"Lady Delton." Came a familiar voice. "What happened here?" His tone was stricter than what I was used to, but then again he was on duty now.
"Lord Gawain." I greeted him. I looked over his shoulder to see a whole troop of knights from the Order, including Lucian who looked very handsome in his fancy golden armor. they had probably come in response to all the shouting and screaming, or maybe someone had gone to alert them.
Before I could reply to him, a woman with a silken turquoise skirt bolted through the crowd and fell to her knees before me. I recognized the bright color of her skirt, as the woman who had almost been killed by Fitz's lightning attack. She was the woman who insulted Fitz.
"Thank you! Thank you!" She sobbed while grasping a hold of my white skirt and letting out moans of anguish and relief.
"Thank you for saving us!" She was hysterical and her red crinkly eyes were spouting tears down her face. From over her shoulder I saw the small boy who I presumed was her son.
He was staring blankly ahead of him, his eyes were misted over, he was completely still, probably still in shock from seeing all the death. He only looked to be about six or seven years old so I'm sure he was pretty traumatized. I mean if his mother (a fully grown lady) was in hysterics, I'm sure this incident would have a long lasting impression on him.
I gently took hold of the woman's hands and held her gaze. I must have waited ten minutes for her to calm down and regulate her breathing before I told her that she was safe and didn't need to worry anymore. I convinced her to get back up on her feet and take her son home, since he would need some serious attention after seeing all this.
She was beyond grateful and wanted to know how she could repay me, but I just refused and insisted that she go home and rest with her son.
As soon as she left Lucian and Gawain were on my case and so I had to explain everything about what I had seen. I told them about Fitz and his horrific violence and also about the Zeref that had seemed to have infected him.
Gawain was adamant that he wanted every single detail. He even made me repeat the series of events twice and had a knight act as a scribe to record everything I said. By the time we had finished speaking it was already getting dark and luckily all the Zeref had dissipated, so only Fitz was lying unconscious in the middle of the red barrier. I had to undo the barrier for them so that they could take Fitz into custody.
It is really strange how things work out, I mean there was a huge possibility that I would've just stayed home instead of coming to the noble Centre to see the shop, and imagine if I hadn't come...
Fitz would have killed much more people, and would have exploded, releasing the Zeref into the sect and infecting I don't know how many people who would probably also go on killing sprees. It was pretty terrifying to think about.
Finally Gawain dismissed me so Auberon and I could go home. Auberon and I had to push our way through the crowd of spectators who all tried to thank me or ask me more questions. But finally we got back to the carriage.
The ride was long and tedious as my mind kept on mulling over the blood shed and the screaming and the terror and Fitz. What the hell had happened to him in that forest...?
When we got home I explained to everyone what happened over a supper of pork dumplings and noodles. Which we all ate together in the small dinning room, after all my nagging Agnes had relented and allowed everyone to eat dinner with me when no other guests were in the house.
Augustus's pork dumpling were everything I needed in life. I let out a groan of satisfaction after stuffing the 12th dumpling in my mouth, completely satiated.
"Milady, I suggest taking your holiday to your other homes soon so that you will enough time to prepare for the Four Great Kingdom Summit when you get back."
"The Four Great what...?" The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it until my conversation with Prince Geoffrey at the end of my Mage exam popped into my head.
Flashback
The prince nodded when he saw that I was serious. "Moreover, I plan to present this sword as one of Girannon's national treasures at the Four Great Kingdom Summit."
"What's the Four Great Kingdom summit?" I asked curiously.
"It is a Gala of sorts." He sighed as he looked off into the distance. "It's been twenty six years since the end of the Last Great War, However the kingdoms are still very distrustful of each other, so in order to promote working together, the Summit was created. Each year one of the Four Great Kingdoms hosts the summit within their Kingdom and are tasked with introducing their culture to the other kingdoms and creating a positive atmosphere for new bonds between nation to form and grow." I smiled because it sounded quite lovely.
"However it usually turns into each of the kingdoms trying to show off their military might and show the other kingdoms how powerful they are, an intimidation game to make the point that their kingdom is not to be messed with." He grimaced slightly, as if bad memories were flooding in.
"As bad as it sounds it is necessary. This year it is Girannon's turn to host the other kingdoms, and I plan to display your weapon there." He informed me.
I realized that every time I talked to him, I got a deeper understanding of how this world really worked. Where I had seen everything through rose colored glasses, he showed me the truth of it, mostly an ugly truth.
"Through this exam, I have come to realize the extent of your powers, and I will have to call on you at times to assist me in my work. You must always come when I call." He commanded looking straight into my eyes. I didn't know if I was hallucinating or not but the golden specks in his eyes seemed to swirl in his irises and I felt a strange magic come off of them.
I nodded. That was really all I could do.
End of Flashback
"Oh yes, I remember."
"Well Milady might not know that all Second Rank nobles are required to attend and might be ordered to host one of the foreign nobles." Agnes added in.
I bit on my bottom lip in excitement, if I got to host a foreign noble I would be able to learn more about the other kingdoms. My mind started buzzing with win a bunch of cool ideas, I wondered whether the foreign nobles would dress differently, speak different languages, have new and awesome customs, have exciting new merge magic.
"Milady will also have to look and act like the distinguished noble she is...." Agnes not-so-subtly hinted that I didn't always act the way a second rank noble was supposed to.
I grunted defiantly.
"Exactly..." she gave me a poignant stare.
I finished off the evening by writing letters to Alice, Cornelius, Lucian, Edgar, Dimitri, Arcadia and Rosalie inviting them to come and stay a few weeks at my holiday house in Hadrian for a week or more.
As I closed my eyes for the night I felt content, I was eager to go and have a holiday and just as eager come back and experience the Four Great Kingdom Summit.
Third Person
Lord Gawain had just finished reporting the situation to the Royal family as well as the members of the council.
King Leofrick and Queen Mirabelle had solemn looks on their faces as they took in Gawain's report. Terrible memories and old scars seemed to open up in them from Gawain's words.
"Human demonization..." The King lowered his head and massaged his temples as he felt a terrible headache consume him.
Queen Mirabelle nervously took out the box of chocolate cream cookies she had sent her maid to buy from Sophie's café, at this point not caring if she gained weight.
Geoffrey was aware of his parents reactions and he noted that a few of the elders among the group had the same solemn, even frightened expressions. He could tell they knew something that he didn't.
"Human demonization? Is that even possible?" Asked Kristopher, knowing that it was extremely rare for even animals to be demonized, furthermore in the books he had read during his magical training, never once did any of them mention human demonization.
"I am afraid so my son." Answered the King. His golden eyes seemed to darken with an unreadable emotion.
"I am afraid so."
For a moment, the brave and valiant king known all around Arteria for his courage and honour looked like a scared young boy who had nothing but despair in his eyes.
"And you say Lady Riley Delton fended off the demonized creature by herself?" The king looked directly at Gawain.
"Yes your Majesty. She used an unidentified but highly advanced 'red barrier' which I believe she must have used more than one type of magic to cast."
"Thank the gods! At least this time they have given us one way to counteract the demonized humans this time." The kings pupils were shaking erratically, his breathing was heavy.
"'This time'." Geoffrey repeated his father words.
"There was another case of demonized humans?" Geoffrey frowned, puzzled as to why he had never heard anything about it before.
Silence followed and his question remained unanswered until Lord Umfrey Marcellus spoke up.
"Your majesty, if I may, I think the princes are old enough to know about what really happened in Patagonia during the war."
The King grimaced because he knew Lord Umfrey was right, however it was still a painful story to tell.
"Patagonia...?" Geoffrey was confused to hear the name of their neighboring Kingdom, a small Kingdom that formed an alliance with Girannon during the war. To solidify the alliance Patagonia proposed that Prince Geoffrey would marry their first born daughter when she came of age. Geoffrey had always hated the idea and had wondered why Girannon (the far stronger Kingdom) would need to pawn off its first heir to such a weak Kingdom. Why even form an alliance with such a weak country in the first place?
"Geoffrey, Kristopher." The King's gravely voice spoke.
"During the last year of the war, after we had defeated Erithien and Malesh with only Astonia yet to surrender, we planned a huge attack on Astonia, we just needed to pass through their neighboring Kingdom to carry it out. We planned to ambush them at a full frontal assault but from a place they wouldn't expect us to come from: their allied kingdom Patagonia."
Geoffrey and Kristopher frowned. Patagonia was an ally of Astonia during the war...
"So Patagonia was Astonia's ally to begin with?" Kristopher questioned.
The king nodded.
"My beloved sister, Esmeralda Leathwhite Ambrose and I were leading that attack in Astonia.
First we went to Patagonia's King to make a treaty with him so that he would let us pass freely through his Kingdom to get to Astonia. The king rejected the proposal even though we threatened to attack his country if he did not comply. We didn't expect him to reject us since his kingdom was so small and weak and could be easily overpowered by our forces if we decided to attack them.
We waited a few days for him to change his mind, but he didn't, so eventually our only option was to force our way through. The day we had decided to attack, we came fully armed to Patagonia ready to break our way through. To our surprise the King was waiting for us with a group of about fifty men. Our legion of ten thousand soldiers laughed their heads off looking at the fifty men the King had brought to fight them, however the laughter soon came to an end as we realized that the things standing at the King's side were demonized humans, every one of them insane and bloodthirsty after having been infected with Zeref."
"We had expected to finish those men off in a few minutes, but the fleet ended up fighting a full scale battle for a whole week. Those monsters were unbelievably powerful, their destructive force was terrifying and not one of the soldiers stood a chance against them alone. Towards the end, all the soldiers were instructed to fight in groups of twenty against one of the demonized men which was helping them to kill the fifty demonized men by just overpowering them by number. In the last hour of the assault the remaining group of demonized men went after my sister who was fighting alone and were able to kill her." The king stopped for a moment, his throat coarse with emotion at the memories of
His little sister's death.
"Only after Esmeralda's death did the King of Patagonia want to strike a deal. We had lost half of our ten thousand men to the demonized men and were in serious need of replenishing before we could think about attacking Astonia. It was a terrible decision on my part, I should have just waged another attack on the king or refused a treaty with him instead of promising him a marriage between my firstborn son and his first born child to concrete our deal, however I had to think of my exhausted soldiers and I couldn't risk the chance that he had more demonized men within his kingdom that he could assault us with again. So I made the deal with him, and when we traveled through his kingdom to Astonia we were able to win the war and secure victory for Girannon."
The queen saw her husbands defeated face and reached over to hold his had in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
"You lost five thousand men to just fifty Demonized creatures..." murmured Kristopher, who was only just grasping the gravity of the situation.
Geoffrey on the other hand was lost for words. He was part furious, part disappointed, part sad, part sympathetic. Geoffrey couldn't profess to understand the toll the war took on his father that it lead him to make a deal with the King responsible for his aunt's death, he couldn't even begin to tolerate the idea of marrying the princess of Patagonia.
"I am sorry Geoffrey..." Geoffrey cut the king off before he could say anything else.
"Don't be sorry." Geoffrey got up from his seat, his thick royal robes swaying elegantly as he stood up.
"Girannon is not as weak as it used to be. Now we have an ultimate weapon we can use to defeat those demonized creatures, so there is no longer a reason to be cautious of the King of Patagonia."
The room seemed to light up from his words. They weren't sure if it was just their imaginations but the candles seemed to burn brighter and the room began to fill with warmth.
"This is Gismead, the capital of the greatest Kingdom of them all, Girannon. We may have let our weakness stray us from the path of righteousness years ago, but we are different now. We are stronger than we were then and we are more powerful than we were then."
The council felt their spirits rallying as the prince spoke.
"If it happens that the King of Patagonia purposefully infected one of our knights and sent him back here to infect more Gismeadians, than Patagonia has declared war on us! And this time we shall not back down. Lady Delton holds the key to this Kingdoms success, with her help we will once again proceed to victory."
The King chuckled admiringly at his son. It was a strange and happy moment for him because he knew that his son was ready to rule the kingdom. It seemed that in a matter of moments he had grown up and had become the courageous and honorable man he was. A bit mischievous too, but such was expected from a handsome prince.
"And Your majesty," Geoffrey addressed his father formally, "I don't plan on taking a bride who is not of my choosing." With that Geoffrey exited the room full of ferocious fire and lustrous gold.
Geoffrey was waking straight to his chambers, it had been a long and tedious day full of exhausting discoveries which had ultimately placed a pile of new duties on his desk.
Geoffrey was worked up, and felt the need for a release especially after sensual dreams of a fair maiden with long dark locks had tormented him in his dreams. She was always so close to him, but he could never touch her and it was driving him to the point of insanity. He needed someone, anyone who would help take his mind off of Riley.
"Your Highness..." the voice was sickly sweet and breathy from pressing her chest out as far as possible so that the prince could get the best view possible.
"Ariadnel." The Prince scanned over her curvy yet somehow unsatisfying figure. She wasn't what he really wanted but she would have to do. Ariadnel's long dark blue hair reminded him of Riley and thus Geoffrey had been bedding her for a few months now in an attempt to relieve the tension that Riley was winding up in him.
"Your Highness..." She toyed with the opening of her corset seductively while cooing to him in a voice that Geoffrey didn't care for. Nevertheless she was better than nothing. Ariadnel would remain the short term gratification in place of Geoffrey's long term goal of obtaining Riley.
Ariadnel smiled wickedly as the Prince was hastily undoing her corset string and ripping her skirts off of her. She sighed happily. The prince is definitely falling in love with me...
Ariadnel closed her eyes and fully enjoyed the sensations of the strong and beautiful man on top of her. She couldn't wait until he proposed, it made her drool to think of all the riches she would get when she was betrothed to him. Yes, her plan was working perfectly. All she had to do was continue on seducing the prince and then she would obtain all the luxuries of this world for herself.