Darkness fell from the sky, painting the world in black. Only the Palace of Talismania shines and remains bright, Vaterian looked through the night, he could picture the surprise from the Grand Duke. He grinned.
"Why are you so happy today? Did you like to see the disaster about to happen to your uncle?" Igor walked beside Vaterian, he only was with Vaterian after the death of Ilse, so he had no idea about why Vaterian hated the Grand Duke so much, he was Vaterian's uncle.
"My mother might have had 2 brothers, but I only had one uncle and he passed away after Ilse. The one who succeeded the throne was nothing but a shame of the family." Vaterian held the fences tightly with his hand, he turned away and got back to their room.
"There is nothing more to look at, Grand Duke needs to wait for weeks before the Noble Assembly begins. I hope he will like the surprise we prepared for him." Igor looked at Vaterian, he felt he was still far from understanding Valerian despite staying beside him for a decade.
"Night in this land was truly majestic, Mister Igor." Viridiana came out from her room and greeted Igor, her eyes looking at the sky, where stars covered all over it like a curtain. She put her hand on the balcony and realized there was a handprint on it.
"Seems like Vaterian didn't have a good time, you remind him about something bad?" Viridiana knew who was standing here previously, she leaned her back on the fence and faced Igor.
"You just stayed with him the whole day, you should know that literally, everything will remind him about his past, right? He never lacks creativity." Igor never lacks generosity about making fun of Vaterian.
Viridiana recalled the number of times Vaterian dived into his mind for this day, she laughed quietly and said, "Indeed, but why even you can't avoid it? I thought you had stayed with him for a long time?"
"I did stay with him for a long time, but I haven't been with him during his hard time. The only one who stayed with him was his father, but they suffered equal amounts of pain from the death of Ilse. So basically he goes through it alone." Igor drank the wine from his bottle hanging at his waist and stared at Viridiana.
"So, how was the Opera? I hope you had a great experience. Although I hate that xenophobic musician, neither could I deny he made good music." Igor asked Viridiana about her experience, he never had a good experience when he stayed with Wagner.
"It was amazing! It was a different experience compared to Ostia, even Vaterian was being completely dragged by the opera." Viridiana was pleased about the opera, but Igor didn't seem excited about it.
"So he was more attracted by the opera rather than the girl who sat beside him, he never changed in this department." Igor shook the wine in his bottle, even though the wine had been stored for decades, it wasn't strong enough for him. "The feel of crushing towards a boulder wasn't pleasant at all, right?"
"Yeah, I still remember that. It happened when I was still a child, it hurts." Viridiana smiled and said toward Igor, Igor knew she was just pretending she didn't know what he meant, but neither could he force her to talk about it.
"Who was the person 'Ilse' you talked about earlier? I would like to learn more about it." Viridiana stared at Igor, eager to obtain an answer from him. "I also don't know a lot of stuff about it, the only thing I knew was that she was Vaterian's sister, her death was the event that started the whole civil war, and that changed this country forever."
"If you want to have a bigger picture on this event, the only people who knew all the details were Vaterian, his father and his uncle, but I didn't think any of them would tell you a single word about it." Igor finished his sentence and turned away, he walked downstairs heading to the cellar.
Viridiana was disappointed by the result, she looked at the staircase, after a while she decided not to pursue it. As soon as she decided to stop seeking information, she remembered there was someone who might know about it, and he was just around.
"Papa, I had something to ask you about." Viridiana walked inside her room looked at her father, she didn't learn a lot of thing from him, but all of them was important, she knew this time was not an exception.
"What do you willing to ask, Viridiana?" Valenciano put down the newspaper 'RAFUGH', his eyes gazed through Viridiana. She looked at the headline of the newspaper, it was about a murder in a northern village called Silvester.
All of the teenagers had forgotten the existence of the newspaper, an easy way to expose Vaterian true identity, but luckily the publisher had yet to prepare to publish such a piece of breaking news.
"I wish to know about the civil war that happened in this land 8 years ago, the civil war that forced us to pull out from this region." Viridiana sits on the bed, staring at Valenciano, who is currently beside the table.
Valencians raised his brown, he closed his eyes, the orange hue from the candle lighten up his face.
"Which part do you want to know about? Picolla." He leaned his back on the chair and asked.
"From the beginning till its end." Valenciano was not expecting such a reply, "It will be a long story."
"Then long story short." She stared at her father. Valenciano smiled, he knew his daughter had become mature than when they came.