Weight of the Crown

Journey 26

"Behind you." A former Basileian now proud soldier for Lady Yue shouted.

As Yue spun, some of her blood got into Castillo's eyes. The deflector was halted for a second but moved just in time to dodge Yue's slash. He ducked and used his sword as a pivot as he aimed for her feet. Yue was no fool and dodged easily, jumping high enough to vault over the woman running to attack her from her left and pushing her into the man that was aiming from her right.

"Hm, you deflectors are in for a treat. I guess I have to use my brain this time around. Bear with me, I might be a bit rusty."

Those who heard that and knew Lady Yue ears perked up. The last time Lady Yue was challenged to the point where brute force wasn't enough was during the war. Like Arthur she was no prodigy but she worked hard to the point where one cannot deny her talent. In her current state, she would most likely beat her genius rival.

Yue licked her lips as they werepressed into a sly smile. Finally she would have a worthy fight and sheprepared to savour every moment of it.

*

Before her declaration of war, Zula asked Hime and the Kimijing to do one important task, protect the king. The king that kept Arthur up as he continued to recall his last chess match with the queen. Despite Arthur's tactics, Zula had him right where she wanted. Even with her poker face, he could sense her happiness at the chance for a victory.

Arthur had an early lead with his pawn removing Zula's queen from the game. As they continued, Arthur continued to have more pieces than Zula on the board but she did not spare a second thought to the lost pieces.

"Check."

"What?" Arthur looked at his options. He retraced the steps leading up to his loss as he made his last move. "Earlier, you sacrificed the queen on purpose?"

"Sometimes you have to give up a queen for compensation." Arthur's white king was knocked over. "Checkmate."

"Damn."

"I see that you used your pawns more aggressively this time." Zula picked up a piece before handing it to Arthur. "It really does represent you the best don't you think so."

Arthur bit back a smile. "You know, I've been told that before."

"Oh really?"

"So which piece would you be Your Highness? The queen? The most versatile and powerful piece? Or the king? The most important piece."

"Oh no, the king is far more important than me?"

"Who?" Arthur asked. Prince Aciel was important but the kingdom has functioned without him. Despite his lineage, Aciel wasn't the king. It was not King Sen or Queen Atian either, they were long dead.

"Think about it. My king is far more important than the kings you're thinking about."

"What is your next move Lord Arthur?" Lyn's voice snapped Arthur back into the present.

What was he going to do? While the former priestess and lord were in the wrong, Zula did have her faults too. Realistically speaking, Au Inden's numbers won't be needed to crush the rebellion, Lu'es and Vatou's soldiers are enough. However, Au Inden's numbers will speed up the time it takes but is that a reasonable trade off?

"Neutrality is our principle." Arthur looked out in the direction of their iron wall.

"Not originally." Lyn reminded the young man. "Technically our principle is loyalty. Over time it morphed into loyalty towards maintaining neutrality to simply neutrality."