworn to die for."

The silence from the intruder was deafening. He didn't flinch. His eyes, shadowed by a hood or perhaps just by an unnerving calm, didn't even blink. It was as if the commander's words, and the sword at his neck, were nothing more than a mild inconvenience. From the ranks, a young soldier, his face flushed with a mixture of terror and outrage, could bear it no longer. The insult to his commander, the sheer, impossible disrespect shown to the Crown Prince, was a physical pain.

"Answer Him!" the soldier screamed, his voice cracking with emotion, his knuckles white on the hilt of his own trembling sword. "You filthy, nameless dog! Why do you stand there in silence? Are you so hollow that you feel no fear? Does the sight of your own impending death not even quicken your pulse? Speak, or by the gods, I will carve the apology from your worthless flesh myself!"

Yet, the intruder remained a statue. His silence was no longer just insolence; it had become a weapon, more unnerving than any blade. It was a void that swallowed their threats and their pride, and in that void, a seed of dread began to sprout in every soldier's heart. Who, or what, was this man who did not fear the edge of a sword or the weight of an empire? But by each word of anyone, intruder's grip on the prince tightens and this can be easily judged by the look on the prince's face. But this time, intruder's eyes also intensified.

For a single, suspended moment, the world held its breath. Commander Valerius's sword was a promise of death against the intruder's throat, its steel glinting with the certainty of empire.

Then, time shattered.

It was not a movement that could be tracked by the eye. It was a blur, a whisper of displaced air. One second, the Commander's blade was firm in his grasp; in the next, it was simply... gone. A phantom chill was all that remained in his clenched fist.

A collective gasp, sharp and involuntary, ripped through the soldiers. But their horror had only just begun.

As their stunned eyes refocused, they saw it. The very same sword was now in the intruder's hand, but its aim had shifted with cataclysmic finality. The lethal point was no longer at the intruder's own neck, but was now pressed against the pale, vulnerable throat of the Crown Prince. The intruder stood behind the prince, a specter of death using the heir to the throne as a living shield.

Astonishment turned their blood to ice. When? How? The questions screamed silently in their minds. It was an impossibility, a feat that defied the very laws of combat.

And then, a low buzz began to ripple through the ranks—not of voices, but of pure, undiluted panic. It was the sound of shifting armor, of shaky breaths, of a hundred men realizing their absolute power had just been inverted in the blink of an eye. It was the hum of a wasp's nest, stirred and deadly, but terrified of striking lest it kill the very thing it sought to protect.

The intruder's eyes, now visible and gleaming with an otherworldly calm, scanned the frozen crowd. His silence was louder than any battle cry, and in it, they heard the crumbling of their invincibility., 'this is insane.... he is not a human...', '...can it be The Legendary Fighter...???' Now each soldier was petrified to attack that intruder. If we talk about the legendary fighter, no one has ever seen this fighter. But there is a rumor that this fighter is that much skilled that he can snatch the sword from your own hands with less than a second in front of your eyes.

The panicked buzz of the soldiers was cut through by a voice as sharp and dismissive as a shattering crystal.

"Shut up, all of you! You're a pack of bleating sheep!"

All eyes snapped to a young woman standing atop a low wall, a crossbow held with casual expertise, its bolt aimed unwaveringly at the intruder's head. Miya, the Prince's childhood friend and third princess of Valerium Empire, glared at the stunned soldiers with pure, unadulterated arrogance.

"Use your eyes, you idiots! What is wrong with this man? Why is he not using his powers?" she snarled, her voice dripping with contempt. From beside her, a calm voice answered, "Don't be so stressed out, Miya my love."

Aster, whose presence had been so still he'd seemed part of the scenery, finally moved. He didn't adopt a fighting stance. He merely smiled, a faint, almost bored curve of his lips. "Let me do something. Just wait and watch."

What happened next was not a blur. It was an erasure. There was no movement to follow. There was only a before and an after.

Before: The intruder stood triumphant, the Commander's sword at the Prince's throat, a smirk of victory playing on his lips.

After: A sound like a thunderclap echoed through the courtyard. The Prince was suddenly ten feet away, stumbling into the arms of his guards, gasping for air, the ghost of the blade's cold kiss still on his skin.

And the intruder... the invincible intruder... was now on his knees. A single, precise blow to the back of his legs had buckled them. The sword clattered to the stones, its ring a symbol of shattered dominance. Aster stood over him, one hand resting lightly on the man's shoulder, a gesture that looked almost gentle but held the force of a mountain. The smirk was gone from the intruder's face, replaced by a dawning, horrifying realization that he had been playing with forces far beyond his understanding.

Miya stepped forward, her boots echoing on the cobblestones like a funeral drum. The air, still vibrating from Aster's impossible feat, now crackled with her personal fury. She kicked the fallen sword away, the steel skittering into the darkness, and placed the razor-edge of her own blade against the intruder's throat.

"So," she hissed, her voice a venomous whisper that carried to every ear, "let me see what the hell kind of attitude gives you the right to threaten a prince." Her eyes narrowed to slits. "Hmmm... Let's see the face of the fool who believes in such arrogance."

She didn't merely remove the hood; she seized it with a brutal, unforgiving yank, tearing the coarse fabric away but still remaining loyal and protecting the identity of its master. Her hair comes undone wavering around her like a rebellious flag on a battlefield, defiant even in its disarray.

The reveal was met not with silence, but with a collective, sharp intake of breath that hissed through the courtyard like a serpent. Then, the whispers erupted, a wildfire of disbelief.

"Oh my god...!" a soldier stammered, his voice breaking. "It's... a girl?" another whispered, the words laden with shock and a reluctant, horrified respect. "By the gods, she has the guts of a demon..." "...damn b*tch..." spat another, the curse meant to diminish her, yet it only underscored their stunned humiliation.

A girl. How could a girl possess such terrifying power? Who is she? The question burned in every heart, a mystery wrapped in shame.

Commander Valerius, his pride a bleeding wound, found his voice first. "You," he commanded, his tone brooking no argument. "Girl! Remove that mask. Bow your head. Show contrition for your crimes. Acknowledge the grace you are about to be shown."

Miya leaned closer, her sword pressing just enough to draw a bead of blood. "Our Crown Prince has a heart as vast as the empire. Grovel, and he might yet show you mercy you do not deserve."

But the girl—Eso—remained a statue. Her face, now illuminated in the torchlight, was a mask of perfect, impenetrable stillness. No fear. No regret. Not even defiance. It was a void, a calm sea that reflected their own raging storm, and it was infinitely more terrifying than any scream. You could not plead with a stone. You could not reason with a cliff face.

"I said, BOW DOWN!" Miya shrieked, her composure shattering against the girl's unbreakable silence.

The crowd's murmurs turned ugly. "...How arrogant!" "...Such a shameless, poor excuse for a woman!" "Disgusting!"

The insults flew, but they fell upon Eso like rain on granite. It was this absolute disregard, this final, utter disgrace in the face of their prince's potential mercy, that snapped the last thread of the Commander's control. His face, a mask of royal fury, turned a deep, dangerous purple. The line had been crossed.

"You will repay your disrespect with BLOOD!" he roared, and with a guttural cry—"HAYAH!"—his sword became a silver arc of vengeance, slicing through the air with the full force of his rage, aimed to sever the girl's head from her shoulders in one clean, final stroke.

But the blow never landed.

A voice, sharp as a diamond and commanding as a thunderclap, cut through the courtyard, freezing the blade in mid-air.

"STOP!!!"

Everyone was surprised that from where the sound has come and from the crowd an old man appeared with a young man and lady on its sides.

"Welcome Master Schwan" replied the crown prince with a smirk on his face.

The air itself seemed to grow heavy, the crowd's murmur swelling from a buzz into a wave of palpable shock. Phrases hissed through the air, charged with fear and wonder: "That's the robe... the sigil of Schwan!" "But he's a myth, a story to frighten children!" "Heaven help us, if he is here, then the prophecies..."

"What," a voice, quiet yet impossibly clear, silenced every other sound, "is this disruption?" All eyes turned to the Master and Commander, who swallowed hard. Bowing his head, he became a mere messenger, detailing the catastrophe to the one man whose presence now changed everything.

The air in the room, already thick with the growing tension, seemed to solidify. The divine gaze of the master was not a burning fire, but something far heavier—a gravity that pulled all secrets to the surface.

"What do you want to say in your defense?"

The words hung, not as an invitation, but as a final, merciful door held open. Yet, the offender found the threshold impossible to cross. A reply surged within him—a tangled skein of excuses, of fears, of reasons that felt like childish lies when held before that silent, knowing presence.

His head, bowed as if under a physical weight, sank lower. The silence that answered the master's question was not the silence of defiance, nor of ignorance. It was a deepening silence. It was the sound of a soul turning inward and finding, not a voice, but a vast and empty chamber where every possible word had been tried, judged, and found wanting. It was the echo of his own failings, now so glaringly obvious that to speak would be to profane the very air.

He could not meet the master's eyes—those eyes that were not his god's, but through which his god now looked. To meet them would be to see his own reflection, small and fractured, in a pool of infinite peace. And in that reflection, he saw the only truth that remained: there was no defense. There was only the transgression, and the long, silent road back from it.

The deepening silence became his confession. It was his plea. It was the only thing left of him that was still true.

The master's words fell not like a sentence, but like a guillotine blade, severing all hope.

"Your Highness, I apologize to you and the whole empire for this act of foolishness, on the behalf of my student."

His voice was a low, steady drum, each syllable driving the truth deeper into the hallowed ground of the academy. He did not look away from the offender, his gaze a physical anchor holding her in place.

"...and to correct her mistakes, I hereby declare that I will myself unveil her face to the world."

A collective, sharp intake of breath sucked the air from the room. It was more than a gasp; it was a visceral recoil, the sound of a sacred law being shattered before their very eyes. In the Empire, the academy was a sanctuary of anonymous minds. Identities were guarded more fiercely than any treasure, the masked countenance a symbol that here, only knowledge and skill mattered, not lineage or face. To be unveiled was to be cast out, not just from the academy, but from the very principle it stood for. It was a spiritual execution.

"No!" The word was torn from Anne, a raw, desperate sound. She stumbled forward, her own veil trembling with the force of her plea. "Master, you cannot! This isn't correction, it is annihilation!"

Suho was at her side, his usual composure shattered. "Master, I beg you," he implored, his voice tight. "There must be another way. A lifetime of penance, exile—anything but this. Her identity is her soul. To strip it is to make her a ghost."

"You can't do this to her, she did all of this just for your sake Master....and what do you think goanna happen when you will reveal the identity of the legendary fighter?? or are you happy with revealing the Sword of the Academy "Anne snapped.

With this shocking revelation there was a sudden wave of murmur shaping and changing the perspectives of different minds.

But the master remained immovable, a cliff against the storm of their protests. His glare never wavered from the offender, who stood frozen, the weight of his decree seeming to press her further into the stone floor. The silence that had been her confession now became her shroud. The reality of her punishment—to be exposed not by an enemy, but by the very teacher who had sworn to protect her anonymous pursuit of wisdom—was a cruelty far beyond any physical pain.

The master's hand slowly raised, the gesture funereal in its grace. All resistance crumbled into a horrified, breathless anticipation. He was not merely delivering a punishment; he was dismantling a life, and he would perform the act with his own hands, a final, terrible lesson in consequence.

"I do not think that I have done anything wrong. I don't give a f**k about all these idiots...there is no meaning of emperor, prince, empire for me. I am loyal to only my master, academy and my friends. Let me beware you idiots, if anyone of you will dare to hurt my master or friends, I am goanna kick you a** and if the Master wants to give me this punishment for my act, then it's my duty to fulfill it." suddenly the offender spoke up.

"You b*t*h, who do you think yourself to be... I will ripe out your tongue..." Miya roared in fury.

"Go ahead, give it a shot" Eso replied with a smirk and uplifting the veil of her face. Every single person was mesmerized for a second with her beauty. It was breath-taking and some even gasped and a lot were still in disbelief.

"Do you guys think that you can even touch her...😂 Haha...... she has just laid her eyes on you guys and just see your condition. What if she just touches you?????? You guys can't even imagine her revenge.", this time it was Anne.

But chaos is a poor competitor for obsession. While the court devolved into a frenzy of speculation and fear, the Crown Prince was a study in absolute focus. The legendary master, the crisis, the murmuring crowd—it all faded into a distant, irrelevant hum. The only sound he heard was the rhythm of Eso's breathing; the only sight that mattered was the subtle shift in Eso's expression. In a room screaming with history, the prince was reading a single, silent story written on Eso's face.

"Stop it all of you." "Apologize to crown prince right now, Eso " master ordered Eso.

"But master why she should apologize...On the contrary they need to apologize for such behavior and even there is no need to apologize to such person whose attention is somewhere else...staring someone...." said Suho glaring at him.

Crown prince glared at Suho, and anyone can sense the jealousy in the air.

"But Master she is The Almighty Legendary Fighter," said Anne.

Once again, the murmur has been fueled, '.... she is that legendary fighter....', 'I told you guys......'

"I am sorry master, but I am not going to apologize because I don't think that I have done anything wrong." Eso replied back.

"Shut up Eso" master snapped back at her and slapped her hard across the face. After that everything went silent.

"Your Highness, I apologize to you for this act of foolishness, on the behalf of my student...... and you follow me..." master glared at Eso.