Chapter 26 – Curiosity Ignites Within Kingdoms

 “Yes, it was quite peaceful today.

At her reply, Elizabeth smiled. However, her eloquent smile was soon wiped off her red lips as she spoke.

“I ordered for the rocks to be removed for I thought you might be clumsy and trip over them.”

“Rocks?” Levisia’s eyebrows arched in confusion.

“Yes.”

What rocks? But Levisia soon realized what she meant when she saw her mischievous smirk. Every guest that had been wandering around the palace had now been degraded to grey stones

‘…Is this okay?’

Levisia didn’t know then. That what seemed like a light-hearted incident was a flutter of a butterfly’s wing which would later provoke a storm.

* * *

The man staying in the palace guest room opened the windows. A crow zipped through the opening and dropped a rolled up paper in the man’s hand. While he untied the string wrapped around the paper, the crow flew around the room, cawing. When the bird alighted on the man’s shoulders after hovering in the air for about three rounds, a woman smiled observing this.

“Harrol is just the same.”

The bird puffed his chest up as if he understood the woman.

“Still a show off.”

When Harrol, the crow, lifted his beak, the woman lured him with some food she had prepared. The man continued reading the letter in silence. When the quiet prolonged, the woman became curious.

“Did something happen, Cassian?”

“…Elizabeth did something peculiar.”

The soft spoken man’s name is Cassian Robel Kraiden, the Kraiden Empire’s First Prince. He looked over at the woman with his red eyes almost concealed by his black hair. “Don’t feed Harrol too much, sister.”

The woman Cassian called sister is Carrelopae Zian Heisah. She is the queen of the Heisah Kingdom and Kraiden’s First Princess. Despite being a direct lineage to Kraiden, she was not bestowed the name Kraiden due to having no discernable power. Which is why she married the king of the Heisah Kingdom at an early age and became a queen.

Cassian would occasionally visit her, his biological sister at the Heisah Kingdom. However, strange things were transpiring at the empire while his seat was left vacant.

‘Elizabeth, Lidan, and Siaphyl, huh.’

Those three were the ones who have been acting peculiar recently. And the person who was in the center of all this was…

‘The Fifteenth Princess?’

One of the many people who didn’t receive the Kraiden name and whose face he could barely remember.

‘How peculiar.’

Lidan and Siaphyl are known to be odd among the Kraidens so it is barely a surprise, but Elizabeth’s involvement was quite intriguing.

‘Could there be something…” Cassian looked up after immersing himself in deep thought. He felt someone’s stare on himself.  Carrelopae gently smiled after observing him. “A new wind must be heading to the empire and you.”

However, Cassian denied her statement and burned the letter.

“How is your life in the palace?”

“Not bad. It’s always the same.”

Cassian rid his mind of the letter by changing the topic entirely. He will just have to learn more of it when he returns to the empire. At the exact moment the last fragment of the ashen paper floated in the air, a woman at a kingdom directly opposite of him smiled.

“She even has Elizabeth all shook up?”

The Seventh Princess, Aurora Vale Kraiden. She is currently studying abroad. A hushed laugh slipped from her rosy lips at the letter she received on a boring day. She had four months left until she concludes her studies. Later then, she will be able to return to the empire. Aurora Vale Kraiden looked forward to finding out what events were unfolding when she returned.

“I’m so excited. What could our adorable Siaphyl have discovered?”

Her smile grew as she tucked the letter in the drawer.