-- Lilith POV --

  "Hey demon!", someone shouted in her language and she had to look around where that had come from. A man stood on a podium with a table. Was that the one who had shouted?

  "Yes you, demon! They say you are strong. Are you?" The man pointed at her.

  She bowed down to the princess, "Princess Lisa, what am I supposed to do?"

  "Go with it. It's part of the show. I'll be with you." Princess Lisa looked quite seriously at her.

  "Hey Demon! Do you need to ask for permission first?", the man was challenging her.

  She stood tall and gave the man a curt nod, "As a matter of fact, yes. I am a servant of the royal family!"

  "So, how strong are you demon?" The man shouted again.

  "Why do you want to know that?" She shouted back.

  "I want to challenge you for an arm wrestling duel. Right now. Right here." He pointed to the table several times.

  She looked down at the princess and received a nod, "Go. I'll be right behind you."

  She looked at the man and shouted, "Better hope your bones won't break!", and walked slowly towards the podium with the table, hopefully slow enough that Princess Lisa could follow gracefully.

  "Ha, you wish. Come on! Right now, right here." He clapped his hands.

  Two others quickly assembled stairs leading up to the podium. This had clearly been prepared. And the princess had said it was part of the show, so it was probably alright.

  She reached the stairs looked at the princess and received another nod which she took as indication to go on. She took another step forward from the stairs once she reached the podium so that Princess Lisa chould either stand behind her or at her side.

  "I'm here." She stood taller than the man, but that was no surprise with the plateau-hooves that Princess Lisa had strapped to her feet. Maybe the things were good for something now. At least for an intimidating pose.

  "Chairs!" The man commanded and the helpers who had set up the stairs before now hurried to bring two chairs.

  "Good, let's get started." The man took seat and set up his right arm for the wrestling pose.

  She took seat as well and was about to grasp the mans hand when she felt a tug on the leash, "Lilith, wait."

  She tried to turn towards princess Lisa but was stopped with words, "Don't turn. Look forward."

  A bit confused she look at the man again who seemed to stare right past her side. Then she felt the back of her blouse lifted, the laces of the corsage loosened and then the back of her blouse arranged properly again, "Now you can breathe. Make it a good show Lilith."

  "Give the man a chain glove. From our guards. I'm afraid my claws will shred his hand if this gets hot", she asked the princess.

  "Guards! A chain glove for the man!" The princess was not shy to shout either.

  She watched how one of the guards came up the stairs just to see how Princess Lisa took position behind her and now very demonstratively held the leash, rather short and for everyone to see.

  So she was the princess' monster now, held on the short leash before the fight. This had quite certainly been arranged before. Or the princess was great at improvising.

  She turned to the man again who had now a chain glove on his right hand and she reached to wrap her clawed fingers around his hand. He looked her into the eyes. She looked back.

  "Rules. Second hand at the side of the table. On the go, push the opponents hand down. No spitting, no headbutting. Once the opponent is defeated you stop and give their hand free."

  She grasped the side of the table and dug her claws into the wood which cracked and splintered at the edge. The man seemed to notice the sound and seemed to pale some, "Ready?"

  "Ready."

  "Go!" One of the assistants screamed and the crowd around them began to cheer.

  First she just held her hand in the starting position, to get a better feeling of this. The man was strong undoubtedly and tried to put all his weight into the move, soon the veins on his head and neck were swelling, his face turned red from the strain and she gave a little way. Not so much that he could get an advantage in leverage, just to give him a feeling of progress and the visitors something to see before she tried to push back. He was panting, fighting, again and again throwing his weigth into the move, but she definitely had more endurance, even if not that much power. One moment, he had lost a bit of focus and she took the chance to press his hand down onto the table with force. He screamed and for a moment she was worried she had broken his arm and let go.

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  He held his upper arm with a painful grimace. Then blood began to drop from his wrist. Shit. Even with the glove her claws had cut him. What to do now?

  "Lilith, get up. Raise your hand. Celebrate. Face the crowd. The people need a winner" Princess Lisa's voise was a mere hiss, but she immediately got up and rose her right fist towards the sky, "Show your fangs", Princess Lisa hissed again, probably still holding the leash quite short.

  The crowd cheered. She smiled and showed her fangs openly, pushed her hand up into the sky. She didn't feel like shouting though, but dutifully showed a big toothy smile.

  Another wave of cheers.

  Then the man appeared at her side. She took his left hand and rose that too. Then lifted him up as well, once she was certain her stance was stable enough.

  The crowd was fair and cheered for him as well and she let him stand on his own feet again.

  She eventually bowed down to him, and they shook hands.

  "Demon what are you made of? Stone?" He inquired, still somewhat out of breath.

  "Sometimes I think so. You fought well. How's your hand?" She nodded in direction of his hand.

  "It will heal. You made a good show."

  She smiled and gave him a light headbutt with her horns, just to have to catch him before he could collapse. "Hey! Don't get weak now."

  "Stone. Definitely stone", she heard him and helped him into one of the chairs.

  "Lilith, lift me onto your shoulder," Princess Lisa demanded, while she was still concerned about the man but he quickly regained his composure.

  Just lifting the princress seemed inappropriate to her. There had to be a more dignified way to do this.

  She put one knee down and offered her hands to use as step for Princess Lisa, "Step up, sit on my shoulder. I'll lift you."

  Eventually she had to carry the princess once around the podium while the crowd cheered for them. It seemed the princess was quite popular, and even more so with a 'tamed' demon at her service.

  She received some pats to a horn, "Good Lilith, now set me down again."

  "Will your mother be ok with this?", she felt concerned. Last time she had carried Princess Lisa, queen Zabeth had been quite angry about the display.

  "Yes, this is what she wants to see. Also good that you said you are a servant to royal family. Everyone on the square heard that and saw you. Now you belong to us. The people will trust you." Princess Lisa had a quite professional smile on her face.

  "And I want you to carry me more often." This was now a genuine smile.

  "If your mother is alright with it, I can do that", she smiled back at the princess.

  "The palace has a private park section too. It is very nice. I'll bring you there some day soon. But now I need you to stand so I can get your clothes into a proper state again, and then we'll watch the other craftsman contests"

  Princess Lisa certainly was very fashion-conscious but it didn't take long till they could continue their walk in the reinstated invisible bubble. Sawing contests were going. Contests for speed, for precision, and to her surprise contests about who could cut wood at any announced length without measuring just by guessing. Some of the men were surprising good at that.

  She'd guess they had spent another hour or two on the fair when Princess Lisa decided to escort her back to her cell, where she was now, and also back into her usual prison clothes, the jewelry still on her table though. She had to smirk at the thought. It seemed her cell was secure enough to keep a good weight of a metal that was allegedly more valuable than gold without any further anti-theft measures.

  Which was probably true. Past the cascaded doors directly leading to her cell, she had counted seven more doors, most of them usually locked.

  The wooden door to the room with her cell was opened, one of the few that seemed to remain unlocked most of the time, and Sir Frederik entered and went through the procedure of openening and locking the two staged doors. She greeted him, "Good day Sir Frederik. What brings you here?"

  "Good news I guess. First I have a rune reference book for you." He moved her jewelry a bit to the side and placed the tome on her table, "I hope it's good enough. If you find something missing, let me know and I'll see if I can get another one that suits you better."

  She picked up the tome to get a feeling for it, "It's not as powerful as the tome that John had, but it feels good to me. Doesn't want to bite me or burn me. It's a good book."

  Sir Frederik looked confused, "Books wanted to bite you?"

  "Yeah, in the monastery where I was before I met John, they had holy books. Those are bad beasts. I could hardly touch some of them." Not to mention that malevolent figurine which had tried to eat her fingers.

  He smirked, "Good to know this one is better for you. Other good news. The forge is ready and was test fired yesterday. We have four blacksmith candidates who are willing to work with you. They all have been thoroughly vetted and the royals consider them suitable. Originally it had been five candidates and one was sorted out."

  "What will happen now?"

  "After the midday meal they will be brought here one by one. You'll talk to them, I'll be there to listen in and take minutes. In the end, Queen Zabeth will decide, but her decision will be based on what I write down, so if you have a strong preference, let me know." he explained the plan.

  "Sounds good. Sir Frederik, I'll also need paper, an ink well and a brush for calligraphy so that I can practise runes", she let him know.

  "Of course. I'm sorry that I didn't think of it", he seemed to be actually sorry.

  "And another thing, will the walks with Princess Lisa continue? And for how long?"

  "They will continue as long as Princess Lisa wants them to happen. I can tell she is very fond of them, and my assumption is that it will become a daily ritual except when the princess has other, more pressing duties."

  No escape from the fashion show then. Before she could spin that thought further, Sir Frederik added, "Also, Princess Lisa has requested that you'll be transferred to her quarters. The first request was that you are supposed to become her bodyguard and when her mother declined that because there are better bodyguards available, she requested you as playmate."

  "Playmate?" She hardly could believe.

  "Yes. I haven't gotten any further updates on the issue, but Princess Lisa seems determined to get you to her quarters in some way, regardless by what justification or reasoning. Queen Zabeth though wants you here, particularly since the new forge was built nearby just so you can work there."

  "I think I rather want to focus on interviewing the blacksmiths now", she tried to escape that one topic. "After the midday meal, you say?"