Some of her blood still coated his lips, lingering just at the corner. He was unfazed, meeting her gaze unflinchingly as she clenched her fists by her sides in anger.
This idiot of a man was making an enemy out of her just because she agreed to the wedding. If only he had known that her father would've killed him if anything other than their marriage happened! She would like to see if he could still be so cocky then.
Blood looked so natural streaked across his rugged features. Paired with the hatred in his eyes, Soleia wondered if this was how the dragon felt in its final moments before getting slain by this brutish man.
"Wonderful," King Godwin said with a hearty laugh, his spirits ever lifted now that Orion Elsher was tied down to the royal family in matrimony.
However, by the glint in his eyes, Soleia knew that her father was far from done with his schemes.
Just as she thought, the doors soon burst open and a messenger sprinted down the halls. He carried a scroll in his hands, waving it left and right frantically as everyone turned their attention to him.
"Your Majesty!" the messenger wheezed. "Reports have come from the south-eastern borders! The Levielens are attacking! They've brought fifty mages with them!"
Immediately, gasps rippled through the crowd as the attendees looked at each other in panic. Everyone knew that Vramid was at war with the kingdom of Leviel, but none had thought they would attack the kingdom's borders so soon.
And with fifty mages! Where did they even manage to find so many? Magic practitioners were rare and a few, mostly limited to royalties and the children born to them out of wedlock.
"Send the northern troops to the borders!" King Godwin ordered, slamming his fist against the armrest of his throne. "They must've employed the help of allied kingdoms to garner that number of magic users."
"The northern troops?" Soleia echoed, alarmed. That was her new husband's battalion. "But Father, they will take days to reach the battlefront―"
"Do you have a problem with the arrangement, Duke Elsher?" King Godwin asked, ignoring his daughter's words. "Need I remind you that before you are a duke, you are a general in service to the kingdom of Vramid?"
Orion's tongue darted past his lips, licking off the blood that stained the corner. He met the king's gaze unflinchingly, and without blinking, he said, "Of course, Your Majesty. My duty is to the people and the kingdom's safety."
King Godwin laughed heartily. "Good. Very good." He then waved his hand, gesturing for Duke Elsher to leave.
The latter placed his fist over his heart, bowing before retreating with a flutter of his cape.
"Wait―"
But it was too late. Orion Elsher didn't even turn back to look at Soleia. In fact, he all but rushed down the steps and out of the room, the doors closing behind him. All Soleia was offered was a pitiful look from the man who trailed after him, whom she assumed was Duke Elsher's right-hand man.
But even so, that was short and fleeting.
***
"Father, what is the meaning of this?!" Soleia asked once they were alone, pulling the veil off her head.
The guests were gone, no doubt eager to gossip to their neighbors and the rest of the capital about the way Princess Soleia was thoroughly embarrassed by her new husband who did not love her, and by her father who was only using her as a pawn.
"I am married off to the Duke in a hurry, and right on my wedding day you send him away to war?" Soleia's face was red as she tried her hardest to suppress the indignation she felt. "And to the south-eastern borders?"
King Godwin leaned back in his seat, lazily resting his chin against the back of his hand.
"Is there a problem, my child?" he dared to ask.
The skin under Soleia's eyes twitched. "You're sending him there to die!"
At her words, the king said nothing. That was when Soleia felt her blood turn cold as she stared at her father in realization. Her shoulders drooped back down and her knees suddenly felt weak.
She repeated, muttering to herself this time, "You're sending him there to die…"
Standing at the bottom of the steps that led to the throne, Aldous sighed.
"Your Highness, Duke Elsher comes from… humble beginnings. His surge to popularity could mean good and bad for the kingdom and the royal family."
Soleia turned her gaze to the middle-aged man, staring in disbelief as the king remained silent. His advisor spoke the words the king thought.
"If he returns, he will bring glory to the royal family as the prince consort," Aldous continued. "If he doesn't…"
Aldous needn't finish his sentence for Soleia to guess her father's intentions. If Orion Elsher died in war, there would be one less thorn in his side.
"If he returns―"
"When," Soleia corrected, meeting her father's gaze. "When he returns."
King Godwin gave a sarcastic smile.
"When he returns," he corrected himself, "you are to be a faithful wife to him. But before that, you must be a faithful daughter. Do not forget your title as a princess of Vramid. Everything and anything Duke Elsher does should be under your control."
"You want me to spy on him?" Soleia asked, horrified.
"Princess," Aldous said, "for a man to rise from a mere soldier to a general, then to a duke all in three years is not a common feat. Whether or not Duke Elsher's intentions are righteous, we must remain wary of a man capable of such accomplishments."
"Did you think I married you off to him from the goodness of my heart?" King Godwin scoffed. "If so, you're more foolish than I remember you being."
Before Soleia could craft a response to his cutting words, her father delivered another blow.
"Pack your bags. You're leaving for Drakenmire tonight. With your husband gone, there's no point in you staying here any longer. Make sure you entrench yourself in his estate so that he cannot live without your absence."
With that ominous order ringing in her ears, Soleia was forced to leave the castle she had grown up in all her life with nothing more than her belongings hastily stuffed into a trunk. Only Lily would be allowed to stay with her― her father wasn't even going to spare anyone else. He only arranged for the bare minimum of troop escorts for her, and Soleia knew it wasn't out of fatherly love.
He simply didn't want Soleia to run off mid-way.
As such, Soleia arrived at the gates of Drakenmire estate weeks later, completely unharmed save from her aching limbs.
Then, her eyes caught sight of the castle― no, calling it a castle was putting it too generously. It seemed more like a hovel hastily cobbled together with rocks. It stood like a palace, but weeds had crawled up the stone, and it seemed like one bad storm would be enough to topple it over.
This was now her new home. Soleia sighed, but she tried to be hopeful. The footmen helped to take down her trunk, and she walked to the front of the gates and frowned.
The iron was rusted. And there were places where the bars were twisted and broken. If Soleia wanted, she could have squeezed in without needing to wait for someone to let her through.
But why should she? She wasn't a thief!
"Excuse me, is anyone there?" she asked loudly, looking up at the towers. There were supposed to be people there on the lookout. But her only response was the loud cawing of crows.
They waited for ages, but no one seemed to appear.
In the end, Soleia had enough. She gritted her teeth and tugged at her dress, deciding to sneak through the broken gate.
"Princess! What are you doing?" Lily exclaimed in horror. "Let me do this, I'll go and get someone―"
"Don't bother," Soleia said with gritted teeth. "I'm tired and hungry, and if I don't get inside the estate by nightfall, I might commit bloodshed."
There was minimal bloodshed as the sharp iron poles scraped her skin, but eventually, she made it through. Soleia tried to unlock the gate from the other end, but the gears were too rusted to move. In the end, she decided to storm straight to the castle for answers. How could such an old grand estate have fallen into such disrepair?
She knocked heavily against the door. "Hello! Hello, is anyone there?"
She heard a few scuffles from the other end, before the door finally swung open to reveal a woman with bright red hair. She was glaring at Soleia with a scowl on her face.
"Oh, it certainly took you long enough! Where's the milk that was supposed to be delivered yesterday?" That woman glared at Soleia's empty hands. "Don't tell me you dare to come empty-handed!"
Soleia was so surprised she could barely speak. "Milk?"
"Yes! Goodness, what kind of servants are we getting nowadays… Milk? The liquid that comes from milking cows?" the woman asked, deliberately slowing down her speech.
Soleia's eyebrow twitched; this woman was speaking to her as though she was the village idiot!
"And who might you be, to speak to me this way?" Soleia demanded, with a venomously sweet smile on her face.
That woman scoffed and flicked her long red hair. "I'm the matriarch of this estate!"