'I don't know…it wasn't on the map of the cave system.'
'That's odd…why wouldn't it be on it…wouldn't it be handy to put it on there with a false information of an exit…'
'Let's go right, I sense something coming from over there.'
'Alright… but if we hit a wall we go back.'
Marika nodded.
The two women turned right and kept on marking their way.
Another hour and a half and they hit a wall.
'Julia, don't you find it odd that there is a magic barrier here? I mean our light is passing through it and you can clearly see that the tunnel keeps running but we can go any further.'
Marika took out the two maps and had a good look, 'Well it looks like we are on the edge of the small city.'
'So the tremors came from whatever lies behind this wall?'
Marika nodded and placed her hand against the wall.
'Julia take a few steps back.'
Marika pulled her sword and swung it with full force but her sword snapped.
'Hum, this barrier is really though…By only touching it you can tell you can't use magic to break it, but even common object's like swords don't even seem to work.'
'Well…I'll just do some research on it.'
Julia nodded 'If you like I can ask a few friends of mine if they know about these types of barriers.'
'That would be a great help.'
Marika and Julia headed back and kept going to their original planned trip for the cave.
When they arrived Marika was amazed by the flowers that were growing; there she picked a few for herself, Azu, Luca, aunty Lia and Genus.
Marika then asked what time it was.
'We have an hour before dinner, we won't make it in time.'
'Sure we do, let's get out of the cave and then fly back.'
Marika landed and let Julia get of her back.
A group of soldier arrived to see why there was a dragon in the garden of the castle
Marika downed her head so Julia could pet her and hug her.
But the soldiers thought she was going to bite Julia and pointed their weapons toward Marika.
'Stand down now!'
"But Your Highness…"
'I said stand down now!'
"Please Your Highness step away from the dragon, it's dangerous."
'How dare you! This is Queen Yumaria in her final form, now stand down or I cut you all down myself.'
Julia pulled her sword and stood defensive in front of Marika.
"Attack and get Her Highness to somewhere safe."
Marika roared at the soldier to back off from her, but the soldiers didn't heed her warning and started to charge at her.
Marika didn't want to make any casualties so she took a few steps back and whipped her tail up and down and kept roaring at them.
On soldier grabbed Julia by the arm 'Let go of me! If you hurt her you won't survive.'
'REX! CANUS! YUMARIA IS IN TROUBLE!' Julia screamed at the top of her longs.
Marika was now backed in to a corner, and she got anxious she kept up her roaring and her tail whipping, but noting seem to work and the soldiers didn't back off. She then tried nipping them as last resort.
'REX!, CANUS!'
Rex and Canus came outside and saw she was cornered and trying her best to not hurt anybody and keep them away.
Both of them hurried over to Marika and stood in front of her.
"I dare you to lay a finger on her and your arm will fly off." Canus threatened them.
Rex looked at Marika and saw she was anxious to the point she could collapse.
"Canus this isn't good, if they don't back of now…the anxiety will let her to collapsing."
The soldiers stood their ground and tried to approach them.
"Rex…if one dragon isn't enough to scared them away…"
Rex smiled and knew what Canus was thinking "Then you have to add two more."
Both Rex and Canus changed in to their dragon form and stood defensive infront of Marika and let out a loud roar.
Ray and Clause also came out side and ran up to Julia to ask what had happened.
'Yumaria and I flew back from the cave and we landed in the garden, when I was back on the ground I petted her and hugged her.'
'The soldiers came probably because they saw her land in the garden.'
'I told them to stand down and that the dragon is Queen Yumaria in her final form and that if they wouldn't stand down I would cut them down, but they just charged at her and pulled me away from her.'
'I called for Rex and Canus.'
'Even though she didn't want to hurt anybody she stepped back and roared at them, but they kept pushing her back till she was cornered.'
'Ray you have to do something I heard Rex say that her anxiety level is so high she can collapse any moment.'
Julia really feared for Marika's health and got anxious herself.
"Don't worry darling."
Ray walked up to the 3 dragons and stood in front of them.
"Your Majesty get away it's too dangerous."
"Shut up! How dare you to attack Queen Yumaria, and ignore my fiancé order to stand down."
"But Your Majesty…"
"Shut up!"
Just as Ray wanted to say something, he saw Julia's horrified look on her face.
Rex also noticed and saw Marika collapsing.
Ray turned around and also saw Marika was down.
Canus was enraged by it and let out a loud roar and his aura told everybody to get the hell away from them or else they would be killed.
Rex turned back in to his human form and told Canus to keep the soldiers away.
"Canus, if any of them take one step forward, kill them." Ray ordered him.
Rex looked at Marika who was panting heavily, he didn't think twice and called for both Luca and Genus.
As he explained what happened and saw the state she was in they both were very concerned.
"We will be right over."
"In the meantime try to calm her mind."
Rex then remembered something that Richard gave him.
He took the recording stone from his pocked and started to play it.
The song Serenity was playing and Marika mind was slowly calming down but her breathing wasn't.
Luca and Genus arrived and saw the poor state she was in.
When they got closer to her she started to growl at them
Canus then felt a sense of déjavu "Be careful she can and will snap at you two."
"Rex why are you fine like that?"
"Well before she collapsed I was in my dragon form."
"Alright I get it."
Luca tried something and hoped that it would work.
He changed in to a dragon and Marika saw her brother standing in front of her and Genus next to him.
By doing so he hoped that it would ease her out and that they weren't there to hurt her.
Genus and Luca slowly approached her and Marika didn't growl at them anymore.
When they were close to her, Luca changed back in to his human form.
He started to pet his sister and had a good look of what was going on by reading her body language, he clearly noticed although his sister was used to being in a dragon form and have weapon pointed at her, this time was different.
Where most of the time a warning was sufficient to let them back off, this time she was pushed back in to a wall.
Luca asked Ray what happened, and Ray told them what Julia had to him.
"So even though she warned them and then even backed off by stepping back they still came at her."
"But wouldn't she just normally charge at them if it was too much to handle?"
"Well yeh…but don't forget she had that operation a few days back, It seems it also affects her in her dragon form as well…"
Luca waved at Julia to come over.
Julia ran over to Marika and Luca noticed she wasn't reacting to her at all.
Then Luca tried it with Ray but she growled at him.
"She doesn't like it when men approaches her, unless they are next to a dragon."
Luca then said to Ray "Make some space for her to breath, she feels trapped right now and the amount of people that are here right now is too stressful for her."
"Especially since they still have their weapons pointed at her."
Ray then said to Canus to clear the area.
Rex told Marika he was going to help Canus with that.
Rex then took on his dragon form and together with Ray and Canus they pushed back the soldiers.
When the soldiers were far away Marika's breathing started to calm down and looked at her brother an Julia.
After a few minutes Canus and Rex came back in there human form and walked up casually to Marika.
Marika changed back to her 7th stage and looked like her normal self again.
"Do you think it worked?"
'Marika nodded, as long as they think that ganging up at me with enough soldiers would send me to a state of anxiety, they will most likely come at me with a large number of soldiers and think they can take me down that way.'
"Well since our job is done here, we will be heading back and inform you husband."
Marika nodded "Before you leave take this with you."
Marika gave them the flowers she had picked at the cave.
"Were did you get these little girl?"
'Me and Julia went on a little cave trip.'
"Well if I'm not mistaken these are the main ingredient for the purple blood poison."
'Oh…Well have fun with them and make something useful with them.'
"Don't worry we will."
'If you need more contact me and I'll make sure to send them.' Julia said to Luca and Genus.
They both bowed to her and left for Moon Castle.
Ray came up to girls and said "Now that that is settled lets go inside and have dinner."
'Yes dad…'
Julia and Ray both laughed at her remark and took her by the hand and walked inside.
After dinner everybody gathered in Ray's office and Marika started to tell what she and Julia had found.
'While we were walking towards the cave we found another passage way on our way. And since I felt something coming from that way me and Julia checked it out but we were block by an barrier.'
'Light seem to pass through so we know that the passage would run right under the small city.'
'Also it was the epicenter of the tremors.'
"But what is hidden behind the wall in the cave?" Ray asked her.
Marika smiled at him 'The Blue and Brown Dragon Clan are held there.'
"What do you mean sis?"
Marika showed them a picture of William in his second stage.
'This is William and he is a blue dragon as you can see.'
'He escaped that place by accident because of his portal magic, but the side effect from that incident is that he lost all his memories from the time before he was 20 years old.'
'Luckily I was able to see what he himself has forgotten. I can roughly guess how he was found and trace his steps by getting there but as to how and why a clan that was originally from the human word ended up here that is still something I don't really know.'
'Also I met with a white dragon a few days ago, so I can say for sure that all the dragon clans still exist, all 8 of them.'
'I also was told by an ancestor at the dragon ruins; no light can reach them not the sun or the moon, the rivers still flows underground but the earth and water cannot break through as they are trapped by a magical wall. With the last battle that you face a crack will form and all the clan's shall be free once more.'
"But how are you going to break that magic barrier?"
'Well…'
'In order to break that… I kinda need to kill and spill the blood of the Sanguis.'
"Oh…so that's why you told them if they wanted a war they should just send you a war declaration."
Marika nodded.
'Now that I know where the other two clans are held I need to get them to that small city and have my war there.'
"That won't be hard, because The Sanguis are the lords over that city. And the majority still lives there."
"Sis you are right, they really are stupid…They are just sitting above something they would never wanted to be freed, but by causing a war on their ground the thing that they kept hidden will be freed at the end of the day."
'Well greed can make a person stupid, because you can only get so far.'
'Even if they thought by kidnapping Ray younger brother and kidnapping Dante, they thought that it would assure them from taking the throne. But ever since Ray killed his own father and took the throne, that is when a crack started to form so they were fixating on Ray and try to assassinate him.'
"But then you came to this world, an external factor who shook up thing even more."
'Something like that, while they don't know this…but I, Arthur, Dante, and Lenis share one thing in common.'
"And what is that Yumaria?"
'We have all been at that facility and have underwent experiments they wanted to try.'
Marika started to look dejected and angry.
'That facility was set up by the snakes of Ignis, and financed by those greedy bastards of The Sanguis family.'
'When my memories got trigger it started a chain reaction, my brother Luca wanted to know and see that place for himself, luckily there was somebody from The Founding Dragon clan who could show echoes from the past and that's how Dantis found out, where Dante have been held for 4 years, and even Arthur was there for a few years.'
'Arthur and Dante already know the truth only Lenis and you Ray don't know it.'
So my question for you Ray…If I told you that I found your little brother, what would you do?'
Arthur was on the other side of the door listening to the conversation, but what he heard he never expected him to hear coming from Ray.
"Of course I would first hug him to death and apologize to him, because I failed him as an older brother."
"And I will tell him that he can always come home, but I also want for him to live the life he wants to, even if he tells me he doesn't want anything to do with the throne, that's all fine by me, because he deserves the life he wants to live."
Marika walked over to the door and opened it.
'You heard your brother, so you have nothing to worry about.' Marika pulled Arthur inside.
Ray stood up, "But how…"
'Well when I just had woken up after my arrival in this world, I sensed a similarity in Dante and Arthur, when I had my brawls with him I noticed he never tried to hurt me, but that is still a mystery to me up until this day, why he let out his killing intent towards me but not hurt me. And when I was reading up on the kingdoms and families, I got suspicious, and Lenis then told me he once had seen Arthur's color and form, and that it wasn't that of the Sanguis family.'
"But how did Lenis know of the Sanguis family color and form he never…."
Marika smiled 'Did you figure it out?'
"The day you beat up Raphael at the mansion. Lenis was standing at the window looking down when you were beating him up."
Marika ruffled Arthur's hair. 'You're smart, not as quick as me but you'll get there.'
Arthur then looked at Ray and saw the look on his face "Uhm Queen Yumaria?"
'What is it?'
"I think His Majesty Ray brain just short-circuit"
Marika sighted a little 'And here I was trying my best to soften the blow for him.'
Ray then walked over to them and pulled them both in to hug and this surprised both Arthur and Marika.
Ray was silent for a moment.
"Thank you Yumaria for bringing my little brother home."
"Welcome home Alec."
Marika and Arthur patted him on the back
'No problem Ray.'
"I'm home brother."
Ray let go of them and had a warm smile on his face.
'Ray since Arthur aka Alec is coming with me and we don't want to look suspicious we leave this room so you can have a talk with him, what it means to be an ambassador and catch up with him.'
Marika placed her hand on the wall and placed a soundproof barrier.
'With this barrier nobody from the outside can hear you.'
Everybody left the room.
'Yumaria?'
'hmm'
Julia gave her a hug.
'Thank you, thanks to you, his real warm smile I once saw on his face came back to him.'
Marika shook her head, 'No it didn't came back to him, he always had it he was just holding it back.'
'Julia?'
'What is it?'
Marika looked a bit dejected 'Can you promise me one thing?'
'Sure…'
'Please don't come to the battlefield when the time come's and also do whatever it takes to keep Ray at the castle.'
'Why? We are your friends and we should…'
Marika shook her head and smiled 'You two should not join me in this because I want to see a little Ray and Julia crawling in the place when the war is over.'
Marika then turned around and went in to her room.
Marika closed the door and left Julia with a bad feeling in her gut.
Julia banged on her door begging her to open up.
'Yumaria!, Yumaria! Open the door! What do you mean!'
'Please Yumaria! Open the door!'
The commotion Julia caused had Canus and Rex coming to the door.
"What's wrong Your Highness?"
'Why did she say that to me as if she was going to leave forever?' Julia cried.
"What did she say to you?" Rex asked her.
'Please don't come to the battlefield when the time come's and also do whatever it takes to keep Ray at the castle and we should not join her because, she want to see a little Ray and Julia crawling in this place when the war is over.'
"Well that because she already knows there are two possible outcomes for her with this war, and she just wants the two of you focus on your happiness."
"So why not listen to her, and pray she will succeed and comeback save and sound."
Julia whipped away her tears and nodded.
She then turned to the door and yelled 'You better come and visit me once the war is over and play with my kids!'
On the other side of the door Marika smiled.
When Marika heard everybody leave she called Carl.
'Hey uncle Carl!'
"My Queen, what can I do for you."
'I want to inform you that I found them.'
"You have the location already?"
'Carl who do you think I am… as for the location they are right under a small city called Alta Rubra, and guess what?'
"That is the city that is ruled by The Sanguis family."
'Bingo, Ray told me the majority of the Sanguis family still live there so breaking that barrier will be a piece of cake.'
'Everything is set in place, now all I need to do is wait for them to make a move.'
'Oh and there is one more thing, you and Lux and the other dragon have to come me to the human world tomorrow.'
"But Your Majesty…"
'If you are telling me you can't than give up already, because I know damn well somebody is holding an eye on you guys.'
"If you know then why?"
Marika smiled, 'Because if they think they could get away with what they have done in the past then they are really mistaken.'
'I'll send William over to come pick you guys up.'
"As you wish My Queen."
Marika then ended her call and went to sleep.
[Ruins of the 8 dragon clans]
"What did she say?"
Carl laughed "She is so damn smart…ah-ha this won't end well."
"We need to go to the human world tomorrow, me, Lux and you."
"She will send William to come and pick us up."
Lex then informed Lux to come down because he had new information.
Lex filled in his younger brother.
"But won't they notice?"
"No they won't even if we spend a few days there it will only be a few minutes here." Carl told him.
"That's why she wants us to go there."
Carl nodded.
"Alright, I'm in for it."
"But your body…"
"Don't worry she gave some medicine that helps me recover my energy and it will only take an hour to recover and be at my normal size."
"Plus I want to tell the Guardian her little trick works so…"
"Alright then."
[Next day]
Marika said goodbye and went back to Faber village, but on their way Marika made a quick stop at the village and check in on them.
'How is everything?'
"Your Majesty! How come you're here?"
'Well I'm heading back to my country and I wanted to see if there were any trouble regarding your new neighbors.'
"Everything is fine after you left they went to their new den, since they belong in the wild we will observe them from time to time and see how they are doing."
'Thank you.'
"Your Majesty about the proposal gave us about trading…"
"There is another village who would like to trade with Queentia."
'Sure, bring them along and Duke Virens will handle the rest.'
"Thank you Your Majesty we will pass the word to them."
Marika and her party bid the goodbye and continued their way to Queentia
[Queentia]
When they all arrived they were welcomed by everybody from Queentia.
Marika introduce Arthur as the ambassador between Virtus et Caeruleus Viridi and The Blood Kingdom.
Clause was observing Marika's interaction with the people and thought it fit's her very well.
He looked around and saw that Queentia was formed not that long ago, but the progress they had made was phenomenal.
Marika told Aron to take some rest and she would send over two man who are excellent at setting traps.
'I think the next step for you guys is to start the agriculture, I recommend you guys prepare the soil since fall has already started gather dead leaved and plow it under the soil, during the winter all the leaves have rotten and by the time spring is here the ground should be fertile.'
Marika then said goodbye to everybody and then when on her way to Faber Village with Rex, Canus, Claus and Arthur.
Marika dismounted her horse and was attacked by Ellie.
'Big sister!'
'Ellie! How has my future female knight been doing?'
'Very well, I can run now and don't have any attack after that.'
Azurite also came up to Marika "She is right I adjusted her medicine and her last checkup was with Luca and said she was doing great. Her lungs have improve so much since she came here. And because she fallowed your orders she has recovered greatly."
Marika picked Ellie up, 'Good girl, now that you are doing this well how about we start with your training to becoming a knight?'
'Really!?'
Marika nodded
'So who can start training you first? Dante or Kevin?'
'If Kevin is not too busy.'
'Alright, then it's decided Kevin will start your training first.'
Ellie gave her a big hug. 'Thank you big sister I will make you proud.'
'Be sure to listen to Kevin and take you time, noting good comes from rushing.'
Marika then put Ellie back down on the ground.
'Azu I have something for you, Marika gave him the flowers she had picked from the cave.
'According to Genus these flowers are the main ingredient for the purple blood poison.'
'Study them and see if there are any properties that can be used in a beneficial way instead of a poison.'
"Yes teacher."
Marika then walked over to aunty Lia's shop.
'Aunty Lia!'
Aunty Lia came from the back and rushed up to Marika and gave her a big hug.
'If it isn't my precious Marika how have you been?'
'Well a lot has happened, but I'm doing good.'
'That's good to hear.'
Marika hand over the flowers.
'But these are poisonous…'
'I know, they are the main ingredient for purple blood poison, but I already asked Azurite to study them and look if there are any properties than can be beneficial for medicine.'
Aunt Lia smiled 'Only you my dear sees something good what other perceive as bad.'
'Oh that reminds me there was a messenger from Ignis here yesterday, He told me he had a message from the gardener that maintains your greenhouse at the palace.'
Aunty Lia gave her what was send to her.
To princess Mari,
We like to inform you, the greenhouse is doing great and al the seeds are flourishing.
Since the princess greenhouse is self-sustaining I check in with the greenhouse once a week to see how the ground foxes and the plants are doing.
During one of my weekly check the foxes and I have found a new stain of herb, in your greenhouse. I send a sample of all the herbs that are currently growing together with a sample of the new strain to an herb specialist that is working at Moon Castle.
The specialist confirmed that this new strain of herb derived from all the herb seed you gave us.
Since it's a completely new herb he would use the sample of the new herb and study the properties of it and medicinal usage.
Since the herb was created by the princess we didn't name it but we revere to the new herb as Rosa floret nocte (The rose blooms at night).
I also send the princess a sample of the new herb so that you can see for yourself that all the hard work produced something new and hopefully cures people's illnesses.
Ohh before I forget, the little once wondered when the princess would come and visit them because they told me they had something to show you.
I hope this letter has reached you well princess and we hope you can visit us soon.
Your sincerely
Marcus
Marika had a warm smile on her face and looked at the herb.
She was surprised by how it turned out. It looked like a Bergamot and Bachelor's buttons, but the color was very unusual it had a black/ blue color to it.
'Is that a new herb?'
'It seems that way, apparently this one developed on its own and grew in my greenhouse at Ignis palace.'
'Well even if it can't be used in medicine the smell of this flower, is nice and can be used in balms to calm the mind.'
Marika nodded and gave the flowers to aunty Lia.
'Then here you go and make something with it.'
'I can't do that, this is…'
'I may have accidentally created a new herb, but just keeping them won't help others and besides I have faith in my aunty Lia she can make something wonderful, I'll go check on the report of the herb specialist and see how stable and strong this new herb is. If everything looks good then I'm sure more will grow and before you know it there will be a lot of them.'
Aunty Lia smiled at Marika, 'Alright dear.'
Marika left the shop and dragged Arthur and Clause with her and showed them around.
"Queen Yumaria?"
'What is it Clause?'
"How is it possible that there are no traces left from the attacks that happened on this village."
'Well…that's because man power was send over here and help to restore the damage and rebuilding the buildings that were completely destroyed.'
Marika then took them to the mansion.
'This is my mansion, you guys will be staying here for the time being.'
'Now let's go to the palace.'
"You even got that?"
'Well at first I didn't want a mansion but it was to be used as a cover to let outsiders know that the village had an Lord now and would be controlling the village.'
After the second attack they build me a castle, I was so against it because I would always be running around and not be here very often so I thought it would have been a waist.'
'But I reconsidered after they told me what the plan was for the castle.'
As they walked inside the castle grounds children were playing and people were walking around the garden.
'You see, my castle holds multiple purposes, it's a school, court, hospital and emergency shelter.'
A boy came up to Marika "Queen Yumaria!?"
Marika turned around and saw him running up to her.
'Do you need any help?'
"Well the teacher said I have a neck for economics and gave an assignment to make a budget for the upcoming winter and calculate the food we needed to produce and the cost of it, I also had to take in to account all the variables like potential growth of Queentia. She looked it over and was very pleased by my work but she told me to show it to you."
Marika looked over the his work and then gave it to Clause and he also had a look at it and gave it back to Marika.
'What do you say Clause.'
"Well there are two minor mistakes in the plan but overall it looks solid."
Marika showed the boy where the mistakes were and need to adjusted.
"If you find it difficult to find a solution then come and look for me I'll help you out."
The boy looked at Clause "Thank you so much sir."
They boy then left and Marika asked Clause 'Are you taking in a student?'
"Well he has great potential for a 14 year old boy, if I could teach him for two years he could easily sit at the court as an advisor of economics at the age of 16."
Marika thought about it 'Well if he wants to, sure by all means you can bring him to The Blood Castle and you can teach him.'
When they arrived at her office they sat down.
'Alright…now I'm going to let you in on the real purpose of you two being here.'
'While Arthur act's as an ambassador, Clause you have a bigger role to play.'
"A bigger role?"
'You're going to play the role of a traitor.'
"But Your Majesty…"
'Don't worry the only one who knows of this is Ray, and you will be protected.'
'Like I said before; you don't leave any stone un-turned for the sake of Ray and the people.'
'And Arthur is going to teach you how to do that without looking suspicious since he is an expert in manipulation.'
Clause jaw dropped.
"Are you nuts!"
Marika sighed 'Clause I have faith in you and if you follow up on what I and Arthur tell you to do nobody would even figure it out even after this war. They all think that it were the Sanguis who did all of this.'
Clause was completely speechless.
"Alright…I'll do it but on one condition."
'And what is that?'
"You better not get killed in this little war of yours."
'I promise.'
Clause sighed "I really must have lost my sanity to even agree to this."
Marika smiled 'Well…a little insanity is needed to get the world peaceful.'