PRINCESS ANARCHY | DSMP

31. The Letter in a Red Envelope

   L'MANBURG IS GONE.

   It has been reduced to nothing more but a crater in the ground, filled with ashes and rubble, the debris going as far as into the forests nearby, for the explosions reached far beyond the borders of the country.

   Nia, Stela and Technoblade make their way back to Pogtopia. Sara stayed behind to make sure that her friends are alright as well as mourn the loss of a friend — Wilbur. Stela is also taken aback by the sudden loss, but she hides it well behind a mask of indifference.

   Technoblade is awfully quiet, more than usual — one would expect him to boast at least a tiny bit, as he succeeded in destroying a government. A frown is permanently stuck on his lips. He also grieves the loss of a friend; one that he has known much longer than Nia would've anticipated. For she also found out that the man who had killed Wilbur was, in fact, his father. And Technoblade's long-time friend.

   Philza.

   The man that Techno had told Nia about back when they were still in her old kingdom. When she was still a princess who merely by accident met an anarchist and somehow happened to agree that governments and monarchies are just a poor excuse for a person or a group of people to have power over the others.

   Power corrupts, and if anything, both her father and Schlatt have been proof of the statement. Both a king and a president respectively.

   Nia didn't know Wilbur that well. She got to know bits and pieces of him as she spent over a month around the man, but she hardly knew him as well as the others to be stunned by his death. Nor was she in any way disconcerted when Dream finally disclosed that Wilbur was the traitor. But that was because she already knew.

   "Tomorrow morning, once Sara gets to Pogtopia, I think we should head north," says Stela determinedly, gazing at Nia. "To the Trix base."

   Nia bites her bottom lip and nods. "Has Sara agreed to come?" she inquires.

   Stela nods. "I didn't really ask, but I don't think I have to. If I'm being honest, I'm quite certain the only thing holding her back was L'Manburg and Wilbur. Both of those things are dead." Her voice is monotone as she talks, suppressing all of her emotions. "I never asked you either. But you have nowhere else to go, just like me, so I just figured you're coming with me."

   Nia can't say anything to that. She never explicitly told Stela that she's coming north with her. She's right. About that, and about the fact that Nia has nowhere to go. So far, she's been staying either at Sara's home, or at Pogtopia. Neither of those were hers. As far as Nia is concerned, she doesn't have a home.

   She glances at Technoblade, donning a rueful smile. Frankly, she wishes she could hug him. Or take his hand and squeeze it supportingly to show him that everything they've done was for a good cause. And that she appreciates him. But she's not one to show physical affection, and neither is Technoblade.

   Perhaps they've hurt a few people along the way. But such is the price of the better good. The means justify the ends. Especially if it means stopping a tyrannical government from rising again. What is that one Greek saying . . . Sic semper tyrannis? Thus always to tyrants.

   Technoblade has his hands shoved in the pockets of his pants, walking a few paces in front of Nia and Stela. She watches him kick a rock on the path through the forest. His gaze fixates on a crow later on, remembering how Phil called him the traitor, because Wilbur said it's Techno instead of telling his father that it's him. His muscles tense and the vein on his neck pops up.