(Archeron Kingdom)
"Father... I want to report that the Zelims are starting to attack again. After spying on the Zelims for a few weeks. We discovered that the Arcus had long since been supporting the Zelims before the war began."
Wearing slim armor with a red cape and a dazzling crown befitting her beauty and status as she waited for her father's reply.
"Father..." No matter how many times Leila knocked, there was no response, and when every time she forced herself to enter, he would use his power to block whoever tried entering the door.
About to knock again, but she hesitated and gave up waiting as she returned to her duties.
Since her uncle and his team's disappearance for a few weeks now. Her father has locked himself in his chamber ever since.
'We failed too. Now it's your turn to find the meaning.'
That last thing she heard from his father before he locked himself in his room. She still can't figure out the meaning behind those words, no matter how she thought it through.
The last thing she knew, the highest authority in the kingdom, is now hers.
"Your highness! The clans have arrived."
"*Bastards! They sure fast when it comes to decisions.*"
Leila clenched her fist as she remembered the deeds of those leechers.
"Let's go." Leila gave one last look at the door before she left.
Inside the king's chamber on its bed, the king lay quietly.
#####
In a large library window, there sat the princess looking at a blackbird perched on a chair not far away, just staring at her.
"Say it's been a month. Do you think you've been playing dead for too long? I argued with the clans earlier. They kept pressuring me for my father's situation and what's my next step regarding the war..." Leila gives a big sigh saying those words.
"Experiencing this life... Father sacrificed a lot to let this kingdom going."
Drowsiness struck Leila as she saw a glimpse of the blackbird growing before she fell asleep.
A few hours went by.
*Knock!*
Leila woke up from the knock upon realizing that she had slept on the table. She immediately fixed her disheveled gown and hair.
"Yes?"
"Your highness! We need you in the kitchen right now! There is a suspicious person who claims to be close to you. Sir Neil and the rest is keeping him guarded till you get there."
"Okay? I'll get there in a bit." Leila said, standing up and was about to walk out when she noticed Blackie she considered a family was now gone.
"No!" Leila panicked, and she looked all over the library, but the bird was nowhere to be seen. As she was searching, she recalled something that before she fell asleep, the bird grew.
"*Did it got restless and want to search his master? No, it isn't likeless. They are connected so he can feel the bird on where it was, same for blackie. Did something happen to him?!*" Letting her mind runoff, she panicked again.
*Knock!*
"What?!" Frustrated as she said.
"I-i-i'm sorry, your highness! I came back to tell you that your highness pet seems to be in that man's possession."
"What?!" Leila ran out of the library to the kitchen. As she went, she remembered that except her and its master could contact it. Other people couldn't just touch that bird. Their touch would only pass through its flaming body.
"*It can't be?! He is back!?*" A beautiful smile appeared on her beautiful face.
But that fairy tale smile soon turned horror when she saw a bearded man munching all the food on the table while the blackbird on the man's shoulder notice Leila. It flew and perched back on her shoulder.
Neil and the others just kept watching because they tried everything to restrain Adam and make him leave, but all was futile.
Adam noticed the behavior around suddenly looked at a person behind him, and he also turned around to see.
Leila stared at Adam, who smiled at her, still dripping with sauce all over his beard.
#####
"Should we start the meeting?" A crafty and wrinkled-looking old man said in a robe with a symbolic clan crest on his chest that looks like a flower from a distance, but on closer look, it is a Sun.
All the clans have symbolic crests to show their status and novelty to everyone that they are part of an organization that you think twice of offending off.
Some of the clans of this world are mysterious.
Upon listening to some of the histories of this from the giant statue, ten ancient clans have been founded and ruled by gods for centuries, and their root is something that a single god can handle.
The name of these clans is a taboo that no mortals or even as strong as dragons could bear their wrath once they knew. So they created many branch clans using a different name, and one of these branch clans resides at the Archeron Kingdom, the clan of the old man who first spoke, The patriarch of the Sun Clan, Amos.
"This Kingdom cannot be left in the hands of a mere royal princess!" An angry middle-aged man said as if just waiting for the patriarch of the sun clan to speak first, he is the 2nd in command in the Lycan Clan, Lyjiao.
"Now, now, old ly. Where is your patriarch has run off to now? The acting princess king is not here yet. Why would you voice out your concern if the subject isn't here." Smile remarked a bald old man in a black robe, Patriarch of the Mist Clan, Desmond.
Including the three, two more patriarchs are sitting at the meeting table observing.
*Door opening!*
"Look! Who's here now, i thought you forgot about the important meeting, our king!" Sarcastically said by Patriarch of the Mist Clan, Desmond.
Leila didn't glance at him as she continued to walk to her chair, followed by blackie scanning the surrounding, then it landed on Leila's shoulder after she sat.
The atmosphere suddenly went cold as the clan heads shivered in fright after the blackbird went by.
Leila smiled at this and said.
"Shall we start the meeting?"