Chapter 59 Part 4) Inner Turmoil? (Patreon)

“That bitch! Follow their magic signature!” Princess Tiliy yelled out. Her chest was heaving up and down as she gripped the edge of the window. She never expected that they would just outright steal their weapons. That was five cannons! This would weaken their ability to fight against the gods!

As the prince of an empire who now controlled the lives of her people, she had pride in her accomplishments thus far. They arrived suddenly in a new world leaving only her left to rule. The nobles that made it through the strange transition all stood on her side. She was going to make a name for herself as a kind yet ruthless leader, someone who would not stand for those looking down on her or the empire, but now…

“I will destroy their kingdom. This is the only way to regain any trust…” Princess Tiliy whispered through gritted teeth. She knew that some would use this time of weakness to try to gain a foothold. This was the problem of being royalty. A friend could become an enemy at any moment.

“Your Highness, the trace is faint, but the distance is too great. It would take more manpower than we have to reach their kingdom at this time.” One of the royal mages reported while kneeling in front of Princess Tiliy.

“Take two of our best from the dark squad and have them follow the traces. We need to gain as much information from the enemy as possible.” Princess Tiliy bit the tip of her finger. She knew starting a war right now would be foolish. No matter how much she wished to regain her prestige and the weapons that were stolen. A full-blown war would not be good.

“Your Highness how do you plan to rectify this issue?” an old man in his mid-thirties walked over and stood before Princess Tiliy. He had a small smile on his face as if he was gloating in her time of need.

“Duke Sunderland, it seems you are happy this has happened. Are you up to something?” another voice came from behind Duke Sunderland.

Duke Sunderland turned and looked at the woman who was walking up. She was in her mid-forties, but she still looked twenty. “Duchess Lastor…” Duke Sunderland frowned before continuing. “You should know our defenses have been greatly weakened. If Her Highness had acted more maturely.”

“Her Highness, was doing her best to show strength. How could she know that they would be able to steal the cannons? Did you know they could steal them? They came with three people but yet they were as powerful as the gods themselves. They even had a goddess working for them. Such people need to understand their place. If we showed weakness we could have lost more than five cannons.” Duchess Lastor was someone who watched Princess Tiliy grow up, so even if her words did not hold much bearing in truth, she would still play it off as so.

“That is all the more reason to do things in a more stable manner. The dragon girl alone could freeze this entire throne room. Do you not see the ice just from her aura? The goddess was here to hold her aura back. Imagine if the dragon girl has used actual magic! We need leadership. We need the princess to figure out a way to fill in the gaps in our defense that she has now caused. Sometimes, a little weakness can provide us with something more.” Duke Sunderland was no fool. Each of the top noble families had their means of spying on their leader when they were not in a room that had a barrier around it.

Princess Tiliy and Desaray had spoken on a balcony. This was a place where they could be watched, so everything that was said was heard by many nobles. They all knew what Desaray offered.

“I am still standing here, Duke Sunderland!” Princess Tiliy was so angry she wanted to kill this man here and now, but that would start an uprising.

“That I am aware of Your Highness, but I think it is also the job of the older generation to pass down some education when needed. You messed up big time this time. If you had just accepted her original offer we could have made temporary allies and we would not have lost part of our defenses!”

“Duke Sunderland!”

“Duchess, it’s fine. The Duke has a valid point while I do hate the fact that you were spying on me. It is true that I should have accepted it. I almost did but I felt that if I did I would have shown too much weakness.”

“And what do you plan to do about it?” Duke Sunderland gazed at the young princess. He wondered just how she planned to fix this mess.

“We will see how the investigation goes first. If we can steal them back easily we will other wise we will need deploy a few barriers around the capital.” Princess Tiliy sighed. Hearing Duke Sunderland’s words made her realize she was still green. But it did not mean she planned to give up her position at any time.

“Barriers? Do you think they will stop a god? Princess I really hope you are not planning to try to defend with barriers alone!”

“Duke Sunderland! If you are so smart why not give us an option!” Duchess Lastor was very upset. She disliked this man, but at the same time, she could not disagree with his words. She wanted to protect the princess, but there was nothing she could counter with.

“I have a few ideas. Listen…”