Okay, it's me!

So I'm going to make a note on why I removed the latest chapter 'Troubled'. I think this is my 2nd chapter I've removed/changed heavily from it's original publish date.

Let me be clear, the overall plot won't change - so you won't need to re-read it, however, that chapter won't make a return until a little later.

I myself wasn't happy upon looking back on the chapter - and I've read the reviews, you guys don't think so too - that's fine! That's good! Thank you so much for keeping me on track, at the time of writing I had 6 hours of sleep and just came back from having to go back into college during my break to do 5-6 hours of pure maths. It was exhausting, and I was exhausted.

I went into that chapter without having much of an idea, and I thought. Ah we need a wee timeskip. We don't. That was poor judgement on my part and I made a huge mistake in doing that. I thought Marco needed to be depressed for a while, and he is! He's super angry, frustrated and sad about himself. He doesn't know what to do right now, he just saw a group of people get massacred because of his plan and failure to stop Markus, for him who shed a tear for a librarian he only met a few times - seeing something like that and knowing he was the one who did it: It wrecks a guy.

I'm going to do a few replies here to the recent reviews & past ones that were answered during 'Troubled':

legendofstarco - Thanks for the compliment, I hope you continue reading :)

Damunyo - Oof indeed brethren, I hope this change will lead to a better story.

SugarQueen97 - don't worry ! Marco and Star are still the main focus of the romantic scene, eventually :) I promise you that. I'll try my best to get Star to be more individualised too!

SixStringBass -

Hindi was a random language I found xD there's no real meaning to it, I'm pretty sure it translates with something to do with satan. Anyway, I agree that the recent chapter wasn't good, it was rushed and there's no excuse, I made a mistake... The fact that it's 'deviated from the plot' as you've stated before is something I don't think there's a problem with. If I recall, 'What'll happen when these two form a bond over their hate for the monarchy?' Is the line I used in the summary... The answer is this. All of this because those two hate the monarchy, Star has been punished, beaten, and much more that I haven't disclosed yet. Marco received no financial compensation for his father's death, if there had been better safety precautions - a collapse like that wouldn't have happened in the mine. I could create a second story as a sequel story but that seems like a huge pain for both the reader and I.

So I won't, at the end of the day it's about Marco and Star budding a partnership to take on Ophelia & River along with whoever gets in their way - the mission hasn't really changed, it's just that there needs to be more, I couldn't give them the satisfying ending with only 2 weeks under their belts. They are teenagers after all, they don't know the first thing about running a country or strategy other than just some basic misdirection, diversion etc. They don't have the specialists needed for explosives, master thieves who can pick lock, they're just kids... Right now.

I can't have them magically get a new group either, they need to find someone to help them - that is where the Crazy Queen comes in, I don't want to spoil it in public for what I have planned with her - although it's pretty easy to figure out if you know my writing style but I digress. Yes, I need more work with how the king is: Why the people want him gone, what his motives are, who he used to be, the taxes people endure, the trade with other countries, relationships with them, I'll get there.

My main focus was to heal the core group before detailing more of that, but I see that's caused quite the rift. I also admit that it does go another direction than what it seems - this isn't going to be a short sweet story. People are going to die, Emilia could die, Marco could die, there are no victors in war, make no mistake this is a civil war on the uprising right now - at least, the way things are headed for the group.

To go with your other points - 'building tension, suspense between characters' I get it! I want to do that, but there isn't much to create suspense right now, I'll probably play with Kelly + Star's relationship a little. Absolutely will I toy with Matt + Ophelia: That's a gold mine for tension in the castle. Furthermore, I appreciate what you said about enjoying the "fluff that is Star and Marco" they'll be more of that eventually, but right now it's a dark place for everyone.

I understand if you've dropped the story because of the direction I accidentally fell into. That's okay, I drop stories if I start to not enjoy them as much, I understand. I thought I should give you an explanation of my thought-process and thank you properly for the advice you've given me.

Well, that about sums it up! I'm going to try create a bigger, more detailed world for you all to enjoy, however, the problem with it is - they'll be quite a few chapters where nothing really happens, it'll be an exposition dump - I want to avoid that, and don't get me wrong I'll try my very best to keep it somewhat entertaining, but I have a very limited set of characters right now, I've got 6 people in the core group and then at the castle: 3? River, Ophelia and Matt. Perhaps servants could have some story-time, but I don't feel a need to keep them in the spotlight anymore, it'd just be a waste of text imo.

I'll see what I can do with the frequency of the chapters being published, I go back to college in 3 days officially so that's a bit of an 00f.

I appreciate this has been a long author note and most of you won't have read it - but there's my message back to you guys.

Thank you,
vK