VIIIth Century, year 63, Brumáire. Day 23. In the Austrelia Kingdom.

The door opened slowly, the light coming from outside pierced Urias's silhouette, not allowing the outside light to completely illuminate the dark room.

After opening the door completely, Urias began to walk slowly in a fixed direction, going further into the room, until his steps stopped in front of a simple office table. On top of this table were a lot of equipment, magical accessories and documents. She carefully moved each one aside to make a small space on the table and then picked up a chair, the chair was dusty, she blew lightly on the excess dirt off the chair and set it down on the table.

"Fuuuuu" Urias breathed deeply, and dropped into the chair, she raised her feet above the table.

"Sigh, only the living can suffer from exhaustion" meditated Urias.

That room was his favorite space, it was where his weakness, his sorrows and anger could be comforted.

"They don't call me Urias, the iron lady, because I am a gentle ruler" she whispered vaguely as she tidied her hair.

She was aware that nations with a higher protocol were watching her, she somehow didn't care much for these new eyes looking for each new movement.

"Well, it's not as if just now my actions started to be observed. Isn't it?"

Anyway there was a new ruler, Dero the Mad. This one made the Iron Lady suspicious. He was frighteningly crazy as well as competent. His movements were slow and had a random interval, as if he was waiting for the right opportunity to cause chaos in the mountainous regions

The protocols were a ranking of powers between nations. When a nation appears, like a baby crawling, they are considered as city-states. Its economic, military, mercantile and strategic powers are negligible. After possessing a greater power relevance, the great nations could raise their ranking, or in other words, a nation will always be submitted to the Great Nations at the top of the chain.

Uriah would never accept such subservience, especially if he had to bear the burden of the injustice done to his mother.

"Sigh... I can't remember the last time I was able to rest this well."

Uria had not realized that in the midst of her thoughts she had fallen asleep.

"How many days have I not slept? Five days? Or maybe a week? Tiredness really is a human's weak point."

Her tiredness was justifiable, lately she stopped being a gentle puppy and started showing her teeth, so there were many things she needed to do. One single error and everything could be thrown away.

Around this thought her eyes gradually began to close, and only mutterings came out of her mouth.

"I need to train!"

Urias rose quickly from her chair, preventing laziness from catching up with her and falling asleep again. Standing there drowning in thought was not going to bring any results...

With this posture, Urias left that dark room, locked the door with a magic seal, and headed for the training camp.

After a short walk reaching the training field everyone reveres the majesty in front of them.

"You don't need that, I just came to train"

"Your majesty, training with us?"

"Is there any squadron better ranked than the red squadron? You may come, attack all at once!" Her ferocity lived up to the title she carried. Fearless and skillful, this was Urias the Iron Lady.

Seizing the Opportunity, that the Iron Lady was off guard.

A warrior sword advanced towards Urias' neck, she quickly drew her scimitar blocking the blow and leaping back a step.

"Bravo, It make justice to the red squad, always taking advantage of the best opportunities" smiled Urias lightly.

But just before his retreat could come to an end, another warrior spun his giant sword, seeking to center the blow on his legs. But Urias' agility was incredible, and he promptly parried the blow, the swords clashing violently and the sound of sword clashing echoing around the field.

The training ground only allowed access to noble people, or those who possessed a martial ability above the ordinary, and consistent with this space was the coat of arms of several important families, the one that stood out the most was the Crimson family, the same responsible for the Red Squadron.

The fierce battle between them did not seem like just any training, it was admirable to imagine each blow well executed, you could feel the lightness they possessed in manipulating the sword.

Urias by this point had taken a more defensive position, carefully moving around and blocking only when extremely necessary.

"I have to focus on dodging, I can't lose focus and try to block some attack, If I do that I will be cornered."

The most experienced warrior of the red squadron, Gus, unlike Urias was already showing some fatigue, his strokes were aggressive as Urias' were fast and precise.

"The moment my sword collides again with your scimitar, Your Majesty, it will be the end of you.

Not necessarily the end for Urias.

Gus probably meant that Urias' scimitar couldn't withstand Gus' violent attacks for long, but your majesty didn't even imagine that scenario, so it sounded more like a provocation to his ears.

His scimitar was made of dragonic bones that sword was Urias's pride and joy, made of dragon bone bathed in the blood of a hundred-year-old Ignis

There was few magic that could destroy this scimitar.

In this current scenario there were only four of the original ten warriors left, Gus was one of them. Thus, Urias waited for the four to launch themselves forward, due to a small opening that she had purposely created. But her countrymen didn't fall into her trap, as a result of their tactic not working as expected, the warriors did not allow even a second for Urias to breathe and reposition. The opening that she had created as a bait, was becoming a burden.

"Must stop using these half-assed tactics against well prepared warriors" smiled Urias

The warriors haven't stopped executing simultaneous attacks. But executing simultaneous attacks while the opponent was able to dodge them all, even in a disadvantageous position, caused fatigue and lowered the morale of the warriors, even though they were well trained, they were still humans.

"Well, that's six gone, considering that each of these possess the strength of eighty well-trained and equipped men. It is not to be expected that I would begin to tire too."

"I would not waste your breath with praise if I were your majesty" the warrior misunderstanding totally what Urias was talking. Those whispers were just Urias analyzing the battlefield.

Urias only gave a slight smile after the warrior misunderstanding.

Then the vision of one of the warriors began to blur, the Queen's movements began to become more intense and accelerated, none of the red squadron that had been left found even a flaw in their offensives. Urias struck a blow so powerful that one of the red squad could not even respond adequately to the blow. The queen's swordplay was just like a dance, an extremely violent dance.

"So there are only three left?" Urias asserted. Despite the mocking tone, Your Majesty had been caught off guard, being thrown against the wall by Gus.

"Hahaha, I finally did it!"

The last three remaining were celebrating for finally managing to land some blow. But Gus was completely fatigued, putting his hand on his knees and breathing deeply to catch his breath. The celebration would not last long.

Becaus nobody count the fact that Urias was a terrible loser.

"The voice that whispers in my ears, I call upon you. "

Solstice

Urias had conjured a magical ability, as he finished the conjuration he leaped towards the last remaining warriors, they were celebrating and had barely realized of the serious error they had made.

Solstice was ready to strike them, a small orb of pure mana condensed in his fist, he punched the ground firing a wave of shock, incapacitating them all in a minute. After finish his blow, Urias possessed gracefully.

"That's all for today!"

"As always a baaaad loser" a voice in the background denoted Urias' personality.

It was an female voice referring to majesty without reverence. Which was unusual enough in itself.

Urias smiled and answered vaguely "As always you arrive at the last minute."

"I brought important reports that's made me take so long, but first, are they okay?"

"Well, I took it easy on them, but they will probably spend a few days with their butts hurting."

"I believe they will be honored to know that it wasn't a dream that they put Urias, the Iron Lady against the wall, even though you took it easy."

"Hmpf, pure luck"

"Hahaha that personality of yours will never change. You indeed remain the best swordsman in Haifa."

"Very kind of you. But the question remains, what reports Jess?"

"I believe we should discuss this in a more private space."

The two walked calmly to the central palace, during the walk Urias told one of his maids to contact Grand General Bertrand to come to the meeting urgently.

"Right, I believe this is the ideal place."

"I hope it's not bad news Jess" Bertrand murmured as he pulled up a seat at the rounded table made of the most luxurious marble possible.

Jess was silent. He opened his leather backpack that was around his waist, took out a small letter, and placed it on the table

"I would very much like to bring you good news Bertrand"

Urias saw the seal on the letter, that seal clearly identified who the sender was from.

"So it's from the Dark Ruler?"

"B-but what?" that message took Bertrand by surprise. No doubt Urias was surprised as well.

"You can open it Jess..." Urias didn't let surprise have any space, a smart move, should surprise take over that meeting it might cause some divergence of information.

Jess opened the letter with trembling hands, everyone already knew it couldn't be good news. Considering the long negative relationship that Urias and the Dark Ruler have. Jess read the letter carefully, upon completion, he placed it back on the table.

"Well... how can I put this... The Ruler of Darkness, has demanded the lands north of the Krashopf glacier."

This demand made no sense at all, if there wasn't some foul play behind it.

The Kingdom of Austrelia, had a different system of succession, as soon as its Ruler died or was unable to continue his reign, seven new candidates were selected, who passed a rigorous aptitude test. The background of the chosen candidate did not matter much, as long as they were young they could undergo a proper education and Rule the Kingdom for prosperity. At the end of this test, Urias was the only remaining alive.

"This is going to be quite problematic, we can't give away land with enormous potential," Bertrand said, already preparing himself for a possible war.

"But since we can't sustain any more wars, we'll have to solve this another way" Jess replied thoughtfully.

Urias's fingers were restless, her index finger tapped frequently on the table, it was she's hipomania she possessed when became anxious.

There was a time in her past when Urias had come close to entering the court of the Dark Ruler. However, fate smiled upon her, and she was selected as a candidate for succession. This greatly enraged the Dark Ruler, who saw Urias as a diamond to be polished , which in itself was true in view of Urias overwhelming power.

"Well, I probably would have become just another undead in his hands" meditated Uria

Urias was weak in long-range magic, unlike the previous King, who was a skilled sorcerer. She was efficient, and did not require large amounts of mana particles to be able to perform some low range magic. However, if she depended on longer range spells, she was out of her reach. She simply did not have the mana reserves to provide spells of this size.

Because of this, Urias turned to a more practical way of fighting, using short-range magics, and focusing on her melee combat style

"Still, the internal research that there is a chance of possessing mana reserves under the glaciers is something that cannot have leaked out so easily."

"You're right, and besides the Dark Ruler doesn't usually demand land"

"How many men can we move to the border Bertrand?"

"At this moment your majesty, we have been able to add two regiments, more than that we can put our new possessions at serious risk"

"That will not hold off an invasion..."

"The big problem would be the lines of logistics, the glaciers is an area still little explored and we don't have great infrastructure yet. Cold clothing, carriages, horses and weapons would have to be stocked from scratch in the glaciers if we want to sustaining a worthy battle"

"Now is to late for doing this. Nobody ever imagined that any interest could arise from that remote region"

"With the current battles the vaults are starting to empty quickly, and taxing again is not an option too"

"Perhaps we should return one of the Generals from the battlefield

"With that we could postpone the confrontation a little longer... Currently there are three Generals in the Kingdom of Florenz, it is just like attacking an ant with a cannon.

Urias listened in silence to Bertrand and Jess discussion, they were all arguing as if the battle was a sure thing. But for Urias something was out of the curve, for her this battle was avoidable. The ruler of darkness is watching for something, but her mind couldn't tell what exactly. This made her more and more impatient.

The Glacier Region was in the middle of a triple border, between the Kingdom of Florenz, Kingdom of Austrelia and the Kingdom of Darkness.

"Triple Border..." Murmured Urias As if she was forgetting a link in the chain.

"There are also rumors that the confederation of Dusselmoth is studying ways to mass produce weapons with Dragon bones, that might-"

"That!!!" Urias' mind had been enlightened by Jess comment, the chain link that was hidden from Urias eyes has been connected, her mood suddenly improved and she had finally deciphered why the Dark Ruler was suddenly doing this harshly movement.

"Jess, we don't need to come into conflict with the Kingdom of Darkness, nor do we need to hand over any land" Urias held this statement of his with such excitement that there was no way to properly contest it.

"B-but how?" Bertrand remained skeptical, in all this time of his life, he had never missed the smell of a long war coming.

"Bertrand, the Dark Ruler is not interested in our lands. What else does the Dark Ruler have an interest"

"Undead...?"

Bertrand was flabbergasted, how he hadn't put the pieces together.

It hadn't been long since the group of heroes had defeated the Ice Dragon in the Glaciers of Krashopf. That was long enough for its body to start rotting, the ideal time to get a living Dead Dragon as a familiar.

"But your majesty, allowing a Dragon as a familiar to an enemy Kingdom will be a future problem. One Dragon has the power of almost four Generals"

"What your majesty wants at that moment is to buy time."

Urias shakes his head agreeing with Bertrand's afirmation.

"Now we just need some information to back up that hypothesis".

"I will get that information for you Lady Urias" Jess concluded with a simple bow.

With that the Meeting was over, and Urias retired to his room. A modest room for a royalty, there were countless patterns in geometric shapes carved upon the wall frame made of sapphire.

A huge stained glass window in his room provided a wide perspective on the Capital of the Kingdom. A pile of papers had accumulated on his bedside table; they were his novel manuscripts, his hobby in his free time.

"Knock-knock, Your Majesty. Would you like some dark herbal tea?"

"Yes, can you also bring me the news from the battlefield, also the spy's news too"

While Urias waited, she devoted herself to continuing to write her romantic manuscript.

"What would I do without you, Jess..." Urias wondered as she wrote her novels, sometimes Urias missed her old life, and especially her mother. She had not yet fully avenged the injustice your mother had suffered but each time passed, she moved away from that goal, she now owned the lives and well being of thousands of people.

Only Jess remained after the betrayal of her family. The Paladin, was adopted by her mother and served under the ancient Citrine family crest, and never wavered in her loyalty. Even after her family's exile from the Empire. Her family fell into disgrace, with her mother being accused of treason and hanged in a public square. Because of this Urias fled to the far north and Jess obediently accompanied her.

The servant girl delivered the tea and news from the battlefield as requested.

The news was inscribed on sparking sheets, a simplistic but quite useful form, considering that this news only needed to be resistant to weather and transportation.

Urias read the titles as he appreciated his tea.

"The escape from Florenz's court. And the new regent king."

"Completion of the battle on the outer side of the wall."

"Delay in ration supply causes upset to novice soldiers."

Although Urias knew in detail about the crimes committed by the novice soldiers in the battles around the villages, there wasn't much she could do, or at least she tried to convince herself of that.

Urias, paid more attention to the article of the new regent king. They practically gave up the head of one of their sons so that they could input a peace truce after he's dead.

"They will probably ask for help from some foreign kingdom for a peace agreement. Well whatever, as long as they give up their arable land I don't really care."

Urias had finished her tea, but there was something uncertain about this new King Regent, something about him bothered her, not much information was possessed about him, what if he has a strategy that could put his victory in doubt, or what if he gets help from an ally? This made her uneasy.

"I think I should start reading the spy news."

Urias focused her attention the news about the Kingdom of Dero the madman, for her this was an inevitable conflict against the degenerate Gargoyles. And as expected there was nothing unusual in the spy reports, they only reported the increase of gargoyles in the underground tunnels.

The gargoyles had a great appeal for propaganda, which caused a tight grip on the political culture of that kingdom. To Urias, gargoyles were a dirty, treacherous race, and in contradiction to what they tried to demonstrat. This was the main reason why Urias found it increasingly complex to distinguish what was really truth or just publicity.

The Gargoyles understood well that at certain times there was a need to bury certain information to hide their true faces. Opportunities multiply in a vicious cycle as the first one is seized. And for Urias, the first opportunity had already been grabbed by Dero, and it was only a matter of time before Dero managed to put the Gargoyles in a prominent position.

Beings that hide in the darkness, waiting for unsettled times to put their plans into action, caused Urias to feel uneasy.

"Your Majesty, may I request a moment of your attention" Informed a shadow guardian.

Shadow guardians were a special group of tatical action that could no longer be considered human and answered only to the Queen, usually they only appeared in case of urgency.

"For what purpose?"

"there is something strange with the new regent king these days"

Urias felt uncomfortable with this news, for her the new regent king could be a clever person and maybe hiding some trickery, but otherwise an average human. However for the shadow guardians to notify me something very wrong has happened.

"So he seems more formidable at first sight?"

"No your majesty, it is his aura, his aura has changed recently"

Urias frowned his brow "what is the meaning of that?"

"Majesty you can't feel the aura yet, she is still human" Another shadow guardian replied. "But the aura is like someone's features, their scent."

Urias understood what the aura meant, but didn't understand what was so urgent about it.

"Okay, but what about your aura?" Urias asked sarcastically, figuring that the shadow guardians were making a fuss for nothing.

But the shadow guardians remained serious, well, they had no other way of acting "he doesn't have an aura, your majesty. Normally people have an aura that involves from blue to red, however this man does not, that is what worries me."

"Well, I don't think it matters much" Urias replied heading towards the bed.

"You may go, should anything else strange occur let me know."

"Yes your majesty."

Why would the shadow guardians be alerted with a bastard? Urias thought, his body start to reacted differently as normal, as if something was in your stomach, and it was coming from this Regent King. Something didn't fit there.

There was more to this man than meets the eye.

"Should I be worried?"