Day 13 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016, afternoon

Harmonic Restaurant, Andormyne City

ANDORMYNE was located on the province border, half in Goldburg province and half in Grizzle. Because of that, it was visited by many travelers at almost all the time, although it was lessened during winter.

The winter was on its end, though, and so many people started to travel again. Many nobles started to return home from the Capital, since the Winterfell season at the court ended. That was why a lot of people were in the city, crowding the streets.

When she entered the city behind Dev, her pendant suddenly felt warmer. Her right hand went to touch it, frowning, then she looked around.

Victoria’s eyes found the biggest building on the street and pointed at it with her left hand. “Hey, we should have lunch at the Harmonic Restaurant!”

Dev gave her a side eye. “It is expensive.”

“I'll pay you back,” she promised. “Come on, we are passing by Andormyne! We should eat at the Harmonic.”

Dev sighed. “Fine,” he sounded annoyed, but Victoria bet he was actually happy. Goddess, she herself was ecstatic.

The City of Andormyne had the best restaurants in the whole kingdom, after all. Many dubbed it as ‘the culinary heaven.’ The prices weren’t low, but they weren’t too high either. Moreover, the food was absolutely divine. In her opinion, they could even compare with the food in the palace.

As they walked in, they saw that the place was full, with the exception of a few small tables. This was already tame, though, and it only happened because it was not yet spring—it was still rather cold to travel and many delicate ladies preferred to travel when the weather got warmer. Victoria had been here before, with her friends, and it was always full of people – this wasn’t as bad as how it was in summer.

There were a lot of people wearing expensive clothes here. This place was often used to conduct business meetings, so the people who frequent the place are the rich merchants and some noblemen.

They got a table near the entrance of the building, and this allowed Victoria to examine the people coming in and out of the place. After the waiter took their order, she looked back towards the doorway.

“Why do you look so anxious?” Dev asked.

Victoria shrugged while her right hand continued playing with her pendant. “Hey, remind me to pay you back later.” She kept using his money and felt bad about it. The prices in this restaurant, while wasn’t that high, it wasn’t cheap either. “How much did we spend for the inn last night?”

“About five silver,” he said matter-of-factly, not shying to tell her the actual amount. She was rather glad that he wasn’t people who pretended they didn’t want the money back. Money is money, after all. Originally, she had no clue about how hard common people work for money, but when she was training under General Adefine in Edgefort, she learnt a lot of valuable lessons.

“Alright,” Victoria nodded and about to say something again, but then she looked at the door and paused.

Two people showed up on the doorway of the restaurant, and Victoria almost couldn’t contain her joy. They finally found her. “Victa!” Luz ran straight at her and Rex followed close behind. “You are actually here! You’re alive!”

Victoria laughed. “Where else should I be?”

“Honestly, you are making everyone worried!” Rex shook his head, but he was smiling widely.

Luz nodded “Thank Goddess you are safe,” then she hit Victoria’s head. “You, why did you go out alone!”

“Aw,” Victoria rubbed her head. She noticed her friends started to realize that there was someone else on the table. “Guys, this is Major Devan of Grizzle Military,” she introduced them. “Major, these are my friends, Luz and Rex.”

Dev looked at the two people, nodding his head politely. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Luz answered.

“Yes, I’m sorry that Victa has been a nuisance to you,” Rex added obnoxiously.

Victoria glared at him. “Shut up. What has been happening?”

Luz was about to answer, but she was cut off by the waitress who came to deliver their meals. Said waitress was confused by the addition of people on the table. “Uh… Would you like to order more meal?”

“Oh yes,” Rex nodded. “Absolutely. Pretty girl, what is the most exquisite meal you have today?”

The waitress blushed at the compliment. “We have Gentle-Fried White Wine Pork as the special dish today, and Cinnamon Cone as the desert. Would you like these?”

“What such a pretty girl recommend is surely true,” Rex flirted with a grin. “Yes, I would like that. What are you getting, Luz?”

Luz and Victoria glanced at each other, shaking their heads at Rex’s usual behavior. “I’ll just take a salad,” Luz said politely.

“And the drink with that?”

“Some water,” she said, and then added thanks.

“Me too,” Rex said.

“Yes, please wait,” the waitress said with a smile.

“Oh, for such a pretty girl, I would wait for sure,” Rex said, winking to the poor girl. Both Victoria and Luz sighed as the young waitress left with face fully red.

“You, my friend, are promiscuous,” Luz shook her head.

Rex laughed. “Hey, I have the look, so why not? Isn’t that right, Brother?” He asked that to Dev, who just shrugged.

“Don’t put a respectable military officer at your level,” Victoria said disgustedly. “I’m really sorry, Major.”

Dev raised his brows. “The three of you are good friends,” he said.

“Yes—” Rex was about to answer, but Victoria cut him off.

“We are all part of Naveland military,” she said hurriedly, which actually made them seemed more suspicious. Luz and Rex both looked at her in confusion.

Victoria gritted her teeth, indicating for them to shut up.

Rex got it. “She is the best soldier,” he supplied. “Everyone in the team called her ‘Perfect'.”

Victoria glared at Rex in annoyance at his extraneous sentence. More like the whole kingdom nicknamed her Princess Perfect. Because she’d never shown her face before her coming-of-age ceremony, rumor had it that the princess was so beautiful that she was hidden away in the castle. She was trained in all kind of arts—dancing, painting, embroidering, and even her handwritten was said to be beautiful and her voice was like an angel. Supposedly, her manners and temperament were also good, very soft-spoken and humble. She’d always suspected one of her friends or maybe two are behind those rumors, simply just to poke fun at her.

The only true part of the rumor was that she was also trained in all kind of combat arts and could do them masterfully. It was also said that her swordsmanship was like a beautiful deadly dance. Which was rather dumb, in her opinion. Swordplay is deadly dangerous, not beautiful.

Before she met her friends in that fateful day, her life consisted on training with General Adefine on all kind of weapons and even no weapon at all. And after she successfully forced her mother to let her into a public middle school to follow the steps of her slightly older friends, she had other lessons after school and during holidays, involving military strategies and politics and governing. She barely had time to do anything else, as her free time was used to play with her friends. Voice of an angel? Her singing wasn’t so bad, but to compare it to an angel was excessive. Her dancing was stiff and formal at best, and she only learned it so she didn’t embarrass her mother at balls. Her drawing was… recognizable, at least. And she’d never held an embroidery needle in her life—unless a sword could be counted as a big needle.

After graduating from Blades Academy, others started to thrust her into the duties of Crown Princess. She followed her mother every other morning to the council meeting, after that she trained, and then she reviewed military reports. Where in the world would she had the time to do anything else?

Therefore, that rumors about her ‘perfectness’ was absolutely untrue.

“Not true. They are exaggerating.” Victoria started digging into her food, following Dev who had started long ago. “So, tell, what has been happening in the Dustor base?”

“Well, there were sighting of troops on the other side of Lucent River,” Luz said with a low voice. The river was the natural border separating Lirsk and Forewood. “Everyone’s on high alert and started pulling back soldiers.”

Victoria glanced at Dev who ate his meal quietly without any reaction to the news. That would explain the code red he got in his letter. “So, it is going to break soon,” Victoria uttered while frowning. The peace… was on its end.

No one talked anymore. The four people ate quietly in the midst of the bustling restaurant.

When they finished their meal, Victoria gave Luz a meaningful look. Luz shook her head, smiling amusedly, but she stood up and went to the boss to settle the bill. Rex, meanwhile, was still busy eating his Cinnamon Cone.

Dev frowned when he saw Luz leaving. “Is she…”

“Well, she’s my friend,” Victoria answered quickly. “I’m borrowing her money to pay you back. This way is fine right? The rest of the expense, I’ll compensate later.”

Dev looked at her, raising his eyebrow, but he nodded. Luz was walking towards the table, so Victoria quickly swat Rex’s head who was still eating. “Come on, we got to go.”

“Aw! Pri—” Glancing towards Dev, Rex swallowed his words. Good. She herself didn’t know why she didn’t want to reveal her identity now. Earlier, it was because he wouldn’t believe it anyway, but now…

She shrugged, and they all set off back to Dustor. Luz and Rex each brought a horse, so she sat with Luz on her horse this time. Since they just had lunch, they brought the horses slowly, as to not upset their stomachs, but quickly picked up their pace. The crisis was still waiting.

During the journey, Dev glanced at Victoria slightly.

Of course, to suspect that she was a traitor was stupid now. That idea was dumb in the first place. She had never seemed to be suspicious, except at first—she had a bravery that seemed almost naïve. But that wasn’t it. It was just his cautious nature.

Though, that nature was right. She was dangerous. He caught how she could command her colleagues just with a look. Sounded stupid, but it was obvious that she had quite a high position. What she said about being a part of Naveland military might be true, might also be false. But it didn’t matter, did it? She had a person in a high place, exactly the sort that he should avoid. Whether or not she was lying didn’t matter. If she was a soldier in Naveland, she must be a high-ranking one. If she wasn’t, looking at her etiquette now, perhaps she was some sort of eccentric noble lady in the capital city. Again, didn’t matter. She was in a higher position, and people of that sort were always troublesome.

Trouble was right. Yes. He didn’t need trouble, like what happened to his brother. The way he was progressing to a higher position made people wary already. Well, the salary he had been saving all these years should be enough for him to survive. If worse comes to worst, he’d just quit being a soldier and go someplace else. Cacao seemed like a good place. Perhaps he’d live on its shore and be a fisherman. Or a hunter. He had been a hunter before.

But that was for later. He wouldn’t discard his responsibility as a soldier in the middle of war.

War. Victa’s friends confirmed that the Lirsk Kingdom was readying themselves across the Lucent River. So far, the Forewood soldiers were preparing for it.

Then that was the code red from the letter. A war in his lifetime. This time, he would participate.

And he wouldn’t die in vain as his brother did. []