"Princess, we will soon arrive at the town!" Talia said from the front of the carriage.

Serena noticed that Talia's mood was better when she became the replacement coachman. Probably because she had something to do? Or maybe because she didn't get stuck inside the carriage? Either way, that was a good thing.

"Alright," Serena replied, "can you slow down? Let's be more careful now. It won't be funny if we end up crashing or something."

"Got it!" Talia replied.

As Serena requested, the carriage moved slower. She looked outside. The town was getting closer, but she noticed that a huge part of the town was destroyed.

"What happened to them...?" Serena murmured. "Was it a natural disaster?"

Altea glanced at where the princess was looking. "Um... didn't you know about the second prince being the leader of rebels?" she said. "This is his doing. I heard he's using monsters to wreak havoc while he tries to kill his own father. It failed, of course."

Serena gulped. "He was that evil? I didn't know... I thought it was just a conflict between successors, between princes. I didn't think he would involve civilians like this."

"This was actually considered a great result," Altea said. "I heard some nobles successfully prepared for this, so the destruction and the victims were minimal. If not, the whole town would have been completely destroyed, and who knows how many people would have died in the process."

"You make me feel even worse for ever thinking of being an ally with him!" Serena said.

"Well, I always thought it was a bad idea," Altea said.

"You should have told me sooner!" Serena said.

"Why are you blaming me, Princess?" Altea said. "Aren't you the one that forced me to send messages to him despite my disagreement?"

Saria, who sat in front of them, looked worried, seeing them fighting like this. But she didn't know what to say.

"But... you didn't explain why!" Serena said.

"I thought you knew," Altea said.

Serena sighed. "Fair enought, it was my fault. But next time, you better explain stuff to me. I'm kind of stupid."

Altea smiled. "Sure, Princess."

They arrived at the Magic Academy. This place, too, was in bad condition. Probably about half the buildings around were destroyed in all kinds of conditions, but the rebuilding process seemed to have already happened everywhere.

They got out of the carriage, and then Serena saw someone who looked like Prince Damian, but older, with several knights behind him.

"Welcome," he said. "I'm the first prince, Casper Grey. I'm sorry to have made you come here instead of the palace, but my father is currently ill, so I will be the one to handle your situation."

"No, it's fine. Thank you for greeting us personally, Prince," Serena said. "I'm Serena Frostleaf, an elf Princess."

"Alright," Casper said, nodding his head. "Are you all here, or will some more be coming? What about my brother?"

"Uh... Um... On the way here, we got into a little trouble," Serena said nervously. "So... This is all of us now."

The three elves behind her didn't say anything but looked nervous and worried.

"Hm... Is that so?" Prince Casper said, still acting calm. "Alright, let's get inside first before we continue talking."

Serena nodded, didn't say anything more. Casper started walking and they followed him towards the biggest building there.

Inside, they arrived at a room with plenty of chairs and a big table in the middle.

"This is the meeting room of the teachers and staffs here," Casper explained. "But the academy's activity is paused right now because of the destruction you see outside, so we can use it instead. Please sit down."

Serena and the others sat quietly, feeling uncomfortable.

"Alright, let's continue our talk," Casper said. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Serena gulped.

Finally, the time had come. "First, let me apologize," Serena said, lowering her head. "On the way here, the second prince successfully ran away from us."

"Running away, you say?" Prince Casper said, sounding doubtful.

"It's because of my incompetency! I'm really sorry!" Serena said, lowering her head even more.

"Really now? Are you sure you're not letting him go on purpose?" Prince Casper said. By the look on his face, he didn't even try to hide the fact that he was disgusted with the idea.

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"No, please believe me!" Serena said. "That's not the case! It was a mistake!"

"But you guys helped him before when our knights were chasing him, right?" Casper said. "It seems to me that you guys were in a good relationship with my traitor brother."

"No--"

Serena was about to respond, but her words were cut short by the sound of the door opening and another knight entering the room.

"I'm sorry, Prince," he said. "But I have an important message for you."

"That's okay," Casper said. "Tell me, then."

The knight approached the prince and whispered something to him in a low voice, making it impossible for Serena to hear.

"Is that so...?" the prince sighed. He then stood up. "I'm sorry, let's continue this talk later. I have something urgent to attend to."

"But--" Serena began, but the prince cut her off.

"Bring drinks and food for them," Prince Casper said to his knight. "And just guard the door outside. They must be tired after a long journey. Let them rest."

The knight nodded, and then the prince left the room. Not long after, a few maids entered as instructed, bringing drinks and food before leaving them alone.

"So, they just leave us here?" Serena said.

"We should just be happy that they didn't throw us immediately into prison," Altea said.

Serena sighed. "Yes, you're right."

Meanwhile Tania picked up an apple from the table and sniffed it. "The food seems okay. She said. Can I eat it?"

"Sis..." Salia said, looking sad.

"Don't blame me, I'm starving," Tania replied.

"It's fine," Serena said. "They wouldn't poison us. Probably."

"Still, if it tastes weird, you better puke it out," Altea said. "Better to be careful than die."

"Okay!" Tania said, happily gobbled an apple in her hand.

"How is it?" her twin sister asked.

"It's fine... I guess?" Tania said. She didn't feel anything wrong with the apple. "Why don't you try it yourself?"

Sania looked like she hated the idea, but the juicy-looking grapes were winking at her.

"Alright..." Sania gulped. "I'm going to try one."

Her hand was about to pick one big, juicy green grape when her sister took them all in one wild swoop.

"Hey!" Sania complained.

"It's your own fault for being so slow," Tania said, running away. Sania pouted and chased after her in anger.

"How can they act like that in this situation...?" Altea said in disbelief.

Serena plopped her head on the table, feeling tired. "I don't know. I kind of envy them."

Altea smiled and patted Serena's head. Serena closed her eyes, enjoying the touch of her maid. The sound of Tania and Sania bickering grew quieter and quieter, and she might end up sleeping.

It feels like just a few moments, but she must have been sleeping for some time until woken up by a knock on the door. She opened her eyes and shifted her gaze toward the door. Three girls entered the room.

"What's happened...?" Serena asked tried to push her sleepiness out of her body.

"I don't know either," Altea said beside her.

The twins had already sat properly in their seats, keeping their mouths closed.

"I'm sorry to bother your resting time," the blue-haired girl said. "My name is Aurora. Don't worry, I'm here just to talk."

"Really?" Serena said, obviously not trusting her. "You said you just want to talk, yet you had somebody ready to cut us off anytime?"

Aurora glanced at the tall girl beside her, who had her hand firmly holding a sword.

"Well, we can't be too prepared, right?" Aurora said. "Especially against someone who can make a weapon like a gun."

Serena was surprised.

"You know what a gun is?" Serena said, standing up. "Wait, don't tell me you're...?"

Aurora smiled. It wasn't an unpleasant smile, yet Serena felt uneasy seeing it. She felt like she was in danger.

"I'm sorry, but I will be the one asking questions if you don't mind," Aurora said.

"O-okay," Serena said.

"Alright, let's sit down first," Aurora said.

Before the small girl with twintails sat down, she whispered to Aurora, "What's a gun?"

Aurora smiled and put her index finger to her lips.

Noticing that Serena was looking at her, the small girl glared back, forcing the elf princess to look the other way.

"Okay," Aurora said. "Prince Casper gave me the authority, so I will ask you questions. Please answer me truthfully. You will only make yourself look bad if you try to lie to me. Are you all aware that you're already in an unfavorable situation? Let's not make it worse."

Serena nodded, but her feeling of unease grew.

"Good," Aurora said. "First question, are you allied with the second prince?"

Serena gulped. She knew she must deny it. There was no benefit in admitting it. But...

"Yes," Serena said. "We became allies for some time."

"Princess!" Altea whispered.

Clearly, this was a bad move, but Serena trusted her instincts. She couldn't lie to this blue-haired girl, so she ignored her maid.

"I see," Aurora clapped her hands. "You admitted it right away, that's admirable. I respect your honesty. With this, I believe we can finish this quickly."

"Thank you," Serena said. "But that's just the beginning. We changed our minds right away when we found out that there's no benefit in being an ally with him."

"So you're cutting him off?" Aurora asked. "Isn't that mean you guys are betraying him?"

"Well, yes, but..." Serena's voice trailed off.

"While that was a good thing for us," Aurora said, "you had a negative point in trustworthiness. You admitted it yourself, so you're okay with that, right?"

"That was..." Serena wasn't sure how she was supposed to answer that. Aurora's message was clear; just because their action was good for them, it didn't change the fact that they were untrustworthy as possible allies for them.

Serena gulped.

"Yes," she finally said. Nothing else can be said about that afterall.

Aurora nodded. "Next question," she said. "Prince Casper told me that you claimed that you didn't let the second prince run away on purpose. But how exactly did that happen? I want to know the more detailed version."

Serena then told her everything. She explained how they were drugged by their own guards and how they ran away somewhere that wasn't in the same direction as Prince Damian and didn't lead back to the elves kingdom.

"Hm... Sounds like they're Kingdom of Samalanra's spies then," Aurora concluded.

Serena blinked, surprised. "Why do you think so?" she asked.

Serena had this idea that they might be the elder's lackey, even though she had no proof.

"Well, they had no connection towards the second prince, they had prepared the drug from the beginning, it's obvious that they're not doing this because of Prince Damian himself," Aurora said. "He just got lucky that his running away suited their plan."

"Are you thinking that they're spies because they didn't go back to the elf kingdom?" Serena asked.

"No, not really," Aurora said. "The reason was why they drugged you with a simple sleeping drug? Why not poison you instead? If this plan was from someone from the elf kingdom that hates you, it's better for you to die, right? We can't complain about the second prince running away if the escorts died on the way here."

Serena gulped. "That's true..."

"So the only reason why they let you live was to make sure that we keep suspicion of you. Make sure we don't become allies, or even better, make sure our kingdom becomes an enemy. With that, the elf kingdom will be easier to conquer," Aurora said.

Serena was already suspicious that someone might be a spy for the Kingdom of Samalanra, but for it to happen at this moment was frustrating.

"Okay, I guess I got the grasp of what happened to you and the prince," Aurora said. "Now, the last question, what's your goal here? What do you want from us?"

Serena stared at her hands, clenching them hard, feeling frustrated. "You know about our long conflict with the Kingdom of Samalanra, right? I thought we could get some help from your kingdom. If things continue like this, we will get wiped out soon."

Silence fell in the room for a few moments as Aurora thought about it.

"Well, I mostly understand your position on this," Aurora said. "I get your desperation, and while I don't want to be a pawn of the Kingdom of Samalanra's plan, still, there's no reason why we would want to be allies with your kingdom."

"That's..." Serena said, but she had no strength to continue. What else could she say in this situation?

"But," Aurora said, making Serena suddenly looking up, "there's still one thing that we can talk about. I'm interested in your gun."

"My gun...?" Serena said.

"If you want our help, then think of that as your only bargaining chip," Aurora said.

Serena could guess what Aurora wanted. She knew about the gun and obviously knew how strong it could be if used properly. So she wanted to trade their help with Serena giving them gun supply?

"Okay, that's it for now," Aurora said, making Serena surprised.

"What...?" she said, confused. She was sure that Aurora would pressure her more to accept her proposal. But she just stopped it like that?

Aurora stood up. "Please rest well, Princess," she said. "Think carefully about what you're going to do."

And then the three girls were gone.

The tense atmosphere slowly disappeared from that room, making Serena exhale a long breath of relief.

"Princess, are you sure it's okay to tell them all that?" Altea said, worried.

"I don't have a choice," Serena said. "That blue-haired girl was kind of scary. I feel like if I lied, she could see through me. So I believe the best way was just to tell her the truth."

Altea unwillingly nodded. "I know what you mean," she said, looking hopeless.

"Really?" Talia said. "She looked nice to me, though?"

"Yes, compared to that small girl who was glaring at us nonstop," Salia said. "And the tall girl was making me uneasy..."

"True, that one is dangerous too, in a more traditional way," Serena said. "I feel like if I pulled out my gun, she would cut it in half before I could even touch the trigger."

"Will we be okay then?" Talia asked.

"You're asking me that now?" Serena said, sighing.

"Sorry..." Talia said.

"No, my bad," Serena said. "I shouldn't push my frustration onto you. Just... let me think for a moment."

***