As they moved out the house, Ciel moved quickly. Kou following behind him.
"Hey, where are we going?"
"We? I'm going to make an announcement. You're just following."
They moved faster and Ciel got to the middle of the clan. He casted a rock spell and elevated himself by a couple meters. He then cleaned his throat.
"Everyone who can hear me! Fellow clan members, I, Ciel Voldrald, have returned as your prince! Tell everyone, I mean everyone to come in front of the Voldrald Mansion at 2 P.M! I repeat..."
Ciel, repeated himself twice. After that, he got down from the rock and started walking along with Kou. But, through the crowd, a rotten tomato hit his head.
"What the... Seriously?"
A voice from the crowd rose up.
"For ten years you have been missing, now you dare call yourself our prince?!"
Another voice was heard. "Yeah! You're brave for coming back here, kid!"
"You think we're just going to welcome you back here? Go back to wherever you came from!"
The crowd agreed on one thing. Ciel was not their prince. The people of the clan started throwing whatever they had at him. Fruits, vegetables, stones, and more. Ciel had to run.
"What I said still stands. Come to the mansion at 2 P.M!" He yelled, before both of them hid inside a store then got out the back door.
"That didn't go as well as you thought, did it?"
"Don't... Don't even start."
***
"Father, are you really going to accept Ciel as the next head?"
"Obviously. We have no other choice, daughter."
"You can't do this to me! I've been here as the rightful heir for 27 years! Almost three decades. Where as he? He hasn't been here for ten years! Now he comes back, acting like he's all tough shit and you give him the crown just like that?!"
"What are you talking about, daughter? He's going to be the next head after you. You think I will just make him the head because he's a man?"
Aria was silenced with that. "I... I'm sorry I raised my voice. Thank you."
"But, also to satiate the clan, I will design a competition."
"...What competition? Between me and Ciel?"
"You'll see..."
Around 2 P.M, about a hundreds of clan members were gathered right in front of the Voldrald Mansion. Not there because Ciel told them to come, but there to confront Everard about Ciel being the prince. The guards were barely holding them back.
"Let us through! We have to talk to the clan head. That kid cannot be the prince!"
"Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can change the mind of The Crimsonblade?!"
The guards and the people of the clan kept arguing. While that was going on, Kou and Ciel just hopped off the stone walls of the clan into the front yard, landing between the field of flowers and grass. There, Everard and Aria were also coming out of the mansion.
Everard and Ciel stared at each other for a second, Aria had a confident look in her eyes and her smirk.
Everard, stopped the guards and got out of the borders.
"Listen, everybody. Every member of the clan. I know you are not accepting my carefree son as the next head of the clan, so am I. And I know neither decision will satisfy you. But I have an announcement to make."
The voices coming out of the crowd were silent, curiously listening to the clan head. They gave him more room and Everard took a few steps further out, Aria followed him.
"The strongest members of my clan, hear me! I will make a competition that will last three days. If any and I mean any of you can defeat my daughter, you will be the next head of the clan. But if neither of you manage to defeat her, she will be the next clan head."
The flash of the news went through Ciel's eyes deep into his soul and sunk there like a dead body in the ocean. Did they seriously just disregard his existence?
Kou couldn't help but let out a chuckle and cling to Ciel while laughing. Ciel pushed him away and walked towards his father, standing next to his sister.
"Real good one, guys. You almost got me to laugh."
"What are you still doing here? Should you not be out there, looking for the map?"
"Not before you explain me what you just did now."
"It was pretty clear, Ciel. You don't need clarification. And if you do, I'm sure your friend heard it well." Aria adjusted her stance. She was expecting this kind of reaction from her brother, regardless of what would have happened.
"Look, sis, I know you think I'm being sexist or selfish...-"
"I do not care, Ciel."
Failing to put things back into place, Ciel was put into his place. He didn't have a response, before he could think of one, both his sister and father went back to the mansion. He wanted to scream and burn the whole place down! But that's something an idiot would do...
"So, when are we leaving?"
"Tomorrow."
"Shouldn't we be in a hurry?"
"Oh, I'm in a hurry, alright. You just need to sit back, relax, and watch as I get things done. The professional way."
Kou didn't understand what Ciel meant, but it was obvious, Ciel had something in his mind. He didn't even bother trying to change up his mind, or ask any further details.
The rest of the day would go on as normal. Ciel disappeared, though where he was remained a mystery to everyone. Aria came by and asked Kou why they hadn't leaved yet, she couldn't learn anything. So Kou, resorted to his old ways. Did things he knew the best way, he learnt the best way from Ciel, and bummed off.
In the middle of the night, Ciel did come back to the mansion, just to sleep. But in the morning, he disappeared quicker than anyone had woken up. In the afternoon, bunch of people were waiting in order in front of the mansion gates. Muscular and confident men. They all had their weapons.
"Look, the princess might believe we need to change order of things here, which maybe she is right, but she's not the right person to change things."
"I know, dude. That's why I'm here."
"Do you think Crimsonblade's gone soft? His daughter can't take his place."
"I think he's just treating his daughter nicely, for some reason. Hah, old man."
Loud voices from the order came out, it could be heard from a mile away. The men kept arguing and talking to each other while they waited for the time to arrive. Some of them started to think the clan head chickened out and was stalling them.
"Hey, what the hell are we waiting for?!"
"They're stalling, can't you see?!"
"They're just holding us off, while the throne gets colder..."
"We've been here for two hours, for gods' sakes!"
The guards were struggling to hold off the sheer crowd again. It wouldn't take them long to be angered. They were like bulls, trying to pierce the walls made by the guards.
Past 3 P.M, Aria stepped out the mansion with a wooden staff in her hand. The staff was almost as long as a pike and had cushions on each side. From far away, she signaled the guards to let the crowd in.
"Finally. Lookie here, Princess. I'm not gonna hold back, okay? So don't go crying to daddy after the first strike!"
The man grabbed a wooden sword from the side, he had his shirt torn apart, his muscles bulging. But it only made an easier target for Aria. She didn't respond, only waved at him to come at her.
The man smirked and ran towards Aria like a raging bull, aiming to strike her in the head and knock her out with the wooden sword. Using it not as a prop for a lethal weapon, but as a primitive club. However, elegancy and patience proves to be better than being a caveman.
Aria shoves the staff in her hands at the man, hitting him right in the face with the cushioned tip. However, the cushion is not enough to make the strike weak. As the man rolls downward to the ground, unconscious.
Aria then fixes her hair and stares back at the wave of men. Who seem to be intimidated by that show displayed by Aria. Some of them back out, but one of them stands out and steps through the gates, grabbing another sword from the walls.
"So what, just because she knocked out that idiot, we're just gonna back out? You cowards."
He rushes forward, holding the sword properly, as opposed to the man before himself. Aria does not speak or react, she just waits patiently. Waits for the man to come within enough reach. She then winds up her attack and strikes the man on the neck, throwing him down as well.
However, this guy seems to be more persistent. While falling down, he throws the wooden sword toward Aria. She catches the sword with her free hand, but the man gets up and goes lower. He tries to grapple her by the thighs and throw her over.
But Aria, grabbing the sword by the wooden blade, smashes the hilt on the man's head and knocks him out as well. She then drops the wooden prop and walks away from the man's unconscious body.
"This challenge is going to last three days, you know. I can do this all day and more, so come at me!" Aria announces. The men at the gates are hurt in their prides, but they are not going to back down so easily.
With a rage unlike any other, about thirty men charge through the gates into the front yard of the mansion. They grab any weapon left and also the weapon dropped by the previous men, attacking Aria with all their fury and might.
***
Hours pass and a mountain of unconscious bodies are laid into the front yard like a pile of snow, Aria standing in front of the bodies. She sighs. "What a disappointing contest..."
Even if all the men attacked her all at once, they could not take her out. And it is proven by the fact that a mountain of them are piled up in the front yard. "Take these men home." Aria says to the guards before heading back inside the mansion.
Luckily, Kou was there to witness the rest of the show, watching all the men falling in front of Aria. He was in awe with her strength. But also afraid of what she could do to him and anyone he has seen. Maybe she was even stronger than Ciel!
Kou didn't have enough courage to ask anything about the day to Aria, he simply waited for her to get back into the mansion before he himself doing so. One wrong word and she'd knock him out too...
Even after that event, Ciel was still nowhere to be seen.
The next day went the same way as yesterday. Ciel wasn't present and in the afternoon, a lesser, but still a lot, amount of men came to the gates. Only to be beaten brutally by Aria until the evening, and she would head back inside mansion after beating them.
So did the next day happen the same way, but an even lesser bunch of men were there by the third day. Little did Aria, Kou and everyone else knew, the last day of the challenge would be a lot different from the previous days.
It would go the same way, until Aria had defeated all the men once again, putting an end to the challenge, automatically declaring her to be the next head of the clan. But after the pile of bruised and unconscious bodies were cleared from the front yard, another man would step in and through the gates.
Ciel, had his hands in his pockets, as he walked inside the front yard. His sister was about to head back into the mansion, still without a drop of sweat on her. "You thought it would be that easy? You thought you just won the throne now?" He stepped forth, without a weapon in hand.
"Disregarding my feelings and reputation aside, I took it personal, sis. You just had to be better than me in some way, you just couldn't handle the fact that I could have been the next head."
"What are you talking about, Ciel?" Aria said, turning towards her little brother. "You will be the next head, after me."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure. The competition is not over yet. In fact... I'd argue it's starting just now."
Aria scoffed. "Don't make me laugh." She gets into a stance, holding her staff close. While Kou approached closer and watched from the roof of the mansion. "Fine, I'll humor you."
Aria was ready for Ciel's attack, and so was Ciel ready for his older sister. "The competition might be beginning right now, but I assure you younger brother, it's going to end sooner than you expect."