Having spent a whole 3 or so decades away from the kingdom Addie was convinced to slowly get to know the kingdom from Annabelle's house and mouth. Over the time she got to hear many stories about her little sisters life and the empires development in spite of the absence of the royal family. Annabelle told her that her father was a noble from one of the noble houses who managed to convince Alex that it was for the best and would lesson the pressure on the chancellor and help to protect the throne... Supposedly that noble was in love with Alex since before Addie disappeared and even confessed to her only to be rejected by Alex who said she only had love for Addie... Which Annabelle laughed at like it was a cute story of a couple kids while Addie sat there debating whether her little sister swung that way... Alex supposedly even made her wedding vows a promise... Whether the promise was out of dedication to her marriage, child or Addie is debatable but she promised to put down her obsessive search of over a decade until her first child reached adulthood and then she would leave the empire all together and wouldn't return without Addie. Alex held up to that promise and 19 years after their wedding Annabelle was deemed self sufficient by her mother who left that very same day... it took another three months before her father died... It was publically known he died of his broken heart but Annabelle made it clear that was sentimental nonesense and he died from 19 years of obsessive and anxiety filled work to try to make his wife break her vows and steal her heart from Addie... but in the end she still left and in those three months he did not eat, he did not sleep, he didn't even move... Obsessively staring at the horizon from where he last saw her until his last moments hoping she would come back. So he definitely just died from his self abuse and childishness along with his refusal to accept his own wife's feelings... Annabelle seemed to be more angry at how childish and stupid her own father was then anything else... All the while Addie felt kinda bad for unknowing hurting all three of them... She had met the adorable little boy who was obsessed with Alex before... She didn't have any strong opinion or feelings for him but still felt bad as she pictured how much she hurt all three of them simply with her absence... in that her mind wondered to how she ended up on that boat... She can't remember the full story and the rest seems to be all gone... she knew her song wasn't wrong but she can't help but feel it wasn't entirely true... All she knew for certain was the boy in her song was the one who attempted to rape her was still on that boat even when she left... Always watching over her spirit as the zombie captain... He was her servants and the son of one of apprentice of the chancellor... A 4th tier mage... Supposedly he became her servant as a back up to Alex who would be her knight to protect her and they planned to have him marry Alex... Addie vaguely has memories of him pushing her down and then stabbing her and as her vision faded a blade stabbed through his back coming out his chest...
--- 2 days later
It was about noon when suddenly a bunch of people rushed into Alex's courtyard where Annabelle had Addie stay and at the head was a figure clothed entirely in black clothing covering every inch of his body... a faint blue light behind a thin vail covering his eyes... Behind him Annabelle looking somewhat anxious but at the same time like a little kid whose been caught doing something wrong... The moment the figure entered he visibly shook and rushed to right before Addie and dropped to both his knees and placed his head on the ground and started begging for forgiveness...
Seeing the mighty fifth stage mage who could wipe out the entire city with a single spell save a few individuals who even ruled a empire with his strength alone for a few decades even as he has already reached old age... Which being a fifth stage mage that's... And her father probably ruled for a full millennia before he fell... This man is probably over a thousand years old... Given that he never got time to practice and his stage has halted all together for multiple centuries now ever since the empire was stabilized his lifespan that should have been able to go for a full ten thousand years easily has probably almost passed now... Despite the increase in stage increasing lifespan it doesn't change your biological state it only halts the expense of your lifespan as long as you continue to grow... If you stagnate and no longer progress in skills, body, mind and soul then you will expend that lifespan faster then you should have... There's no hard number of how long someone can stretch their lifespan but most assume if you stagnate at stage 1 then you can life for about two hundred years... Stage 2 two hundred and fifty... Stage 3 three hundred, stage 4 four hundred and stage 5 a thousand. However that's only if you stagnate... If continue to grow and progress you can likely increase the lifespan by ten times even if you never ascend a tier... There's some thousand year old stage 1 warriors out there because of that... It's also commonly known that different classes have different lifetimes... For instance her father who once had the Slayer class was known for having the shortest ever known lifespans... It only increased the more lives you take... He had to have killed millions of creatures large and small to have ruled for so long and the chancellor's class was a regular mage...
After convincing the chancellor to calm down Addie was immediately brought back to the palace and within a minute the bells across the entire empire were chiming and stage 3 royal guardsmen were personally sent out to every single noble household to send a family member to swear loyalty to the new queen. All those who didn't send a member of their families to personally swear would be immediately be considered rebels and hunted down and executed. As per the chancellor's orders... Addie sat alone on the throne feeling weirder and weirder the longer she remained... Before she knew it every single noble household had gathered and partied "celebrating" her return before swearing loyalty all along Addie couldn't shake the strange feeling... Days passed in peace as she was made to rule... All the while assisted by the chancellor who even now didn't show his face and the strange legion that seemed incapable of hearing the words of anyone but the chancellor and never spoke... like walking suits of armor... who didn't assist her they were just still in existence as such weighing on her mind...