The woman waited for the prince to shut up before speaking. "We did plan on negotiating first, your highness," she said. "We were ready to comply with their demands to save you."
"What?" the prince finally calmed a little. "You were ready to comply?"
"Yes," she said. "We had even brought the gems the terrorists demanded to rescue you."
"What?" the prince's eyes perked up. "You have the gems? Show me."
"Unfortunately I can't, your highness. Senior Tim has the gems and he's outside of the zoo. You can ask him yourself later," Fiona said.
"You didn't bring them here? Were you not planning to give it to them in the first place?" the prince asked.
"We were planning to start with the negotiations first, your highness, but they never came out to negotiate anything. After noticing something was wrong, I sneaked in to see what was going on along with Jamir."
"That was when we saw that young man fighting with the others all by himself. We were planning to return once the kid died, but… who would've thought that he alone would destroy all of the terrorists," she said.
"There are more," Ning spoke from the side.
"Sorry?" the lady was taken aback.
"There are more terrorists in the zoo. They are merely henchmen, but they should be keeping hostage of the other visitors in the zoo," Ning said.
"I see," the lady said. She looked towards the kid and said, "go deal with them."
The young man nodded and ran away. The lady watched the kid leave and turned to ask. "Who are you, kid? To defeat all of these terrorists by yourself, you aren't an ordinary staff, are you?" she asked.
"Well, I guess you could say that," Ning said. "Since the prince is safe with you, I will go look at the other staff members."
"Ah, I'm afraid I can't let you do that," the lady said. "Please stick around so we can question you a bit."
Ning stopped and turned around. "I don't see what you could possibly ask me that you won't be able to ask the prince himself," Ning said.
The lady looked at the prince and then back at him. "Sure, we could, but… I saw things that the prince won't be able to explain. So… please stick around," she said.
Ning could hear the forced politeness in her voice. He could tell that she was trying her best to sound as polite as she could.
He sighed. "Fine, ask me what you want. I'll see if I can answer it," he said.
"Great," Fiona said. "Let's start with your name then."
"My name is Ning Ruogong," Ning said.
"I see, Ning," she said. "What's your rank?"
"Sorry?" Ning was taken aback. He thought the lady would ask him age or something next, but she skipped them.
"What's your rank? Your aether rank," she asked.
"It's… I don't have to answer that," Ning said.
The lady looked at him directly in the eye for a few moments and sighed, "okay, then can you explain how you single-handedly beat so many terrorists that bested the guards we put on the prince?" she asked.
"That's easy," Ning said. "It's because I'm strong."
The lady stopped. "You're strong, huh? How strong?" she asked.
Ning chuckled. "Do you have any other questions?"
"Yes, one last one. Why did you put your life in danger to save the prince? Do you fancy yourself a hero?" she asked.
"A hero? Me?…" Ning thought. "No, I wouldn't call myself that." His face turned solemn, even a little sad. "If anything, I fail where heroes succeed. I'm no hero. I'm just a guy who saw a chance to get close to the royal family and took it."
"You… want to get close to the royal family?" the lady asked. "Is there… any reason?"
"Yes," he said. "I'm friends with your princess that just returned home. I was supposed to be her bodyguard, but mister Tim kicked me out because… I wasn't worthy. I'm just trying to show him that he was wrong."
The lady was genuinely surprised at the answer. "That… that information hasn't been publicized yet. Are you genuinely friends with the princess?" she asked.
"You can go ask her, or her husband, or even just mister Tim who you say is outside," Ning said.
"I will. This is an important piece of information so I will have to report it nonetheless," she said.
Ning heard sounds from to his right and saw the kid named Jamie to return. His short, one-handed sword had blood in it now.
"Are you done?" the lady asked.
The kid nodded.
"Did you only attack the terrorists?" she asked.
The kid nodded.
"Any casualties?" she asked.
The kid shook his head.
"Good. It seems everyone is safe and the terrorists are dead. Our job here is done. Let's go, prince," she said and made him walk.
She walked ahead of him and made Jamie walk behind the prince. Just before they reached far away, she turned one last time to look at Ning who was also going his own way.
She smiled a little, maybe even crazily. She was looking forward to something, which the prince seemed to be very familiar with.
'Goddammit!' he thought. The entire experience he had today was horrible. All the plans he had made since many days ago were totally ruined.
"Sigh, I'm tired," he said and walked out.
Fiona met up with Tim and explained to him everything she saw in there.
"Are you sure? That Ning kid defeated the terrorists?" he asked.
"Yes, and… " she got close to him to whisper, "he also knew about the princess's return. He said he was her bodyguard?"
"Yes," Tim said. "Sigh, I hope I didn't make a mistake by sending him away when he was so eager to work with us. He said he would come to the royal family, but at this point, I'm not sure anyway."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, senior," Fiona said as a wild smile appeared on her face.. "Even if he doesn't want to, I will make him come."
