—That’s entirely correct —I said, trying to make a credible arrogant grin.

The man in front of me, the King of this nation, Augustus Abyla, was stunned by my words. He was the son of the old chief of guards, Octavius, and as such, he spent most of his childhood at the palace alongside Erzi. Their friendship developed into something more very early, and he swore to always be there to protect her. He even became the youngest recruit in 200 years in passing the guard tests, with excellent marks to boost it. He was appointed as Erzi’s personal guardian, and eventually succeeded his father when he retired. I mention all of this to put in context how many times we must had come across. He was always behind Erzi, and whenever we happened to meet, he was there. And he was always glaring at me with scorn. It was quite refreshing seeing a different expression on his face.

—It seems like your Majesty has figured it all out, congratulation! —I continued—, or so I would like to say, but engaging our kids to each other is really just a small part of it, it is barely relevant.

—What do you mean? —he asked, sounding slightly irritated.

—Hmmm, I was expecting more of the one who dares to stand next to our Queen… —I replied, with a tiny bit more vitriol than I intended —I’m not interested in gaining political power or money, I’m quite satisfied on those aspects. And my absolutely cute daughter brings enough joy to my life to not care for anything else. But I’m worried about the future…

—The future? —he said, confused, but intrigued.

There was no other way around it; I had to use my one trump card.

—This nation will cease to exist in less than 20 years. Your Seers must have managed to predict that much.

His eyes went wide.

—H-how can you…

I smiled. At this point, nobody outside of the royal family and a few higher ups were aware of the Astral Observatory and the Seers working on it. They had worked from the shadows for centuries, trying to predict the future by studying the stars far away. The sky is a mirror to the future, was their motto. But their predictions were vague the further ahead they tried to foresee. They will only become publicly known a decade or so from now, thanks to the efforts of Maxwell Conrad. I’m not sure how he did it, but the Astral Observatory became a branch of the Academy.

Revealing that I was aware of their existence gave legitimacy to my claim, but it was a double edge sword. I now had to explain how I knew about them. A wrong step could be justification enough for the King to send me to a trial for treachery.

—I sometimes have visions in my dreams of things that have yet to pass. It is an ancient skill of our clan that we have kept secret for all these years right under everyone’s nose —I lied, hoping he would be more inclined to believe in my words if I painted my ancestors in a bad light, that he most likely already saw them. Confirmation bias is how it is called, I think.

—Continue… —he somberly said.

—I have seen your Seers doing their best to get a better image of what’s to come, all in vain, despite your frustration. But I understand, knowing that something terrible is going to happen is terrifying. My visions are clearer than what your Seers could get before it’s too late, but even then it is still pretty vague. It was a dream after all, I’m not sure I remember all the details. But I am sure how we can stop it.

—How?

I smiled. He was still glaring at me, but he had fallen for my words.

—It’s simple. We just need to make sure Violett and Julius get along.

—Get along…

—Yes, they don’t even have to marry, but they need to work together to avoid this crisis, and keep the peace and order in this nation —I said, trying to smile honestly.

The king looked away, deep in thoughts.

—For now, I won’t interfere —he said, after a couple of agonizing moments—, but I’ll be watching you. If you show even a hint of trying to harm Erzebeth or this country, I will bring you to justice.

—I wasn’t lying before when I said that my wish was for a peaceful future, so I have nothing to fear. Putting that aside, I would really appreciate if your Majesty keeps what we have talked here between us alone. I do fear there might be some people in the shadows trying to make that bad ending a reality, and they might target my life, but more importantly, my daughter’s life. The same goes for our Queen, if she becomes aware of my devious nature, she might start to hate me, and we might not be able to get along any longer…

The King sighed.

—I understand. Return to the party and resume your timid facade.

I didn’t want to clarify that the facade he was talking was my true self, so I just lowered my head and got out of that room. All that time I was inside, my heart was beating really hard and I could barely breathe. I was exhausted. Only by holding Violett in my arms and rubbing her checks against mine was I able to calm down.

After a few minutes of recharging my battery, I returned to the grand hall followed by my maids. The King had apparently left through another door, as he was already at the side of the Queen when we returned. I talked with Christopher and Victoria a bit more about business and trivial matters respectively. At some point, they informed that Erzi had to return to her room to rest, but the guests were welcomed to stay for a dance and dinner. I was ready to leave, happy that not having a partner allowed me to skip such events, when one of the royal family’s attendant called for me.

—Madame Dragonroot, the Queen wishes to speak with you —he said.

I followed him through the aisle into the castle’s inner sections. We went up a few stores, and he took into one of the floating gardens I used to play with Erzi when we were kids. Everything was already set up for a tea party, though she had cups of coffee instead. There were also a few plates of pastries on the table. Gaius was sitting next to his mother, drawing on a piece of paper, while Julius was sleeping on a stroller placed at her other side.

—Did you call for me, your Majesty? —I half jokingly said.

—Don’t start with that. We just can’t chat like we used, now that I have to be the center of attention, so I thought we could have our own private party. Would you mind joining me for a while?

—I’ll be glad —I said as I sit down, with Violett on my arms.

We had a pretty pleasant talk, drank coffee, and ate many pastries.

—Ah! By the way —Erzi suddenly said—, I saw that August called you to talk privately.

I froze for a moment, but tried my best to not let it shown.

—Y-yes?

—I can imagine more or less what he said, “don’t get too close to Erzebeth”. He is a bit too overprotective, and the more close someone else is to me, the more he growls. It’s kind of adorable —she said, trailing off for a moment— B-but don’t let his words bother you. I’ll talk with him later —she added, putting emphasis on the word talk.

—Don’t be too harsh on him…

—Don’t worry about it. So, what did you talk about? I don’t think a simple warning would take that long, and he had a pretty severe face when he came back.

—E-eh? W-well, you know… the future… —was all I could think to say.

Erzi looked at me very intensely, as if trying to read my mind with just sheer willpower. Then she smiled.

—The future, huh? I understand.

I wasn’t sure what she had understood, but I was kind of scared to ask, so I leave it be. We went home shortly afterwards, with me praying that the King will keep his promise to not tell Erzi’s what I have said and how I have said it. I didn’t mind if he and everyone else though bad of me, but Erzi was my precious friend. I couldn’t tolerate being hated by her. Thankfully, a few days later, I received a letter from her, and everything seemed to be normal.

Having taken care of that, I only needed to take care of another matter that was bothering me. I needed to come up with a plan to save Christopher’s life and prevent his family from falling into disgrace and bully the protagonist.