Anastasia's POV-

I wake up with Dominique at my side. I turn around and I'm engulfed.

I touch the bed from the other side of Dominique and lift myself trying to get out.

I was on top of Dominique with arms on the sides of her face.

I look at her for a moment as she slept calmly and then carefully moved to get out of the bed.

I finally get out and I'm sitting on the floor as I look for my shoes.

"Where are you going?" Dominique asks hoarsely and half-asleep.

"I need to go back to my room, " I say leaning forward whispering so I wouldn't wake up the other two.

"Hmm, " she says near my ear

"Why?" she simply asks

"Your mother wouldn't appreciate the Princess of The North in your bedroom." she laughs quietly at that and smiles

"Maybe but she wouldn't do anything don't worry."

"Still, I should go. I have to get ready for the tournament soon anyway"

She groans

"I'm already so exhausted from the Hunt. They really had to go and be extra didn't they?"

"Hmm," I say smiling. I find my shoes and walk towards the door.

"See you later, Princess," she says as I left and I smile.

I go into my room and change for breakfast.

There's a knock on my door as I was changing

"Who is it?" I ask

" It's me, Your Highness."

"Oh, Mary, Come in."

"Let me guess, breakfast?" I say

"Yes, Miss, but apparently the other royal families are joining us as well."

"Really?" I ask as I slide on a simple sunflower dress

Mary nods and walks behind me as I head towards the castle's dining hall.

"Hey," I say to Leo sitting beside him as Father and mother sat next to each other and all of us sat down uncomfortably

"Where are they?" Lucille asks

King Edmund and Queen Alison walk in along with Prince Julian and Prince Wyatt and sit down next to us

The room was silent until the door opened and Dominique walked in with Lucio and they were whispering to each other.

"Breakfast between family huh?" she says and greets my parents as well as my siblings

She sits down next to Prince Lucio and he seems worried so he keeps whispering to her here and there until she says something to him and starts talking to my father.

They talked casually for a few minutes before the rest started coming in.

All of the Royal families were seated at one incredibly large and long table.

King Edmund finished first and he stood up and excused himself from the table.

Dominique and Julian went behind him and that's when I noticed Amir by the door and he handed Julian his sword and Dominique's two swords to her.

They were going to train.

The tournament is talked about less than the Hunt by the commoners mostly because The Hunt was a public display and even tho so was the tournament most people watched it on TV and most commoners couldn't afford one. However, to the Royals, the tournament was an intense competition between the houses, and even if two people from the same house went against each other the one with higher status would win.

Each of the Royal families had at least one "champion" and the competition between the Kings was nothing less than intense.

After they left, everyone started to leave as well without saying a word, and eventually, I decided to leave as well.

"Christian. Raymond." My father says looking at them and they leave before me

I head out of the dining room and I was walking around the castle when I found myself near the training grounds so I head there.

I see multiple people training there and my eye moves to Dominique and she was fighting against Amir.

They were truly fighting and they weren't holding back.

Dominique lights her swords on fire and Amir smirks as he copies her and swings at her.

They swing for a restless couple of minutes before Amir sneaks up on her and sends her gliding with a kick.

She was laughing on the floor as she took Amir's hand to stand up. She cleaned herself off and started training all over again.

I look at Julian and he was practicing with King Edmund and from what I'm seeing right now it was an incredibly unfair match. Julian kept getting thrown into the ground and he kept getting back up and just doing it again. He hit the floor around 10 times in just the couple of minutes I was looking.

I look at Dominique and Amir again and this time they were using wooden swords and it looked like Dominique was doing better than before with no fire and just sword fighting normally.

In the end, The last fight with Dominique and Amir with the wooden swords never really ended since they had to stop training and get inside to get ready for the tournament.

Dominique saw me as I tried to get back inside and she ran up to me with a towel around her neck and some servant behind her carrying her swords.

" Were you watching, Your Highness?" she asks politely with a smile

"I caught a glimpse as I was taking a walk, " she laughs

"Oh," she says smirking

"Why did you and Amir change swords at the end?" I ask my curiosity getting the better of me

"Well, I only got my sword a couple of weeks ago at most a month ago and I haven't gotten used to them. They're heavy and... Annoying."

"Annoying?"

"Hmm, it's like they have a mind of their own I guess and they cant talk per se but I can feel them scolding me especially Trinity," she says scratching the back of her neck

"And my sword fighting skills are definitely in way better shape than my Fire skills."

"You won't need your fire to defeat any of them at the tournament, will you?"

"No, No, I don't. I wouldn't want to show the other Royals my Fire magic yet anyway."

"But you showed me"

"That's- well you helped me in the bathroom the other time so I can't really do anything about that," she says reminding me of that time in the bathroom.

She clears her throat

"Anyway, you left early this morning. Is breakfast a normal thing in your family?"

"Hmm yeah normally"

"Really? I didn't expect that from King Raymond."

"It's more of a meeting than a normal family eating breakfast."

"That makes sense," she says as she uses the towel to wipe the sweat off her face and neck

I look at her for a moment before looking away

She walks with me until I'm in front of my room.

"I'll see you later, Princess," she says before leaving me standing there in front of my room.

I get dressed and wear a long red dress

"Are you ready, Your Highness?" Mary asks coming into my room.

"Let's go," I say walking out of my room with her behind me

I  bump into Leo who was just getting out of his room and we walk towards the arena together

We entered the balcony

I sat on my throne and look around.

It was a huge arena where in the middle there were the kings which were obviously the center of attention and then there were other balconies with our thrones in our family's space so It'd be just us in this particular balcony while I can look across and see the Heaths.

This arena wasn't as big as the one used for the Hunt however towering above us were drones and cameras to film the whole thing for civilians.

We waited for everyone to arrive and then a guy walked out into the middle of the arena and started introducing the "champions"

Dominique's POV ~

I was sitting in a big room along with Julian and we were watching the tournament from the TV in the middle of the room.

It was the first round and it was Prince Christopher Of the North vs Prince Wesley of Deriha.

Prince Christopher defeated him in a matter of seconds when he overwhelmed him with strength and Prince Wesley couldn't stop his sword.

Next up was Julian and he was going against Prince Adolfo of Vestudan.

Julian defeated him quickly and without the need to use his sword's power.

During the 3rd round, It was Prince Gabriel of Ginmiri against Mason Ferguson who was the nephew of King Zachariah of Etrus since Etrus had no Princes old enough to participate.

The fight lasted around half an hour and it was a very close battle but Prince Gabriel won when he knocked Mason out after a surprise attack.

It was the fourth and final round and it was me against Oliver Lozano.

"Good luck," Julian said and I smirked at him before leaving the room and entering the arena.

"Shake hands," the Sergeant Marshall told us

Oliver looked at me with disgust and extended his hand.

I took it and we quickly backed away.

"Begin," the Sergeant Marshall said after exiting the arena

We drew our swords and walked slowly and alert towards each other.

Oliver seemed anxious to hit me and I moved my sword forward to start him up.

He swung at me and I swung back.

We just get swinging and hitting fast with end near.

Oliver aimed at my leg but I used Silencer to block him and Trinity to attack him but he quickly moves his sword to block my swing.

"That was dirty," he says and I laugh

"And trying to slash my thigh wasn't?"

He attacks again and I block with both swords and cut his hand.

He backs away and grits his teeth and keeps attacking and backing away, attacking and backing away.

He attacks me once again and goes for my thigh again. This time he goes for my right and once I block he slides to the side and cuts my left thigh cutting my pants and revealing blood on my leg.

I can hear people gasping which really pissed me off

"What? It's only a little cut. Don't tell me you expected to fight in this tournament and walk out like a princess."

I kept quiet because I knew he was right

"No, Princess, if you're going to walk out of here as a Champion you're going to have to dirty your hands a bit," he says and strikes again

I strike back and slice his arms but he only smirks and backs away but comes back quickly and strikes my stomach I block but he doesn't go back instead he keeps striking quickly and so do I.

We back away and I don't look away from him but I can feel the burn of the wound on my arm.

He looks at me and touches his cheek wiping the blood off his face.

"Why don't you use those swords of yours? Maybe then you can get out of this one."

My grip on my swords tightens and I take a deep breath.

I smile at him.

He looks at me intently as he prepares to strike back.

I run to him and quickly change the way my words are going.

He blocks Trinity which was aiming straight for his head and Silencer cuts his side.

He holds it trying to stop the bleeding but i can see i cut deep since the blood was coming out intensely.

I backed away and let him decide what he was going to do next.

"Get the medic, " I heard someone yell

"NO" Oliver yelled and tightened his grip before striking at me.

"You're bleeding a lot," I say pointing out the obvious which annoyed him it seemed because he started aiming for my head and kept trying to stab me.

"You really shouldn't do that, " I said as I blocked an attempted stab and sliced his shoulder.

He swung at me but it was obvious he was struggling.

"Just stop, " I say and back away from his crazy swinging

"Take him, " the Sergeant Marshall said as he ran towards us along with the medics.

At that point, Oliver dropped his sword and was taken away. He wasn't going to die but I knew I was going to get an earful from mother about making another Royal get badly injured one from the country we were currently in no less.

I mean what did they expect? It was a sword-fighting tournament with a bunch of barely legal Royals there would be a bit of blood here and there.

I walked back to the room and took a seat next to Julian.

He helped me patch my shoulder and thigh up before leaving for the 1st round with the winners of the last 5 rounds.

"Good luck, " I say sincerely meaning it as I saw who he was up against.

His Highness, Prince Christopher DuPont, Crown Prince of The North... The Princess's brother.

I turned up the volume so I could hear what they were saying and got comfortable as I finished wrapping up the wounds.

Prince Christopher and Julian had a... Intense past while they attended the Academy together before Prince Christopher graduated 3 years ago.

They clicked swords together before backing away.

They both swung at each other at the same time and they kept swinging and swinging all across the arena.

Julian swung at the Prince but Christopher grabbed Julian's arm and elbowed him in the chest and face making him slide back.

Julian quickly ran back to him and swung and ran past him.

They swung at each other continuously and quickly.

Christopher made a quick move and swing at Julian's feet but Julian jumped over him and Christopher swung at him while he was in the air recovering quickly but Julian blocked it.

They kept going and Julian swung at him and his sword slid across his and got close to his face making Christopher mack away quickly.

They stop and look at each other.

Julian was breathing heavily and his leg had a cut near his ankle which was bleeding pretty bad.

Christopher wiped the blood of the cut on his cheek and smiled at Julian.

Christopher unexpectedly launched towards Julian and swung at him from the side.

Julian ran away and then turned around just in time to block one of Christopher's swings.

They were striking fast and Christopher strikes at Julian's face cutting some of Julian's hair to the side making Julian back away as he continued blocking Christopher's sharp attacks.

Christopher cuts Julian's shoulder making blood splatter across the arena and Julian hits a wall.

Julian strikes back and rushes to get out of Christopher's trap.

Christopher follows him and they start repeatedly striking themselves again until Christopher swings at him and pushes him back with his sword.

Julian pushes back and they get incredibly close pushing each other with their swords in front of each other.

Julian pushes him back and Christopher backs away but Julian doesn't let him let away and swings at his hands making Christopher's sword go flying.

Julian strikes at Christopher,making me jump up.

Christopher grabs Julian's sword and makes Julian fall to the side.

Julian quickly grabs back his sword from the floor and stands back up but Christopher makes another strike to Julian's wound at his shoulder making Julian groan.

The cameras move to Royals up on the balcony and everyone was as anxious and surprised as I was.

The cameras moved back and suddenly Julian said something

"I feel bad for you, really, I do," he said

"Oh really?" Christopher asks and sneers at Julian.

"What are you trying to prove here, Christopher? I see your brother didn't participate but he's there right beside your father and you're here."

Christopher swings at Julian and Julian swings back with equal force. They hold their position like before glaring at each other.

"If you win, you're going to have to humiliate your little sister. Now, what does that say about you?" He says kneeing my brother in the stomach and cutting his cheek with a clean cut as Julian backed away.

"Not good things I suppose but at least I'm not the one wishing we were in a private room right now." my brother says smirking at him

Christopher looks at him for a second before his face changed into fury and Julian swung at him with a hard clank.

Christopher quickly blocked him but Julian pushed harder and Christopher hissed as my brother slid his sword down and cut his hand.

Christopher's sword wobbled and Julian took the opportunity and strikes against it making it fall to the ground.

Julian smirked at the Prince before punching him repeatedly until Christopher whispered something to him and he stopped.

Julian stood up and backed away from Christopher who was still on the ground and as soon as Julian was declared the winner, I ran out of the room and went up to him.

I smacked him in the head.

"Hey!"

"Are you insane?" I asked before pushing him into the room and helped him treat his wounds.

Medics came into our room and one of them checked my wounds just in case and then fixed him up for the final round.

They let me go and I walked back to the arena.

I looked up at Wyatt and he was starring at Gabriel and I chuckled before walking up to Gabriel and clinking swords with him.

"I'm sorry about Oliver, " he said

"No worries, " I say and we back away

Once it began, I took it easy and he struck first.

I blocked and pushed his sword back enough and cut his leg slightly.

He backed away.

I struck him again and again until I cut his hand and he dropped his sword.

"We good?" I asked and he just nodded and raised his hands

I sighed.

The Sergeant Marshall announced me as the winner and then came up to me.

"I'm going to lose next round, aren't I?" I say and he nods

I look up at the kings and at my father who just looked at me apologetically.

I put my swords away and went back to the room.

I looked at Julian and the room felt heavy now.

"I'm sorry, " he says as he walks past me and leaves the room.

"Yeah..." I sigh and follow behind him

We clink swords and back away.

Alright, Dominique, make it believable.

We run towards each other swinging strongly.

We push each other away and he swings at my feet.

I jump and swing at his face while in the air.

I cut his face a little and he grabbed my sword in the air and throws me down.

He swings at me and I hurriedly back away while blocking at the same time.

He backs me into a corner and I use the wall to jump and swing at him from up top.

He blocks me and pushes me away.

I use that opportunity and cut his arm from below.

He swings at me and cuts my shoulder and arm.

I hiss and run towards him and swing.

He pushes back and we hold that position.

We look at each other and he looks at me softly.

That's enough, huh.

"I'm sorry, " he whispers before kneeing me in the gut knocking all the breath out of my lungs and making me pass out.

I wake up in a bed at the clinic.

I stand up and drink the water next to the bed.

I can hear the celebration from in here.

I grit my teeth.

I stand up and leave the clinic.

I walk towards everyone and It gets quiet.

I look at Julian and sigh.

"Congratulations, brother," I say and hug him

"I'm tired, I'm going to bed."

"Dom-"

"I'm fine," I say walking past my father and going back to my room.

I grit my teeth and start ripping the armor off when I suddenly hear a knock at my door.

I sigh.

I open the door and to my surprise, a drunk Princess stood before me.

"Your Highness?" I grab her as she almost falls and she grabs my arms pulling herself up.

I walk her towards my bed and she starts touching my face.

"Princess," I say as she touches my neck and starts unbuttoning my shirt.

"Call me Anastasia," she says

"You're drunk, " I say and push her away slightly

She grabs the hem of my shirt and pulls me to the bed, and gets on top of me

"Princess, Stop," I say as she kisses my cheek then my jawline and starts licking my neck and sucking on it

"No, Stop, you're drunk," I say grabbing her and getting up.

She sighs and closes her eyes on my bed.

Anastasia's POV-

I go to Dominique's room dizzily

"Your Highness?" She grabs me as I was about to fall and I grab her to pull myself up.

Hmm, she smells good.

I start touching her and I begin unbuttoning her shirt

" Princess, " she says

"Call me Anastasia, " she pushes me away and I land on her bed and look at her fully

I pull her into the bed and get on top of her

"Princess, Stop, " I kiss her cheek then her jawline, and start licking her neck and sucking on it

"No, Stop, You're drunk." she pushes me away and gets up.

I don't want to though...

I close my eyes and fall asleep.

Dominique's POV -

I button my shirt up and grab the princess.

I carry her to her room and bump into Her Majesty, Queen Lillian. Her mother.

"Is that-?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. She's-"

"It's okay, you guys are friends you don't have to explain. She ran away from us a while back and we couldn't find her. Thank you for bringing her back in this manner." she says politely

I just nod at her and open her room and put her in her bed.

She tries to pull me back by grabbing my shirt but I push her hand away and cover her with a blanket.

I leave her room and go back to mine.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day...

*_*

Y'all I'm so mad at how sucky the last few chapters came out like the chapters for the Hunt and stuff were supposed to be cool ass chapters with like fighting or whatever but I'm hella tired to write rn and I suck at describing stuff.

I did get most of the main points I wanted to get out tho but I was not in the mood to write that much just for like a tournament that didn't really have a point but that's just me being lazy.

I'll probably come back and make it better when I edit this story whenever the hell I do that.

Oh also I'm so sorry I took so long to update I just started spring break so hopefully, I'll have time to update a lot.

I hope y'all enjoyed ~

~K❤️