“Every time someone wishes for someone else to die, a star disappears one by one.”
–Mileia, I’m making the stars disappear one by one every day. That day, she had a cough all morning. She couldn’t get out of bed, and then Gustavo, the secret agent, came in.
“Lupe, are you all right? Don’t die, okay? We’re halfway through.” Alana tried to get up with all the strength she could muster in her hands, but she was too weak to do so.
“Yes, yes. There you are,” Gustavo said, helping her to her feet. “Gustavo… what’s the plan?”
“Ahh, that. The knights under Baron Gusman have finished their work on the riverbank. The rest are coming back to the castle, leaving him behind. Callisto and I… did the job on the murder pit, oh oops, Serino was the one who finished it. But more than that, is it true what they say? There are 50,000 men and women in the army of Teges.” “Yes, there should be 50,000. Teges will eradicate other nations and hire plenty of mercenaries and thieves with the money they gain. And then gain more money by eradicating new countries. And on and on it goes.”
“What a bunch of scoundrels!” Gustavo cried, ruffling his dark brown hair.
“50,000 is a joke. I don’t know how you got into this country knowing what you were doing. Huh! 50,000? I don’t think you’ll survive. That’s impossible.”
“I’m sorry if I die, Gustavo.”
“I don’t know what you mean by sorry. You’re not going to die… Oops, someone’s coming,” Gustavo whispered, looking out the window through a crack.
“That little princess has come again. You’re good friends with each other. I’ll go away. I’ll leave you to it.”
Mileia, her golden hair swinging in the air, came in as Gustavo disappeared.
“Alana, are you all right? Don’t you think it would be better if you stayed in my room?”
“Mileia, I don’t want you to get sick.”
Alana coughed, and Mileia rubbed her back with her petite hand.
“Get well soon, will you? I’ll pray to God, hm.”
For two days after that day, Alana could not recover and could not move. It was a bad day. It had been heavily raining all morning, and the air was thick and humid. The sky was covered with heavy clouds so that even at noon, it looked like twilight. Mileia’s servant arrived while Callisto dressed her. Callisto was sullen; it seemed he was against her going to the castle.
Yet, Alana wanted to fulfil the wishes of the King and Queen of Serrat. She had no choice but to go.
“I want to stop you, but you won’t allow me to stop you. I’ll come for you later, okay?”
“Okay. Callisto, be careful. It’s dangerous.”
“That’s my line. You can’t die in this foreign country. You can’t go, absolutely.”
The servant informed her that Mileia was in the library, and Alana walked with a limp body that was still recovering from her illness.
– I hope that today will be safe and uneventful to the end of the day… It was a long walk to the library, especially for Alana, unused to walking regularly.
Rain pelted against the window, sliding down in a litter of clear drops.
Still, she remembered the words she had exchanged with the King and Queen of Serrat, the starry sky at the new moon, Mileia and Prince Luciano.
She still had no clear answer as to how she could be sure of getting through this. The King and Queen of Serrat wanted Prince Luciano and Mileia to live. The king knew that he would provoke them, alarm them, and get beaten more than necessary if he sent troops or fled.
So he chose to do nothing and pretend not to notice.
Such a move was to keep Armenia and Teges on their toes. If they didn’t take the chance, Luciano and Mileia would not survive.
Teges was not a nation to accept a white flag. They ruthlessly conquered the defeated.
The king and queen were so thorough that they did not even inform their son and daughter of the danger. However, some of the knights had been notified, and together with Baron Gusman, they had set up an escape route.
That number, a hundred.
Whenever Alana saw them on the way, she made sure to look out for them. It was a cruel plan to sacrifice the majority and save the few. But there were only so many ways to save a dying country. Make people shields for people.
//God, my heart is breaking. You can feel the pain and helplessness in the defeat of the war.