CHAPTER XXXII.
Julius woke up to the sound of someone violently knocking his door and a startled Marie.
He smiled at his lover, the most perfect woman in the world, the only one to ever see past his title and see his real self.
He smiled for a second before the person beating on his door got his attention again.
"Who is it at this hour?!" Irritated Marie covered her head with a pillow.
He smiled at his lover once more and told her "I'll go and find out"
Opening the door he was surprised to see a panting Erica with a look of pure desperation on her face "What's the matter Erica, are you alright?" he asked, worried about her appearance.
"Brother, I need Marie please!" she asked politely, that was something that never changed about her, no matter the circumstances, she would always remain polite.
"What happened?" he asked in concern.
Erica was one of the few persons that approved his relationship with Marie, and she seemed interested in getting to know her, but their respective schedules never matched.
Marie had a very busy schedule, thanks to him and his friends no doubt. and Erica was always with her fiance, forging a good relationship with House Fraser.
He couldn't avoid feeling inadequate at her side, she put everything she had into fulfilling her duty while he abandoned his own responsibilities for the love of his life.
He would never regret loving Marie but sometimes he felt responsible for the current situation of the kingdom.
However he knew everything was happening because Angelica couldn't let go of her hopes to become the next Queen!
"Bartfort escaped the academy, she hurt Elijah and the others!" She told him before she barged in and kneeled in front of the bed he was sharing with Marie.
His lover was fully awake after hearing about the escape of one of their most important hostages and sat down in the bed, her nightgown barely doing anything to protect her modesty.
"Give me a second to put something on and I'll heal them!" Marie told his sister much to their relief.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Erica said with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Julius was deeply moved by his sister's sincere gesture of gratefulness, she was always someone who acted beyond her years and she genuinely cared for her fiance.
Once Marie had a simple and much larger piece of clothing covering her they all hurried towards one of the academy's gardens and he could barely believe a tiny girl such as Finley Fou Bartfort could cause such devastation, all of his sister's followers were laying in the ground, injured or worse!
Marie first approached Elijah, his sister's fiance and after a short examination she told them that he was just unconscious, she then proceeded to examine the rest of the boys and all of them were in the same condition much to their relief.
After Marie healed the boys Erica calmed down enough to explain what happened.
The situation was worse than he first thought.
They have no one to hold hostage in the academy and even Gilbert has fled the capital.
Just as he expected, Redgrave House has fled and left the kingdom to fend for itself.
Well, the Principality has just declared war on them and he has much bigger issues to take care of!
Namely organizing the students of the academy into an army unit, he will be sending those rebellious Barons to the very frontline and see who is worth his forgiveness in the field of battle!
0x0x0
With a sigh of relief Leila watched the Island were they were stranded for two fucking months!
Yes!
She can curse too, and at this point it is completely justified.
Their ship was damaged in a storm and they had to land on the first habited island they could find, and they were lucky enough to find a ship mechanic there.
However, that's where their luck ended.
The Mechanic was some blue-haired weirdo by the name of Cutty Flam… an obvious nickname but the man insisted that was his actual name!
The man himself had a lot of prosthesis, one leg, one hand… his nose, he was probably more prosthesis than man!
Anyway, weird mechanics aside, as Leila said they were out of luck and the parts needed to repair their airship needed to be shipped from the republic because Emile refused to use generic parts to fix the damn airship!
It didn't help that while they were waiting for the pieces a group of… Bandits? Well, criminals tried to steal something from Cutty and Serge tried to play the hero and ended up getting beaten up and losing a tooth.
At least her sister and her ended up meeting a lovely old lady and her absolutely adorable granddaughter!
Noelle is making strides in her recovery at least, she is starting to smile again!
0x0x0
Hertrude Sera Fanoss was on the deck of her cute ship looking ahead at the kingdom that has caused so much strife to his land and to her personally.
They have already taken all the land they were supposed to take according to the deal Count Garret made with Marquis Framptom, they were still advancing though, and the kingdom's first serious counterattack should be arriving soon.
The kingdom would try to send the Redgrave fleet to intercept them but she knew better, the Duke would not fight them at the moment, they would have to destroy the capital first and then hunt down the man and his Cursed Knight, to put them down and avenge Vandel.
She looked at one of her servants and the flute she was carrying, that was her trump card, it'll allow her to summon a legion of monsters and an undying Guardian to do her bidding.
She would like to finish this war without the need to summon the Guardian but she has been preparing for years to offer her life in exchange for her country's victory.
Her little sister, Hertrauda, has her own mission… Survive and rule!
0x0x0
Malcolm Fou Frampton was aboard his flagship surrounded by his most trusted men, his son Albert at his right looking sternly at the crew, Albert was in charge of this airship while he himself was in charge of the fleet.
He was a capable young man, but he was in no way ready to replace him.
This operation will not help him grow, Malcolm was aware of that, however it will increase their prestige and make their House ever closer to the Prime Minister title that has been his goal since he was younger than Albert.
After Gilbert's escape from the capital alongside his wife and Bartfort's youngest daughter everyone started to look up to him for guidance, as it was always supposed to be.
The rebellious nobles' faction escape was a sore subject though.
Not only was it the fact that they lost the figureheads that they had at hand, the Heirs of low ranking rural nobles have gone missing as well, and they had no idea where they could be, they just knew that they hadn't left the capital!
Ships like the one Gilbert used to escape were a rarity and he doubted Vince would waste resources to bail out the rabble!
Despite that, things were in a pretty good state for him and his allies.
The Field's were no match for the Principality and that was something that put a smile on his face, when he chased the enemy away it would only increase his standing while destroying one of the Holfort's dynasty oldest ally's reputation.
"Father, everything is ready." Albert told him with a smile.
He reciprocated before taking the microphone to order his fleet to advance.
"SAIL ONWARDS TO GLORY!"
0x0x0.
*Sigh*
What were they doing? Raymond Fou Arkin wondered as he cleaned his glasses.
This was the fifteenth floor of the capital's dungeon and they were camping here while things calmed down.
War has broken out. The Principality's attack was a well known fact within the academy, the prince and his entourage thought themselves to be smart and subtle but in reality they all were just a bunch of pretty boys with heads full of air!
Seriously, they didn't even have to hide to eavesdrop on them, they just had to stand close by and those self centered highborns would ignore anyone not in their circle.
It was humiliating that they didn't perceive students in the academy as a threat to them, the worst part was that they were actually pretty close to the truth!
His fellow rural nobles and him stood no chance in a fight or politically.
Daniel was the only one among them with any chance to oppose them but that wasn't his role.
That lucky bastard was… lucky enough to have struck gold finding one of the daughters of House Bartfort before they became known as the threat they are.
*Sigh*
He looked at his own fiance, Valerie, she was not what he hoped for when he first entered the academy but she was much, much more than he thought he would get after the first term of the academy.
"Something wrong?" he asked, he didn't want her to be suffering here, but there was little he could do in matters of comfort right now.
"I know we had to escape" she said irritatedly "But couldn't we have brought some canvas paint and brushes!" He knew of her love for painting but that was seriously low on their priorities right now, everything they packed was what was needed to survive here, food, water, medicines, bandages, clothes and of course weapons.
They even had to share their tent with another three couples making any form of intimacy hard in the next few weeks.
"I know you are bored, my Lady, but you know that we couldn't bring any of those things here" it was true too, if not for the fact that they spent almost a year preparing for this they would have been caught by the army and made hostages to pressure their families into joining the war, and even with all their preparations they had barely made it out of the academy and into the dungeon!
"At least lend me your books and pen to make some sketches!" Valerie demanded, he needed those books to keep himself sane though…
Looking around he searched for something, anything that could be used to draw until he found the remnants of the bonfire they used last night, full of ashes.
Then he looked at one of the walls, completely blank and smiled.
"How about an innovative form of art?" he asked Valerie.
That picked her interest.