'Nothing is going right today.' Briar thought as her mother, Avery, adjusted her clothing. Making sure that there was nothing out of place that was less than perfect for her father, King Gale, to complain about. The dead bodies she promised herself to go back for have been buried. Someone broke her concealing spell; she didn't know who. She was sure that no one at the village was capable of magic; whoever broke her spell must have been either familiar with dark magic or was also an S-class mage.
The other thing that wasn't going right for Briar today was that her father was visiting.
Briar kept an empty expression on her face as her mother's dissatisfied eyes raked through her body, taking in her slim and slightly muscular form that was pretending to be a boy. She avoided her mother's eyes and kept her eyes strictly on the mirror in front of her. From her height to the posture she had been trained into, there was no way anyone would know that she was a girl. She wasn't one of those girls with big boobs anyway, so there wasn't much to hide away, but she had grown up wishing that part of her body wouldn't develop at all. So that her mother's fear of being caught in her lies to the king won't come to pass, but of course, no magic or dark spell in the world was capable of stopping her body from developing like nature willed it to.
"Remember, don't slouch when walking." A very tight grip on Briar's shoulder was starting to hurt, but she swallowed the pain and nodded coldly to her mother's words.
Since the day she was born, her mother had only ever trained her as a boy. Knowing the sort of woman her mother is, Briar was grateful that her mother didn't choose to kill her after finding out that she was a girl instead of a boy.
A maid knocked at the open door of Briar's room; while keeping her head down in a bow, she said, "The king is here."
Avery smiled immediately and rushed out through the door; the maid lifted her up and blushed at Briar's handsome appearance, which was elegant without fault. No servant in the house knew her true identity; if they found out, they would be put to death immediately.
Briar strode out of her room to greet her father, a man she felt no emotional ties to. She hated it whenever he visited, and if she was being sincere with herself, she hated his entire existence, which made her life complicated from the moment she was born. While her mother was excited that he was paying them a visit, she dreaded the days he visited them and tried to pretend as though they were a normal family, as though he cared about them, but Briar knew that her old man only had a slight care for her and her mother because he thought that she was a boy.
She understood how hard it was for her mother, who was the secret lover of the king.
"Good to see you again, Father." Briar fell down on one knee as she bowed and greeted her father flawlessly.
King Gale let out a hearty laugh as he instructed Briar to stand to her feet and come over to his side. He was sitting down on a plush couch with Avery on his lap. "You seem to have grown taller than the last time I saw you." He smiled at Briar. "Let's see who you are growing more to look like. Me or your mother?" He examines her fine facial features that seem masculine in his eyes, and then he grins, "You look like me!"
"My son took his handsome features from his father, so of course he looks like you."
The king chuckled at Avery's words and hugged her more to his side.
"So Briar." King Gale placed an arm over her shoulder; they were outside. "What class are you in now?" He wasn't referring to the class she was at the academy but rather the class upgrade of her magical abilities. The last time he was here, she was a D-class ranker in her earth magic, but she has trained hard to improve herself to a C-class ranker.
Without words, Briar moves her hands and controls the mana flow around her. She knew her mother was watching quietly behind her, so this was something that she shouldn't mess up. Without speaking out her spells and using a magic circle, she commanded the earth to form a perfect muddy sculpture of her father's face.
The king's hand left Briar's shoulder, impressed by her ability. 'My son is a genius,' he thought proudly to himself.
"I'm now a C-class mage." Briar smiled at her father, showing her teeth, but her smile didn't reach her eyes. When it came to magic, she was a natural-born genius that was born with two magical attributes, dark and earth magic. At times she wondered if the reason her mother decided to keep her alive was because her mother thought that the only magic she was capable of was earth magic.
Briar acquired dark magic from her mother, while the earth magic was from her father. Her mother was from a dark lineage, but that was a secret kept away from the king; he would have killed Briar and Avery if he had found out the dirty truth about them.
Earth magic didn't come as easily to Briar as dark magic did. She likes her dark magic powers a lot more than her earth magic, but as the king's secret bastard, she needed to strive hard to be the best so that she and her mother wouldn't be thrown away like useless waste products.
"I trust that soon enough you will be climbing the ranks and moving to a B-class mage." King Gale took the chill drink Avery had brought over to him. The arrows he needed to spend some little sporty time with his son were already prepared.
"Yes, Father." Briar replied gently, hiding her lack of affection.
"Nice shot, my king." Avery said even though the arrows didn't meet the bullseye. A few distant away for the arrows shot to lose the target and for the king to miss completely.
King Gale wasn't talented in Briar's eyes, and she knew that the only thing her mother liked about him was his royal status. Briar's arrow met the bullseye, and she didn't miss any shots as she continued shooting arrows with her father.
"I thought my archery skills would outshine yours, but I guess not." The king chuckled. He drops his bow. "You know the 7 great heroes of our kingdom?" He asked.
Briar stared at her father, waiting for him to continue as she nodded. There was no one in the kingdom and across the kingdom who didn't know them; they were legendary. Together with the saint being one of them, they defeated the demon lord.
"The saintess's daughter has already started attending your academy. I heard that the children of the other heroes would be attending the academy soon. I want you to build a good relationship with them."
"Yes, Father." Briar replied even though she didn't give a damn about the heroes kids. She hated the way her father spoke of them as though they were special.
After King Gale departed, the smile on Avery's face dropped as she stepped inside with Briar. She slapped her daughter hard on the cheek. "You couldn't let your father win even once against you!" She shouted, "You still don't know how to think like you are supposed to and do the right thing. What's so great about you showing off your archery skills?! Are you trying to tell the king that he isn't good enough?!"
"I'm sorry, Mother." Briar bowed weakly, steeling her facial expression not to show her weakness, but her eyes gave away the sadness in her heart.
Her mother believes that one day the king would take her into the palace and she would be an official concubine. But King Gale was a coward; Briar didn't have false hope, like her mother did.
Later in the day, Avery visited her daughter's bedroom and apologized for her harsh behavior.
"Do you hate me for not letting you wear a dress like other girls your age?"
"No. I don't care about that." Briar whispered in the dark of her room, her back to her mother, who softly brushed her short hair. Although her mother sounded sad, she knew that everything was an act to make her mother feel better about herself. It was her mother's way of keeping her in check.