Day 13 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016, afternoon

Military Base, Dustor City, Grizzle Province

THE FOUR of them started from Andormyne city that afternoon, galloping to Grizzle Province, and arrived at Dustor City’s Military Base by the time the moon was out. Dev quickly excused himself once they arrived in the base.

Victoria was a bit at loss seeing him walking away so quickly, but her attention was taken by the sudden appearance of her other friends, Ethan and Alize.

Now they all looked at her, sighing. “Well... Bad news, Victa.”

“What bad news?” She looked at Ethan with a frown.

“Your mother arrived this afternoon.”

Hearing that, she stared at her friends one by one, but they only winced. She sighed heavily. “This is it,” she muttered. “My fate ends here…”

“Stop being dramatic and let’s go talk to General Adefine first,” Luz suggested.

They walked to the General’s office without dawdling any longer. Victoria knocked slowly on the door and sighed when she heard the General went, “Come in.”

“I just wish I can explain myself before you say anything,” she started before the General even opened his mouth.

Adefine looked at her amusedly. “Your Highness, you don’t need to explain yourself to me.”

The ‘highness' that her former teacher used cut deeper. It was as if he mocked her for being so high that she didn’t care about everyone beneath. She knew it was only her being oversensitive, but she still cannot help but felt that way. “Did you notify Mother?”

“Common protocols require me to do so,” the General said.

“But did you?”

“I did,” he nodded. “She needs to know.”

Victoria groaned. She was definitely in trouble. “How did she…”

“‘She’ is here because of you, Princess, thank you very much,” the Queen walked in from the door.

Victoria was startled. “Mother!” She didn’t know her mother had been in the room all along.

The Queen narrowed her eyes. “So, do you still know you have a mother? Why didn’t you remember that before going out alone near a hostile area?”

She cringed. “Uh… Mother, I just…”

“Victoria, can you once, just once, be mature? Please? Stop being so reckless! Remember that you are the Crown Princess of this kingdom. If you keep being like this, sneaking everywhere, ignoring your own safety, how can you keep everything else safe?!”

Usually, her temper would rise whenever her title was mentioned as a reason. This time, though, Victoria felt ashamed of her own actions. She nodded along as her mother scold her in front of the General of the Army and her friends, knowing it was her fault for putting herself at risk. “I am sorry, Mother,” she said, after her mother scolded her until she was out of breath.

“You keep saying sorry,” the Queen Regent said while looking at her, then she sighed heavily. “I hope you really know your wrong, for your own sake.” She looked at the General then. “How are we doing, General?”

The General nodded respectfully. His composure was calm, as if he didn’t just witness the Queen Regent of the Kingdom went off at her daughter, the throne's heiress. “Currently we are preparing well, Your Majesty. But I still wouldn’t recommend you, or Her Highness, staying here.”

“Don’t worry about that, General. As my daughter is found, we will go back as soon as possible.”

Victoria was startled. “But Mother—”

“No buts,” Queen Luna said strictly. “Was your sorry insincere?”

She shook her head. “No, I promise I won’t go out without escort! Mother, please let me stay!”

“It doesn’t matter, Victoria. I cannot have the Crown Princess running around near danger.”

“I am also…” She trailed off. She wanted to say she was also the Grand General, but she disliked throwing around her title like that. And anyway, it was just a courtesy title. She wasn’t actually a Grand General—what was she thinking?

I didn’t expect I have to actually go home and spent my days in the safety of the palace, she thought bitterly.

It was futile to argue, though, as her mother was in one of her worse moods. “Whatever your will may be, Your Majesty,” she muttered before turning around and stormed off.

Her friends hurriedly followed behind her after paying respect to the Queen. Victoria could hear the Queen instructed her friends, mainly Luz as the princess’ right hand, to ‘watch the princess’. She stalked off to a small study lent to her during her stay.

She reached some small parchments, a feather, and ink, and started writing. she remembered the thing she encountered in Duskbury town, the weird monsters that came out of the dark. And before that, there were some problems in Nighweald village, too. Who has the highest authority in Goldburg? She thought it must be the Duke of Goldburg, Lord Marvin, but then those incidents were mostly in southern Goldburg. Then perhaps she should contact its governor, the Marquis of Weld—it surely would be more effective.

But maybe sending a message directly to the Goldburg military general so they can take action would be better. Each province had their own military general, like how Krish Gale was Grizzle’s and Lake Reese was Naveland’s. These generals held the reins of each province’s military force. If she sent it to the general—with her status as the Grand General, these people couldn’t dismiss it.

Yes, that would be the best. Just in case, too, she still wrote to the two nobilities in charge of Goldburg. When she finished writing on the parchment before her, her friends had come after her. She looked at the four of them standing in her doorway, and then started walking past them.

“Victa, calm down,” Ethan started from behind her. The others started adding and clamoring, convincing that what the Queen was doing was for her own good.

The more she heard them, the more she felt that it was funny, and so she burst out laughing. “I think you guys are the one that need to calm down,” she said. She wasn’t actually mad. It was still her fault, after all, and even she knew that. “I am calm. Just—”

“Sir Paulo!” A soldier called Ethan, who looked back. “Sir, General Krish asked me to fetch you.” He looked at the others and was startled when he saw Victoria. “Oh, I apologize, Your Highness! The General said that since Sir Paulo is a royal strategist, he would like to go over some details with him.”

Well, that was true. Victoria was the one who employed him, and he worked mainly for her, but his status was one of the royal strategists—meaning he could be summoned by the military at all times. She nodded to the soldier. “Go ahead,” she said. Usually she would also come along, as the Grand General, but not tonight.

After they left, she walked the opposite side to one of the many towers along the wall, her friends following silently behind her. They were probably confused of what she was doing.

Victoria herself knew she usually would be cursing and scolding and being like an enraged spoilt princess, but not today. With the war and all that was going on… She knew her mother was just concerned. She felt a bit miffed and annoyed, but too tired to start being angry.

The outpost was occupied by a young soldier, even younger that Victoria herself. It wasn’t unusual. The legal age in the Kingdom was fifteen years old since it was the youngest age someone usually graduate from high school. Military high schools sent their students into military bases for real military training in their third year—some sort of internships.

The young soldier was startled awake when they arrived. “Oh… I’m sorry, do you need something?”

Victoria smiled. “I need to deliver a letter to southern Goldburg’s lieutenant general.”

He frowned. “For what purpose?”

Victoria put out the small letters she’d written on the table. The soldier observed the scrolls closely and found the royal seal. His eyes then went to her, who smiled, and to her friends behind her—who in the night probably seemed like bodyguards, with swords on their waists and everything. “Oh! Oh! I’m so sorry, Your Highness, I didn’t recognize you!” He sat up in his seat. “Yes, yes, of course, I’ll deliver this soon! Uh, uh… Southern Goldburg…” The young soldier muttered, and then grabbing one of the pigeons in one of the many cages.

“What’s your name, soldier?” Victoria asked while the soldier was busy with that.

The young soldier panicked. “Oh, yes, I forgot! Uh, trainee Martin Cisco, reporting for duty, Ma’am! I mean, Your Highness!”

Rex chuckled, which made Alize dan Luz started giggling. Victoria couldn’t help but smile. The poor soldier began to blush, but he kept himself busy with the task at hand.

When he was done, he released the pigeons free, then faced Victoria. He saluted. “Very sorry, Your Highness! It won’t happen again!”

Victoria shook her head. “It’s fine. No need to be so jittery. Thank you, trainee Martin.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

They walked away from the watchtower, then Victoria looked at her friends again. “Where’s that little boy who was injured? That was how you found me, right?”

Luz nodded. “The signal led me to that alley. We brought the boy and his sister to one of the rooms in the inn.” She frowned. “Are you going there? What if they mean you harm?”

“They’re children,” Victoria replied. “At most people used them to do harm to me. Did you interrogate them?”

“I did,” Alize said suddenly. They all looked at their friend who usually stood on the quieter side of the spectrum. “We got nothing much from the girl, except that a hooded man hurt her brother, holding him at knifepoint, and said that the only way she could save him was to ask you for help.”

“So indeed, they used children to bait me,” Victoria replied, thinking. “I want to see them.”

“Follow me.”

She followed Alize who led them all outside the military base, to the closest inn there. The room was on the second floor, so they went upstairs. The innkeeper only looked on with interest, but he didn’t stop them.

They all poured into one of the rooms there. It was just a small, simple room, with a dinky bed and dilapidated table. There was a soldier keeping watch there, who bowed in respect when she entered the room. “Your Highness.”

The young girl who was tending her brother stood up, scared. “Y-Your Highness,” she followed the soldiers’ cue. “I’m—I’m so-sorry,” and then she broke down crying.

Victoria sighed, looking at her friends who avoided her eyes, somewhat guiltily. The princess understood that her friends were worried about her and interrogated these kids somewhat harshly. She knelt before the young girl and pat her head. “Don’t worry about it. What’s your name?”

“O-Olivia,” she answered, wiping her tears.

Victoria smiled softly. “Okay, Olivia. Is your little brother okay?”

The girl looked back to her brother in his sickbed, and then back to Victoria and nodded. “The physician said he will be fine.”

“That’s good,” Victoria nodded, and then stand back up to observe the young boy. “What’s your name?”

The boy looked back at her. Despite being younger than Olivia, his eyes were somewhat colder, as if he had seen something cruel in his life, something that scarred him deep into his soul. Her own assessment left her surprised. “My name is Noel. Many thanks for Your Highness’ concern. Please forgive me, I cannot convey my greetings properly.”

The boy’s manner was way too polite. “Alright,” she said, though she raised her eyebrows in wonder. She sat by the boy’s bed and started to engage him in conversations. Mostly, she tried to probe if the kids remember who stabbed the boy, what kind of figure, et cetera, but she didn’t get anything.

After a quarter of an hour of pointless back-and-forth, Victoria sighed. If Alize didn’t get anything, what can she get? The boy answered her questions coldly, while the older sister mostly just cried. So, the Princess stood up and walked to the door, looking at the soldier. “Sir Hoen, please take care of them.”

The soldier was a bit surprised that the Princess knew his name, but he controlled it well. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Let’s go,” Victoria walked out of there. They walked down the stairs and arrived at the tavern in the first floor.

“Hey, Victa, what was the letter about, the one you wrote earlier?” Luz asked, suddenly. Rex and Alize also looked on in curiosity, although while Alize looked on reservedly elegant, Rex looked like an eager carnivore.

Victoria just shrugged. “I found some weird stuff going on in the towns in Southern Goldburg while I travel there, and I wanted to make sure it was addressed, you know?”

Rex quickly lost his curiosity. He assumed they were political problems and he wasn’t interested, so he wandered around and started flirting with the barmaids. Victoria and Luz discreetly glanced at Alize, who only looked for a second before turning her head back towards the Princess. The quiet girl saw her two friends looked at her, and she raised her eyebrows. “What?”

“Nothing,” Victoria and Luz hurriedly said. “Anyway, yeah, so I sent a letter to the general of Southern Goldburg urging him to inspect those towns.” When they almost walked out of the tavern door, she stopped. “Is this tavern called… The Barrels?”

“Well, the inn and tavern are both named Barrels,” Luz replied from beside her.

Victoria backtracked and instead walked towards one of the tables in the corner. There were only two or three tables filled, so she occupied the corner table easily, followed by her three friends. One of the barmaids that Rex was trifling with earlier came near, which made Rex smiled flirtatiously. “Beautiful girl, can I get a beer?”

The barmaid blushed. “Of course, sir,” she said with a coquettish voice.

“An ale for me,” Alize said, somewhat suddenly.

The barmaid turned towards her. “Yes, for sure,” she said, her cheeks were still red. “And these two ladies?”

“I’m not drinking tonight,” Victoria said, and Luz nodded as well. The barmaid nodded in return and went back to the bar.

“So why are we sitting here?” Rex asked, excited.

Victoria looked around the tavern before looking at her friends. “I have to go somewhere. Can you guys just stay here?”

“Where are you going?” Luz asked, disapprovingly. “You know your mother asked us to keep an eye on you.”

Victoria rolled her eyes. “Come on, I’m still going to be around here. No harm will come to me. Just… you all stay here, okay?”

The three of them looked at her with a frown. “Where are you going, exactly?”

Victoria tutted, but still not answering. “I’m just going to find a good alcohol.” Without any more delay, she stood up and went to the bar.

A barmaid greeted her, a different one from who served their table before. “What would you like, Miss?”

She calmly sat down and answered, “I’d like some… Gleaming Blood, please.”

The barmaid’s face changed subtly, but her smile stayed. “Please wait,” she went back and it was as if she took a bottle from the display behind her. Victoria didn’t catch what exactly the barmaid did, but when she came back, it was with a mug and a bottle.

The barmaid skillfully poured in the red liquid from the bottle and pushed the mug towards the princess. “I need to take another fresh ingredient. If you will follow me to the kitchen, Miss,” she said smilingly.

Victoria nodded and with the mug on her hand, she stood up from her seat, walking after the barmaid. From the corner of her eyes, she looked to her friends’ table and warned them to not follow her or do anything.

They went behind the bar through the door and arrived in the kitchen. There was only one cook who was working quietly, which made sense, because there weren’t many guests in the tavern this late at night.

Victoria followed the barmaid past the kitchen into a small room. It was a tiny office with a woman behind the desk. Victoria’s attention was focused on her striking turquoise hair while she sat before the woman. The barmaid excused herself from the room.

The woman raised her head, looking at Victoria questioningly. “Who are you?”

“My name is Victoria Ulysses,” she introduced herself.

The woman raised her eyebrow. “Oh. Well, mine is Calathea Elmer. So, what do you need from Blades, Princess?” She talked impatiently—her tone almost condescending, but Victoria wasn’t offended by that. She had long known that Blades’ members never considered titles to be important, and even more so for the leader of Grizzle’s Blades.

Which went along with how she felt. That was why she happily discarded her title. “Well, there is something going on in the military base, and I want to enlist your help.”

The woman scrunched her eyebrows at the Princess. “Why?” She asked. “Why us?”

“It’s just… It’s my suspicion, and we don’t have enough evidence to conduct a real investigation,” She looked at the woman seriously. “I’m sure some of your men is in the military. So… if you could just let them keep watch on things and report it back to me, that would be really nice.”

The woman laughed. “Our service is not free, Princess,” she said.

Victoria nodded. “Well, I know that. Money is not a problem if you can spare some people.”

Calathea leaned back on her seat, looking at her enquiringly. “Can you elaborate even further? What suspicious things that made you want to spy on your own military force?”

Victoria sipped on her mug, and then she looked at Calathea seriously. “I suspect a traitor from Lirsk within the military bases,” she said with a low voice.

The woman’s face morphed into surprise. “Are you sure?” she asked, her eyebrows narrowed.

The Princess shrugged. “I believe in my own feelings and judgment… but others need evidence, and I don’t have that. I cannot start an official investigation until I have sufficient evidence in hand.”

The turquoise-haired woman frowned. Indeed, Victoria thought, calling Blades a mercenary organization was a bit inaccurate. They always made sure they never cross a certain line. Most of the things they did were for the good of the Kingdom. Occasionally they did things like spying on others, especially for their benefactors, but the basis on which they were built was that they would always put forward the interest of Forewood. It was one of the reasons that the royal family tolerates them. Other reasons being that Blades had been there since the birth of the Kingdom and there was almost no way to topple them now.

“So, this is just your own personal suspicion, isn't it?”

“My intuition is never wrong,” Victoria said surely. “But even if it is, it won't hurt to keep guard. You know that the peace is about to break and the base of operation is in Grizzle base. Something will really go wrong if there is a traitor among them…” She observed that the woman wasn’t really convinced by her, so she added, “I heard that your men are loyal to a fault and you screened them very, very carefully. Prove it!”

Calathea narrowed her eyebrows at her ultimatum. “Well, if it’s for the benefit of Forewood, no need for you to pay,” she said. “I have some people in the base. I’ll make sure they keep watch to whatever your suspicion is.”

“The weaponry warehouse,” she replied. “Pay a very good attention to the weaponry.” []