I sort of... forgot... to... update???
Sorry. I thought this chapter was already published. No wonder there were no votes and comments in the past few days. I thought people stopped reading this story 😭
Here it is! I'll update tomorrow too. ❤
Check the prologue for the map of Sydrian Ocean and Leviche Empire.
Enjoy!
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They had to spend another day for Lizzie to recuperate and was once more checked by the doctor that it was safe for the youngest Norvillon to travel.
The investigation reached nothing but the common knowledge that the breeding season for Gibworms had passed and that they were usually left alone for they are generally harmless. It was just unfortunate that one bred late and wandered close to the border.
While officers rattled in fear for answers why Lizzie was taken, the duke was waiting behind his desk, expecting answers.
But Lizzie wondered to herself why she was in such position—sitting on his lap, and drawing pictures, as he scrutinized at the knights with his passive, yet cruelly aggressive gaze. "Then, only that?"
Just let them go. She thought. The youngest of the knights looked like he was about to pee. Just let me go, too.
Lizzie, who could not take the torture for the knights any longer, raised her poorly outlined yet richly colored drawing. "Papa~ Papa." She showed the paper of sickening yellow. "This is Lizzie." She pointed to a circle with the same color. "This is a worm egg."
A small wicked smile played on his lips looking at her drawing, then passed to the officer who accepted it with both trembling hands and an angled bow like it was a national treasure.
"The beast mistook her as its egg," the duke stated. "Even a child understood."
No, I'm pretending that I don't.
Only then the gathered knights understood looking at her drawing. Their eyes shifted back to Lizzie, then the paper, and back to the youngest Norvillon. Each passing moment, their growing sparkles of adoration choked her.
"As expected of my lady," the youngest-looking knight even whispered.
Unknown to her, it was the first rumor among the many about the (misunderstood) brilliance of Lizzie of the North.
And Lizzie for some reason felt the disappointment same with the duke. Isn't it at least something fort knights should know? Or is it because such an occurrence happened for the first time?
The Duke then informed the knights that a reeducation course will be arranged for a month, and all knights are to attend lectures by a monster scholar brought from Nordis. It would be for all the strongholds. Additional training hours were added too.
After the knights left, Erdan was granted audience next.
"Your Grace," he formally greeted.
"Were the preparations complete?"
"Yes."
Lizzie long gave up on being freed from the duke's lap. She drew him instead, as horribly as she could, and giggled to herself.
"May I request one more thing, Your Grace," Erdan added.
"Speak."
"Would it be possible to buy Feliziia a new wardrobe, with less bright colors?"
She looked up and wanted to scream 'Yeah Erdie! Tell him!'
"I have concluded that the Gibworm mistook her as its hatchling by the color of her clothes. Although, we would be returning to Nordis soon—"
"—No need," the duke cut him off. "Her bright clothes were already disposed of."
Lizzie was somehow surprised and somehow praised and criticized the duke all at the same time. He did act fast but—What do you mean 'disposed'?! To say the least, the clothes could be sold and worth a small house, or ten of them.
But Erdan only had an "As expected of you." reaction and left the room.
The next day, after a loyal farewell salute from the fort knights, the Norvillon entourage traveled back to the Northern capital, Nordis.
Lizzie was now stuck in the carriage of Devanti Norvillon, while her brothers had to reside in their own.
When she was shortly reunited with her maids, one of them, Blinne, fed her with the events during her almost half-a-day disappearance, and the whole time she recuperated.
Calix Henry, a son of the duke's closest vassal, Count Calixto Henry, won the hunting ceremony. It was the fact that the duke nor her brothers had joined after the uproar of her 'abduction'. It was also the first in the current Norvillon era that such an incident happened.
The other maid, Orna, also added the Duke wins every year, followed by Garth in numbers and Erdan would always be within the top eight of rankers.
"It was an uproar, my lady," Fay said, as she was giving her ultimate scalp massage. "The Duke sent a massive search in units. He didn't even bother the awarding that evening and searched for you. He returned with you past midnight."
It had always amazed her how the carriage ride was smooth that the man in question was able to write correspondence with a serious expression. Unlike the hunting ceremony's formal suits, cravat and overcoat, he was more casual, two buttons of his white shirt unfastened and sleeves rolled, and his black hair falling to face.
When she was in the streets, Lizzie assumed that nobles sleep in gowns and suits like they were skin. But the duke's clothes currently looked like a marauder of traveling merchants passing the forests.
Then again, no one would believe such good looking man is a robber. And even so, his clothes were clean and of high quality. It made him look more human than a high noble or a cruel war god.
"Something wrong?" he asked, not even looking.
You.
For some reason, some of her things from her carriage were moved and had claimed space on his carriage desk; three of her unfinished books, her jar of crayons, a stack of paper, and a twisty wood block toy. But she was more curious of the caged crow, the biggest one she had probably seen in her life, was settled between them, now looking at Lizzie like it was reading her soul.
She cranked her neck longer to avoid its gaze and focus on the duke instead. "Papa, will Erdie and Garthie leave?"
"They have to study."
She already knew long before and yet, their departure two days after the return to Nordis felt so soon.
But it was inevitable. The Gran Dacchian Academy had nothing to teach them new, she heard. The academic city of Eornia, known for its varied studies specialty, was located near the island empire of Leviche.
Although the Gran Dacchian Academy is not lagging, the burning of the Capital Library and the Academy was one of the new emperor's casualties of rebellion. It was a big blow in the academic society. The academy has risen once more, but it lost significant scholars and records.
For Lizzie, it probably wasn't the main reason.
The Gran Dacchian Academy was located in the capital. It was an unwritten rule that the Norvillon kept to themselves and do not involve outside the North and the ruling family. Especially with its history with the previous king.
But you helped the current emperor in his ascension to the throne. "When will they come back?"
"Next spring."
"What will they study?"
"Many things."
Lizzie could early picture Erdan following the lecture diligently while lording over the students with his schemes. But Garth, who was studying warmmanship and swords, she could imagine him swinging his sword at his horrified professors or overpowering his instructors.
"Lizzie will be alone," she said.
"You're too young to go with them."
I didn't say I want to though. "Papa~Papa~ can Lizzie go if Lizzie is bigger?"
"Are you that eager to be an adult?"
Well, adults can do more. She grinned. "Lizzie can grow bigger and marry Papa~!"
The duke didn't answer and finished the letter.
By her limited view, and the duke's terrible handwriting, she only read:
May the Sydrian waters be kind.
See you soon.
Instead of a wax with the Norvillon seal, he rolled the paper as small as a finger and placed it inside the canister. He opened the cage and attached the rolled letter in its claws. Lizzie unable to come down from her high chair, leaned back in fear of the crow who spread its wide wings, now fully taken out of the cage by the duke.
She remembered now, the creature was called a Crowbeast. He petted the crow and it cawed, then opened the window of the moving carriage, and let it fly away along with the letter.
"Papa~ Papa~ you don't want to marry Lizzie?"
It was her ultimate attack. Most fathers feel happy when daughters say such things, although they were just childishness and wishful thinking of the innocent.
"Marriage huh..." he mumbled then gave her a sharp side-eye. "Feliziia, don't smile at men. They are wolves."
Oi, aren't I too young for this kind of talk? Lizzie tilted her head. "Wolves? Wolves are scary Papa~!"
"If boys talk to you, stab their eyes."
Not to extend the derailed conversation and her failed attempt to act cute, Lizzie just nodded. "Yes, Papa~."
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