????? ?????? ?????? ????? ???????? ???? ????????Michaela and her servants stayed at an inn for n.o.bles, it had a grandiose appearance and was well lit and clean, there was a hall for dining aside from the rooms, where that allows n.o.bles to socialize with each other.
"Tsk… That prince really infuriates me! Ahhhhh I shouldn"t have even bothered to show up. There"s no way I"m gonna deal with someone who treats women as playthings. Never!"
Michaela was taking her bath in her room, the inn had facilities fitting for n.o.bles who visit the capital, such as the dining hall and a large bath, but for her, she wanted to take hers in her own room. The whole Kydus empire was divided into three sections, with the capital nearest to the castle,
Mizar settlement served as one of the routes for the second city before reaching the innermost capital.
"Your highness, I"ll be leaving the towel just right here". A maid with braided hair spoke to the door of the bath where Michaela was relaxing her nerves.
The maid wore gla.s.ses that gave her an intellectual look, she also wore the golden ring that represents her position as the head maid and as a member of the family that served the Acirendra royal family for generations.
"Yes, thank you Clarissa" Michaela responded from inside, she got up and got changed after a while, she went to the dining hall where servants ordered various dishes for their masters. Her maids already prepared her dishes on the table. She pa.s.sed by the other n.o.bles along the way that took glances at her, some of them wanted to socialize but she only gave a majestic smile which made her hard to approach.
Michaela was dressed in her white long sleeve accompanied by a golden breastplate, kneepads and a skirt, after walking for a while, she reached the stairs and walked down, to find her maids and butlers dressed in their formal attire, lined up opening a path to her table. The gaps of the tables were big, other n.o.bles had their own servants serving their food for them, the reception hall was decorated by crystal-like chandeliers and a large number of candles on each table.
"Your highness, dinner preparations have been made, there"s also no signs of poison and magic during the taste test." The one who greeted the queen was a maid named Celeste Challender, the maid in charge of food preparations for her, she has a violet hair that hung till her shoulders, and was shorter than other maids, she was a.s.signed to the task due to her ability to detect magic power, so Michaela took her whenever she went on trips, if the meal has been enchanted by magic to cause harm to her master, she will immediately be able to detect it.
"Good work, Clarissa, Celeste, the butlers will stay with me, for the other maids you can have your dinner on your quarters, switch with the butlers after you finish" commanded Michaela as she graciously took her seat.
"Yes your highness, six maids disappeared from the hall in order to have their own dinner. The butlers stood meters behind Michaela as she ate, to guard her and serve her with anything she needed. There were two of them, a young butler named Olin and Alfred Dyer.
Alfred is an old man that his white hair and beard showed his age, while his grandson Olin is a young man with average features, what made him stand out was his shaved hair, Olin was Alfred"s apprentice teaching him the ropes of being an impressive butler, they stood on each side at the back of their master while she ate, when suddenly, while their master began dining, she suddenly acted strangely.
"...I"m sleepy," Michaela suddenly felt sleep, and leaned her head to the table, it made her drop her wine gla.s.s and it shattered into pieces, the other n.o.bles noticed this and they whispered to each other.
"Your highness?" Olin asked in a panic, as he saw his master asleep on the table, they went to tap her in the shoulder but there was no response from her, the next thing he did was to check her pulse by imbuing mana to his hand and have it detect any anomalous magic or poison in her blood, it was Alfred"s gift, and also the reason why he was chosen as a butler.
"She hasn"t been poisoned, there"s no magic? but what"s happening? This isn"t normal!" Alfred was taken aback and looked at Olin in the eyes. "What are you doing? Call the maids and search the surroundings immediately! If its a sleeping spell the caster might still be around, kill him once you see him!"
"Yes!" Olin disappeared from the hall after he gave a bow.
Alfred looked around the hall to see the other n.o.bles and their servants who shot at them with different expressions, some are whispering and murmuring to each other as they looked at the scene.
"This is bad, I have to get her highness away from their sights as soon as possible, or else this would cause a huge scandal," Alfred bowed to the other n.o.bles, "Pardon us, ladies and gentlemen, my master has been tired from a long journey it seems like she didn"t have enough sleep, we will take her to her quarters as soon as possible."
Clarissa and Celeste arrived, and with a nod they took their master on their shoulders and brought her along the stairs going to the room.
But before they could get to the room they heard loud voices of a man forcing his way to the inn.
"We have come under the orders of the second prince! We have come to escort the queen of Ethareri back to the palace!" One of the men told the guards who were guarding the extravagant inn, he was wearing a bronze armor like the rest of his men.
"But sir can you show us proof?" one of the guards of the inn asked while reaching out his hand towards the bronze-plated knight.
"Here"s your proof!" In a flash the knight took out his sword, cut the arm given to him.
"Ggaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh," the guard screamed in pain, he rolled in the floor while trying to contain the pain.
"Search the inn! Kill anyone who gets in the way!" ordered the knight to his men.
"Defend the place! These guys declared the royal name and failed to give evidence! They are the same as thieves or bandits!" Screamed one of the guards who dragged his comrade who"s screaming in pain by his collar rapidly.
The guards were wearing thin but flexible steel armor, armed only with pikes there were ten of them guarding the entrance to the inn, the bronze-plated knights were only eight. However they were armed with s.h.i.+elds and longswords, the standard issue of the Kydus empire.
A fight broke out between the guards and knights, they exchanged blows, with the guards wielding their pikes skillfully, bu they easily dropped in numbers, as the knights before them are more skilled and equipped than they are.
"Vice-captain! they"re going to break the line soon. Evacuate together with the customers!" the captain of guards commanded his vice-captain.
"No captain! If I leave the formation, they are more likely to break through the line! That is suicidal even for you! The n.o.bles haven"t completed yet their escape!" The vice-captain screamed back to his captain in a worried manner.
"If you don"t go then we will all be killed! Look at those eyes! Those eyes are the eyes of murderers! If you go there might be a chance of survival, our deaths will not be in vain! So..." the captain gave his sword to his vice-captain, took his pike, and pushed him away from their line.
"Go! You have come this far to become an outstanding fighter, you are young, your journey should not end here! Go and report to this to the Kydus knights guarding the second gate! Go!"
"Yes sir! Please... be safe!" he responded and reluctantly and ran towards the inn. Inside n.o.bles and their servants ran in all directions causing chaos and panic, as the exit was but a small ladder at the back.
The maids tried to wake up their queen in the dinner hall, but no matter what they did she wouldn"t wake up. "This is bad Alfred, she"s not waking up" Clarissa spoke to Alfred.
"Then we have no choice but to take her out of this place as soon as possible!" Celeste suggested,
Olin came to the hall with his sweat dripping from his face, out of breath he went to Alfred.
"Enemy knights have come for the queen!" The attendants opened their mouths in shock, "the guards... are stalling them... for now, but they are not gonna last longer than a few more minutes!"
"Alfred... we must go right now!" Celeste interrupted.
"Yeah that"s right, secure the carriage immediately," Alfred responded.
The maids dressed in common folks" clothing in order not to attract attention while escaping. Except for the head maids who had no time to change, carrying their master to where the carriage was parked.
"Ms. Clarissa... " Olin looked around them noticing the presence of some men lurking behind the trees.
"Yeah, I know" Clarissa looked at Olin who smiled lightly and nodded in response, they pushed their master into the carriage and Alfred sat on the horseman"s couch.
"Alfried, go," Clarissa spoke sternly as she took out a dagger from her pocket.
"Why Ms. Clarissa? Why are you not going inside the carriage? Also Olin why are you just standing there?" The old man looked at the two who were for some reason, was taking a battle stance.
"Please go, take the queen away from this dangerous place," Olin responded while taking a knife from his chest pocket.
"Just go!" Celeste screamed her heart out.
Alfred looked at the area and noticed what they were wary of, men lurking behind trees were waiting for an ambush.
"Three... no.. six?" Alfred thought as he scanned over the area, his old age have dulled his senses, however, the two maids and his apprentice noticed it and decided to stay in order to give time for them to escape, other servants who wore commoners clothes also for some reason, wasn"t able to leave the inn yet.
His heart ached thinking of leaving the other servants who were still inside and the three young people taking out their weapons, to give time for them to escape.
He closed his eyes in regret, "thank you, Clarissa, Celeste, and Olin, please escape as soon as the carriage disappears from their sights, hyah!" He whipped the horses reluctantly which then immediately ran to the highway.
"Hyah! Hyah! Hyaaaah!" tears fell from Alfred"s eyes as he gritted his teeth, hitting the horses making them pull the carriage faster.
"Faster... faster... faster, those young"uns, I can"t make their sacrifices be in vain!" After a few minutes of running the carriage, he was almost at the exit of the settlement. The wooden gate was lit by large torches giving off a hopeful scene for Alfred. However at the same time, several small torches were lit from behind him approaching at high speed.
"This is bad, they"re catching up to us" Alfred reached something from his clothes and threw it in the ground. The things that he threw stuck into the ground, they were tiny metals in the shape of a star.
As the tiny lights approached the ground where Alfred threw the stars, sounds of horses panicking can be heard, and some of the lights fell down and was extinguished. Alfred did it again and again however the lights were numerous, a single throw could extinguish two to three flames but the numbers approaching were more than ten.
After a few minutes, Alfred reached for his pocket and noticed that he ran out of metal stars to throw, he could hear the screams of the pursuing men riding behind him.
"Get the old man!"
"Yes sir!"
The horses were running at top speed, however, the horses that the men rode were faster, Alfred could now see the figures of the men approaching him. They wore bronze plated armor and had the eyes for murder, for knights they looked too dirty and unorderly.
When he saw blood in some of their swords, he was aggravated thinking of the young ones who stayed to fight.
"Youuuuu MURDERERS!!" he took a crossbow from a bag beside him, loaded it with three arrows and leaned to the side facing the men behind him to shoot, one arrow was able to take down one of the men leading the pursuit, but even with their comrade being shot down, still they continued.
"Archers! Come here you incompetent fools! Shoot the horses down!" Another one took the lead, and shouted, three men equipped with bows riding their horses came at the front of the pursuers.
Alfred heard the command and looked at the horses, "If they shoot these down, forget about escaping, the queen will definitely be killed. I have to take down those archers or divert their attention somehow," he looked at his crossbow and the five remaining arrows. He prayed deep inside his heart, "I can"t let their sacrifices go to waste, at least, may her highness be able to survive this farce."
With determination and resolve, he tied the lower part of his body to the coach and readied his crossbow pulling its strings, loading it with three arrows. He leaned from to the side of the running carriage facing the pursuers behind him, revealing the upper half of his body. He aimed the crossbow at the archers.
"Take this! You idiots! Whoever paid you to do these barbaric acts! I Alfred Dyer will deliver punishment to you!" He aimed and pulled the trigger thrice and among the three arrows he shot down two archers leaving one archer who was. .h.i.t at his leg.
"You f.u.c.king old man!" The last archer became angrier with the pain of his leg being hit. The old man"s upper body disappeared after shooting.
"He"ll definitely aim for me, I am the only threat left to stop the horses after all," he nocked an arrow, pulled the string and aimed at the spot and waited until the old man"s upper body showed again and he released the string. The arrow flew towards the old man and was. .h.i.t in his gut, however, the moment he was shot, he have already pulled the trigger and hit the archer in the head.
"Haaa... haaa... haaa" Alfred dragged his upper body back to his seat and saw his gut bleeding, dyeing his clothes with red. "I"ve... done... everything... I could... your highness". He kept whipping and whipping and whipping the horses until he lost his strength, and when he saw the carriage pa.s.s by the torches at the gates, he murmured while blood came out from his mouth.
"Long live the Kingdom of Ethareri... long live the royal family... long live the... queen"
And at that moment, the loyal servant Alfred Dyer of Ethareri lost his life, however, the horses he kept on whipping miraculously continued its speed until it has reached the plains pulling the carriage where the queen of Ethareri slept, unaware of what is happening, with its pursuers still on their tracks.
...
"Huh? My body feels heavy..." Michaela half-consciously felt that her body was being pressed by another person"s weight. Her vision is blurred but he could hear the voices that seems to be searching for them.
"Kill the witch! HAHAHAHA! Burn her at the stake!"
"Don"t sweat it, this place is plain. If they escaped we would have already seen them here, see?" Another soldier replied while riding his horse. He then lit extra torches and threw two torches randomly.
"See? Nothing, We need to hurry up and catch-up to the carriage instead, you dumba.s.s! If they escape, your head alone wouldn"t suffice for it!" The man who replied in a commanding tone was definitely their leader.
"Eeeeeeeeeehhhhh!!! Yes, sir!" The underling, scared of his boss, rode his horse again and tried to catch up to his comrades that had ridden farther than him.
Michaela"s battle senses kicked-in that made her completely wake-up however she refrained from moving, she could barely see the face of the person covering her entire body. As Michaela heard the conversation of the ones that searched for them, she became angered knowing what they have done, however, she felt that she didn"t have the strength to fight them, as if her mana was drained.
Remembering how her servants offered their lives to protect her, she knew that her first priority was to survive, knowing that her current situation is saving her at the moment, she continued pretending to be unconscious.
"This guy, why is he covering me? did he just save me?"
While drowsed, she heard the raid happen, the screams of her servants, Alfred leaving Olin, Celeste, and Clarissa, and the last words of Alfred, "Alfred, Clarissa, Celeste, Olin, everyone, I"m sorry, I have let you die," she thought as a subtle pain emerged into her heart, imagining their faces smiling at her, and knowing that she has let them die, "I"m sorry, it"s my fault," then she took a peak at her savior that covered her.
"He saved me, but I don"t know what his intentions are, for now, I"ll pretend to be unconscious, and when the pursuers are gone, I will kill him if he"s a threat"
After a few hours, the dawn came with a musical silence, the soul hearing the melody that the ears could not. A new day had come, new possibilities, a fresh page yet to be written, the pursuers were gone, and the guy removed his body from hers and sat down beside her, Michaela peeked with one eye on what was the guy was going to do to her.
The guy directed his gaze to her so she closed her eyes, only relying on her senses to find out what would happen next. To her surprise the guy did nothing but say weird things.
"Seriously, why do they want to kill an innocent-looking girl like her, but it wouldn"t be really cute if she really was a witch and ate me right?"
"Who"s going to eat you, idiot! Just what do you think of me?" she thought while still pretending to be unconscious.
After a few minutes, she couldn"t sense or hear the guy anymore so she slowly opened her eyes.
"Did he leave?" she then sat down to confirm where the guy has gone, but to her surprise she found the guy beside her sleeping.
She looked at his face closely. "Oh, a young man, he"s about the same age as me" then she looked at his clothes, touched it, crumpled it and played with it.
"These are strange clothes, is he a foreigner?"
She finished the inspection and found the guy did not have any bladed weapons other than some weird items on his pocket, to Michaela, they weren"t sharp to kill anyone. She was rest a.s.sured and sat down properly to collect her thoughts.
After recalling the turn of events she kept her tears within her heart, as the queen of the Kingdom. But she herself knew the truth, she loved the people around her, her servants and her people are of no exemption. In return they loved their queen and held her dear, her strength came from these people.
"But I"ve let them die because of my miscalculation," she thought.
She bit her lip and crumpled the gra.s.s beneath her hand, the gra.s.s she crumpled on her left froze, while on the gra.s.s on her right hand burned.
Then she looked at the guy beside her, his hair was caught in the fire. "Oh, sorry sorry" she pressed her left hand on the part and then fire disappeared, then a deep sigh came from her. "Sorry, I almost burned you," suddenly the guy changed his position and put her arm around her.
"This is what you are aiming for huh? You pervert!" She raised her right hand ready to burn the guys" face however when she saw his sleeping face she extinguished the fire on her hand.
"Ahhh he"s sleeping huh?" she tried to remove his hand from her chest however he only hugged her tighter.
"If you"re pretending to be asleep I"ll kill you, you know?" Nerves started to pop on her head.
"You really are an idiot aren"t you? Every time you sigh you lose happiness you know? So for now cry in my arms so that you could move on.
It"s not anyone"s fault, good things and bad things together they happen in life, they are irreversible, but if you try your best tomorrow, you can do your best to change things to the outcome you want it to be, so... just... stay here... and cry for now… until... tomorrow... comes." The guy was sleep-talking however his words made a very deep impact on her soul. She knew that the words weren"t necessarily for her, but for her those were the words she needed the most at the time.
"Hahaha... hahaha" Michaela started to laugh.
"What"s with this guy?" She said to herself.
"Hahaha... hahaha...haha.. [sniff] [sniff]" Michaela didn"t notice that as she laughed, tears started to fall from her eyes, that in a few seconds she was crying her heart out.
All her frustrations of not being able to save those whom she loved, the hate she pent-up on herself for being a failure of a queen, this time she let them all out.
"What... what the h.e.l.l is with this guy. " she thought deep within her heart.
She decided to not move from her position until she was able to stop her tears. Help came later with Erneis leading twelve of the golden knights on horseback.
"I"ve found the queen!" one of the knights shouted.
"What? Where?"
"Come over here sir!"
Erneis went to the are and there he saw the young queen with puffy eyes in the arms of a strange young man in weird clothes. They were both lying in the gra.s.s of the plains and seemed to be asleep.
Michaela noticed the presences around her, and woke-up immediately. "c.r.a.p I fell asleep" when she came to, the knights of her nation were surrounding her, "did they see me in that embarra.s.sing position?" her face reddened having the thought.
"Your highness, I"m glad that you are safe!" the knights around her placed their hand in their chest and bowed, "Yes, thank you, this is all because of the efforts of my attendants... however" she started to sulk again.
Erneis was also able to get a grasp of the situation, these were the kind of things happens mostly to n.o.bles of high birth, especially for her who was the queen of the country, but he also knew the fact that her queen loves her people so much that their deaths may have greatly affected her even if she didn"t show it.
"For now... let"s get back to the kingdom your highness," the old man suggested with his hands still on his chest.
"Indeed" Michaela got up and fixed herself.
"Then what shall we do about this gentleman beside you your highness? And who is he?"
Michaela thought of an answer, she was going to say what the guy has done for her and the turn of events. However she felt a warm feeling with her heart as she looked at the sleeping face of the guy beside her.
"It"s been so long since I felt warm inside my heart like this," she sat down on the gra.s.s to stroke his hair with her slender fingers. She stood again and looked at Erneis who was still bowing, and with a warm smile she answered him.
"Ahhhh he is... my soon-to-be husband," a breeze brushed past her hair, and when she looked up the sunrise came as if it had missed the sky and wanted nothing more than to warm up those blues to a radiant gold, and now that she was safe, it was time for her to come home and attend to her duties.