"Welcome back, Lady Frisena. How's the trip to the academy?" A young man welcomed us right outside the Steelbird, and Frisena started going down the hatch to greet him.
"It was quick. I didn't get to see much." Frisena said as she walked down the hatch. Once she arrived at the bottom, everyone's eyes turned to me as I carefully made my way down the hatch.
There are three people greeting us. The two of them are knights, who I assumed are personal guards. Standing between the two knights is a man who seemed older than me, probably older than Frisena as well.
"And who is this young man? Are you Frisena's fling?" The man asked me as I walked down, and I felt a bit annoyed by that greeting.
"This is the second prince of Fiordall. Watch your language, Flinch." Frisena defended me, and I was quite surprised by that. I thought for sure she hated me.
"Oh, my! I have offended you. I apologize, Prince Nathan of Fiordall!" The person in front of me, Flinch, quickly bowed slightly at me as I arrived in front of them.
"Flinch… Prince… Flinch? Crown prince of the earth nation?" I asked while trying to remember, and the crown prince smiled widely after hearing I recognized him.
"That's right! Nice to meet you as fellow--"
"This guy is the prince?" Instead of talking to Flinch, I turned to Frisena who looked surprised.
"Oh, my bad. I just think that a prince should be charismatic and humble. And yet, I sensed nothing of sort out of him." I said while holding my laugh, and I lifted my chin to make sure he felt insulted.
And surprisingly, it was much easier than I thought.
"What did you say!?"
Ahh~, typical angry boy response. This guy is the most fun to bully. I can tell his personality is just the same as Rejulus when I first met him. Because he was born the future king, he was treated as such, and they always ends up having a personality far worse than any human being.
I wonder if I should do the same thing to him as I did to Reju…
"Come on, we don't have much time." From the side, Frisena already started walking away. "I promised Miss Hilda that I'm only going to be borrowing you until tomorrow, so we should hurry."
"Okay." I said to her and started walking, all without looking even once at the crown prince of the earth nation.
Feeling insulted, the crown prince only stared at my back with anger as I walked away. I can already tell that he is going to cause problems during my time here, and there's only one thing I can do about it. To just face him head on.
"Sorry about Flinch. He was always so spoiled ever since he was young." Frisena suddenly said to me during our walk, and I just chuckled at her.
"You sounded like his mom."
"Well, he is my fiancée. Might as well be one."
"Huh!?"
Frisena then turned her devious grin at me, and I can tell the meaning behind that smile. I let out a sigh as I silently felt sorry for the crown prince.
That guy is only a tool for her to be thrown away later… I feel sorry for him.
Frisena led me to the castle where we were welcomed by a bunch of people. I noticed that most of them are knights, but three people in particular stood out the most. The three were gathered in the middle of the room we went into, and they turned their gazes to us after we entered.
"Lady Frisena!" A short woman with round glasses ran towards us while holding a large screen device. "Take a look at this."
The short woman handed the screen device to Frisena, and the princess took a glance at what had been shown to her. "This is… surprising."
After studying the screen for a whole, Frisena started walking really quick to the table at the center of the room. Seeing that she had arrived before them, the two individuals waiting for her by the table bowed slightly at her, but they were ignored because Frisena immediately started touching the table.
I didn't realize it because we just entered, but that table looked so modern. They look so out of place because of the design and colors, and apparently it was not a simple table.
The next moment, the lights on the room turned dark. I couldn't see a thing for a second, but then a new source of light came so brightly from the table.
The table glows up, and it is now showing a large vertical screen that is floating in the air above the table.
Woah… that's technology, for ya!
The large screen seemed to be showing a very large map. And because the room has been dimmed, the map can be studied very easily.
"Where is this army at?" Frisena asked the three people waiting for her by the table, and the tall old knight across the table pointed at the map on the vertical screen.
"Right here. Below the cliff on the west." The old knight said with such a heavy voice, and I can tell right away that his identity isn't simple.
"That's so stupid. That's easily the worst spot to station your men." Frisena gave her opinion, but the old knight only shook his shoulder.
"That is… what we all thought. However, the reality is that the army was really found stationed there." The old knight explained, and Frisena went into deep thinking.
"This cannot be this simple. There has to be a trap somewhere."
"We thought so too, Lady Frisena." The short lady with round glasses said, and she pressed other things on the table. Beforelong, the screen on the table changes, replacing the map with images. "These are the images our men took on the area surrounding the cliff. There are no signs of other people in that area."
"What about the area behind the cliff? The one towards our territory?" Frisena asked, but the short lady only shook her head.
"Nothing. It was impossible for the dark republic army to reach there, anyway."
Hearing the analysis, Frisena turned to think. What she has understood is very odd, and I can see the frowning on her face was much worse than when she is dealing with me.
"There… has to be something hidden."
"We don't know for sure. But the fact is, the republic army is right there." The old knight pointed out the fact, and Frisena nodded out of understanding.
"In that case… let's bait them and see what's up. Since they are below the cliff, let's try blowing up the cliff to see how they react." Frisena gave the command, and the two people bowed at her.
The two then quickly left the table and headed to deal with the soldiers at the corners of the room, and Frisena turned her gaze to me. She lifted her hand and signaled that I came closer, and I approached the table where she stood.
"What do you think?" The princess asked for my opinion, and I studied the text and images on the screen.
From the looks of it, the dark republic has placed an army underneath the cliff, not far from the borders with the earth nation. If this army kept on going, then for sure they would be a headache if they entered our borders. They need to be stopped before they advance further.
"This positioning is odd. No smart general would ever place their men in this place." I pointed out after looking at the map, and my eyes studied the surroundings. "Are there any… ponds? Any rivers?"
"None. There's only mountains. The closest river is quite far away." Frisena then played with the screen to show the closest location of a river on the map.
"Any chance they have wind origins? Who can summon the rain?"
"Probably not. Even if they have water origins, they won't be able to drink the water."
"Yeah. Because the water is unhealthy. Then, how do you think the army drinks?"
"You think it's possible they packed enough water on the storage bracelets?" Frisena asked while taking out a water bottle from her bracelet, and I shook my head.
"For an army that size, I'll be surprised if everyone had storage bracelets. Not just that, the storage bracelets had limits to their size. Unless they brought a very expensive one, maybe." I theorize the possibility of them bringing water using the storage bracelet, and Frisena agreed that the chances are low.
"Then, this army is probably not a real army."
"They are probably sent there to die… or perhaps, they never wanted to be there?"
Frisena turned to me after hearing my theory, and she became confused. "What are you thinking?"
"I don't know… I'm just wondering. It's either they are baits, sent to draw our men out, or they're not even soldiers to begin with." I proposed the possibility, and Frisena was surprised.
"You mean… they're civilians?"
"In knight's armor. It's possible." I added, and Frisena started thinking deeply.
"They could be civilians escaping the country… We don't know the situation inside the dark republic, so it's possible they are fleeing."
"We could try talking to them." I suggested the idea, but Frisena shook her head.
"But if they are really enemies… then we might just alert them that we are aware of their existence. They could be thinking that they are hidden from our eyes." Frisena explained while playing around with the map, showing me that their position was actually pretty hidden, considering it's quite far.
"Honestly, that position and the distance further supports the possibility that they are civilians escaping the country." I pointed it out, and Frisena also agreed to that. "If you think about it, they avoided all the possible conflict locations. They circled around the borders and arrived at the furthest spot."
"That's highly possible... All right, we'll go with that idea. We'll try talking to them, but we'll also prepare to explode the cliff if they were really enemies." Frisena decided, and she left me by the table to talk to the short lady who was informing the soldiers.
While staring at the screen, I realized another possibility that might occur.
What if… not only were those people civilians, but they were also… a bait?