Chapter 13 Hierarchy
The voice of a man who had just entered silenced everyone. Those who had been laughing at the oppression unfolding before their eyes immediately shut their mouths tightly.
A tall, sturdy young man with dark brown hair walked toward them, with several men and women following behind him.
"Y-Your Highness?" People called him His Highness. He stared coldly at Mariah, who still refused to release her grip, and Nami, who was nearly choking to death.
"Stop that, are you trying to kill her?"
Realizing that the person speaking to her was a king's son, Mariah was forced to stop him. No matter how influential her father was in politics, the king and his family were no match for him.
"Forgive me, Your Highness!" Mariah said forcefully.
"Hey, Mary, why are you apologizing? Just go ahead, strangle her to death if necessary!" George snapped angrily. He shot the prince a vicious glare, as if he didn't care about his social status.
Everyone in the room was watching them, everyone thinking this was getting interesting. Although George, Mariah, Isabella, Colin, Morgan, and Dean had been here for six months, there was very little interaction between George and the prince, as if the prince didn't care much about George's presence, which almost everyone considered a threat. In contrast, George was always observing the movements of the king's second son.
"You ordered someone to kill someone else in a place where you will be trained to hunt monsters that threaten humanity?"
"Why not? I think this place should select those worthy of becoming Yeagers. If weaklings who can't even fight fellow humans are there, how can they be trusted to fight monsters? Isn't that right, Your Highness, Grand Prince Jacob Konstantonides of Evangelia?" George said with a strong air of challenge.
Prince Jacob glanced at Nami, who was still trying to catch her breath. His eyes widened, as if he had seen her somewhere before.
"That girl?" he thought. He remembered seeing her two weeks ago when he and his personal driver were going somewhere. The girl who lifted his car with one hand without difficulty, only to find her loose change rolling under the car.
"Weakling? I doubt someone who can lift a car with just one hand is weak. But why isn't she trying to fight back?" he thought. He didn't know what was really going on here, but he hated seeing a group of strong people using their power to bully the weak.
"Are you guys espers?" he tried to ask, even though he already knew.
"Aren't you the same, Your Majesty? I'm impressed you were able to escape ERI so easily just because you're the king's son. Isn't the system in this country incredibly unfair?"
"You can be here right now and flaunt your parents' power and position because of that unfair system, right? I'm sure your brain hasn't had a control chip implanted since you were little, allowing you to act freely without fear of being caught, dragged to a laboratory, and subjected to research. You should be grateful for that system, George," he said calmly as he walked away from the crowd.
"Tch, damn it!" George cursed in annoyance. But there was nothing he could do at the moment.
Prince Jacob stopped in his tracks after realizing he'd forgotten something. He turned back and looked at Nami, who remained silent.
"You? What's your name?" Prince Jacob asked.
"I-I'm Her Highness?" Mariah said confidently.
"Not you, but the girl you strangled. What's your name?"
"N-Nami, Nami Ziegler."
"Nami, huh? Okay." She walked away after getting the brief answer she wanted. Nami still didn't realize she'd just spoken to a royal. She wasn't really following their conversation because she was busy catching her breath after being strangled, which made her feel like she was being wrapped in a snake.
"Nami, come on? Are you okay? How about we take you to the clinic first?" Sydney asked, still feeling guilty and assuming she was the one who made Mariah so angry that she strangled Nami.
"There's a red mark on your neck; you should put a compress on it!"
"I'm fine, it'll go away. By the way, I'm really hungry, can we eat now?" Nami recovered quickly and acted as if nothing had happened.
Although the strangulation marks on her neck were still clearly visible, the pain was barely noticeable. She took a seat, her eyes widening at the delicious food already laid out on the table. She regretted the nonsense that had occurred a few minutes earlier, which had delayed the arrival of these delicious foods.
"Amazing, the food is just like in a restaurant!" she muttered, almost drooling.
"Nami, do you want some grilled chicken—" Before Sydney could finish her sentence, Nami quickly snatched the grilled chicken from the plate.
There were six pieces of grilled chicken, equal to the number of people seated. The three young men sitting in front of her were at a loss for words as their share of the grilled chicken was snatched away so easily.
Meanwhile, Lea and Sydney were too shocked to stop her. They had no idea that in this day and age, there were still women who didn't care about anything around them while eating.
"Nami, are you really hungry?"