22 Return (19)

The collective gallop of our horses made a rhythmic sound as we rode across the dirt road to Calenon. The morning sky had given up to a much clearer and hotter noon sun. The weight of my noble garb had taken its toll on me.

Although fancy and expensive, it was hastily put on to me by guards inexperienced in these sorts of things. Furthermore, it was delicate, requiring me to stay put and not move much so that much of the ornaments hanging from my shirt wouldn't fall off. Considering that I'm currently riding my horse at full speed, such a thing was hard to do.

"There! The white towers of Calenon!" The redhead said beside me.

On the horizon, the glistening towers of Calenon, reflected by the sun, were shining brightly in my eyes. The whiteness of the pure marble elven buildings, and the teal roof colors made the city seem like something from a dreamland.

First, it was only the peak of the towers that were visible. But over time, as we drew near the city, more and more buildings were visible. First, it was the Castle Calenon and its peak. Then, it was the tower walls that protected the inner city. After that, the elevated high city that housed most of the city's noble elites and guild leaders. And at last, finally, the white walls of Calenon.

"Ohohoho! My! I finally had the chance to see that place!" Behind me and Sera, rode the newest addition to my entourage, the druid-mage Rana.

"You never visited Calenon, Rana?" Sera peaked behind her curiously.

"I hate to admit it, but the forest has always been my home"

"You're very much a loner at that"

"Be quiet! I have a child to take care of!"

I glanced back at her. "Are you sure leaving a demon alone unguarded would be a good idea?"

She looked at me, there was a hint of irritation in her expression. "Oh please, your majesty…must I tell you again and again that he is of no threat? That the incident yesterday was a miscommunication on his part? It happened more than once with me, I had to admit"

"If so, I hope that note you left would entertain him"

"Oh don't worry! All that child did all day was drawing circles around the front yard last time I left him for days!" She whipped the lead rope that tied her horse, crying 'hyaaah!' before continuing. "So it will not be a problem, I assure you!"

Suddenly, Sera tapped my forearm lightly. Her horse was dangerously close to mine, but she managed to skillfully avoid a collision between ours.

"Look!" She exclaimed, pointing at the general direction of Calenon. "A giant bird!"

What she said was correct. Emerging from atop Castle Calenon was a massive golden eagle that spread his wings and was gliding in the air towards us.

"It's coming this way!"

"Fascinating! I never knew Calenon had a golden eagle inhabiting it!" Rana said,with a look of fascination in her eyes. "Although, I couldn't sense it at all!"

She was referring to a druid's unique ability to detect and communicate with many animals.

"Of course you can't! That thing was summoned using magic!"

The eagle was only several hundred paces from us. It spread and extended its massive legs. Each one of those six fingers ended with a sharp claw that would tear even plate armor easily. The narrow shape of its head was visible, its eyes managed to shake me, making my nape hair rise.

"It is coming this way!" The lead guard in our formation said.

"Men! Loose!" I ordered.

The men around me began breaking up from our wedge. Each of them ensured there were at least 4 meters between each of us. It would help with maneuvering once the eagle was close enough to grab something using its claws.

Using my eyes, I could see Runford and Naki riding on top of the bird. He was grinning, a large smile had formed on his face. He was whipping the leash that formed around the eagle's head.

"Sera!" I looked to my left. The redhead was ready to keep a distance from me before I called her. "Your arrow!"

She swiftly reached out to her quiver, which was on her back. Then, she gripped the projectile with her index and thumb before throwing it to me on an upward arch.

"Here! My bow!" She said.

"No need for that" I smirked. "My hand is good enough"

I stepped out from the stirrup. My right leg went first, taking a firm step on top of my saddle. Then, it was time for my left leg to climb to my seat. What I ended up with was me standing on top of my horse which was galloping at full speed. Somehow, I managed to keep balance and not fall off. Even more impressive my was that the decorations was still in place even as I was moving this much.

"Whoa! Eli!"

"Your majesty!"

"What are you doing, your majesty!?"

The escorting guards look at me like I'm sort of a madwoman. Which wouldn't be completely false once I finished with this stunt.

I gripped the arrow tightly in my right hand, it pointed to the front. I hang my hand back past my shoulder and tilted my body back. Using my left hand as some sort of an aiming sight, I shifted it and my vision until Runford's eyes and mine could be traced in a single line. Then, a stream of subsonic wind burst forth from around me as I threw the arrow with all my strength.

It arched in the end, tilting from its target and instead fell on the eagle's left eye.

The bird screamed in pain as a trail of blood spilled out from its eye socket. It staggered from its dive, using the wings it had to stop during the flight. It then flew backward before turning away from us, scared. I could see Runford desperately trying to rein in his bird, but it didn't follow his command.

"Look! It's escaping!"

"Woohoo!"

"Great show your Majesty!"

However, as I let out a sigh of relief, my horse suddenly stopped in its tracks. The long galloping from Silveril to all the way here must have made it feel tired. The Resultant force pushed me forward and knocked me from my balance position.

What happened next was fast. I remembered the world turning upside down as my nerves kicked in but just at the last second. My long hair could already feel the ground before suddenly, I stopped falling. Yes…I was floating in mid-air.

First, I thought it was magic but then I felt two hands wrapping around my waist.

"Next time, don't do something stupid!" Sera said as she flipped me back up, turning back the world towards its normal position for me.

"That can not be guaranteed, Sera" I chuckled. She looked at me with an irritated face as remnants of her fangs slowly retracted back inside her teeth. "Also, has Yohan never told you to not use your power carelessly? Especially when there are other people around us?"

The rest of my guard entourage began helping me back up my horse. They circle me and Sera. It was obvious they saw Sera using her supernatural powers just a moment ago, but since Sera had been with them for 6 years, and the fact that these are Zani's most trusted guards, they didn't really ask much question.

"If I could save you using it, does that count as using it carelessly? Also, these guys are our friends! Isn't that right? Teril? Hirel? Daca?"

"Yep!"

"You could trust us with Sera's secret, your majesty!"

"I've lived for two centuries and Sera was the most unique person I ever encountered!"

"Shut up, Spark! We knew you're only 83 winters old"

"Hey! My beards had grown! I think it is evidence that I am over two hundred years old!"

"Yeah…right…even my sister had a more hair than you"

"Yeah? Oh boy! That means her face might be similar to my father!"

Everyone started cracking up as Teril and Daca exchanged banter. Both of them, in addition to Hirel, had been Sera's closest friends in the fortress. While I was there training alone, Sera was out socializing with these men.

"Alright, boys, regroup! We still had to finish the job" A certain druid intervened herself in front of us and the men began going back to formation.

===============================

As we reached the outer slums of Calenon, a large crowd had begun manifesting itself. It was a rabble of peasants and low-life as they cheered on me.

"Her majesty! Her majesty! She has arrived!"

"Your majesty! Look at me!"

"Please touch me, your majesty! Bless me with your skin!"

"Spit on me your majesty! It's simpler!"

"ORDER! ORDER! CLEAR THE WAY!" The lead guard barked as his horse began screeching while lifting its front legs stomping the dirt path.

The crowd saw this and began to disperse from the main road. However, the ones who stayed by the road continued shouting as we thread through the ocean of men. They tried to reach me with their arms, trying to grab my attention.

"Your Majesty!"

"My lady! M'lady!"

"Why won't you greet us y'majesty?"

"Bless us with the goddess' foresight your majesty!"

"You could tell us the future, right your majesty?"

"Please! Please! What would happened to me if I took this job tomorr-"

"Can you tell me a cure for my child your ma-"

"ORDER! CLEAR THE PATH!"

I kept my head down the entire time. By all sides I was being covered by my guards, screening me from the crowd. They stayed close to me while keeping their shields up, in case there were assassins in the crowd. My ears were bombarded with the word 'your majesty', the calling compelled me to look up, but I held my guard.

Suddenly, Sera nudged me. "Maybe you should address them, they're your people now"

I snorted. "Do not speak nonsense Sera, these people aren't worthy of my time"

"Then who are?" She spoke while frowning at me.

"People in power Sera, they're the ones who could change the world"

"Oh…" She looked at me emptily, before turning her head back to the crowd.

"What are you looking for? You seemed distracted since we arrived"

"I sensed that Rena is watching"

Her former orphanage keeper, someone who abused her in the past. "You saw her?"

"Not that…the smell of her blood was caught in my nose" I could see her licking her lips.

===============================

"Eli!" Mother cried as we entered the inner courtyard.

She wrapped her hands around me as soon as we were close, she didn't wait for me to drop from my saddle. I didn't know how she managed to run as fast as she did under the weight of the armor she was wearing.

"Mother! Calm down!"

Latching onto me had caused an imbalance that would drag both of us to the ground. Luckily for us, I have super strength, so I lifted her easily while bringing both of my legs to the same side and dropped down. She was embracing me tightly, burying her face in my chest.

"My girl….oh how tall have you become…"

For once, it wasn't clear who was the mother and who was the daughter. Her height was barely reaching my shoulders and the fact that I'm carrying her while she was hugging me made it even more confusing.

If I had to estimate, my height is about 187 cm, while she was about 165 cm by Earth's standard.

Looking at her again, I smirked at what she was wearing. A full elven plate armor with chainmail under armor complete with extra protection for the knee, shoulder, belt, and elbow. Not the most feminine of clothes that she always preached to me when I was 6.

"Mother…is this men's clothes that you are wearing? Aren't these very scandalous to be worn by a lady?"

"Eh?" She broke our hug and looked down to her clothes. She then flushed and began covering up her lower body with both her hands. "Th-that's…not…tr-...I-I can explain!"

I broke up into a chuckle as she was explaining about how she had come to wear a guards full armament. In all honesty, that armor fit her quite well. Apparently it was Zani's idea to be used to inspire the men, and it worked.

Speaking of the old woman, she arrived to break our intimate moment with a grim face. She was carrying Yohan, bridal style. The gardener had blood covering his body. Behind her, I saw my room maid, what was her name again? Yin wasn't it?

"Your Majesty" Zani said, bowing her head, Yin followed suit.

Her face was fierce and had a worried face buried in it. I concluded there was something that needed my immediate attention.

"What is it, Master Zani?"

"My lady… you might want to take a look at this" She said, then she shifted her vision to Rana. "You might as well follow us, Master Rana"

Rana nodded and Zani led us out of the castle. The guards followed us as we were walking down the streets of the upper city. The entire place was a wreck.

There was trash lying around. Fabrics of clothes, tools and burned torches. There were corpses stacked on a cart and were taken somewhere. I noticed several of them were wearing guard armor.

"What happened here, Master Zani?"

"A struggle, your majesty" Zani said, as we passed by two more carts, now, instead of castle guards, the corpses were city guards. "The men were loyal to Runford, and they were brutally massacred by the peasants. The guards you saw back then were Caris' men, the man responsible for your father's safety. Fortunately, he is no more"

"I see" I said. "so, where are we heading?"

"The walls, several of my men in the city sentinels reported they saw suspicious people coming in and out of the gate house"

"What do you mean by suspicious?"

"They were hasty, and cautious, and immediately they took off after exiting the building. At least, that's what my men said"

We entered the gate building that served as a way for people to get in and out of Calenon city. There were men shouting and taking guards. Zani nodded to one of them and they led us inside.

"They broke the rune my lady!" The man leading us said, I did not know quite sure to whom he was addressing.

"The rune? The shield rune?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Ye-yes…your majesty"

The large runic symbol was located in several places inside the walls. They were carved into the stone and glowed a radiant blue-indigo color.

"Oh my…! The air here is full of magic! I think…I uhm…have a headache or something like that" Rana said next to me as she leaned her body left and right, while holding her head down with her hand.

The runes were strategically placed in a constant distance from each other, and their numbers perfectly covered the entire city. Together, they formed a protective barrier that would block anything targeting Calenon from above the walls. In peacetime, the runes would dim and the shield would be deactivated. But in times of war, the would glow, activated by the ones who created them.

Unfortunately, most of them were vandalized with their strokes being erased or redrawn in incorrect order. Some weren't even there, they were destroyed when the walls where they were carved were destroyed.

We came across the largest and the main rune in the gatehouse. It needed the entire wall section to be fully drawn and the symbols and lines were more complicated than the others.

"Oh my…" Rana said. "This is art! Uh…well…it was art…if it isn't for the vandalized upper section here…wait, is that blood in the lower part?"

"Can you fix this, Master Rana? Surely a mage of your caliber would be able to repair the damage" I said.

"No" Rana said firmly. "it is not possible to fix this"

"Why?"

Rana grinned before taking a large breath and said. "We mages see runes as painters see their paintings. They each represented something emotional deep within us, unique to each of us. The one who created these runes clearly put a much thought into drawing and casting magic into them. If I were to fix it, then it would be like an artist finishing up someone else's work. Yes, it would be complete, yes it would recast the spell that was inside the runes themselves, yet, it wouldn't be pure, the spell would be weak and in some cases they won't even work anymore"

Rana looked at us, she then raised her brows as if she remembered something. "What I'm trying to say is that we need the original drawer to fix the symbols, my attempts wouldn't be sufficient to fully restore the shield. By the way, who created these?" She caressed the runes while sparks of magic began forming between her skin and walls.

"My father"

"Oh…" She froze for a second "Well…that would certainly be difficult"

"It would be yes…"

"This is bad, your majesty" Zani told me, her tone of voice told me that she was worried. "It would mean that our defenses are compromised"

We exited the house and marched back to the castle.

"We should prepare extra defenses immediately, call the levies and armed them. I had my other men reported to me that the eastern lords had started mobilizing their troops! They were loyal to Runford, your majesty!"

"That could wait Master Zani, for now I would like to address the citizens and our boys, let them know that I am in charge. Hence, I want guards stationed in the temple and the city for this week most importantly"

"Alright…. alright…your majesty, I would prepare a raised platform in the lower city for you-"

"No need, just invited the city's elites into the temple of the moon and I would address them with a speech"

"Only the city's elites?" Zani peaked up again.

"Yes…but make sure to let the upper citizens know that they could also see the speech too"

"Alright your majesty"

===============================

Zani left me with her men after we arrived at the castle. The entire courtyard was packed with guards. They were stationed here just to guard me.

"Eli!" Mother called to me from behind.

"What is it mother?"

"It's about your father…"

"Yes?"

"Atakai had already moved him into a coffin. He would be buried just before your official coronation"

"Coronation would have to wait, mother"

"What?"

"We are at war, mother. Spending tremendous amount of wealth on anything not military related during this time would be unwise"

"But…then…what about your father? Surely his corpse wouldn't wait for you to finish this conflict!"

I thought about it for a moment, before answering her back.

"He could be buried before my speech, mother. With that, many people will attend both ceremonies. Now, we just need to worry about the extra cost of adding father's final resting to the overall budget"

"No need to worry about that, my lady" A certain very old man then suddenly barged into our conversation.

"Master Nazhiff!" He was bound to a wheelchair and needed a certain Steward to drive him around. "Master Qwerin!"

"Had fun having dinner with the trees everyday these past 6 years Eli?" Qwerin snarked a comment while waiting for Nazhiff to join us.

"My master Nazhiff, did something happen that made you have to be bound to a chair?"

He looked at Qwerin, who side-glanced at him.

"No…nothing too serious, I was just caught in the crossfire" He said.

"That…is…true" Qwerin added.

Both of them snorted before shifting their face away from each other. I heard Yin chuckled beneath her breath a little before retaining her composure.

"Anyway, what did you say about the expenses, Master Nazhiff?"

"Well…your father always said to his men during the heresy way back that if he didn't make it from battle, then he wanted a peaceful rest beside the goddess' temple back in Tórinas. So, suffice to say he would wanted something simple and inexpensive, he was not known for his lavish spendings, after all"

"Really?" I raised my eyebrow.

Qwerin coughed. "Besides the alchemy ingredients that cost half the yearly budget"

"Alright fine then. We shall bury him with nothing more than a simple coffin that had minimal ornaments, however a ceremony would still be held since this would be the first time Calenon lost her ruler"

"Right on, your majesty! I'll prepare the men and the materials!"

"Mother will discuss this further with Qwerin, Eli" mother held my hand and clasped it, her hand was warm. "You probably have other things to do"

With that, Qwerin and Mother all went inside the castle to discuss more regarding the burial. I could hear Qwerin shouting at the male servants while mother gathered all the maids.

I turned my attention to Nazhiff who was still adjusting his searing position on the chair.

"Master Nazhiff, have our vassals sent their condolences for father yet?"

He sighed. "Eli…, your father had just died this morning. If it were for Silveril and other nearby sanctuaries, then they should have arrived after noon. But for our border sanctuaries, like Aleanwel and Qaraka, then it would at least take 3 days if their messengers galloped their way here"

"We can't have 3 days, Master! Father will be buried tomorrow!"

"The elders can't even attend this ceremony, Your majesty! Their carts are slow and the farthest representative would take weeks to get here!"

"Then, they are not needed. Tell me how many elders are available within a week's notice from today"

Nazhiff quickly nodded back. His old mind might take this too much. "There is also the case with the eastern keepers, like Qaraka and Tyrfll. They were known to accommodate Runford warmly when he visited them. And, as Keeper Zani had said, they are rallying behind his banner"

"Then all their elders are declared traitors. All keepers who does not sent an immediate fealty oath within a week's time are considered traitors and their fief shall be confiscated"

Nazhiff holds his breath before gulping fully.

"I will relay this to my messengers, your majesty"

"Do that, master Nazhiff"

Nazhiff rolled the wheel on his chair with the help of a male servant. Then, I was left alone with my thoughts for the day.

Taking a deep breath, I noticed how different things are here compared to on earth. Back then, all the procedures were written and norms had been established. But here, I had to really spell everything to everyone in order to get them to understand.

"Tough first day, yeah?"

Someone tapped my shoulder. I held my breath, readying to unsheathe Strumnir. Somehow they weren't detected in my advance sense. As I lock my eyes at them, my breath immediately went out and I released my grasp on Strumnir.

"Sera"

"Yes?"

"Don't do that"

"Do what?"

"Suddenly tapping my shoulders"

"You weren't aware?"

"No"

She smiled. "Thanks"

I smiled back. "Yeah…, stay with me for a while, please"

"So it is a tough first day"

"The first days are always the toughest of days, Sera"