I managed to calm Vinny down and I explained the situation to Arian and Hero, with Mary's blessing of course.

"You shouldn't get so worked up over something as trashy as that guy," Hero said, patting Vinny's back.

"Wait, why are we comforting Vinny? Shouldn't we be comforting Mary?" Arian asked, confused.

"Oh trust me, I don't need it," Mary deadpanned.

After a long string of profanity and curses came out of Vinny's mouth, which caused Arian to cover my ears, he calmed down again and agreed to continue focusing on training.

"Let's go home," I said, asking Sierra to prepare a carriage.

She looked sad and disappointed that I wouldn't even be staying the night.

"... Alright, my lady," she responded, her cat ears flopping down in depression.

I laughed and hugged her.

"It's 2 months away, just keep yourself busy, Sierra," I smiled as she brightened up.

"My lady always makes my day!" She gushed and went to prepare a carriage.

"You're really close to your maid, huh?" Arian laughed.

"Of course, Sierra's my best friend," I responded happily.

"She must have been with you ever since you were a baby," Mary smiled.

"Huh? What are you talking about? Sierra's only a year older than me," I asked, confused.

"What!?" They screamed.

I loved how surprised they were. After all, Sierra has been serving me since she was 6.

"How old did she start serving you?" Hero asked, shocked.

"She was 6 and I was 5," I smiled brightly.

"Was she raised in the palace?" Arian asked.

"Nope, she passed selection and was given the position of my personal maid,"

"Because she was close to your age?" Mary asked again.

"Oh no, they didn't know she was 6. She managed to trick the royal staff and my father, they thought she was old enough to work," the 4 knights went silent.

"Well.... That's.... Something..." Vinny said.

We traveled home to Sterling and started to train normally. Mary could finally hold up a sword, Arian wasn't afraid of the sound of the sword, Hero was excelling, and Vinny was starting to pick up speed.

"Alright, it's evaluation day," I smiled. Every 2 weeks I'd have Harley, Lumiere, Glade, and Rafael spar with them and evaluate how much they've grown.

But since it was the 3rd week of of the 3rd month, I decided to switch their sparing partners.

"Sylar, with Arian, Aerial with Vinny, Roxas with Hero, and Drake with Mary," I commanded.

"These Spirits were less patient and are prone to using an excessive amount of power when they feel threatened," I explained.

"Who exactly are you calling impatient over there, shorty?" Roxas deadpanned.

"Shut up, rock for brains, or your stupid voice will be ringing in my ears for weeks... " Drake said, rolling his eyes.

"... Agreed... Loud..." Aerial yawned in agreement.

"Your face is loud!" Roxas spat.

"Oooh, good comeback. If you were a 3-year-old," Sylar said sarcastically.

The four knights were shocked at my spirits' behavior.

Completely different from the first four they met who were uniform, respectful, kind, and always smiling.

Compared to these four who looked bored, arrogant, sleepy, and refused to smile.

"It's best if you don't hold back with them," I said.

"Aye, aye, captain," Roxas smirked as he rushed at his opponent and the other three followed suit.

"I wasn't talking about you, Roxas!" I shouted.

Roxas immediately had Hero struggling to deal with his power blows.

Mary's arms were trembling because Drake was hitting her with precise blows that were too fast for her to handle.

Aerial refused to take the spar seriously and wouldn't move from one spot and Vinny was getting more and more irritated because he couldn't even knock Aerial out of place.

And Sylar, being the arrogant prick that he is, didn't even use the sword and dodged Arian's attacks like he was just avoiding a few leaves falling from a tree.

I inhaled deeply, "Enough," I sighed as the four spirits knocked down their opponents then lined up in front of me.

"Everyone's still weak," Roxas reported.

"Agreed," the other three spirits agreed.

"What was that?! That wasn't even a proper spar!" Vinny complained.

"I've failed the princess..." Hero said, depressed.

"Maybe we need a little more training," Mary smiled, looking dejected.

And Arian was silent, glaring at Sylar.

"It was easy to tire him out... Not much to do..." Aerial reported.

"How could you expect her to hold a sword like that with those noodle arms?" Drake sighed.

I looked at Sylar who was staring curiously at Arian.

"And you? Sylar?" I asked with a smile.

He ruffled my hair gently, "Predictable. Once you've figured out the beat, it won't matter how fast the tempo goes, as long as you know where he's going to hit next." Sylar reported.

Aerial pushed Sylar aside and started to pat my head.

The ice and wind spirit glared at each other with silent rage.

"Alright. Enough trouble." Drake sighed, disappearing with Aerial and Sylar.

"Time's almost up, Snow," Roxas warned.

"I know... I'll see you," I smiled as Roxas disappeared.

"This was just a simulation. Father's knights are bound to be better than what I've just thrown at you," I frowned.

The knights were dispirited but I knew this was going to happen.

"So Mary, you have to out speed Drake. Vinny, you have to hold the hits and focus on stamina. Hero and Arian, think outside the box. Be creative with your attacks and make use of any situation. In other words. Work smarter, not harder," I smiled.

"Yes, Princess," they saluted.

Two weeks later and it's evaluation time again.

Mary worked hard on her speed, Vinny meditated, and worked on balance and stamina, Hero and Arian sparred together often and critiqued eachother and came up with creative ways to wound eachother.

"Ready?" I asked them.

They nodded, and with a snap of my fingers the spirits rushed at them.

Mary quickly stood out of Drake's way and attacked from behind.

Aerial clashed his sword with Vinny's once and didn't move. And neither did Vinny.

Hero ran at Roxas then slid under him, grabbed his ankle and nearly got Roxas if not for Roxas' speed to block.

And Arian was clashing swords with Sylar.

"This is unexpectedly good. Hero's got Roxas where he wants him," I smiled.

Roxas met my eyes and glared at me as if to say 'Shut up, prissy princess,'

I was watching Mary. Not once did she try and clash swords with Drake and instead went for weak points and tried to trip Drake.

Vinny and Aerial didn't start until Aerial got irritated and went for it.

Aerial went so fast that Vinny didn't see him, but Vinny stayed calm and adjusted his foot. Suddenly I heard a bang and Aerial was down with Vinny putting a sword to his neck.

"What?" I exclaimed, shocked. Aerial was the first one down!

Arian seemed to be about to block Sylar's attack when he suddenly ducked and kicked Sylar's leg.

Sylar was defeated as well. "This... How in the world..." I was left speechless.

I watched Mary dodge an attack and she managed to scratch Drake's face using her armor, drawing blood meant she won.

"Another defeat?" I asked puzzled.

Last was Hero and Roxas. The two positioned themselves for a clash and rushed at eachother until Hero threw his sword and Roxas had to side step it.

Unfortunately it was a trap and he was tripped and defeated as well as Hero used Roxas' own sword to wound him.

"Did I miss something? How did this happen?!" I asked, shaking Sylar, as his head bobbed around tiredly.

"How should I know?" He asked.

"Did you guys use some sort of forbidden magic or something?" Roxas asked, rudely.

The four knights luaghed victoriously.

"We got the idea from the princess of course," Arian explained.

"If we weren't going to win with our skills as knights then how about with the skills of an assasin?" Hero winked.

"An assasin? Haha, hey, good idea!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"Congratulations! You've won against your opponents! I'm so proud of all of you!!" I screamed, jumping to hug them all.

"We'll definitely win for the princess,"

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°and cut!°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°