"THE CHILDREN OF THE KING ARE TO PARTICIPATE IN WAR ONE BY ONE" ~LAWS OF THE WISE

Valerie woke up and her head was pounding like crazy, for the first time in a while, Valerie woke up on her own without someone shaking her and calling out her name a hundred times, there was a knot in her stomach and she just knew that she was going to have a long day.

as if answering her thoughts, one of the maids knocked on the door

"My lady," she opened the door slowly "I have some news for you"

"What" Valerie rubbed her eyes "Can you get me something to drink first? my head hurts"

"Sure, but don't you wanna hear the news first" the maid squinted, expecting to get yelled at by Valerie like usual but she was in too much pain to even talk let alone yell.

"I'm sure it's not that important" Although she heard a hustle and bustle coming from outside of her room, she didn't think much of it.

"well actually-"

"I'm losing patience over here!" she finally raised her voice, the poor girl apologized for

"I'll go fetch you something to drink"

after Valerie finally had her morning drink and cleaned the crust off her eyes, she jumped back onto her bed and asked the maid what the news was about.

" Your father is coming back from the war. we have won against the Tari kingdom" Valerie stood from her bed, unable to digest the information she just heard, now she understood why she had so much anxiety earlier.

"you are lying"

"No, ma'am" she lowered her head "he's actually on his way back to the palace, he will arrive by the evening"

"h-how is that possible? so early?" Valerie started panicking, of course, she would panic, everything was moving too damn fast for her. "when did you receive the news?"

" At dawn, I don't know the exact details but Felix is by the door, he will tell you everything"

"Okay" she exhaled, feeling stress and worries creeping in "Get me ready I'll go get some answers from Felix"

Felix was another one of Valerie's guards, he came in fourth rank and was a good swordsman. not only that, he was also the smartest out of all the guards Valerie had, she trusted him with information. he was going to tell her exactly what the hell was going on

***

As the maid said, Felix was by the door waiting for her. his curly hair was pushed back. he wore his usual thick shiny glasses that complemented his beige and gold uniform.

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"my lady, so nice to see you this early morning. how are you?"

"Not very good if you couldn't tell" She put her hair in a ponytail and wore one of the puffy beige dresses with a burning sun on the corset, a golden pin in her hair, and some glittery make up. she was hoping the outfit was telling 'im a patriot' cause the king was likely to make an appearance and everyone in the palace had to brownnose the king.

" We won the fight, how is that possible?" Valerie walked through the golden-polished halls of the eastern wing. making her way to the dining area in the northern wing. Felix followed behind her.

" Your father killed most of their army, the king of Tari came to the battlefield with a white flag in his hand" he picked up his pace to walk along her side, lowering his voice so none of the servants heard them. "I think that the king was preventing the death of the civilians, the war was getting out of hand"

" You think my father was killing civilians?" Valerie stopped mid her tracks, searching Felix's face for answers but it was so unreadable. A small pause was passed between them.

Felix was smart, he knew not to say the kind of stuff that would throw him in a dungeon for accusing the king or his children of illegal business, but at the same time, he couldn't stop himself from being too smart and figuring things out on his own.

she could tell he was withholding information

"Felix, you can tell me anything, any suspicions you have you can tell me" The truth was Valerie didn't even think her father would ever be back from the war so soon, he was a great warrior but every single prince and princess fought in the war for a year and came back home, none of them managed to end the war. she knew her father was doing his best to end it before the crown princes term but she didn't think he was going to do it.

Valerie thought he must've done something unethical or something that could land him in the dungeons of the hidden islands where the wise ones lived and monitored. there was no way he finished his term in three months.

"there have been talks about a very fast-spreading fire," he sighed "The wise will come to the scene in a few weeks, if they decide it has been an accident your father will be fine" his black eyes looked at the ground "however if he had used any special fires or magic at the front row he could be persecuted"

the fire from the day before, could it have been just an accident? or did Valerie's father ruin his life to save his older brother from war?