Unaccompanied by soldiers, Edgar and Quentin continued to leave Calden Castle to arrive at the noble cemetery.
Catherine was buried there, in the typical House Helferich funeral tradition: a golden pin in the shape of an eagle flapping two wings, the coffin filled with red lily flowers, and Catherine dressed up in her favourite dress.
She looked absolutely stunning during the funeral. At that time, everyone in Lanercoast was grieving, whether from House Helferich or other houses in the same region.
When Edgar and Quentin arrived at the Helferich cemetery, many gravestones were on the ground, bearing the names of former House Helferich relatives.
"It seems King Otto wanted to remove the Helferich dominance from the palace by sending you to Oakenport," remarked Edgar, walking straight while occasionally conversing with Quentin.
"Yeah, I know. They sent us solely to keep the throne of King Otto's heir safe," Quentin replied.
"Do you know what that means?" asked Edgar.
The middle-aged man stopped walking right before the gravestone named Catherine Helferich. The woman had, since before her death, wanted to be buried on Lanercoast land with the name Helferich behind her name instead of Reingard.
"They're already concerned that I have the potential to take the throne from Edmund," Quentin revealed.
Edgar smiled, raised his right hand, and gently patted Quentin's left shoulder, "Then what do you think?"
The middle-aged man asked this question for no reason. He wanted to see what kind of determination was in Quentin's heart right after his father and brother-in-law were about to plan something bad for Quentin and Mary.
Quentin looked down, both eyes focused on his palm. He closed his eyes, trying to understand what his current desire was.
"I realized. Catherine's death was odd. No one dared to attack her when she was in Lanercoast land unless someone of high authority ordered them to do so," Quentin replied.
"Are you trying to say Catherine was killed by someone with orders from the palace?" asked Edgar.
Quentin cleared his throat, then squatted in front of his mother's gravestone as the young man's right hand began brushing the tombstone, as if gently caressing his mother's beautiful face.
"I will hunt down the murderer of my mother, even if the person is my own father," Quentin declared, firmly clenching his right fist.
Edgar smiled, then seemed to fold his hands over his chest, showing his authority as the leader of House Helferich.
The man had clearly known that Quentin would speak like that. The hatred and anger he had accumulated in his heart began to be vented when Quentin could leave from inside Castlebourne —The Palace of King and Queen Athalaris in Telmarath.
"So, you plan to take the throne from Edmund?" asked Edgar.
Quentin stood straight again, looking behind him to watch his uncle's face carefully, "The throne?"
"Of course. No one would dare command the murder of Caty other than the royal family," Edgar replied.
"Queen Isabella may be the one behind it, but this revenge must not be over just because the whore is dead," Edgar emphasized.
Edgar held both of Quentin's shoulders, his eyes staring intently straight ahead to try and convince Quentin that he could gain something greater than the satisfaction of revenge.
"You can actually take the throne; you're King Otto's son," Edgar pointed out.
"He still has two princes besides me, Edmund and Alexander," Quentin replied.
"Edmund is known to be kind and loving, but Alexander is not. He's a typical drunkard, apathetic and careless," Edgar explained.
Edgar removed his hands from Quentin, walking away from the cemetery alone, with Quentin still watching him distantly.
"Try to think about it, Quentin. If you are confident in your decision, come to me with a face full of ambition," stated Edgar firmly.
He briefly glanced back, looking at Quentin intently, and then the middle-aged leader of House Helferich moved forward to leave the burial area of the Helferich nobles.
Quentin was silent. His eyes moved from looking at the exit of the cemetery back to staring at the grave where his mother was buried.
"Do I have to claim the throne for you, Mother?"
***
Castlebourne, Telmarath.
A soldier in armour and white robes arrived. He was assigned by the postal staff to deliver a sealed letter from House Hartwin.
The letter was addressed to Howard Hildemar, Duke of King Otto Reingard. Keeping the letter sealed, the soldier immediately handed it over when it arrived at Howard Hildemar's study.
"My apologies, Duke. A raven arrived from Tregaron," the soldier replied.
Still sitting in his desk chair, Duke Howard stood up spontaneously, reaching forward to receive the letter Hartwin had sent him.
"It's time he gave me some news," Howard whispered.
He accepted and unsealed the letter, a long message in small letters displayed clearly on the paper. There, it clearly stated that Hartwin had captured Oakenport and was entirely in control of all the cities of Tregaron.
Not only was the news about Tregaron already controlled, but Hartwin also said plainly that Prince Quentin and Princess Mary were dead.
They burned their bodies until they were black and charred to the point that it was difficult for anyone to recognize them.
The soldier left the room, leaving Howard alone to read the letter in his study.
"Goddamn Clark! I asked him to behead him, not burn him!" groaned Howard, annoyed.
Howard stepped away from the desk in a huff, walked over to a candle burning in an oil lamp on the wall and burnt the letter to ashes.
'Did they manage to escape that Hartwin ignored my command?' Howard wondered.
As Howard was deep in thought, thinking about what could have happened to Quentin and Mary, there was another knock on the door. Howard told the guest behind the door to come in.
The person who arrived was Prince Edmund, the heir to the Golden Throne in Castlebourne. Two soldiers accompanied him, but only Edmund entered Howard's study.
"Prince," greeted Howard, bowing his head.
"How is your day, Duke Howard?" asked Edmund kindly.
"Fine, like any day before." Howard stepped up to Edmund, shaking the young man's hand. He invited Edmund to talk to him on the couch in Howard's study, where the mood was relaxed.
Howard began to show Edmund his good manners, pouring the finest red wine in all of Athalaris into the glass before Edmund and into his glass.
"The palace is more peaceful without the two bastards," Edmund explained.
The young man took his own glass and sipped the drink slowly until it refreshed his throat. Howard sat on the couch before Edmund, enjoying the same drink as Edmund.
"Those two won't be returning for good," Howard revealed.
"Did Hartwin manage to kill them?" asked Edmund, curious.
Howard cleared his throat, taking another sip of the wine before him. Edmund widened his smile, feeling happy and relieved to hear that the bastard bugs had disappeared from this world.
"Tregaron has fallen into Hartwin's hands. You no longer have to worry about Roderick," Howard stated.
"At least Hartwin will swear on his knees to me later. He has gotten what he wanted as the lord of the Tregaron lands," replied Edmund.
The man before Edmund nodded, placing his empty glass on the table in the room, unlike Edmund, who seemed to still enjoy the wine.
"As we agreed before. You must marry my daughter, Lady Melissa Hildemar," Howard pleaded.
"I know it. I have thought about it already. But what about Lady Sera?" asked Edmund.
"I have another proposal. Lady Sera will be married to Prince Alexander," replied Howard.
Edmund laughed when he heard Alexander's name come out of Howard's mouth. The useless prince, whose actions consisted of getting drunk, fucking whores, and being stupid, would be married to the Princess of the lord of Avolire, House Lorelei.
"Lord Caspian Lorelei will not be happy to hear the news," Edmund retorted.
"That's the important role of diplomacy. We're going to offer him something that he may never have thought of before," replied Howard.
"What is it?" asked Edmund.
"A vast land," Howard replied.
Duke Howard began to turn his head to the side, looking at the strategy table with the map of Athalaris on it, complete with the contours of the land in various regions made as similar to the original as possible.
He stood up, stepping closer to the strategy table with both eyes focused directly on the map. Howard could see that Avolire was close to the White Coast region, which was unsettled by the cold conflict between the houses there.
"We'll give the White Coast to Lorelei," Howard explained.
Edmund gasped, not expecting Howard to act like that. He had promised King Otto to clean up the mess on the White Coast.
"But aren't you working on a truce there?" asked Edmund.
"A truce will not work while the two desires of the two houses are not fulfilled. It would be a waste of my time," Howard explained.
"I will send 30,000 of Hildemar's troops to destroy the Houses of Mathilde and Heimrich," Howard replied.
"According to the information I got from my trusted people, the number of soldiers both houses have together doesn't reach 25,000," Howard continued.
"Besides, Lorelei's first child is married to my nephew, so we can form an alliance with Lorelei once the White Coast is secured," Howard explained.
"Then what about Helferich?" asked Edmund. The young man stood up and began to stride towards the strategy table, looking at the 3D map created according to Howard's wishes.
Howard was silent. Lanercoast was a tricky territory to conquer; even thousands of Telmarath soldiers had difficulty breaking through the land led by House Helferich.
Howard had both hands folded over his chest, staring thoughtfully at the map on the table, "They're very good at controlling their land, whether it's economically or militarily. If we're careless about directly attacking their land, we'll lose again."
King Otto's Duke began to walk closer to Edmund, patting the prince, who was the heir to Castlebourne's Golden Throne, lightly on the right shoulder.
"Our main concern is trying to convince Lord Caspian to marry his daughter to Prince Alexander," Howard explained.
Prince Edmund was silent momentarily, then sighed softly as he nodded slowly, "Very well. I will return to follow your plan."