Rion, who was followed by Trish, spurred his dark horse very fast. His hazel eyes shone sharply at the direction ahead, as if he wanted to cut all the distance between him and Anwen quickly.
"Why are you always so desperate? What if you get hurt?" he muttered to himself as he remembered Anwen's smiling face.
From behind, Trish watched the king's back closely. Then, before long, he smiled and turned his attention back to the road.
Dawn had turned to dusk and they had finally entered the forest.
Rion, who saw the former bonfire on the river bank, immediately stopped his horse.
"Looks like Princess Anwen and Miss Odette rested here last night," Trish said, looking at the burnt logs and food wrappers. Rion also noticed the same thing. But after five seconds, he pulled on the horse's reins again.
Meanwhile, Anwen and Odette had exited the forest and arrived in a clear area. On the back of the horse that was still running, Odette was surprised to see bloodstains scattered in various places and a fishy smell immediately wafted as the wind blew.
"Wh-why is there so much blood here?" she asked with a tense face.
"Oh, those are the bloods of the soldiers who fought here three days ago," Anwen explained while Dan was still running.
"Fight?" Odette furrowed her brows, not understanding. "Was there a war or something?"
Anwen nodded. "Yeah. We are at war with Arcadia."
Again, Odette was surprised. "Really? A real war?"
What a silly question!
Of course it was a real war.
Odette had to remember that she was currently in the medieval era. The Middle Ages was an era of transition from ancient to modern times. In this era, there were still many wars between rulers.
Anwen informed her that three days ago, at that place, there was a war between the Redragon army of Arcadia and the Panthera army.
"Initially, we struggled a little because the number of enemies was more than ours. But my brother quickly cut down the number of enemies, and we finally won when my brother managed to kill Duke Redragon," Anwen explained.
Odette recalled Rion in her mind again.
'That bastard turned out to be a formidable king,' she thought.
"Anwen… you said us? Did you join the war too?"
"Yeah. That's how it is, but my brother doesn't know that I joined the war too."
"Why is that?"
"I joined the soldiers of Panthera secretly. I joined that war because my brother was there. I followed him because I got a mission from my grandmother that I have to make my brother have a–" Anwen trailed off when she realized that she almost told Odette that she must make her brother have a child.
Because of that, she gave him an aphrodisiac potion that turned her brother into a beast.
If Odette found out that the mastermind behind 'that' incident was Anwen, she wondered what would happen.
"Have a-?" Odette asked curiously, because Anwen suddenly cut her own sentence off.
"N-no, forget it," said Anwen, making Odette's brows furrow.
***
"Hey, hey wake up!" Trish patted the cheek and shook one of the four soldiers who were lying unconscious.
While Trish was trying to wake the four soldiers up, Rion walked over and picked up a purple object. It looked like a broken ball.
Upon seeing it up close, Rion's forehead immediately turned blue. Rion remembered that it was a stun ball, one of Anwen's inventions that had shocked the entire palace.
"Your Majesty, it- ... is that ...?" Trish, who just stood up and looked like he wanted to say something, immediately showed the same expression that Rion showed. His forehead turned blue when he saw the object that Rion was holding.
It was Anwen's stun ball. Anwen called it the 'sleeping ball'. Rion and Trish were the first test objects of the ball and they were both in suspended animation for two days because the effect was so hard.
The whole palace mourned because of that. Even Her Highness Cristela, who was known as a heartless woman, fainted, thinking that the King of Panthera had died.
Luckily, when Rion and Trish had been put in the grave and ready to be buried, they opened their eyes and caused a ruckus as all the mourners ran away. The only one who still stood there and didn't leave the burial site was Her Highness Cristela D-Panther.
To pay for her actions, Anwen almost received the punishment of canning. But Rion changed the sentence to a sentence of exile.
Anwen was exiled in a remote village very far from the palace for three months. She must survive as a commoner and struggle on her own to support herself during her sentence.
If other princesses were to receive such a punishment, they would probably fall into misery as they couldn't stand the harshness of life outside the palace, but Anwen didn't.
The girl was actually happy because she felt free, and she returned to the palace along with the procession of the villagers. The villagers were very grateful to Anwen because she had succeeded in making a pest control for the rats that had been attacking the crops in the villagers' fields for a year.
Now the village was one of the best vegetable supplier in Panthera.
"These soldiers just passed out. Looks like the Princess has lowered her dose of her stun ball," Trish said with a wry smile. His forehead was still blue, he always got goosebumps when he remembered himself being nearly buried.
Rion snorted and exhaled roughly.
"That girl never gives up," he said and got back on his horse, and Trish quickly followed.
After finding the stun ball earlier, Rion finally understood why Anwen was so bold as to go to the Randle Forest. Although each of Anwen's discovery often frustrated Rion, he must admit that her inventions, such as the stun ball, were very useful for paralyzing the enemy.
***
"Ah, how fresh!" said Anwen, who had just come out of the bathroom of an inn, while Odette stood on the terrace, watching the people below.
The yellow dress she was wearing earlier had now been replaced with a beautiful white evening gown.
Right now she and Anwen were in a town called Vibes. The atmosphere here was quite lively. It was very different from the atmosphere in Green Castle.
Even though there were many people in the castle, it felt different. Here, people mingled with each other.
"Miss Ody," Anwen, who was also already wearing an evening gown like the one Odette was wearing, came from behind.
She stood next to Odette and held onto the guardrail.
"We'll be at Randle Forest in three days," she said.
"Okay. Anwen, I really don't know how to thank you. I owe you a lot and I don't have anything to pay you back," said Odette.
"Ah, don't say that. I'm glad I could help you, and anyway ... I'm doing this because I feel guilty," said Anwen, lowering her voice at the last sentence.
"Guilty?" Odette arched an eyebrow as she looked at Anwen in confusion. But Anwen just smiled and said nothing.
The wind blew gently and caressed their hair. Odette looked down again, and by chance, she saw a woman holding a little girl who called the woman 'mom'.