Once Liry got ready, the group headed toward the largest area of the palace, this time, they found a bunch of guards stationed there armed to their teeth and ready to fight. The group stopped in front of it, but when Liry walked towards the room, the guards moved and then opened the door.

  The group didn’t have the chance to take a glimpse inside, but Zelos was able to see a big bed ahead. At least the point of it… it looked like the king didn’t have anyone nursing him at the moment.

  The door closed and then the group went silent and tried to avoid the gaze of the guards as much as possible. At the same time, Zelos began to consider some things.

  “This might end up like the last farewell to her, she already made up her mind about the trip and she knows how this disease works. She didn’t mention anything about poison, but… maybe she knows that eventually, she will be the next to be poisoned. Her enemies might people believe that this was a genetic disease or something and that will let them control the opinion of people by spreading around the word that perhaps the imperial family truly had to disappear.”

  That was some nasty shit, but it also should be bread and butter for people who work behind the scenes. For someone like Zelos who wanted to be a warrior through and through, he found that kind of thing very annoying, but he couldn’t deny its necessity in some circumstances.

  Before long, the group began to fidget since Liry was taking her time… but then after half an hour, she showed up looking quite refreshed, Zelos realized that the corner of her eyes were a bit wet, though.

  “Let’s go.”

  Everyone nodded and soon they returned to Liry’s quarters. For a while, they stayed in silence without knowing what to say or do, but eventually, they began to hear a lot of footsteps approaching. Everyone grabbed their weapons, but soon they only found some retainer looking people approaching. They were wearing robes and a weird blue hat that seemed like something scholars would wear. Before long, they kneeled in front of Liry.

  “Your Highness. The council and the prime minister have sent a message to you, please accept it.”

  One of the guys stepped forward and then passed a scroll to Liry. As soon as she received it, they bowed and then left. That indicated that Liry couldn’t refuse the contents of the message no matter what. That was a bit weird since she forced their hands.

  “It basically says that they want me to help in the south with morale until the enemies decide to retreat. They are also sending one hundred of the Imperial Guard as reinforcements.”

  Huxi clan was also considered part of the imperial guard, so probably one hundred of them would come with Liry. They wouldn’t be of much use, but they would serve the purpose to make people think that the princess was receiving some support. Even if it only one hundred warriors wouldn’t make much of a difference.

  “Those one hundred will depart in one week… they might be expecting us to go with them and the battle will become worse for our side.”

  Heirina was worried about that and soon decided to voice her thoughts.

  “Then we shouldn’t wait for them. The issue is, will they try anything if we do that?”

  “It is very unlikely… the matter about staying there until the enemies are forced to retreat proves that. They want to keep me away from the capital for as long as possible and then eventually do what they have to do. While I don’t have any real power, I still can cause problems like I did now with this plan. In any case, as planned, we will depart at sunrise. I will send s message for Huxi to find a carriage for us. We will need to carry some supplies and tools, after all. We won’t be able to use the resources there.”

  It was finally happening… The group could tell that an important moment in their lives was fast approaching. They were going to battle without informing anyone of their clan and they had to protect the princess too. One could only guess where that situation will end and what results they will obtain.

  In any case, the girls began to help Liry prepare for the trip in her room while Zelos and Irlan moved elsewhere. As usual, Zelos decided to train a bit. He did a test with regeneration, and confirmed that he could heal a broken hand in one hour… he wondered where his trait would take him at that rate. Speaking of which, he never heard anyone talking about level limits in the traits.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “What do you know about the situation in the south, Zelos?”

  “Absolutely nothing.”

  “Hahaha, I shouldn’t have expected less. Your steel nerves never ceases to amuse me.”

  “What do you know about it then?”

  “I didn’t know anything until earlier when I heard some guards talking… it seems that the leaders of three of the five clans there had been executed by the enemy. Not defeated, but captured and then executed, thanks to that, the morale of the defenders is quite low.”

  “That kind of thing is truly efficient, huh? The enemy this time should be pretty nasty, but smart, unlike the last two we faced.”

  “The enemies in the south are better equipped than us, you will learn when we reach that area. The enemies in the west are more organized and their society is as you know already. The problem this time is the fact that we have to worry about our backs as well, and the enemy is trying to fight while saving their soldiers as much as possible. They don’t care about expending a lot of resources, though. As long as they aren’t human.”

  Zelos rubbed his chin thoughtfully… he could imagine that the enemies this time would be pretty skilled since they came from a place that valued their lives a lot. Their side could take their time and they had more experience, while the defenders side couldn’t take their time and their new leader was Liry. She will have to truly show her worth in one way or the other.

  “Until now, I have been training with the goal of only improving my parameters and skills, but I can’t keep only doing that. I will have to add battle experience to this and consider as fast as possible how I can improve.”

  Battles like that were also good ways to rack a lot of accomplishments and extra money, and all that would be useful for Zelos in the future, so that was a good chance for him. Still, things will be way harder than the previous battle since Reina won’t be there… he will have to show his worth as well.

  With those thoughts in mind, Zelos trained until he barely could move his arms and then went to bed. When morning came the next day, the group left the capital determined to change the tides of all the conflicts that they were involved and perhaps change the political landscape of the country as well.

  “It has been a while since I left the capital… this sense of freedom is just amazing.”

  Liry was sticking out her head out of the window of the carriage and smiling like a child. Thanks to it, Heirina couldn’t help but force a smile. She wanted to ask if the last time was five years ago, but she didn’t want to bring back bad memories for her.

  While Heirina wanted to ask about that, Zelos wanted to ask what Liry would be able to do if the push came to the shove. The chances were small, but she might have to defend herself at some point. So, she would need her traits.

  “Over the years, the imperial family should have added to their bloodline some valuable traits. However, considering how small it is now, Liry shouldn’t have many. She might get one very useful one when the emperor dies, but no one wanted to count on that in the middle of the battle. The reason for that is obvious.”

  It would be useful if Liry gained a new trait in the middle of the battle. However, that would affect her mind since it would be the same as confirming that her father died. In any case, it doesn’t look like anyone was going to ask her what her trait can do and since they never asked each other either, Zelos could assume that this was practically an insult. She never did anything that gave some tips either…

  It was better to put that aside since the knowledge might actually cause more problems than help. With that in mind, Zelos decided to ask something else.

  “What is the plan once we reach the battlefield?”

  “I would like to take command of things there as soon as possible, but that might not be easy. I don’t have real experience leading and if our side is losing, people feel even less compelled to follow my lead. With that in mind, we will have to change the flow of the battle as soon as possible to make everyone listen to us.”

  That made sense. No one in their right mind would let a princess who led a supposed safe life lead them when their lives were on the line. The battle there has been going on for a while, so people might be hostile towards her.

  “I heard some reports about the battlefield, and things truly loom grim… everyone is on their last legs, some people already deserted and since they didn’t have the spares to look for them, more and more people look like they are ready to do that as well. As for the battlefield, it is filled with the decomposing corpses of their allies since the enemies don’t let them even recover those to bury them.”

  After hearing that, Heirina showed a lot of disgust. They were all mercenaries, and honor wasn’t their main concern when working, but everything has limits, and it looks like the enemies are fine ignoring those limits.

  “Woah… they are using all the dirty tricks in the book, huh?”

  “So, we really to bring them down to make our allies there follow us. While we are young, with your skills, we should be able to pull that off.”

  After that, Liry began to tell them what they were supposed to do once they arrived on the battlefield. Pretty much every day, Zelos could see in the morning that Liry couldn’t sleep that much, even though she had some people around that she saw as allies. The area around her eyes showed a lack of sleep that she tried to hide with a bit of makeup.

  Still, it looked like she used those sleepless hours to help come up with a decent plan for as soon as they arrived on the battlefield. She spent a while explaining the whole thing to everyone, and they all looked impressed and confident.