«Kyre?» the guard repeated. «That Kyre?»

«As far as I know, there is a single family with the right to use a land's name as a family name,» the child next to him replied before I had time to add anything. «We're in front of his highness, the Archduke. What a coincidence!»

The guards couldn't be sure about my identity, so he kept his sword raised, but he stepped back.

«Is there anything that could prove it?» he asked.

I threw him my ring with house Kyre's sigil. I had brought it with me, leaving Countess de Ruis a medallion with the same pattern.

It would have been too brave to leave everything in Stoneyard since I couldn't predict what could have happened.

It was the right decision since I was stopped from returning home for years.

«This is indeed house Kyre's coat of arms,» the little girl stated after looking at it for a moment.

She then turned to me and curtseyed flawlessly.

«It's a pleasure to meet your highness. My name is Elisabeth Grahm. The Duke is my grandfather, and my father is his first son, Count Grahm.»

«I didn't know I stepped in your territory, little lady,» I explained. «I'm travelling south, and I'm in a hurry. I wouldn't have passed here without greeting or at least warning your grandfather.»

Elisabeth observed me in a daze for a moment, and then she nodded with a solemn gaze.

«Please, come to have dinner with us, at least! It won't slow you too much, hopefully. The night is close, and you can sleep under a roof. You won't travel in the dark, will you?»

That little girl was insistent, but her reasons weren't so wrong. After all, sleeping in a warm place is for sure better than outside.

Not to mention that the coachman might have been in some trouble.

We left a guard to wait for my soldier, and the little girl showed me the way towards Count Grahm's residence.

I found out a lot about her. She was eleven, a year younger than my Queen. She used to play with her little sister and cousins at the river quite often.

She also made some polite questions, so I was forced into a conversation.

«Father, you can't guess who we met by the river!» she shouted when she was the Count from a distance. She ran to him, excited from all the events that interrupted her boring day.

«What are you talking about, Elisabeth,» he started.

When his eyes spotted me, he immediately realised.

«Your highness,» he greeted with a slight bow. «What a surprise.»

«Indeed, a surprise for the both of us,» I said. «I wasn't aware that I stopped on your land, Count Grahm.»

«Oh, please, come inside. You must have travelled for quite a lot.»

My appearance indeed was that of a tired vagabond.

«I parted this morning, actually. I'm in a hurry, but it seems it was the wrong day to start a long journey.»

«Are you headed to the border?»

«Yes, I am.»

«We all heard of your ideas for the western war. Ethiro is lucky that his youth is so talented.»

«Oh, it was all a combination of good luck and competent leaders. All I did was suggest a few moves.»

«The right moves, indeed. The Emperor must value you a lot if he has already sent you to another front.»

«I hope so,» I nodded.

As if I cared for that old madman's opinion. As long as he didn't send me to Polis, I would have continued stacking achievements for him.

«Also, we heard that letters are flocking to Stoneyard with proposals for engagements. Which lucky lady will become your wife?»

«I don't have time right now,» I shrugged. I didn't know anything about those letters.

The Countess focused her short missives on the relevant matters, and I certainly wasn't looking for a wife.

Well, I was. But I already knew who my wife was going to be.

«But you should start looking around,» the Count smirked.

Around where?

«Elisabeth, you can play your favourite song,» he then added, turning to his daughter.

Oh, looking there.

How sick, why would I feel attracted to a child? Didn't he feel a bit ashamed by advertising his own daughter like this?

The little girl, oblivious to the power games around her, just walked to the piano in a corner and started playing. Her quick fingers didn't have rest, and she even started singing around half the song.

Now that I thought about it, I had to remind the Countess not to stress my sister like this. There was no need for her to learn how to play songs. The amount of effort a child needs to reach that level is unhuman.

Parents can be ruthless at times.

Who knows how many hours of playing alone, or, even worse, with a strict teacher, were needed to become this proficient? How many tears, and how many injured fingers?

I felt sorry for Elisabeth Grahm at that moment. She wasn't at any fault for all of that.

«Wonderful,» I commented when she was done.

She had turned to me in search of approval, her eyes wide, her lips split in hope. Children of that age certainly look for praise.

The following morning, I left for the front. Weirdly, I felt relieved to walk out of that place.

The rest of the journey continued without interruptions, luckily.

I had to remember not to stop for breaks on the Grahm's land on the way back. I was planning to simply pass there and invite Lyana over to Stoneyard.

The war on the south-western border had been going on for months. If I didn't interfere, it would have taken Ethiro three years to sedate the revolution in preparation.

I didn't have all that time. Also, three years meant an awful amount of victims. I'm sure my Queen wouldn't have been pleased by my complicity in the massacre. I had to resist for a few more years.

Nine, if my memories didn't betray me. Then, I would have been sent to her.

She was going to win in a few more years. Coincidentally, in three years.

I couldn't wait for the meeting with his majesty, where he would ask me if I was willing to be exchange goods for my country's peace.

«Your highness, we've been trying to break their defences for weeks, but they won't concede even a millimetre. The front has been along this line for the whole time.»

«Mhm, all right,» I nodded. The person asking me was a general, but he was rather young. What happened to the elders?

Oh, a plague.

A clouded memory passed in my head, and I understood why it took Ethiro three years to get it over with that mass of farmers.

A plague was going to spread through the camp, and the first to fall in bed and die were going to be the elder generals.

«Are they ill?» I asked.

The man winced, surprised and confused.

«Who, your highness?» he asked.

«The generals.»

«They can't get out of bed, but they don't show any symptoms.»

Ah? I didn't know that... No symptoms?

«Where do we take the water from?» I inquire. «The river?»

«Yes, for the horses. Our water, though, comes from the well.»

«Bring some of that water to the horses,» I ordered. «Now. And tell me if they don't want to drink.»

Who took care of that army, for goodness?

After hearing, with no surprise, that the horses refused to drink, I ordered not to fetch water from the well anymore.

«Just boil that from the river. Also, periodically check if it's clean.»

«How to check?» the man whispered, confused and surprised by my weird decisions.

«With the horses,» I shouted. «Now, go! We don't have time. After poisoning the water, they will attack. Also, order the soldiers to keep quiet at night. From this moment on, no one is allowed to sing or play cards.»

We had to look like a sick army.

«How did you know about the horses not drinking, your highness?» a young man asked.

«Read it in a book,» I murmured, distracted. I was observing the maps and wondering how my Queen could get so much information from them.

«You haven't changed much, after all,» he added. «Apart from the title, your highness.»

I lifted my head and turned to him, wondering where I met him.

Oh, that face was highly familiar.

«Wilhelm?» I inquired. «Are you perhaps Jeffrey Wilhelm?»

«That's true,» he shrugged. «You disappeared for three years only. Is this what it takes you to forget about your friends?»

«You're rather brave to call yourself my friend.»

«Am I not?»

«I don't know,» I chuckled. «It's been so long that I forgot how it feels to have a friend. What are you doing here?»

«My father heard of your achievements and thought that it would be good to have a talented son on his own.»

«And he sent you to war?»

«This was supposed to be a fast campaign. And you were said to be coming here. What safer place than next to the mighty Archduke Kyre?»

«Literally anywhere else.»