The Prince's Fiance

Chapter Twentythree

It's been an entire day since Akito and Lilith departed to the eastern border to deal with the monsters and the dimension rift. Jisoo was trying her best to fulfil the requirements of keeping an eye on the lovebirds of the Palace. Until now all she saw was them spending a lot time together. The crown Prince neglected any kind of work and would only try to please Saiyumi. Jisoo would often sneak along behind them through the gardens and watch them eating together to meal times. Nothing seemed suspicions to her but it engrossed her to watch the lovely act. In her opinion Saiyumi was rather manipulative and only took from him instead of giving any form of 'love' back. Since nothing happened she decided to take a break on her watch duty and enjoyed a parfait on the grand balcony.

Jisoo observed the birds playing in the air while enjoying her dessert. It was a peaceful afternoon but her thoughts kept wandering to Akito and Lilith. She hoped they were save and returned soon but a trip to the border would take several days depending on their speed and breaks. A sudden commotion under the grand balcony caught her attention. The office entrance of the royal guards where stationed there and fitting to it a lot of guards were gathered. The girl had to bend over the railing to have a better look on what was going on. In the middle of the commotion stood Raito with Saiyumi clinged onto his arm. "Oh oh- this can't mean anything good." She wanted to hurry down but could afford to miss out what exactly was happening so she decided to stay on spot and watch the scene first.

"Thank you all for gathering. I came to notice that everyone of you had recently worked very hard to maintain the order in the Palace. So I came to the conclusion that you all shall be rewarded." The crowd remained silent and in order but there could be seen happy and someone confused faces all over. Jisoo belonged to the later group. "We will firstly despatch gifts to everyone. Not only the Knights but also all servants and maids at the Palace. This was a wonderful idea of Lady Saiyumi." Saiyumi smiled into the crowd. "The second reward will be an extra vacation. So you may all feel free to take now a week off."

Jisoo couldn't believe what she just heard. Raito wanted to give the entire Royal guards a vacation? He surely wasn't in his right might and she was certain that this was Saiyumi's idea as well. She had to step in. "Stop!" Her call came down from the balcony and everyone looked up to her. "You cannot dismiss everyone into vacation!" "Of course I can." "Well if that case I order all Knights to stay on their positions!" Raito and Sai both looked displeased. "Pardon Lady Ayers, but you don't have the right to order anyone here." "I do have. I have the authority as the Crown Prince's fiance to order every servants or knight of the palace." "Such insolence!" The red haired woman interfered now. "It seems like you're forgetting who you have in front of you. His Highness the Crown Prince and me, his fiance." She pronounced especially the word fiance clearly. But Jisoo didn't backed away. Her mind was determined to resolve this issue in stead Akito. "I am still the fiance declared by his Majesty, and therefore you're only a mistress." Sai gritted her teeth in anger and Raito tried to calm her down.

While these three were in a conflict about who held the highest authority, the Knights were visible tense. They all knew as part of the Palace employees that Raito was only the young Duke and that the authority given to Jisoo was real. So Jisoo had a higher status to the current point since she was the real fiance.

"Calm down, my love. We can still hand out the gifts even if they don't go on vacation." "Ha, right! At least we are being gracious unlike a certain wanna be Princess." The mockery was clearly directed at Jisoo but she ignored it since she knew the provocation was on purpose. Saiyumi obviously wanted to let her look event worse in front of the Knights.

The commotion settled as Knights were handed out those gifts and started to spread them on command of Raito beneath all employed people at the palace. This was something Jisoo couldn't stop even if it annoyed her that Saiyumi was collecting more favourable points with the servants. And it clearly wasn't appealing to see later in the evening that a lot maids were walking around with a brooch decorated with a large gem. 'gosh.. her taste is a pain in the ass'

It was the third day since Akito and Lilith had departed. They finally arrived at the border after traveling without any rest on the fastest horses they could find. Of course Lilith could have simply teleported but for the Prince or the Knights that wasn't the case. The rift was opened over a small village and you could already spot from a distance what destruction the monsters caused. Wherever Lilith looked, she saw monsters or Knights fighting them. On their way closer to the rift the number of monster and Knights increased with every taken mile. So did the number of injured. But now that they stood in front of zone X the view had talked a turn. There were no more injured people. The streets were plastered with death. Humans and Monsters. The air was filled with a heavy smell of death which almost made Lilith vomit. As a mage who had studied alchemy, she was not unused to seeing death but this was a completely new experience and she reached quickly her limit.

"Ugh.. my Lord.." Lilith covered her mouth and Akito looked back to her. His face was serious. The gruesome scene struck him less hard or he was better at pulling himself together. "I know. Let's hurry before it will worsen." She nodded and followed on shaky feed while trying not to take too deep breaths of the heavy air.

They went closer to the village and a three manned group came to receive them. "My word..! Your Highness, why did you come and not my son?" The pink haired man was the first one to speak. "Your Grace-" Aktio tried to shut his lips as glanced to Lilith. To his luck she was to caught up in trying to sense out everything around her to notice the leak of their role swap. "Remember this is confidential." "Pardon-" "Just tell us quickly about the situation." "Yes Sir. The monsters come out in groups and every time they seem to be bigger. Either in number or in size. We have already lost around 200 of our men from current estimations. Fortunately not a single dragon has crossed the rift yet." "Good. We should keep it this way and seal this goddamn hole."

Everything suddenly started to vibrate and a deep growl was heard. Everyone looked up to the dimensional rift. It was clear that this sound was caused by something larger and they all hoped it wouldn't cross through.