Ch. 16: Late Night Musings
Unlike the time at Bianca’s house, when I pass out in my miserable dungeon cell, a sliver of consciousness remains with me. I can hear Finn raining verbal hellfire on the royal guards who had dragged me down here and the clang of keys in the padlock of my cell.
“Silence, Finn,” Lord Wolfgang says. The surprise at his presence rouses me a little and my eyes squint in the cell. The commander of the royal guard, who is rumored to rarely leave my father’s side, is down here to fetch me? I feel so special, I think sarcastically.
Big, yet gentle hands hold my wrists and a weight slides of them as metal clatters to the ground. I’m scooped up and placed on someone’s shoulder and yellow hair tickles my nose.
“F-Finn...” I say weakly. Forget fainting like a damsel in distress, I’m being carried by the cute, yet irritating Finn! Be still my young heart.
“Just rest, your highness,” he says softly. My eyelids are heavy again so I close them, but I feel a slight embarrassment as I do so.
“You can’t let this case simply be forgotten like the poisoning incident. This is too much, Wolfgang!” Finn hisses in frustration. As I lay on his shoulder that smells of a manly musk, I raise my eyebrows at his informal reference of Wolfgang. A subordinate calling the captain by his name is cause for demerit, of that I’m sure.
Wolfgang lets out a loud, weary sigh. “Yes, I know.”
“They are taking it too far!” Finn argued further.
.....
“Yes.”
“Yes? Is that all you have to say? Not even a month since you found her and there have been two incidents. Two! And our royal guard is involved in one!” Finn is very heated and I feel comforted to hear someone bothering to fight my case. It has felt like an incredibly one-sided battle thus far on my part.
I feel the waning sunlight hit my face and I know we’ve emerged out of the dungeon. I never want to go back to that dank, lifeless place and I know what I saw barely scratches the surface of that prison.
The walk back to my palace is relatively silent, but I can feel the stewing anger underneath Finn’s calm exterior. I can hear Marie cry as I am passed from Finn’s muscular grasp into Marie much softer one. Everything blurs and I think I fell asleep because the next time I open my eyes I am lying in my bed in my nightgown. Finn was right. Too much has happened to me in this short period of time. I rotate my ankle and feel a twinge of pain, but other than my that and my bitten tongue I am not that badly hurt. But who knows how long before that changes and instead of small sprains I end up with broken bones or worse?
It is easy to see why Winter in the webnovel eventually keeled over and took the hits without fighting back. But that is what ultimately killed her. Marie has nodded off in a chair near the side of my bed, the candle she has brought with her sputtering since there is hardly any wax left. She has forgotten to close one of the curtains and a bright shaft of window illuminates the tip of my bed. I crawl out of my covers, feeling wide awake and flop in the shaft of light to admire the moon.
That is one thing I love about this world. The night sky. The modern world I’m originally from had its perks, but at best you could only spot a handful of skies in the smoggy night sky. But here? It’s as if an artist flicked a white paintbrush against a dark canvas. The sky is littered with more stars than I can ever dream of counting and I feel a measure of peace as I admire the moon, the ever-changing moon. The constellations are not the same, as I can’t find the Big Dipper or Orion no matter how hard I search, yet the sun and moon still hang in the sky no matter where I am.
I must become more like the moon. I reach out my small, pale hand towards the narrow crescent, shining like a beacon in the midnight sky. Always showing a different side of myself to those who look, rarely revealing my true face until the moment is right. And I know exactly where to start, my mouth curling into a grimace as I think about them. Those who have laid their hands on the person they shouldn’t have. The royal guard. Berrick.
Their bargaining power is not to be estimated since they are composed of the most elite fighters and notable families of the Empire. They play a larger role in the Empire than they are given credit for and Empress Katya has a sizeable stake within them in the form of Berrick. His shadowed gaze lingers in my mind and I’m at a loss whether or not he was mentioned in the webnovel. I must find a way to retrieve the papers under the floorboards at Bianca’s house, and fast.
But how? I pull my hand back to my chest, finding more questions than answers.
In the early hours of the morning, I’m not the only lost soul seeking solace in the moon tonight. Not that far away within the royal study, Emperor Helio stared expressionlessly at the moon from his window.
“...Is that all, Wolfgang?” he asks, not turning away from the view to regard his trusted second.
“Helio,” Wolfgang said, calling him by his true name as he always did when they were alone, “This is the second incident within this month. Even if you don’t care for her, don’t you think it might be too much for a child to handle?”
“The palace is a brutal place. If I coddle her, she will become weak. I do not need a weak child.”
Helio’s voice sounded carefree, but after years of fighting side by side, Wolfgang could detect a slight variation in the emperor’s voice. He pressed on, his ADHD causing him to kick incessantly at the carpeted floor as he spoke.
“A weak child is much better off than a dead child.”
“Not really.” It is now Helio spun his chair around to face Wolfgang, his gold eyes causing goosebumps to dance on the man’s skin even though he was long accustomed to his aura.
“Weakness is just a prolonged death.”
Wolfgang tampered down the flicker of irritation and turned his face away from his friend’s, no longer able to bear his gaze.
Helio chuckled, making Wolfgang look at him curiously.
“To think my aura still has this much of an effect on the Mad Dog even after all these years,” he said with a smirk.
“Come to think of it, she didn’t flinch, did she?” Helios continued, deep in thought. He thought about his tiny daughter who had struggled to crawl up the stairs to his throne and face him. There had been no fear in those eyes that so perfectly mimicked his own, golden eyes he had once hated more than anything. The last pair of eyes that had looked at him in such a carefree manner were scarlet as roses but left just as quickly as the delicate flower’s lifespan.
“That was a clever move for her to approach me when I hadn’t dimmed my aura. I’d think someone set her up for it if it wasn’t for the fact that she is so young.” Helio commented, not allowing his inner thoughts to be known.
“Yes,” Wolfgang agreed, “And it conveniently saved her from the lying parishioner. Why didn’t you let me kill him again?” Wolfgang wasn’t called the Mad Dog for no reason and frequently delighted in bloodily tearing apart the Empire’s enemies.
“Killing one ant will just alert the colony. For now, it is better to do nothing,” Helio said wisely.
“Do nothing?” Wolfgang whined. “That’s... that’s impossible, Helio! The state has been polluted, no infected with enemies. It isn’t external warfare that is going to ruin the Empire, it’s those power-hungry parasitic nobles and those who live inside the goddamn palace!”
Wolfgang was huffing for air after his outburst.
“Are you finished?” Helio asked drily. Wolfgang was not and he continued speaking although the temperature in the room began to drop considerably.
“The only reason Princess Winter is getting targeted so much is because of that prophecy the Holy Church issued five years ago. You are the one who inconveniently fathered her with that spy right after it was issued, you should take responsibility for her safety.”
Helio grunted.
” I mean it, Helio,” Wolfgang concluded seriously. “Who knows, you might actually end up liking this child? She seems pretty clever.”
“And how would you know?” Helio asked, peering at Wolfgang suspiciously. The deadly aura increased and Wolfgang loosened the tight collar of his uniform nervously. That was the largest display of emotion Helio had ever shown about his daughter, only second to when he was informed of her existence.
“Well when we found her in the slums, we found some poorly hidden papers with scribbles all over them. They use letters found in our alphabet but they are rearranged in an order I’ve never seen, almost like another language. I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty impressive for a child who has never been educated.” Wolfgang explained.
“And where are these papers?” Helio carefully asked. Wolfgang sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. He felt like a child being scolded by his parents rather than engaging in a conversation between friends.
“In my office, sir.”
“And you didn’t think to show this to me?”
“Erm... you never showed much interest in...” Wolfgang trailed off as the aura reached dangerous levels.
“I’ll retrieve them for you, Helio,” Wolfgang promised, backtracking out of the room to save his skin. The commander of the royal guard rolled his eyes the minute he exited. When was his friend going to get over himself and admit that he might care for his daughter more than he pretends to?