Since that day, neither Jillian nor Dion had communicated with each other at all for almost a month. Every time they gathered for a meal, Jillian would continue to choose to sit next to Theodore and talk to her brother-in-law.
Even in her room, Jillian always had her back to Dion when she slept. Dion didn't think much of it, but sometimes he felt guilty for saying such harsh things to Jillian. Jillian also wanted to talk to Dion, she wanted to apologize for slapping him. But Jillian felt that if Dion hated her so much right now, he wouldn't want to talk to her.
That night Jillian woke up and saw Dion sleeping by the window as usual, he slept without a blanket covering him. He was still holding the book he was reading. Jillian who saw that slowly got out of bed and picked up the book that Dion was holding. She raised Dion's blanket to cover his body.
"Sorry... If only I could have said it directly to you when you woke up. How stupid of me not to..." she said softly then climbed back into bed and fell asleep.
When morning came, Dion woke up first due to the sunlight hitting his face directly. When he woke up, he saw that he was already wearing a blanket. He couldn't remember if he had worn it last night, so he turned to Jillian who was still asleep.
'Did she do it?
Dion got down from his place and approached the still sleeping Jillian, he looked at her for a moment before finally going to the bathroom to clean himself up and get ready for breakfast.
*****
As breakfast progressed, Jillian was forced to sit next to Dion again because Theodore was not in the palace that morning. The man was used to doing exercises with his troops in the morning, and it just so happened that that day he had to leave early in the morning to warm up.
That morning they had breakfast by eating roast meat and mashed potatoes. For some reason, the servants brought a different meal for Jillian, which was grilled salmon. She asked the servant why only her food was different.
"I asked them to make that for you," Emperor said.
"You... Who asked for it? If I may know, why?"
Ferid explained that salmon was good for female fertility, especially since he expected Jillian and Dion to have offspring soon. The couple was rather surprised to hear Ferid's words. Neither of them knew how to answer since they had never even touched each other since the beginning of their marriage.
How could they have offspring?
A servant placed a glass of juice in front of Jillian, the woman already felt that the juice had the same purpose, and sure enough it was beet juice.
"You've been married for five months, and I hope that will help you later..."
"Oh yes, of course. Thank you, Your Highness," Jillian said. She couldn't resist the man's words and chose to finish it off.
'Having children... How can that be possible, we don't even like each other. It's impossible,' she thought.
Finished with breakfast, Jillian chose to just wander around the kingdom because Aileen didn't come that day, he said he would be gone for a few days to take care of something. She didn't want to be alone with Dion in the room, so Jillian decided to just wander around. There were still many places there that she hadn't been to.
After a few minutes of wandering around, she saw a gate that was slightly open. It was quite far from both the main palace building and her residence, looking like a large fortress. Jillian approached the place and peeked inside.
Inside she saw a lot of people practicing with their swords, she also saw that Theodore was also there.
"Sharpen your instincts! Strengthen your defense and power! You must be able to protect this country!" Theodore told them.
"Yes!" they replied in unison.
"Hmn... So this is the royal soldiers' barracks. No wonder it's so big and spacious..." Jillian commented. She went inside and approached Theodore.
Realizing that someone was entering his territory, Theodore immediately turned around and said. "Unauthorized persons are prohibited from entering... Oh, Lian..."
"Yes, it's me. I'm sorry for coming in so suddenly, but I'm quite interested in places like this," Jillian replied.
"I see. If you want, you can stay here and watch them train."
The Crown Princess smiled and watched the soldiers. She did not forget to ask if Theodore had time for breakfast. Because she was worried about Theodore's health. "Training like this will take a lot of energy, you must take care of your health,"
"Take it easy, I ate a piece of bread before this. You don't have to worry,"
"Alright, good then." When the woman returned to watching the soldiers one by one, she realized that there was one person practicing swordplay alone.
Of all the soldiers, they had partners to fight with, but not that one. Jillian asked, was there an odd number of them?
Theodore replied that one of them was sick, which was why the man was practicing alone. Seeing that, Jillian took a sword from the box.
"Then I will accompany him to practice."
She approached the man and greeted him. Knowing a princess was approaching him, he immediately stopped and saluted. "Good morning Crown Princess,"
"Good morning, are you practicing alone? Want to do it with me?"
"With you? But..."
"No need to be shy, Prince Theo has allowed this. You don't have to be gentle with me, just do it as usual," Jillian said raising her sword.
The man was actually hesitant to do so, but after looking at Theodore who allowed it. He raised his sword and started fighting Jillian. There was a fight between the two.
Even though it was just practice, Jillian swung her sword with enough intensity that the man had to move quickly to avoid it. 'Very good, fast movements too,' Jillian praised inwardly.
Their training attracted the attention of the other soldiers, how could it not?
A man was fighting the Crown Princess wearing a dress and both of their movements looked so agile. They began to believe the rumors about the Crown Princess being good at fighting.
It was also enough to attract Theodore's attention. He silently looked at Jillian. He also began to believe Dion's words about Jillian having been his opponent in a duel.
"She's so fast, even though she's wearing an elaborate dress. But she has no trouble moving. I quite underestimated her at the beginning." Those were Dion's words that Theodore remembered.
'It's true. She... Like dancing with her sword...' Theodore thought.
The soldier then attacked Jillian's left side, but Jillian quickly turned herself around and knelt down to attack the man's leg, he reflexively jumped but immediately fell to the ground. As soon as the man fell backwards, Jillian put her sword to the man's neck.
"Checkmate."
The two gasped for breath and lowered their swords.
"Well done, your moves are good. But you need to concentrate more and not let your guard down. There are still some gaps you have that could be your weak points and give your opponent a chance to attack you. You need to practice more," Jillian explained.
"Sure, thank you for the training Crown Princess!" the man exclaimed happily.
Jillian just smiled at the man and nodded, the other soldiers who had been mesmerized by Jillian immediately returned to training after Theodore ordered them not to stop. The woman put down her sword and stood next to Theodore to watch them.
"Nice moves, I like the way you use the sword," Theodore praised.
"Thank you. I started learning at a young age, so I'm used to all this. Maybe next time you'd like to practice with me?"
Theodore nodded his head and smiled slightly. "With pleasure."