Day 7 of the Fifth Month, Year 1016

Liath City, Grizzle Province

THEY successfully took Liath City back.

Dev observed the scene out of the window. The city was rebuilding, with the City Guards going all over the place, transporting materials and repairing houses. He didn’t expect that a legendary part of Crimson Corps would actually come as a reinforcement. He thought they were all stationed in Dustor already.

“Come on, Liutenant Colonel,” Sawyer, who was beside him grinned. “You have to drink to celebrate.”

One that he didn’t expect even more was that his actions of evacuating the city actually caused General Adefine to promote him. He should have been charged for disobedience because he ignored his superior, General Talon, but they decided to waive that because Dev said Colonel Walsh, who died in battle, didn’t prohibit him. It was also in account that he minimized the victim count. When Savire’s army broke through the city, they ruined a lot of things and killed a lot of civilians that previously refused to leave. If the city had been full…

Dev couldn’t imagine what would happen either. It would have been a bloodbath.

The bad news was that Lirsk successfully occupied Dustor, though many of its citizens were evacuated already, but the loss was still great. The rest of Savire army retreated to the now occupied Dustor and regrouped with Lirsk. It was bad news for them, but some of Savire’s soldiers were taken as a war hostage and they got some useful information from them.

“Well, Liutenant Colonel,” a voice he didn’t expect to hear sounded from beside him.

Dev turned his head fast, finding the princess sitting beside him with a glass of beer in her hands. “Why are you…” Here? He didn’t finish his words.

“To congratulate you, of course!” Victoria laughed. “Come on, Captain Sawyer is right. This is a big day for you. You should drink!”

“See! Even Her Highness agree with me!” Sawyer said cheerfully.

Beside Victoria, he could find Ethan and Luz, her friends. Both of them also cheered for him and asked him for a toast, which he couldn’t refuse. He finally gulped down his own mug. Satisfied, Ethan and Luz left to talk to other officers in the other parts of the tavern. Sawyer also somehow went away to talk to the other soldiers, leaving Dev confused as to why he was now alone with the Princess.

“Well, a lot was destroyed,” Victoria said, sighing as she looked at the same scene he was observing. “Sorry. This is your big day. I shouldn’t say such depressing thing.”

“It’s fine,” Dev laughed. “You are the Crown Princess. You are supposed to be worried for the Kingdom.” Realizing what he said, Dev paused for a second before looking at her, afraid he had said the wrong thing. Talking about responsibilities… She had been sensitive about the subject.

Victoria didn’t really react to that, but when she felt his gaze on her, she looked up. “Yeah, I started to think more about that,” she said, smilingly. “I understand. I am never afraid about my responsibilities, but I realized I viewed them as a burden way too much. That was why I never felt like I was strong enough for it, feeling like I was just lucky–or unlucky—to be born like this. Like anyone else would do, you know. Why me? Do you understand what I’m talking about?”

“So, what is responsibilities supposed to be?” Dev asked slowly.

Victoria looked down on her mug. “Well,” she said, “it’s supposed to be a gift.”

“Gift?” Dev didn’t quite understand.

“Gift,” she repeated. “Because when it’s a gift, it would no longer be a burden for me to hold. The responsibilities are for me because I am capable to embrace it.”

Dev somehow understood and fell silent for a few second.

“It’s the same for you,” Victoria said laughingly. “You are now the Liutenant Colonel because General Adefine believe you can embrace the responsibilities.” She smiled again. “Congratulations again.”

Dev couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you.” He gulped down another sip of his beer. “So you now…”

“I know I can now, so I won’t throw my life away so easily,” she said while laughing. “Thank you, too.” She leaned in and Dev felt something soft touched his right cheek.

He stiffened.

Victoria’s eyes were smiling as she looked at him. “It’s all thanks to you, of course.”

“I… I didn’t do anything,” he stammered, then he cleaned his throat.

“I hope you find what you’re looking for, as I did.” Victoria stood up. “We still have hope for victory now, right?”

Dev nodded. She was right. He looked at his soldiers who were celebrating noisily. “Don’t worry too much,” he said. “We are all still here to fight.”

He knew Victoria understood, because she looked at him with smiles on her eyes. Sure, they lost a city. But they still have soldiers that could still fight and would fight for peace of Forewood.

Because as the hope was still here, until her namesake came true, they would never stop fighting. []