Chapter 116 – The Runaway Princess (6)

Cyra was dressed by a maidservant. She wore a green flowing dress, it was delicate and her hair was tied in a bun. She wore a coral headband and on her chest was the green brooch. The maidservant smiled thinly after finishing her work. She left the room with a graceful bow. What followed was the pious man entering.

“Are you ready?”

“I am not.”

Cyra looked over her shoulder. Her nape was pure as white, her eyes glimmered that it made the pious man’s chest tightened. He knotted his jaw and made sure to keep himself composed.

“Sooner we will arrive at the castle of your father. Please don’t hurt yourself more than you should.”

She gazed at him impassively. She walked softly across the room and looked out the window. She saw the city of her birth. It was a place far different from the Freelands. Towering marble homes, ivory buildings that reach up to the clouds, roads that are wide and large, skyways that made the various carriages and four-legged war automatons move with ease. She saw a metal contraption with two hind legs. The machine was being piloted by a soldier. A white smoke billows out of the machine’s exhaust pipe. In the rightmost corner of her eye, there was a flying machine, a zeppelin hovered around this giant stronghold protected by armaments that could fire continuous artillery shells. The sun painted the city making it shimmer like diamonds.

“I’ve heard of the cities of this demesne. But yet I could not imagine that they would have machines like that. What are they?” said the pious man, watching the view outside.

“Those are walkers, two-legged machine contraptions that could load and fire a cannon shell. It is moved by steam and I could see that this walker is far better than the ones I remember. They do not look like a rust bucket anymore and are they more polished. So they probably fixed its mobility.”

“Does the demesne have hundreds of these walkers?”The pious man said nervously

“Yes,” Cyra said blandly. “This demesne has always focused on production. To protect our borders we had to be strong. That’s the reason why you are here, looking for an alliance in the first place. Because this domain is strong and you need its help.”

The pious man nodded his head. He looked at the city with awe.

Cyra ignored the pious man. She walked back to her chair and sat like a doll. Her heart was rather empty. The thought of Edawick and Silo breaks her heart. She was waiting for something. Yet in the two weeks, she has been flying. She has given up. There was no way for them to reach her. She knew that chasing after her would require a miracle.

This was the reality of her situation. She had to admit it. That’s why she could stare at the ring on her left hand. The maidservant didn’t bother taking it. She thought that it was an accessory that belonged to her originally. All her clothes had been taken and now she was dressed like a doll, to be presented to her awful father.

...

The ship of the Templars landed on this round platform. The ship made creaking sounds as it landed on the platform. The ship was quite unkempt to the watchers of the platform. They think of it is as old and ancient. If the ship wasn’t newly made then maybe they would have the worst opinion about it. But that didn’t matter. They just did what their job was and looked after the flying ship.

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Workers clambered up from their posts. A few civilians stood and stared at the ship

The flying ship disembarked a ladder. The soldiers who wore military uniforms, held a rifle in front of their faces as their eyes turned towards the ladder.

Then they saw their princess appeared in her flowing green dress. The sun was behind her and it made the soldiers open their mouth in awe. They heard that their princess was a beauty yet they did not expect her to be so blinding. The sun’s rays improved her image by a magnitude

Cyra took a step. The pious man followed a step behind her. She looked at the lines of soldiers on each side. Then she looked forward and saw a man wearing a black greatcoat with a golden sash across his torso. This old man had a fierce look on his face. His eyes were keen and sharp. His long white beard hair that was swept back gave him an aura of authority.

“Father,” murmured Cyra. She took a step forward and strolled down the line that leads to her father. The pious escorted her until she reached the father of hers.

Cyra met eyes with her father. Her father stared at her with cold fury. He tried to intimidate Cyra. But Cyra didn’t sway her eyes away. She stared at her father with an unbending look. The father and the daughter stared coldly for a second. There was a cold silence around them that the pious man didn’t think of saying something.

“Father,” Cyra said with disdain.

“My daughter, you finally got caught,” her father said blandly.

“Yes. Are you happy? That your daughter has come to her dear father?”

The mocking tone that Cyra had was clear. Her father’s expression didn’t change. He remained Stoic despite Cyra’s tone.

“I am. It is time for you to do your duties. You’ve escaped and I thank our Templar friends for bringing you home.”

Cyra’s father looked at the pious man who escorted Cyra. He scanned from head to toe before gesturing for him to take a step forward. The pious man complied and he gracefully stood before Cyra’s father with a solid posture.

“Lord Glarus, it is an honor to meet you. I am Abel, an agent of the Templars. I have come here to return your daughter back to her home.”

Lord Glarus inclined his head. “I thank you for this wonderful gesture. I can see that the Templars aren’t as backward as I thought. Very well, you can follow us into the stronghold. We have much to discuss.”

“I thank you,” Abel put his right hand near his heart.

Lord Glarus turned his attention to his daughter. Cyra kept the cold glare on her. She didn’t care whatever her father thought of her. Her father was not partly amused at his daughter’s resistant. He had remembered the days she was a coward. Yet she was now giving her that fearsome look. It delighted him.

There was no need to stay outside so Lord Glarus swaggered back inside the stronghold along with Cyra and Abel. The soldiers that were lined up dispersed and the workers who took a look at their princess went back to work.

The arrival of the Princess was made known. The whole of the Demesne celebrated at the return of their belladonna.