My Covert Bodyguard

42: 16 and Unskilled

When I got back to my room, I was utterly exhausted. I peeled off my clothes and jumped into my beautiful shower, and slipped into comfortable clothes. I was ready to curl up into my bed, but then someone knocked at my door. I couldn't think of anyone other than Ollie or Melissa coming to my room, so I padded over to let them in.

But when I opened the door, it was my great aunt Helen. I was embarrassed to be seeing her while I wore my light pink night gown.

"Hello, Cassandra. Do you mind if we have a few words?"

"Uh, no. Please, come inside." I said, and we sat at a little table with delicate white chairs that resembled leaves growing on it.

"So for the next few days we will take it easy, because you must still be exhausted from jetlag and this sudden change in lifestyle. But soon it will all become routine to you."

I nodded along, not exactly knowing what she had come here for.

"Starting next week, after your training you will come back to this room and study with me, or with a tutor. We are very aware of how you have not even graduated high school yet, and we can't have an undereducated woman be our next leader."

I nodded in understanding, though I almost groaned at her words. I was going to be tired all the time if I had such a hard schedule of training and studying.

"Of course, your education will be a priority over training, so we don't expect you to train as hard as all the other trainees. We just wanted you to get to know and have respect for the people here working with you, and to gain physical strength and skill. Though Roselle may not seem like it, leaders of the Scarlett Legion often take action themselves, and that requires you to be able to defend yourself."

"You call it the Scarlett Legion too." I commented randomly, though I had understood well what she had told me.

She laughed nostalgically. "Yes, well it was still called that until I was 7. Old habits die hard, I suppose."

I was actually surprised with how recent the Scarlett Legion became called the Shadow Legion. 

"Along with the name changing, our teaching changed as well." She said, sighing.

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, we used to be more public-minded, but now, we are so exclusive to our family and the little people who are with us. We used to be heroes, now we are talked about like villains."

I listened carefully, and my opinion on my great-aunt slowly started changing. Maybe she wasn't completely terrible, and she was conservative in a better way than I thought.

"But the Curtis Society has been enemies forever, right?" I asked, knowing I could be stepping on a land mine.

"Yes, but the rivalry has...changed. Before we were considered outlaws who stole for the lower class. The Curtis Society were closely associated with the government, and therefore forced to try to take down the Shadow Legion. Now, well, we have become, corrupt, almost. Stealing, killing, kidnapping relentlessly. And we do not give away what we take anymore."

With her words, I could now officially tell she wanted to change the Shadow Legion, to restore the old ways. And I almost definitely knew she was the person who had been convincing Roselle to bring me here, so I can be the savior to this Legion. It would make sense too, to bring me—someone connected to the Office, someone uninfluenced yet by the Legion—so much as to forcefully decline any other option as an heir. Not Ollie, not any of my cousins, not someone extremely capable from outside of the family. Me. Because I was connected to the Office, the Curtis Society, and she believed I had the power to overthrow the corrupt ways of the Shadow and to bring back the Scarlett.