In the center of Crestal City stood the royal palace, built by the greatest architects, builders, and mages the kingdom had at its disposal. It was intended to stand tall and strong, symbolizing the eternal prosperity of the kingdom. Not only was the palace large enough to house an entire army, but it also implemented the best security measures the kingdom could afford.
An entire magic array covered the palace, negating almost all stealth skills, including invisibility, and preventing the use of any magic that didn’t take place in the training grounds. The only way one could cast magic outside of the training grounds was by having an emblem that was only bestowed to trusted individuals by the royal family. These individuals could be grand mages, knight captains, or other important personnel. The emblems were attuned to those they were bestowed upon to prevent thieves from making use of the stolen emblems.
In one of the countless rooms of the palace, a 22-year-old young lady with long golden hair sat behind a desk. She wore an extravagant blue and white dress that complemented her already charming appearance. The young lady, none other than Princess Valerie, the future queen of the Kingdom of Crestelia, reviewed document after document, trying to make sense of the madness written on them. She had been reading these documents all night, evident by the bags under her eyes.
A knock was heard as a maid entered the room.
“Your Highness, it’s time for today's lesso-” The maid paused when she saw Valerie’s tired face. Although the maid should have been used to seeing this by now, it still saddened her every time she saw how much Valerie silently endured.
Putting down the papers in front of her, Valerie nodded. “Thank you. I’ll be ready soon, I just need a moment.”
The princess opened a nearby drawer and took out a glass bottle with light orange liquid inside. She drank the entire bottle, and immediately her complexion improved. The potion she drank was a rousing potion, but not just any normal potion could have such fast and powerful effects, especially for someone of her level. This one had to be at the very least of unique rarity.
The higher someone's stats are, the less effective weaker potions are. A common example would be health potions. To someone with 1500 health, a potion that only heals 200 is just a drop in the bucket, and sometimes if the wounds were too drastic, it won’t even manage to heal that much in its attempt to prevent more health loss.
Valerie had high enough vitality that she could endure a few sleepless nights, but she hadn’t slept once since the loss of her brother, the crown prince, three weeks ago. Not because she was mourning his loss; she had yet to even be given the chance to do so because all of her brother's responsibilities now fell onto her, and she had to catch up quickly.
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Valerie was never expected to take over the kingdom, and she herself never wanted to either. She got along great with her brother, and following her father’s suggestion, she never took any lessons on managing and leading the kingdom. This was to prevent any factions from seeing Valerie as a potential ruler and working towards dividing the kingdom in an attempt to gain more power.
Now that came back to bite the royal family, with Valerie’s brother now dead from a dungeon monster house and her father severely ill from unknown causes. She had to learn everything she needed to know regarding ruling, managing others, and diplomacy as quickly as possible before her father passed away.
Fully recovered thanks to the potion, Valerie stood up, fixed her dress, and made her way to where the military formation expert was waiting to teach her.
…
After another exhausting lesson, Valerie had some free time between now and her next lesson. She didn’t plan to rest and was instead making her way back to her study to review other lessons until she was stopped by one of the most important people in the palace.
It was another young woman the same age as Valerie with blue hair that cut off at ear length. She wore traditional white robes, which also worked as her formal attire for the role she had in the palace. She was Wendy, the kingdom’s saintess. A very common name, but how could her commoner parents know she would unlock the extremely elusive talent of [Fate].
While Valerie wanted to head back to continue studying, she knew she had to make time for important people like Wendy.
“Good morning, Wendy. Have you been able to see anything yet?”
Wendy shook her head. “Barely. I don’t know who tampered with fate this hard, but they made it impossible to really see anything.”
“Really? But didn’t that happen a week ago?”
“Yes, but…” Wendy paused to think of a good way to explain it to someone who can’t see the lines of fate like her. “Whenever someone tampers with fate, they usually cause ripples to spread throughout it; usually, it's like dropping a pebble in a lake, small ripples. This, however… it’s like they dropped a massive boulder into the lake; everywhere I see, all I can see are the massive waves. Even a week later, the ripples still make it hard to even tell what they did, but yesterday I was able to see something.”
“What did you see?”
“They changed the fate of a single individual. I didn’t even think it was possible to do that. What's even more important is that whoever this person is, he is currently in the capital.”
Surprised, as this could become a disaster for the kingdom, Valerie asked, “What?! Can you pinpoint their location? Maybe if you see them in person, you can find out more.”
“It’s not possible. I can only see fate for a limited time, and there are too many people in the capital to sift through all of them. All we can do is wait until the ripples settle and try to figure it out from there.”
Valerie sighed internally, it was another problem to put on the never ending list.
“We can only hope for the best then.”
“Yes, I just thought you should know.”
“Although we can’t do anything now, the moment you find out the smallest of details, let me know as soon as possible.”
“Will do, Princess.”
Bidding farewell, Valerie headed back to her study, and before reviewing the material, she took out another potion. This one was a mental acuity potion that helped focusing and retaining information. By this point, she was sick of constantly consuming potions, but she had no choice if she was to fill the vacancy left by her brother.