I wasn’t expecting to wake up, but I did. Turning over to my side, I coughed out an arrow of blood that stained the arid dirt floor. Flopping back, I simply stared up at the sky. The twilight colors of dawn was drowning the clouds in an orange glow.

I could see the cliff that I fell from, high above. At this height, I should have been dead. Adding on to that, the ground beneath me was rock hard, so the impact was probably nothing to scoff at.  It was likely that my spine was injured. Well, moving was a pain anyways.

I looked to the side. In my left hand, I was still holding on to my sword. For a moment, I thought about ending everything with it, but I quickly trashed that idea. Suicide should always be a last resort. It was hard for me to think of it in any other way; it was just how I was raised. Ignoring common sense, I tried pushing myself up, but my whole body screamed in agony at the action, forcing me back down.

I was going to die here, wasn’t I?

It was a calm enough question, but the thought, the undercurrent that kept running through my head said:

I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.

I braced my elbows against the ground and slowly pushed myself up. Was I screaming? I was pretty sure I was screaming. By the time I managed to sit up, I knew for a fact that I was screaming unceasingly. My vision blurred. My screaming was only interrupted when I coughed out another splatter of blood, though this time on my pants.

I touched my back. It was wet and slick with blood. I licked the blood off my hand. I didn’t know why I did that. No, I knew. It would go back into my body, right? I railed against the thought. I had to be delirious to think that, yet maybe I was. I licked my hand clean.

I was crying. I was crying so much, but my throat felt dehydrated. If I cried too much, I would become too thirsty. Why was I thinking so rationally? I tried to stop it, wiping my dirty sleeves across my eyes, but I only managed to make it worse.

I rolled onto my front and pushed against the ground. Tears fell and drool fell, moistening the solid and dry dirt. I pulled my knees up. I probably looked like a caterpillar, but I didn’t care. Against the pain, against the mind-numbing agony, I crawled to my feet. Yes, I didn’t know how I managed to do that, but I somehow crawled to my feet. How could someone crawl to a standing position? I didn’t know, but the world was spinning enough that it made sense.

I vaguely heard footsteps, but I didn’t pay attention as my feet began to sway again. Soon, I heard a voice. I looked up.

Standing in front of me was the snake-like kidnapper with a few of his men. He stared at me, and I looked back through my blurry vision. He said something, something about how long it took him to get down the cliffside, but I wasn’t paying much attention. My hands. I looked down at my hands. Were they going to be cut off? I asked him that.

“You have been punished enough. Drop the blade and come back with us.” He didn’t seem so much like a snake now. Wait…was I still holding onto my sword? My mind was slowly collapsing. I couldn’t take it anymore. He was offering a way out, so I took—

There was a glint of light, and his head fell off.

I cried out as blood sprayed out of the stump of a neck. Was it dismay? It was like my hope was snatched away before my eyes. There was yelling and screaming, but I could only pay attention to that dripping stump.

It was only when the noise stopped that I noticed someone familiar standing in front of me, blocking my vision of that stump.

Who are you?

I wondered. Then I remembered.

“Val…kana…?”

Her axe dropped from her hand. She came forward and shakily touched my arms. “Jen…Jennifer, you’re bleeding so much.”

Hearing those words, like it was magic, I felt all my energy disappear from my body. She caught me as I slumped forward. “I’m…tired…”

“Quickly now! Bring the healers here! Hurry!”

My consciousness faded.

~o~

“I’m alive?” Those were the first words I spoke when I woke up in my bed. Looking around, I saw that this was my room. I was clearly in the palace, and not in a dirty bedroll or on rock-hard dirt. I was here, alive and not in pain, though my body felt a bit numb.

“Your…Your Highness!” I turned my head to the side and saw Alina sitting in a chair at my bedside. She was crying while smiling.

“A…Alina…?” My voice was hoarse, and my throat felt incredibly dry. It also felt itchy enough that I wanted to cough, but it seemed like if I did that, it would rip my throat raw. “Water.”

“Yes, Your Highness!” She rushed around and got me a cup from a nearby table with a pitcher of water. I drank deeply from the cup. It was only when I had devoured the last drop that my throat felt a little bit better. Not by much, but at least it wasn’t like a scratchy chalkboard anymore.

“How long?”

“You’ve been asleep for a week, Your Highness.”

“A week…” I collapsed back onto my pillow. To tell the truth, I was expecting death, coma, or months-long hospital stay, but I didn’t see any bandages on me or any kind of body cast. In fact, it didn’t even hurt to move around. “What happened?”

“It’s very complicated. I’m sure His Majesty would prefer to explain it to you himself. I will call for him now.” Before Alina could leave, I grabbed her wrist.

“Tell me,” I said firmly.

Alina shook her head. “It’s better for—”

“Alina, you’re my maid. Tell me.”

“It’s…” She glanced at the door and then at me. With a sigh, she said, “His Majesty will not be pleased.”

“He won’t know.”

“I have only heard a few pieces, Your Highness,” Alina said. “The princess rescued you.”

“How badly was I hurt?”

“I cannot say for certain.” Her eyes looked away. “You were barely alive when they brought you here.”

I remembered snake-like man’s words about how Valkana had been distracted by another Immortal, but I needed to confirm it. “Was Valkana attacked?”

“How…how did Your Highness know about that?”

“What do you know, Alina? Tell me.”

Her fingers were clutching at her dress. “There was an assassination attempt on the princess’s life in the marketplace.”

“But isn’t that place crowded?” I asked, perplexed.

She slowly nodded.

“Then those people…” The horrible realization came to me.

She nodded her head again. “Twenty perished. Fifty were injured.”

These people, I didn’t know them. However, they were dead because of me, because I wanted to see the city. Yet, it wasn’t their deaths that made me feel bad; it was from the fact that I felt nothing about them. Even as horrible as it sounds, they were just numbers to me. I took a slow breath and cleared my thoughts. “What happened next?”

“The princess drove him off.”

“I see.” I nodded my head in thanks. “You can tell them I’m awake now.”

“Right away, Your Highness.” Alina bowed her head and quickly left the room, leaving me to my thoughts.

Honestly, this whole world hadn’t felt real. Not like a dream, but more like this was just a vacation of sorts, a trip down a rabbit hole in which I would soon return from. I knew that there was no real and logical way that could be, but in my heart, there was a little bit clinging onto that hope. Even now, I felt that if I believed in it strongly enough—no, I should stop that line of thought right there. There was no point in this, and I had more important matters to consider.

There was no way that my back—my spine—had not been broken. I wasn’t a doctor or a physicist, just a simple student, but a fall from that height should have shattered me. I had seen pictures on the internet of suicides, of those that fell from tall buildings. They were not pretty sights, and I was sure that I bled out more than what I saw back there. I should have gone into shock or simply died from blood loss, but that obviously didn’t happen. I reached back and ran a hand down my back, under my shirt. All I felt was just wholesome skin, without any scars.

When I brought my hand back and looked down at it, I saw nothing on it. No, that wasn’t quite right. I could vividly see an overlap of red over it, but it wasn’t real. The image stayed in the same form, even when I closed my hand. I felt nauseous. The memory came unbiddingly to the forefront of my mind, the moment I drank my own blood. It was a strange thing to do, and I still wasn’t quite sure why I did it. There was one important thing I remembered about it though.

It didn’t taste bad.

I hid my hands under the blanket. Out of sight, out of mind. It was juvenile, that was for sure, but I didn’t care. Well, at least, that was what I had hoped for. However, that wasn’t what I got.

I sighed. This wasn’t helping. I moved to get off the bed. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t feel anything wrong with my body as I swung my legs over the edge; in fact, it was working as if I had never gotten injured in the first place. There was no pain or any hindrance that I could associate with healing broken bones…or ruptured organs? No, it couldn’t have been that serious.

Once I got up, I went over to the mirror and looked at myself. As I thought, except for the shirt and loose pajamas, there was nothing different about me. I even gave a little twirl, but I didn’t see anything out of place. It was so weird. I kept trying to look for something, anything really, but there really was nothing. Was healing magic at this level in this world? It was far better than anything from Earth. Though, it was probably a lot harder and rarer to train in it too.

I really should stop wasting time on this. Just as I was about to turn, I saw something displayed in the mirror. On the table on the other side of the room, according to the reflection, there was a sword. Not just any sword, but one that I was familiar with. I turned around and walked over to the place.

The blade was laid bare on the table, its chipped and stained blade gleaming. It was cleaner than I remembered, but honestly, I didn’t really get a good look at it. When I was holding onto it, I had been running through the dark forest. I ran my finger over the blunt side of the blade, making sure not to come close to any chipped edges. It was not slick or smooth, but rather, a savage and worn blade. In the end, I hadn’t use it even once. What was the point of keeping it back then?

“You were holding it the entire way back to the palace.”

My shoulders jumped, but I forcefully resisted spinning around. With some effort, I turned around at a normal pace. Valkana was walking towards me. She stopped beside me and looked down at the blade.

“A poorly made sword. Unbalanced, damaged, and worn. Made brittle by improper maintenance.”

“I didn’t hear you come in, Valkana.” Now that she was closer, I could see that she had bandages just peeking out of her sleeve. “You’re hurt.”

“Poison. It will only take a month longer to dissipate.” I felt a chill at her words. With how their healing magic was, they were able to heal all my injuries in under a week. Just how powerful was this poison?

“How did you—”

“It is not important,” Valkana interrupted. “I must know how you fared during your abduction. The prisoners did talk, but I must hear it from your own tongue. I scarcely believe every word they spit out of their rotten mouths.”

“Is it really necessary?”

“Forgive me for threading on this painful topic, but I must know. Some had escaped. Every detail may hold a clue that mayhaps leads to finding them.”

I sighed. It looked like I wasn’t getting out of this. “Okay, it’s like this. When we were in the market, I saw a little boy—”

“How old? What did his face look like? What was he wearing?”

I frowned. “You can’t expect me to remember that.”

“Please.”

“Alright, fine. I don’t remember much, but this is what I know about him.”

To say that a boring conversation ensued was putting it mildly. Speaking it all out was actually less emotionally painful than I thought it would be. Perhaps it was the act of bottling it up that made it seem like something bigger than it really was. Or maybe I was taking too lightly now that I was out of danger; I did almost die after all. Whatever the case, I proceeded to recall as much as I could about what happened. She interrupted me at different parts of my story to ask about more details, which I tried to answer as best as I could.

By the time that I was done, I was exhausted. It wasn’t really from telling the main story; most of it was actually from the interrogation. I had to stop my story to try to remember as much information as I could to answer her questions. However, I didn’t have an eidetic memory, and I certainly wasn’t the greatest of students. Not even close. In the end, my details were basic at best with the only exception being if the person or object had a defining feature like a scar. Once I finished my story, I asked her a question.

“Was any of it useful?”

“I do not know,” Valkana said. “I shall write a report and have the royal investigators see through it.”

“Well, I told my story. Now, tell me yours.”

“Mine?”

“Yes,” I said. “What happened after I chased after the child?”

“It’s not importa—”

“Don’t give me that!” I stared at her sternly. “It’s my fault that you got hurt. I want to know what happened.”

“…very well.”

“We’ve been standing for awhile. Let’s take a seat.” Seeing Valkana’s nod, I headed over to a nearby table and took a seat. Valkana sat in a chair on the other side. She was quiet, but I was patient enough to wait for her. However, that patience was strained after nearly five minutes of waiting, but she chose that time to finally speak.

“I saw you leave. It would not have been a problem had there been no crowd. As it was, I had to slowly push through in order not to injure them.” Valkana looked contemplative. “It was at that time, when I lost sight of you, that the Immortal struck his blow.”

“Who is he?”

“Faringa Rwen. His earned title is ‘The Eclipse of Festic’. This was given to him a couple of decades prior, at the skirmish between his and our country’s borders where he spilled so much blood so quickly that the sun above were blotted out of sight by the amount of blood in the air. Famed for his incredible speed and skilled usage of a pair of twin long knives,” Valkana answered. “He ambushed me, caught me off guard. From the rooftops, he dived into the crowd and cut a bloody swath to me.”

My eyes widened slightly. “That would mean…”

“Many died. I had heard that twenty perished and fifty were wounded. Each slash of his blades towards me ripped through any innocents in the way, all simply to unwound me, to make me angry. A foolish tactic. He was not yet even half a century old, yet he was recklessly foolish enough to not consider that my wealth of experience would let me see through his act. I cut his arm off and tore an eye out, but not before he wounded me with his poisoned blades.”

“Did you kill him?”

“He escaped. His speed is prodigious, but his strength does not match. Without the poison, he would not have done me much harm.”

“But you still came after me.”

“I did,” Valkana acknowledged. “It was my fault you were abducted. I took a party of knights and trackers as well as a single healer with me to search for you.”

“They didn’t stop you when they saw your injuries?”

“I did not tell them about the poison.”

“It could have killed you,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Valkana simply stated.

“So you were going to kill yourself to find me?”

“If it was necessary.”

“B-but you shouldn’t have to!”

Valkana tapped her finger on the table. “If I had not, I would not have saved you in time.”

I bit my lip. She was right. If she hadn’t come along when she did, I would have probably died. Yet, at the same time, I couldn’t accept that she took such a huge risk for me, especially when there were others who could have done the search without her. I mentioned that to her.

“Faringa is still alive. If I had not gone, there would be no protection against him,” Valkana said. “I told only the healer. He sustained me through the journey.”

“And on the journey back?”

“He was keeping you alive. I managed to suffice without his assistance.” Valkana looked pensive. “You should not berate my decision as I cannot berate your decision to flee. Without that extra time, we would not have found you so soon. Mayhaps not even in time before you would reach the border if Faringa were to ambush us on the way.”

I frowned, but again, there was not much I could say. To be more accurate, I didn’t know what to say. The comparison wasn’t quite the same, but I could see the symmetry. However, I was looking past that. The reason for both situation was the same.

It was because of me. I felt bad for forcing this situation onto Valkana. However, I felt almost nothing for the casualties she talked about. The fact that I felt nothing made me feel worse. How ironic was that? Maybe the reason I felt nothing was that it felt more like statistics than any real person. I understood that a tragedy happened, that many people lost their lives or were maimed, but it was impersonal to me even though I was there at one point and saw some of their faces. It reminded me of the time on Earth when I had heard that a man was shot a few blocks down from my home; I completely ignored the news since it didn’t really involve me.

But it did this time. It involved me. I was the cause of their deaths, yet I still felt nothing. I understood that it was a tragedy, that maybe if I heard more information about the victims, I would feel sympathy. Or perhaps, I would just feel pity. I didn’t quite know what to think of it.

“Can I go and see the marketplace?”

“It’s not advisable at this time to be outside the palace, Jennifer.”

I sighed. I couldn’t really argue with that. I would have to shelve it for later.

“I need to become stronger,” I told her.

“I will not deny this to you, but I must still question.” Valkana looked at me with a serious look in her eyes. “Why?”

“I can’t stay in here sheltered forever. I want to see more of the world, but I can’t do anything without strength.”

“Indeed.” She nodded her head. “That is the way of the world.”

“Can you tell Ranzel to arrange an instructor for me?”

“No need,” Valkana said. “I will train you myself.”

“But you’re a princess.”

“And I am still your granddaughter. If that does not suffice, think of it as penance.”

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“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I did much wrong,” she said in a uncompromising voice. “I will heed no argument against that.”

I held in a sigh. It was actually a little hard to speak to her, not because of her style of talking, but rather how blunt she was. There was no easy way to stop or get around a hammer strike, especially with how stubborn she was.

“So when do we begin?” I simply asked. There was no use in trying to deter her. In any case, now that I thought about it, this actually wasn’t a bad result. Valkana was probably better than any instructor that could be hired for me, though it was probably overkill since, to be efficient, the level of the teacher should match the student’s current need.

“Tomorrow.”

“Not even another day to rest?!”

“You had a full week to sleep.”

I frowned. That could hardly be called sleeping.

“Retire early tonight. Tomorrow, we begin at daybreak.”

“Does…does it have to be that early?” I was reluctant enough to get up in the morning, and now she expected me to wake up even earlier? This was madness.

“Yes,” she said in a tone that I knew I couldn’t complain against. At least with a royal hired instructor, I could at least get some concessions, but it seemed like Valkana was going for the full spartan course. If that really was the case, I was going to miss eating desert. “The earlier, the better.”

“If you want early, then why settle for dawn? Let’s wake up at midnight,” I said sarcastically.

“Then midnight we shall—”

“No!” I quickly interceded. “That was joke. Really.”

I had almost forgotten that she was a dense, dense girl from a dense, dense world. Seriously, if she hadn’t gotten to the point that she could differentiate sarcasm after all those centuries, then she probably would never understand. Either that or my sense of sarcasm was too otherworldly. I needed to remember to be more blunt with her.

“Okay, dawn it is. I wonder if I can even wake up at that time.”

“You need not worry. I will come to awaken you.”

“No, no, no,” I quickly said. I remembered what happened last time. Having a human statue stand over me when I wake up wouldn’t be good for my heart. “I’ll have my maid wake me up.”

“Very well. I shall take my leave. We will meet in the same location at daybreak.” Valkana turned on her heels and left the room. It was only after she left that Alina came in.

~o~

While Valkana was the one who informed of the general events that happened, it was Alina who gave me information behind the scenes. Quite frankly, I was surprised that she knew so much; it was the kind of sensitive information that I would expect only a high ranking official would know. I guessed that pretty much vouches for how much loyalty she showed to the palace, to be trusted with this kind of information.

My kidnapping was being hidden. Instead, the only thing that was being made public was the fact that Valkana was secretly going into town to shop when an assassination attempt was taken on her life. Since there was so many witnesses, there was no point in hiding the identity of the assassin, so it was common knowledge that it was an Immortal from Festic. Each Immortal usually had a great many achievements before they got strong enough to become Immortals so they were essentially easy to identify. As you could imagine, there was a big uproar.

Having an Immortal attack was very high profile, and in some cases, that was enough to instigate war. To calm the populace, an official envoy was sent to Festic to condemn the attacks. Well, to put things more in perspective, Festic was a neighboring country that bordered our own. While rather large in territory, it mostly consisted of swamps and marshes so the population was actually not as high as their territory would imply. However, their country had a lot of natural gasses that made it valuable. Perhaps because of all these factors, it was a pretty dangerous environment to live in. From the natural environment that you could easily die in without ever being found to the roving bands of greedy bandits and hidden coves of monsters, it was a place where death was just around the corner. It was for that reason that the territory was often ignored by other nations.

That wasn’t to say Festic didn’t have its own defenses. The swamps and marshes would bog down troops and the monsters would seriously impede marches. That wasn’t even mentioning the fact that the country had the best ingredients for the most dangerous of substances like poison. They were very adept at creating traps so a gas geyser rigged to explode would be the least of the many problems that would come from invading such a country. If I had to make a comparison, I would say this would be like attacking Russia in the middle of winter, except it was all year-round.

“The war hawks are clamoring for war,” Alina told me.

“Everything stems from my carelessness,” I said.

“Please do not blame yourself so, Your Highness.”

“It’s my fault. I need to do what I can.”

So I forcefully convinced Alina to bring me to where Ranzel was. It felt bad to badger her like that, but I was feeling worse at the moment so it seemed like just topping on an overfilled ice cream cone. How was I supposed to know that chasing after a child thief would end up in all this? Nevertheless, it did. I knew that I couldn’t have possibly predicted such a thing from some inconsequential action, but it was a matter of fact that I left my bodyguard. I made myself vulnerable and an easy target.

We made our way to the throne room. There were two guards that were going to announced our presence, but I used the authority that I didn’t know I had to stop them. The doors opened and, from inside, eyes were directed to us, but most kept their attention on the nobles speaking before King Ranzel, who sat idly on the throne with his elbow propped up on the armrest. In between the King and the two speaking nobles was a large table with a map on it.

“Your Majesty! We cannot allow our enemies to step all over us without consequences. Say the word, and I shall organize the finest of my soldiers at your command,” a noble said.

“And do what? Retaliate by invading their country?” another noble asked. “You overestimate yourself, Sir. Do you not notice the other nations watching us? By the time this ends, the beaks of the vultures will be upon us, ready to take us apart piece by piece.”

“Then what shall we do?! We cannot let this pass idly. They cannot be allowed to run ramshod all over us!”

“Just send some Immortals to make a mess of them.”

“Fool! The borders between the countries have been tightened. They cannot come into ours and we cannot come into theirs. If you had half a mind, you would’ve realized this.”

“Sir, take back that insult or I shall duel you this day.”

“A fool will always remain a fool. I will gladly take your—”

“Enough!” Ranzel smashed the bottom of his closed fist against the armrest, the loud noise resounding through the room. “Do you not see that you both are embarrassing yourself in front of the Queen Mother.”

It was only then that both nobles looked back to see me standing awkwardly in front of the opened doors. I had instinctively stopped when I heard their arguments, and I had been listening so intently that I had forgotten myself. Alina gave me a small pat on my back, giving me the start that I needed. I walked forward until I was halfway into the room. The eyes of the crowd on either side of the throne room were all focused on me.

“Mother,” Ranzel began. “I see that you’ve returned from your vacation in the countryside.”

“I have,” I said. Alina had already informed me of my cover story.

“That’s good,” he said. “I’m in the middle of a meeting, so we should talk another time.”

It was a dismissal if I ever heard one, but I wasn’t about to leave.

“I couldn’t help but overhear the argument just now.”

“Oh? You have an opinion on it?” He took on a more wary look.

“A bit, but I think you’ve already made up your mind on it.”

“I’m still deciding,” he said, but I could tell that it wasn’t quite truthful. I probably shouldn’t have called him out on it since it looked like he was doing it to placate his audience. Still, I pressed on.

“Why invade?”

One of the noblemen spoke up, “Have you not heard what they did?! Blood demands retribution!”

Ranzel gave the man a scolding glare. “Be mindful of who you’re speaking to.”

“F-forgive me, Your Majesty.”

“Well, that is…what I mean is that there’s no point in it if you aren’t going to annex it,” I said.

“Explain,” Ranzel simply said.

“Um…” All of their burning gazes were focused on me. “Even if you attack them, we’re not strong enough to take them over, right? Won’t some other country swoop in afterward?”

Another nobleman spoke up: “That would be even better. Let them all perish.”

“That would be worse for us. All we’d be doing is weakening them for some other country to take over and get stronger with,” I said. “An invasion wouldn’t do us any good. It’d just make us weaker.”

There was a small chorus of agreement, but not enough to be substantial.

“And you have a solution?” Ranzel’s eyes had a wary glint to them.

“Well, I…maybe,” I said. “But first, there are a few questions I have.”

Ranzel waved for me to continue.

“What resources and products are we importing and exporting to Festic?” I already knew the answer to this from Alina that we export food to them since they can’t produce their own very well, but I needed to confirm it before I continued.

“Stop. I know where this is going,” Ranzel said. “However, food can simply be imported from another country.”

“That would still drive up prices.”

“There are many countries that would like to see us fall. Their support, both public and hidden, will keep Festic afloat.”

Well, that sucked. My idea went down the drain. I probably should have talked this out with Alina first before coming here to present it, but hindsight was 50/50. I was feeling more than a bit disgruntled at my idea having floundered before it even came to light. It was in this state of mind that he spoke to me.

“Do you have any more ideas?” Those eyes that stared at me looked as if they expected nothing more from me. That made me irritated.

“Well, I don’t know. Why don’t you just declare war but not go to war? Just punk them out.” I just threw it out there, but from the confused expression, I guess they didn’t understand what I meant. “I mean, trick them. Just make a huge army and put it at the border.”

“And what would the purpose of that be?”

“They will make an army as well to match, and we could just…stare at them for a few months.”

“…stare at them?” Ranzel asked incredulously.

“Well, yeah. Eventually, after a few months, they’ll get bored and tired, right? They’ll be forced to do something stupid since it’ll probably strain their finances and supplies to keep an army at ready.”

“So siege tactics?”

“Kind of. More like a cold war. I know we can’t surround them, but if we keep them on their toes and harass them, it will deplete their supplies. Since they can’t produce their own food, there’s going to be price gouging because of the higher demand, so it would be hard for them to hold on even with the support of other nations. And if they decide to invade, we’ll have plenty of traps on our side of the border by then.”

“I didn’t think of that.” Ranzel tapped his chin. “However, Festic is a smaller nation in terms of population. It would not be too difficult for other countries to keep them alive for a few years, and the traps are unnecessary. Still, the damage to their morale is not negligible.”

Prompted by his words, the crowd of both sides of the room exploded in chatter, but from the little I skimped off of them here and there, there wasn’t really any objections. Some grumbles, but they were mostly agreeable. I was honestly surprised that a random thought I threw out would actually be taken in a good light, but some of what he said made me feel disgruntle. Traps were unnecessary? That was stupid. Still, I wasn’t going to call him out, at least not in front of a crowd.

“This…this might actually work.”

“We only need natural gasses and plant ingredients from them. Even if the prices increase, they’re nothing too essential so we can last a few years with just our stockpile alone.”

“Are they even known for their patience? They’ll break the stalemate and attack. At that time, we’ll crush them.”

“It’s a sound plan for now, but Festic will be a staging area for the machinations of the other countries. We must be wary of espionage and assassination squads.”

“Bah! Seal the borders then. We’ll clench our ass so tight that nothing will get in.”

“We can’t arbitrarily seal our borders, you imbecile. Think of the damage to the merchant trade routes!”

“Um, is that even possible?” I interjected into their loud debate. “If you put the armies at the borders, then it’ll get bad for internal security.” Just thinking about the kidnapping that I went through sent shivers down my spine. Even if there weren’t any foreign elements coming in, bandits would start popping up to take advantage of the lack of security.

“Ah, so you don’t know yet. Come to the table, mother,” Ranzel beckoned.

I walked up to the table as the two nobles there stepped aside to make room for me. On the table was the map, but I could see clearly now that it was a map of this world. There was marker where Ashran and Festic were, showing how they bordered each other on one side.

“The borders of our country is not simply for show. There is a giant wall that extends around the entirety of our territory.” As Ranzel explained, the noble on my right put his finger down on the map and traced the borders of Ashran. “You can think of it like the Great Wall of China, but taller.”

I quirked an eyebrow. I guessed that was why traps were unnecessary, but just why would you need a wall that tall? Nothing could get past that except maybe a titan or three dimensional maneuvering gear, but thankfully, they only existed in fiction. Still, this kind of wall would take a lot of manpower to keep it properly maintained. I could only imagine a skeleton crew at best. I made a mention of that.

“Hahaha, Your Highness.” The noble on my left laughed gruffly with his full beard shaking. “This is where you’re mistaken. The wall is manned by spotters, civilians with good eyesight. Our armies are roaming inside the country, ready to respond if the signal is given.”

Huh. That was actually a good strategy. This kept most of the army off of guard duty, making it so their skills won’t be nearly as wasted. Still, I spotted a problem with it. “What if they capture the wall before your army reaches there?”

“The Great Wall is crafted to last. It’s been there for hundreds of years. They’d have to climb the wall to get anywhere.” This is when I could see him smirk under his beard. “Unfortunately for them, the defenses aren’t so simple. The interior of the Great Wall contains lava! There are slits on the outer wall that can be remotely opened to pour lava down the wall.”

My jaw dropped. This was insane. “Wouldn’t the lava damage the wall?”

“There are permanent enchantments to prevent that.” The bearded noble folded his arms in front of him. “The most vulnerable spots are the gates, but those are strategically placed and can be sealed. A fortress castle and town are usually nearby for support. If they could get through all of that, they would have my admiration.”

That was actually pretty hefty. I could understand now why Ashran was called a fortress nation. Never mind attacking the country, sneaking in would be hard as hell without simply going through the gates.

Not impossible, though. Since it was made hundreds of years ago, there were probably plenty of hidden tunnels into and out of the country, no matter how deep the wall extended underground. If that was the case, there was no point in closing the borders. I said as much to them.

“This is a known problem, mother,” Ranzel said from his throne. “Periodically, we have the earth mages scour the countryside for them and collapse them.”

“Why not put booby traps in them?” I asked.

“Traps?”

“Well, yeah. Fear tactics. They would be afraid of using an existing tunnel because they don’t know if it is dangerous or not, so they would have to keep making new ones. That would take longer to do.” It was actually a vicious thing for me to suggest. I knew that it would probably result in some deaths, but at the same time, I didn’t really care. They were the enemy, after all.

The noble on my right said, “Hmmm actually, that's quite…”

A noble in the crowd spoke up. “Why not? Kill as many as we can.”

Another in the crowd said: “What if the peasantry die from them?”

“They shouldn’t be using those tunnels in the first place!”

“If the villagers are using it to get past the wall, they might as well be traitors. I give my assent to this idea. It is sound.”

“Two inventive suggestions. The Queen Mother is more tactically-minded than at first glance. I second this.”

“Indeed. I give my agreement as well. Praise should be given where due.”

I preened under the compliments as they continued speaking, but at the same time, it made me feel self-conscious. I fussily straightened out the wrinkles in my dress. Not that there really were wrinkles that mattered, but whatever. I didn’t really think about it that much as I went to work.

“Your Highness, calm down,” Alina stealthily said as she stood next to me.

I nodded and took a deep breath. Looking up, I saw Ranzel staring down at me from his throne.

“You’ve just returned so you must be tired. Please return to your room and rest.”

“Thank you,” I said as I nodded. He gave me a way out, and I wasn’t about to refuse it, especially I had already finished what I came here to do. With a bow of my head, I left the throne room with Alina. It was only when I was outside that I let out a sigh of relief. Next to me, Alina smiled.

“You should take His Majesty’s advice and rest. Your magic teacher had already arrived a couple of days ago, and he has requested that you begin your lessons tomorrow.”

Wait, what?

~o~

A/N: This took a little longer since I had to make quite a bit of changes during my proofreading.