Day 28 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016 - morning

The Royal Palace, Capital City of Naveland

LUZ came back the next morning, entering Victoria’s study with a huff. “You left me behind!” She accused as she sat down in front of her.

Victoria was amused. “I was kidnapped.”

Luz paused. “Right. But still, you didn’t come back to Dustor afterwards,” she snorted. “What were you thinking?”

“Did Alize tell you everything?” She went to stand up, but dull pain shot up her thighs, making her wince. She sat back down. She was still not fully recovered. Even under the Beth’s daily treatment, the quiet ache still crept in once in a while. Inwardly, she began to wonder if Beth healed her slowly on purpose—to teach her a lesson.

“Damn right she did!” Luz didn’t notice her wince in her anger, and she slammed the table. “Your Highness, what were you thinking? Oh right, you must not be thinking, at all!”

Victoria sighed. “I know. I’m sorry I made you worry.”

Luz paused again. “Who are you and what have you done to my friend?”

Victoria laughed. “Come on. Now tell me what happened in Dustor after I got kidnapped.”

“Well,” Luz took a deep breath and began, “Your guards, Captain Lewis and the others, woke up yelling at each other that you’re missing, that even Ethan and I found out about it. We were setting off to find you, but General Adefine stopped us and said you were safe.”

Victoria nodded. “That must be because Dev sent the message already.”

Luz sighed. “You really made us worry, you know.”

“I know, I’m sorry. What’s the war situation like over there?”

“Ah?” Luz frowned. “The Crimson Corps arrived to help and we managed to push the enemy back. Do you expect it otherwise?”

Victoria looked towards Luz. “You haven’t been told about an elite army that attacked Corps’ base?”

“What? Where do they come from?” Alize frowned. “Such an important news, why have we not heard of it?”

“I suspect one of the influential family is rebelling,” Victoria frowned. “It’s truly not good, but I didn’t want everyone to panic and cause the situation to worsen. I guess the General think the same and didn’t spread it out.”

“Well, that is a wise decision,” Luz said. “If we get attacked from inside and outside…”

“I know. Which is why I’m telling you now.” She looked at her aide. “I already had some people collect information about them.”

Luz blinked. “You did?”

Victoria sighed inwardly. Dealing with Blades took a lot of her personal allowance, but she had no other choice. She could barely trust anyone right now—even if she did, she couldn’t trust them to not get killed by Arachnids in the middle. Perhaps she needed to start a business to cover her expense.

Luz didn’t know about Blades, though, and Victoria didn’t intend to tell her. She trusted her aides, but the thing about Blades was that they were secret. The more people knew about them, the riskier it was. The last time with Dev was because he clearly knew more about Forewood’s underworld. Yes, that was why. There were no other reasons.

“Don’t worry. I need your help with another thing.”

Luz looked curious, but she didn’t ask any further. “Of course. What is it?”

“Did you investigate about Trina Grant?”

“Ah,” Luz shook her head. “It was a shame, a shame. Marquis Grant’s business went bankrupt, his standing almost fell, and he also got sick. That’s probably why Trina did what she did.”

Victoria nodded. She had inferred as much. But what could have made her take such a risk rebelling? Unless there was someone influential enough, backing them and Lirsk up…

The direction of her thought was unpleasant. To know for sure, Victoria had to meet Brad tomorrow. As it happened, tomorrow was the biweekly ceremony in the Temple of Eldemore. Brad should’ve gotten enough time to investigate about their enemy—at least she hoped so.

“When I was on my way here, I heard something happened in the capital,” Luz said in a low voice. “I heard Count Zion Andria was murdered.”

Victoria frowned. The Andria family was one of the wealthiest nobles in the royal capital. Their industries were reaching everywhere in the Kingdom for hundreds of years already. The Count was already elderly, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he died, but if he was killed… Murder of the patriarch would cause chaos that, while might not rival the royal family’s power struggle, was still impactful to Naveland City and the whole kingdom’s economy.

“Who is next in line?” She asked.

“His son, Ray Andria,” Luz replied with a frown. “But rumor has it that he couldn’t really do business. His oldest daughter, Zara, was capable enough, but she had been married out to the Daynes family and disappeared a few years ago. Count Zion’s brother, Daragh, is said to inherit.”

“Is this Daragh capable?”

“He had been taking over a few industries, so I heard he’s pretty good, but…” Luz winced. “Well, I don’t know if it was true. But they said he used severe, violent means to grasp business deals.”

“That’s not good.” Power struggles were always problematic, no matter the scale. “So, people are thinking Daragh killed his brother?”

“That’s what the rumors said.”

Victoria sighed. “The war is still going on but the Capital is about to weather a storm! Why is everything so troublesome?”

“Your Highness, are you going to involve yourself in this matter?”

“No.” Victoria shook her head. “I’ve enough on my plate. I’m sure the deceased Count would have made some preparation regarding this… I hope. Well. We couldn’t really do anything, Luz.” An attempt to do so would be taken wrongly by the merchants of the Capital, and could imbalance the economy even further.

“Yeah, I got it,” Luz said with a smile. “We are powerless to do anything.”

Victoria glanced, and then snorted. But if some of the industries could be taken over by her aide… She considered it. She needed the money to keep paying off Blades’ services. Perhaps she could make use of this gap in Andria’s power struggle.

Well, she was no economic expert. “Fine. Call Rex here.” Her friend was the heir to the royal blacksmith and was groomed to be the successor of that business. It could be said that he was the right person for the job.

Luz looked at her, and then laughed. “Yes, Your Highness!”

-

Dustor Military Base, Dustor City

Doctor Phillip Wentworth widened his eyes.

Finally! This could be the final cure for the madness drug. A few of his previous creation was a bit effective, but this one would cure the soldiers entirely. Yes. This was good. At the very least, his work wasn’t in vain, he grinned as he thought.

Securing the vial for the final test, the doctor was about to leave the room when someone came in. Looking up, he was taken aback. “Goddess, Major! You’re finally here!”

Major Andres grinned back at him. “It’s been a while, Wentworth!” He rolled up his sleeves. “May I bother you with a little wound?”

Little? A huge gash of fresh wound was there. Phillip widened his eyes and immediately came to the Major’s side. “How did you get this wound?”

“Ah, some bandits on the way,” the Major waved his hand. “Nothing big.”

“You were wounded previously,” Phillip frowned, observing the dry wound nearby. “And then the last attack opened it up again. How did you get a huge gash before?” It almost seemed like a wound caused by a whip.

The Major shrugged. “I had to fight some people.”

Phillip’s eyebrows went taut, but he couldn’t force the Major to answer. “Well, anyway, Major, I think I’m finishing up the aggressivity drug’s cure.”

“Really?” Major Andres turned to him with a delighted smile. “That’s good! Then my company will be fully recovered and can fight soon?”

“Yes, I think.” Phillip nodded while treating the Major’s wound. “But I don’t think you need to worry. After the Crimson Corps pushed them back yesterday, Lirsk won’t dare attack us again.”

The Major smiled. “Well, it’s good to think positively.” He stood up after his wound got bandaged. “Good work, doctor.”

As he left, Phillip frowned. Think positively? Is there anything that needed to be worried about?

Ah, well. Maybe he was just overthinking.

Day 29 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016

Temple of Eldemore, Capital City of Naveland

After the ceremony, Victoria went to the back garden of the Temple.

As usual, she went to the corner of the garden, where there were no people around. She sat down, examining the butterfly that seemed similar to the one she saw two weeks ago. The flowers seemed to bloom even brighter, contrary to the stifling feelings in her heart.

The news brought would be bad news, in any case. It was hard for her to be happy.

Only a few minutes after she sat down, a bear of a man walked into the garden. Victoria observed him as he walked closer and sat down on the bench that was exactly back-to-back with her bench.

“Not good,” he said as he sat down.

Victoria pretended to smell one of the flower’s petal as she spoke, “So whose army?”

“Savire. There are 300 of them.”

Victoria almost let the petal slipped down. Duke of Savire? The family whose heir was one of the candidates to be her husband?

She didn’t know why she was so surprised. Her aides did say they found a suspicious correspondence between Savire and a foreign merchant, and although it wasn’t a concrete proof, it was an indication. Perhaps Victoria just hadn’t wanted to believe a high noble in her kingdom would be so daring to help the enemy, or because she just didn’t want to think the matter would become so troublesome. After all, helping enemies by selling information and by directly using one’s army to destroy cities were two completely different things.

“What’s their movement?” She asked in a bit of wobbly voice. The army of the Duke Savire was an elite one. 300 elite men… Not good.

“To the south. I’ve commanded people to bring this news to the General of the Army, don’t worry.”

Victoria couldn’t even feel bothered that he reported it elsewhere before bringing the news to her. It was indeed not convenient to tell her, as she was constantly in the palace. In any case, Blades’ number one priority was to keep the Kingdom from harm, either from inside or from outside.

The problem was Savire’s army was one of the strongest in the whole kingdom. In fact, it was one of the main forces that helped in holding down Lirsk’s rebellion last decade. When they arrived at the south…

“They are going for the City of Liath,” Victoria said, horrified by her own thought. The City of Liath was supposed to be a stronghold city, easily defendable, as it was located in between the mountain ranges. But… Oh no. If they were attacking Liath from behind, while Dustor was still defending from Lirsk’s attack from the front… They wouldn’t be able to keep both cities.

Brad clearly also realized the same thing, as he said suddenly, “I have to go.” He stood up abruptly and left.

She was guessing he would go to command Calathea Elmer to evacuate the Blades’ base in Dustor. Victoria clenched her fist. General Adefine would reach the same conclusion upon hearing this news. Perhaps he would be able to come up with a strategy… Even Ethan was there. Surely, they would know what to do.

Victoria shook her head. No, she couldn’t rely on that. She needed to do something.

There was still hope. The one she reorganized to the south was merely half of her father’s elite. The other half of the Crimson Corps, under the secluded commander general... She stood up.

She needed to search for him. []