The king agitatedly tapped the arm rest of his throne while the officials in-front him kept their heads lowered, peeping at each other from time to time, trying to have a conversation with their eyes on what to do to convince the King.
Too many things were weighing on everyone's minds at that moment, a messenger bird arrived in the morning from the Mauling kingdom demanding that they should surrender and sent a marriage proposal for their Princess to marry their Prince with an accompanying dowry of twenty cities if they didn't wish to suffer a humiliating defeat, most of the civil officials wanted the King to accept the demands, they didn't have enough money in the treasury to support a war that they didn't know would last for how long.
The king was not convinced, how could he send his only daughter to a place he wasn't sure she may come back from, or if she will be happy in. He would rather die before such a thing happens.
As they were deep into the discussion of what to do, a guard broke in to report that the princess was missing, Dario went to investigate himself and found the still asleep Brennon in his sister's bed, he frowned deeply as he reached out and hesitantly shook him to check if he was dead, Brennon mumbled some incoherent words, swatted Dario's hand away then turned and buried himself deeper into the covers.
Brennon seemed to be fine but just asleep. Dario observed the tent from where he stood, there were no signs of struggle in the tent, the tent was in perfect condition, nothing was misplaced.
He moved around the room and checked her chest of clothes, it was empty. It was clear that Larisa wasn't kidnapped but had run away. The question was why.
She has never run away before, she has never shown a dislike to staying in the palace or said she ever wished to leave. She only ever leaves the palace once a year with an escort and she has never complained about the arrangement before, then why now? Did she perhaps hear something about the marriage talks?
Dario tried to wake up Brennon but the man wasn't opening his eyes at all. Dario came to the conclusion that he must have been drugged. Dario left a guard to watch over him and bring tell him when he wakes up. He went back and reported his findings to his Father.
"Then send someone to look for her," the king yelled as he slammed his fist on the armrest, he then sighed and rested his head on his fist while tapping his foot on the floor.
At this moment, a slender woman dressed in riding clothes with a sword strapped to her waist as she carried a case made for holding weapons walked in and bowed to the king.
"Majesty, let me go after the princess," Fay said loudly, she was asking for permission, but the tone she used sounded like she was just here to inform him and would go weather he agreed or not.
The officials were unhappy at this rude woman, one official was about to scold her when the king cut him off by permitting her to go and not taking into account the tone she used.
In the first few months of his marriage to Letitia, he also thought that she was a very rude person, but he later knew that she was just bad at speaking, even polite words could be mistaken as an insult when she said them. The King Knows that Fay didn't mean any disrespect.
Fay immediately left after being excused, the officials kept quiet about the incident, if the king acted blind to the woman's behaviour, who were they to point it out. There were more pressing matters at hand right now anyway.
Brennon woke up at around noon, he looked at the unfamiliar bed he was laying in as he recollected what happened to him. The Princess came to apologize and gave him a cup of tea, then he suddenly felt dizzy before everything became black. The cup of tea was lased.
"Captain, you're awake? I will report to the Prince immediately,"
Brennon quickly got up from the bed and caught the guard's hand and twisted it behind his back.
"Wait," He said in a hoarse voice.
"Aiyo! My hand," the guard screamed out.
Brennon let go of his hand and shook his still groggy head as he apologized, "Sorry, I just want to ask some questions,"
"Yes Captain?" the guard nodded as he rubbed his aching arm, he could just have told him to wait and he would have waited, what was the reason to hurt his poor innocent arm, the guard cried bitterly inside his head, anymore strength and his bones would have been broken for sure, remind him never to offend the captain.
"What's going on?"
"Oh, the Princess run away after knocking you out and the Mauling kingdom have demanded that the Princess be married to their Prince and people are saying the princess must have run away after finding out the news,"
"When did the message arrive?"
"This morning,"
Brennon's brows furrowed in contemplation, the princess drugged him last-night, which means she left last night too, before she even got the news about the marriage, so she did not run away because of the news about the marriage but because of another reason.
"If captain has no further questions, then I will report to the prince that you are awake," said the guard as he started to move towards the exit.
"No need to report, I will go there myself,"
Brennon knelt down in Prince Dario's tent as he waited for the Prince. Dario looked at the kneeling figure before he sat at the desk and stared Brennon down.
"I deserve punishment for not protecting the princess well enough," Brennon accepted his fate with a lowered head but a straight back.
"You should be punished, but now is not the time." Sighed Dario as he rubbed his forehead.
Brennon was at a loss, the Prince was too disappointed in him over this failure and he might remove him from his position. That couldn't happen, he must redeem himself somehow.
A guard came in and bowed to Dario before speaking, "His Majesty has chased out all the officials saying he needs time to think, the officials didn't looked pleased as they left,"
Dario waved his hand dismissively at him, "Alright, inform me of any other developments,"
The guard bowed and left, Brennon remembered about the war that broke out between them and the Mauling kingdom.
He folded his hands in salute as he volunteered, "Highness, let me go to battle,"
"It's good that you are ready to fight for our kingdom, but its money we lack and not soldiers, it hasn't been decided if we will fight back or listen to their demands."
"I can donate funds for the war,"
Dario chuckled a bit, "your funds alone cannot be enough to take care of thousands of soldiers throughout the war,"
"But--"
"Alright now," Dario cut him off, then continued, "If we will fight back, then I will let you lead one of the troops, don't let me down at that moment,"
"I won't,"