The Duke’s army arrived on the field near the capital. They were ready to engage the enemy forces. For a few days before they arrived, countless raids had been executed on the enemy camp and gatherer force. After the battle of Yurigad, Lucas ordered Sarah to take a detachment of cavalry forces to raid the besieging army. She did an amazing job of raiding them because, after 2 months of siege, the Aristocratic army had spent all of their supply and turned to gather to feed their troops.

However, the gatherer force had been under constant raids by Sarah’s detachment. Every time a gatherer unit was sent out, they would be attacked and destroyed. The Aristocratic army tried to solve this problem, they sent out a bigger force when they gathered. It worked, since Sarah did not want to pick a fight and lost many of her forces. She turned to attack the camp and their supply storage at night, and in turn, the Aristocratic army had to put more guards at night.

To make matters worse, Sarah's attack was irregular. She would one day attack at once in different places; the other day she would attack at different times throughout the night. She used deception too, she would fake an attack on one side then wait for reinforcement to get there and then attack the weakened side; sometimes she would fake an attack to keep the enemy on guard for the whole night. The aristocratic army ended up fighting both day and night. On the day, they would try to advance to the city’s wall and gather for food, and on the night, they would fend off a raid from Sarah.

Lucas wanted to tire them before the main fight. A tired army would be easier to defeat than a well-rested one. He saw the defence works of the enemy’s camp had been destroyed or broken, the raid made a huge toll on their defences. He immediately ordered the army to go forward and charged at the enemy. The tired enemy immediately assembled and took formation to fight Lucas and his army.

Lucas positioned his army in the Oblique Order–the same tactic he used in the Battle of Yurigad. Oblique Order was a military tactic whereby an army focused the majority of its forces in one single flank to achieve victory by defeating one enemy flank. If they were able to achieve victory on that flank, then they could defeat the enemy in detail.

The tactic usually would be used by an army with equal or weaker strength than the enemy. He did use this tactic for the Battle of Yurigad to achieve local superiority in numbers. Oblique Order required discipline by the soldiers to be executed well.

Lucas stayed behind to command his army since Bianca prohibited him from joining the fight–she was mad when he got hurt at the battle of Yurigad. His army easily overpowered the exhausted enemy army.

“Sarah did their job well, huh,” said Lucas. He looked at the battlefield.

Bianca, who rode beside him, said, “Yeah, she really knows how to put pressure on the enemy.”

“I hope all the nobles are killed in this battle.”

“Why?”

“Well, I don’t want to clean up this mess.”

Ariana rode behind them, watching the battlefield. She saw the destruction and carnage on the battlefield and hoped Sally was safe there.

“Soon we will meet a royalty from this kingdom,” said Bianca.

“If they are still alive… and if we can find them.” Lucas emphasised the word ‘find’.

“Right, if we find them.” Bianca sighed.

“Honestly, it would be better if they died or gone forever. We can leverage the nobles to support us and have this kingdom for ourselves.”

"Ruthless as always."

Lucas chuckled. "I will be a benevolent ruler, perhaps."

"I'm having a hard time believing that. I'm sure your first order will be stained with blood. Just like you were always taught."

“Isn’t that obvious, as a ruler you have to be feared not hated. Eliminate all the possibilities of threat to your rule at once. If you are cruel at the beginning of your rule then you give your people protection and prosperity, they will forget about your cruelty and they will fear you and not hate you.”

Niccolo Machiavelli was a diplomat and philosopher from the Florence Republic in the Renaissance Age. He was known for his work Il Principe–The Prince. Even until the Space Age his work was still used and referred to by many. He wrote The Prince as a guide for new royals or princes–leaders. In The Prince, Machiavelli justified the immoral means taken by princes to reach their goals–glory and survival.

One of his ideas was the use of cruelty as a means to reign the populaces and his army; A prince should be feared to keep his subjects obedient, however, he shall not be hated. For hate would bring destruction upon him. To avoid hatred, a prince should leave his subjects' property alone and not interfere with their daily lives, especially the common folks.

If a prince wanted to take over a power and secured it with wicked deeds, he shall do it at once. His subjects would slowly forget the cruel deeds and the prince could better align themselves with his subjects. If a prince failed to do so, and hesitated on their ruthlessness, he would rule with fear of disloyalty from his subjects.

Lucas, if he ascended to the throne, planned to eliminate those who would be a threat to his rule. Then, he would execute his plan to build this country into a prosperous country, feared by many. With those, his rule would be secure, people would fear him and respect him, and his family name would be cemented on the country’s foundation.

“I would like to not conquer this world by means of military power. We should make them submit to us with our other powers,” said Bianca.

Lucas nodded.“I have the same opinion as you. We should learn more about the politics of the nations on this planet to see what we can do.”

The battle was a complete victory for Duke August, his army was able to completely rout the besieging army. The defender of the Capital opened the gate to let Duke August and his army enter the Capital–Romanovia.

The Capital, Romanovia, was named after the family name of the royal family, Romanova. The city was bigger than Aruburn and it had better defensive walls and weaponry. The city was protected by a magical barrier that can deflect any magical attack aimed at the city. The main street was large and the building on the main street looked nice and tall. There was a huge castle used as the residence of the royal family and the centre of the kingdom’s politics, located deep inside the city on the south-western corner protected with a second wall; on top of the cliff overlooking the plain on the west and forest to the south of the city.

The citizens of the city cheered the Duke and his army when they entered the city and marched through the street. Petals of flowers were thrown to the army, songs of praise were sung and cries of happiness and relief were heard. The city was under siege for 6 months and the supplies on the city were dwindling. There was a disease in the city.

Duke August and Lucas arrived at the castle, they were greeted by Marquess Kimi Petrova, commander of the city defence when it was besieged. He told them that the Queen have been found.

“Sadly, she didn’t know the whereabouts of the Crown Prince,” said Marquess Petrova.

“That’s fine, at least we found her alive.”

“About that... She is bedridden.”

“What? Bring us to her!”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The Marquess led them to her chamber, on the bed was a woman, lying down with a weakened expression, her eyes sunken and the skin on her hand wrinkled. In the room with her was a doctor and maids, one maid, in particular, piqued Lucas. She was kneeling beside the bed and held the Queen's hand, crying. They looked like they were talking before Lucas and the other came in. The maid had beautiful straight black hair, like a night sky. Her purple eyes radiated a mysterious aura. Lucas did not know what drew him to her, he felt she was too beautiful and well-maintained for a maid. However, he remembered Sophie’s personal attendant was a noble. He guessed she must have been the Queen’s attendant from a noble family.

“What are the symptoms?” asked Bianca.

The doctor answered, “She had diarrhoea and vomiting. Her breathing was deep and hard. I believe it is food poisoning.”

Bianca walked forward to the bed to get a closer look at the Queen’s condition.

“Hey, what ar–”

“Let her Kimi. She is the best doctor I know,” said Duke August.

“What?”

Bianca touched the Queen's arm and checked her pulse. There was no fever and her breathing was hard. “Max, get me my med bag,” said Bianca. Max left the room to get her bag.

“Uuumm, excuse me, what are you going to do to her?” the black hair maid asked Bianca.

“Hm? Healing her of course.”

“Can you do that?”

“Of course, I can!”

The maid leapt forward and clasped Bianca’s hand. “Please, help her.” Her eyes glistened with tears.

Bianca smiled. “Ah, I need all of you who are not attending to her to leave the room. I don’t want the disease to spread.” Everyone except the doctor and the maids left the room.

Bianca asked about the colour of the diarrhoea. The doctor said it was white and smelled fishy. She concluded the Queen and the people of the city must have contracted Cholera. Cholera was an infectious disease spread through means of oral transmission or through water. The siege had made sanitation inside the city worse, some water sources in the city had been infected with the bacteria Vibrio Cholerae.

Cholera was an easy disease to treat, as long as the source of the infection was eradicated. The most basic treatment was to give the patient Oral Rehydration Therapy regularly until they healed to give them much-needed fluids that were lost when vomiting or having diarrhoea to prevent dehydration. The therapy was to drink water mixed with sugar and salt.

Max came back with the medical bag. She rummaged around the bag and took out an IV bag. The Queen had entered the stage of severe dehydration and her fingers already turned to blueish colour. The administration of IV bags was needed to quickly administer fluids to treat the severe dehydration. The doctor asked about the IV bag and she explained it to him.

After telling the doctor about the ORT and how to administer them, she ordered the maids to change their clothes and bedding and washed them with hot water to sterilise them. Bianca also ordered them to change the Queen's clothes regularly and when she had diarrhoea to prevent the spread of infection.

Bianca went outside the room and told the Duke and the Marquess on how to deal with the disease. She told them about Oral Rehydration Therapy to treat the infected. She also asked them to track and locate the source of the contaminated water inside the city and around the city, luckily Lyra–who had been on a mission for months and now was back with them–had the capability to detect bacteria in the water.

She wanted them to close the place where the contaminated water was and reported it to her. She also told them about sanitization when dealing with the infected and how to treat materials that went in contact with the faecal matters of the infected.

The Duke and the Marquess immediately went to work on fighting the disease. The majority of the Duke's army was told to stay outside the city and not go inside until the disease had been solved. Contaminated water sources were immediately closed off by the soldiers and Oral Rehydration Therapy was immediately spread and administered to the infected.

Bianca discovered she could boil the contaminated water sources to sterilise it using magic and eradicated the bacteria in the water. Within a month, the disease was gone and Bianca recommended the Duke to pay more attention to the sewage and water contamination.

After the disease, Bianca fell ill due to exhaustion. She had overworked herself for a month and her body could not take it any longer. Lucas visited Bianca's room to check on her condition, her face was red and she had a high fever.

Lucas looked at Bianca, she looked lifeless. “Are you dead?”

Bianca raised her middle finger to Lucas. “I am.”

“Too bad, still alive.” Lucas petted Bianca's head. “You are a hero, Bianca.”

“Hmm.” She groaned in pain.

“You shouldn’t exert yourself too much. If Lucy was still here she would be mad, you know, seeing you like this.”

“Lucy huh, I miss her.”

“So do I.” Lucas sat on the bed.

“She… was strong, confident… she is perfect to be beside you…unlike me.”

“Are you comparing yourself to her?”

“Uhm”

Bianca, Lucas and Lucy were born in the same year. Since childhood they were always together, people sometimes would call them triplet of Lorien. Despite being together and growing up together, Bianca always felt she was different from them–inferior to them. She was jealous of Lucy, she saw her as a person who was motivated, strong and loved by Lucas. She wanted him to look at her and be proud of her. After Lucy’s death, Bianca was distressed, she always looked up to Lucy and she was her inspiration to grow and improve herself.

She promised herself to be Lucy’s replacement for Lucas. However, she felt she was lacking to be like her and she always bit off more than she could chew. Lucas knew about this, he had told her to be herself. As stubborn as she was, she kept doing it. Her effort was fruitful, she became an officer of the Imperial Guard and had vast knowledge of medicines. She was proud of herself and was able to look Lucas in the eyes. However, her dreams and efforts were thrown into the bin when Duke Lorien told her about the arranged marriage. She then understood she could not break free of her duty as a tool of her family. She did not have the courage to challenge the Duke’s decision–unlike Lucy.

However, she did not know Lucas had heard about the news and had talked to his father about the matter. He threatened his father to turn down the offer, the Duke conceded and he was in the process of handling the matter after they left for Earth. Lucas almost did the same thing when he heard about Lucy’s arranged marriage, however before he could do anything Lucy had acted on her own to convince their father.

“I have told you before, you don’t have to be like her. Just be yourself, as you always have been.”

“No… I want you to… depend on me,” said Bianca.

“I have always been dependent on you, even before her death. Bianca, you’re not just a cousin to me, I think of you as a sister, just like her. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Only… sister huh. I guess… that’s good enough…”

“Go back to sleep now. You will get better after resting.”

“Okay…”

Lucas waited in her room until she fell asleep. It reminded him of when they were a child, back then Bianca was sick from the flu, and he and Lucy waited on her in her room. Joking, telling a story and many other things they could do to cheer her up. Lucy then caught the flu from Bianca, since she snuck up from her room then slept on Bianca’s bed together with her when she was sick; Even though her maid told her not to do it. Obviously, Lucy got a scolding from her maid.

When Lucas was about to get up and leave, a knock came from the door. He told the person to come in, it was the maid with the straight black hair. Her name was Anna and when Lucas asked her before whether she was the Queen’s closest maid, she said yes. She brought flowers with her.

“Coming here to replace the flowers?”

“Yes, My Lord.”

Anna had been coming over every day since Bianca fell ill to change the flowers in Bianca's room. Bianca told Lucas she never spoke much whenever she came to do it, albeit Bianca was awake only once when she visited.

“How is Her Majesty's condition?” asked Lucas.

“She is getting better, she said she would like to meet with you.”

Lucas wanted to meet the Queen to ask her about the whereabouts of the Crown Prince. However, she had a frail body and her recovery from Cholera took a long time; she struck the flu after recovering from Cholera. Bianca told Lucas not to meet her and ask her anything about the Crown Prince before she has completely recovered. Bianca was afraid the physiological burden of losing her only child would make her health worsen.

But, Bianca was bedridden and ill and she had told him not to meet the Queen until she had given a clearance. As much as he wanted to ask the Queen and find the Crown Prince as quickly as possible, he knew Bianca would throw a fit if the Queen fell ill again.

“Thank you for the information. But, I’ll meet her after Bianca has recovered.”

“Understood, I’ll tell Her Majesty.”

Anna was about to leave, when Lucas said, "Are you busy after this?"

"No, I'm not. Do you need something?"

"I'd like to talk with you, let's walk outside."

"Yes, My Lord."