Day 20 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016

Military Base, Dustor City, Grizzle Province

THE VERY next day, early in the morning, Victoria was already up and about. The spring arrived already with everything blooming around her, causing her to feel better despite the predicament they were in. She walked into the compound easily after the gate guards saw her face and the guards behind her. It seemed that going here regularly was pretty useful.

The first thing that she did was going to the infirmary. It was full, with beds put so close together that it felt suffocating. Numerous soldiers were lying unconscious. Victoria was welcomed by Doctor Wentworth, one of the residing military doctors.

She didn’t believe in the slightest that the young major was responsible for this incident. She knew he was a good person, and her feelings was always accurate, except for the time when she was kidnapped—well, technically, even then, her judgement was accurate, because the kid was sincerely anxious. Anyway, she already considered Dev a friend, as he had lent her money when she needed it.

In any case, she couldn’t let an innocent person being blamed.

Dr. Wentworth wasn’t a stupid person, and he probably guessed that she was an important person. His behavior was respectful, and even more respectful when Captain Lewis, who was one of her guards this time, introduced her as the Crown Princess. “Ah, pardon me! I didn’t know it is Your Highness,” he said while bowing deeply.

“Disperse the formality,” Victoria replied with a kind smile. She rubbed her neck that was still sore because she slept on a desk. “I just want to know what happened with these people. Have you found out the cause?”

The doctor straightened his back. “In fact, I’m not too sure, but I have a bit of a clue, Your Highness,” he answered. “It was caused by an external poison. I’ve seen the trace of it on everyone. It’s a type of poison that need to be touched for it to take effect. We’re still working on determining what kind of poison it was.”

“That’s progress, at least.” Victoria examined all the trainees who still wore their uniform, lying weakly on their beds. “They’re all from the same company?”

“Yes,” Dr. Wentworth answered, a bit surprised. “There are a few from other companies as well, but not as many as from fourth company. That’s why…” He shook his head, letting his sentence trailed off.

“That’s why?” Victoria raised an eyebrow, prompting him to continue.

“Ah… That’s why the Major of the fourth company was arrested and imprisoned,” the doctor sighed.

“Hmph, Major is falsely accused!” A man that looked somewhat familiar suddenly walked closer. Victoria had noticed that he had been standing by the door just now. “That Torin Palmer bastard never likes him, that’s why!”

“Captain Sawyer, don’t talk nonsense in front of Her Highness!” Dr. Wentworth admonished him with a frown.

The captain was surprised. “Her—Her Highness? O-oh… I—I’m sorry, Your Highness!”

Ah, Victoria finally remembered. It was one of the two men Dev dragged from the tavern a week ago. It seemed like the captain also remembered that, because he said, “Your Highness! You know Major, right? You know he would never do something like this!” He was so excited that he almost knocked off one of the medicine bottles on the table. “Please help him!”

“Okay, okay, calm down, Captain,” Victoria held his arm. “I would never let someone innocent be wronged. I promise you that I will help him.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!” Captain Sawyer almost wanted to kneel before her if she didn’t prevent him. It seemed like he thought highly of the young Major, despite being much older. There wasn’t even a slightest bit of envy that the young boy achieved a higher position than him. It solidified her earlier judgement that the Major was a good person.

Dr. Wentworth felt like a trustworthy person, but even a sincere person could be threatened. That was why Victoria also encouraged a few other doctors in the room to work hard and tell her the result before she started walking away. She had no talent in medicine and it would be better for her to investigate other matters.

As she walked outside, Captain Sawyer insisted to escort her. He wasn’t even phased by the glares from her guards. He was an overall jolly, talkative old man, who keep telling her about everything that had happened in the compound. Despite having gone to this compound many times, Victoria was usually in the northern part, where the highest-ranking officers worked, so the captain’s explanation was actually helpful. “This is the west training field… It’s a bit small compared to the east one, but it was comfortable. My company usually use it, but because, well… what happened, it’s now being used by other companies.” Captain Sawyer looked uncomfortable at the end, and his face turned even worse when he looked at the field.

Victoria turned her head as well, and saw the Major General of Dustor walked closer. If she wasn’t mistaken, his last name was… Palmer, wasn’t it? So, he had the same last name as the guy who accused Dev… Victoria mused the implications of that.

The Major General, that old man who should’ve retired already, walked with someone. Victoria glanced at his uniform and found that the man had the rank of a Colonel. Both of them bowed before her. “Your Highness, good morning,” they greeted.

“Disperse the formality, please,” Victoria said. “Who is this, General?”

“Ah, this is Lieutenant Colonel Palmer,” He introduced the younger man. It didn’t slip Victoria’s attention that Sawyer looked hostile towards him.

“You have the same last name,” she commented.

The Major General smiled. “Yes, he is my nephew.”

“Ah.” Victoria only said that.

The General awkwardly looked at her, wanting to talk more, but at that time, an iron sword suddenly fell down and slid towards her in a flash. Victoria raised her eyebrow and with her feet, she stopped the sword from slicing into her shoes.

“Ah, I’m sorry!” The soldier who should be the sword’s owner ran towards her. Seemed like he had seen how respectful the General was towards her, and was also respectful, subsequently. “We were training and I had knocked my opponent’s sword, didn’t expect it to almost hit the Lady.”

“It’s okay,” Victoria replied calmly, though her mind started to turn. The iron sword wasn’t anything special, but there was a bit of decoration on the handle. It didn’t seem like the usual sword that the military issued for its soldiers. “This sword is yours?” She picked it up and weighed it in her hands. It looked new.

The opponent soldier also stood in front of her. “Yes, this sword, I commissioned it when I succeeded in military exam last month.”

Victoria’s eyes moved to the sword on the first soldier’s waist. “And that is yours, too?”

“Yes, it’s a family heirloom…” The first soldier answered, a bit unsure.

“Please forgive them, Your Highness… they’re a bit reckless,” The Major General said nervously. He glared towards the two soldiers. “Why are you still not begging forgiveness from Her Highness?!”

The two soldiers were surprised. “Your Highness, we apologize!” They almost knelt in front of her, but her guards knew she didn’t like that and prevented them from kneeling.

“I already said, it’s fine, you were training,” Victoria returned the sword to the soldier. She didn’t pay much attention as the Major General and his nephew Colonel scolded the two soldiers. So, some trainees had their own swords, and didn’t need to use the swords from the weaponry…

And speaking of the weaponry, there was some weird stuff happening, too…

Victoria widened her eyes in realization.

“General Palmer, it’s fine, don’t scold them anymore,” Victoria said to the General and instructed the two trainees to go back to training. “I have something else to do, so do excuse me. Let’s go, Captain.”

Captain Sawyer was surprised when he was called, but he quickly recovered himself. “Yes, Your Highness!”

With Sawyer’s direction, Victoria found where General Krish was. In the morning, he was watching the soldiers in western field train. She greeted him.

“Ah, Your Highness!” He was surprised. “What are you doing here so early in the morning? The aid army from Northern Goldburg won’t arrive this fast.”

“General, I need to talk to you about something.”

They moved to Krish’s office. The room only had one door and one window at the same side, so Victoria deliberately left her guards and Sawyer outside to prevent anyone from eavesdropping. “General, I found that some soldiers have their own weapons?”

“Well, yes,” Krish was a bit confused. “Most of soldiers, even new soldiers, that have some money, usually made their own weapon.”

“So, what about the weapons in the weaponry?”

“Only those who enter the military use them because of poverty,” the General answered. “Have you found what’s wrong with the weaponry? Did Blades?” He was a bit excited uttering the last question.

Victoria shook her head. “No, I accidentally thought about it. Those trainees in Major Andres’ company… Are they poor?”

General Krish sighed. “Ah, yeah. Most people with money usually would fight to join other leaders that have titles as knights. Major Andres was one of the few commoners who was talented enough to be promoted, it’s a shame…” He trailed off, then looked up towards Victoria. “Do you mean, those trainees that fell ill, were affected because of the weapons?”

“I suspect there’s a poison it those weapons,” Victoria frowned. “Think about it, General. I’ve talked to Dr. Wentworth and he said it was an external poison that needed to be touched.”

Krish nodded, agreeing with her. “Those trainees touched the weapons… It makes sense.”

“That means Major Andres isn’t guilty,” Victoria looked sharply at Krish. “I believe he was out on vacation at that time we detected the anomaly in the weaponry.”

The General frowned. After checking a few things in his archive, he nodded. “You’re right, Your Highness. He wasn’t in the compound then.”

“He’s innocent,” Victoria said. Before she could say more, though, there were a sudden commotion outside.

“Stop him!” Yells, clashing weapons, and other noises she couldn’t discern… She could just feel the panic even through the wall. Victoria and Krish exchanged glances.

Victoria moved fast, opening the office’s door. Out there, in the western field, chaos reigned. Everyone was attacking each other… No, everyone was attacking one person. That soldier seemed like he had gone crazy, aggressively hacking each other.

And then it turned to two crazy people…

And then three…

At first, the soldiers could restrain that one person and tied them up. Suddenly another person went crazy, so Victoria’s guards went to help. When the third and fourth people went crazy at the same time, even the colonels and other higher-ups started to participate as well. Even Victoria, despite her guards’ insistence to stay away, also helped.

When everything was done, half of the field were filled with the tied-up people. Those people that had gone crazy looked at others with ferocious eyes. The soldiers started to move them back to the barracks until they found a solution for these crazed men. There were also a few corpses strewn around as the consequences of those people hacking each other to death… Not, not just a few. The victims were over twenty.

Victoria’s face had an almost permanent frown. She retreated from the field to allow the unaffected soldiers to work. “They went crazy… Like the Tamworth troops?” Victoria mumbled.

The person who stood next to her turned towards her when she heard that. “Precisely like in Tamworth.” The person sighed, and then let out a low gasp. “Is it you, Your Highness?”

Victoria looked up and was a bit surprised as well. “Trina!” Trina Grant was one of her classmates back in the Blades Academy. Victoria was a personable princess, so she still remembered every single one of her classmates. “So, you joined the military!”

Trina nodded. “I joined right after graduation,” she replied.

Victoria noticed the badge on her uniform and smiled. “I’m sorry, I should call you Colonel Grant, huh?”

Despite only graduated a few years ago, Trina already reached the rank of a colonel. In fact, it wasn’t strange. The Grant family was a noble marquisate family with some territory in Grizzle. The good graduates from Blades Academy would be knighted easily, and knights always had a higher starting point when joining military, especially when it was their hometown. Not to mention Trina was within the top ten back in the Academy.

Thinking like this, Victoria suddenly felt like it was even more amazing that Dev, a commoner who started from the scratch, could reach the rank of a Major in such a young age. It made her want to help him even more.

“I am a Colonel, but it’s just a rank,” Trina seemed a bit ashamed. “It wasn’t anything to be proud of.”

“Then, speaking of which, these soldiers are in your regiment?” Victoria inquired.

Trina sighed. “Yes. I really don’t know what’s the problem now, it’s quite troublesome. Can we be sure that they actually went crazy?” She looked at her expectantly.

Victoria shook her head. “We’re not quite sure yet. Please, take care of this problem carefully, Colonel,” She instructed Trina.

Trina saluted. “Of course! Her Highness already command me, so I don’t dare to disappoint you!”

Victoria laughed. “Okay. I have to talk to the generals about this.”

She left Trina and walked to the northern field, back towards the meeting room. Her mind was full of thoughts when someone called her name.

“Victa!” Luz was suddenly running towards her. “Are you okay?”

She extended her arms, showing her healthy figure to her nagging aide. “I’m still alive,” she said. “Let’s go. I feel like there’s something really wrong.”

They walked past the northern field. In the corner of the field, there was a small well, usually used by the soldiers in the northern and western fields. Victoria glanced at it slightly. She usually didn’t notice it, but that was because the field were always full of soldiers training. Now it was completely empty because of what happened.

There was perhaps about a hundred or more people had gone crazy. That number… wasn’t something that they could handle at times like this. Now the number of soldiers that could fight didn’t exceed three hundred people, it was dangerous if Lirsk attack at this time. Victoria could only hope the aiding army came quickly.

As they all sat down around the big map table like they did last night, Victoria noticed how tired everyone was. “I believe this incident was man-made,” Victoria began when no one said anything after a while.

“That should be the case,” General Adefine replied gruffly. “It’s the same thing that happened to Tamworth.”

“Those soldiers are now locked in the barracks,” Krish reported. “They kept trying to fight despite the fact that they had been tied up. They’re really aggressive, not at all lucid.”

“What could be the source of the problem?” Victoria mused out loud.

“Your Highness,” Ethan spoke up, “I seem to notice that all that is affected are the soldiers, none of the officers are impacted.”

Victoria frowned. That was true. The higher military officers weren’t affected by the odd condition. The Princess wasn’t so sure why, though. “Could it be poison? What do the soldiers eat?” She turned to ask Major General Palmer.

“That… It’s still morning, so they usually have normal breakfasts…”

She looked at him without expression. Perhaps it wasn’t his job to know the details of the soldier’s meals, but as the Major General, Victoria hoped he at least knew more than ‘normal breakfast’. She turned her head towards General Krish.

“As far as I know, they ate soldier’s ration as breakfast after morning training,” Krish replied. “So, they shouldn’t have eaten yet.” His eyebrows were knitted.

“What else do they consume…?”

“Water,” Victoria murmured suddenly. “Water, where is their source of water?”

Everyone in the room looked at each other, and said, “the well!”

They closed down the well that very day.

The well was where the soldiers get their water every morning, whether to be drunk or to wash their faces. When it was poisoned, chaos ensued. Even Victoria had to admit the perpetrator was smart.

But it wasn’t that bad. There were only two hundred soldiers affected… Ah, who was she kidding? Two hundred out of the remaining three hundred and fifty was really bad. It wasn’t even enough to defend the entirety of Dustor’s walls.

This was chaotic, insanity. They all pinned hope on the aide army that should have arrived, but she knew it wasn’t a good strategy. So, the generals decided to focus their defense on the southern side of the city, to which the enemy camped.

All she could do was hope that her worst nightmare wouldn’t came true. []