The Sleepy Princess Loves The Cold Duke

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Promise?

Loki got all the information he needed from Angelica and handed her over to Gregory Light. He knew the Royal Guards couldn't hold her for long but he hoped that it would last till after the attack.

Gregory was delighted to finally be able to meet the famous Princess Poppy Lullaby. "You are as beautiful as the rumors," he stated in awe. Loki was glaring holes into the flashy knight but Poppy just grinned. "You are as tall as the rumors say," Poppy had to arch her back up to see the man's face. 'And I though Loki was tall!' Gregory chuckled and thanked her for the compliment.

Poppy was sitting in her designated chair beside Loki. Steven handed Gregory a sheet of paper then moved to stand in parallel to the couple. Gregory scanned through the paper filled with the questions and answers asked in Angelica's interrogation. "And you're completely sure all these answers are 100% honest answers from her?" He looked up to the Duke and Princess in disbelief. Poppy nodded, "you can use the potion again on her if you want to fact check it. Though I've never used it three days in a row so I can't say that I'm positive there won't be any negative affects." Gregory shook his head and flashed his pearly whites, "I'm confident in just your acknowledgment. Thank you princess for using such a valuable potion for this investigation."

Poppy was a little weirded out by how kind this man was being. She was used to Steven's hospitality but this was a whole new level of optimism. She knew immediately that he was a person with many secrets under the surface. But she could read it off his face that it was secrets she did not want to know. Gregory's eyes fogged over a bit but then cleared again. He could feel the Princess' gaze but tried to not let it bother him. 'Don't want to anger the sleeping lion beside her.'

•••

"Then according to this information I will have my men prepare for an attack in five days." Gregory turned to Poppy. "Your highness, by any chance can I also request the talismans you used for the Duke during the first monster attack?" Poppy but her lip, worry apparent on her face. "I would love to say yes but I still haven't completely ironed out the kinks. The ones I have now are hard to control and extremely fast." Gregory smiled, his eye thinning into lines. "We can handle it."

Poppy shrugged and headed to her lab to grab the remaining flying talisman she had.

She came back with a small box with a shrinking talisman on it. It was a box of all her failed attempts at making a flying talisman. All had the same problem. She learned that eagles blood loves to be poured in large amounts. She could never figure out how to minimize it. "This is around two thousand. Is that enough?" He opened the box. To most people these talismans would just look like slips of paper with words on them, but in truth they were very powerful. "This is more than enough, Thank you princess." He bowed all the way to the ground. Basically slamming his head on the floor. Poppy's eyes went wide and she looked at Loki in confusion. Loki shook his head and clapped a hand on his forehead. 'He needs to fix this weird habit of his,' the Duke grumbled.

•••

Just two days in and the whole northern region was filled with soldiers. It was also noted that the other regions were also going to be under attack, meaning the army had to be stretched pretty thin. The western region would also be under heavy attack. The region under the crown princes's reign. According to Loki the crown prince wasn't too happy about being kept out of the loop of the attacks happening and demanded to join the fight.

Poppy rolled her eyes. "He is probably just going to sit in the back yelling orders." Loki chuckled. He had finished getting ready for bed but Poppy was still brushing her hair. He took the brush from her and started brushing her hair for her. "Poppy. Can you promise me you will stay in the basement? It's protected with reinforced earth magic. Only the person with the key can get in or out. You have already given us so many spells and helped the men train. You have done enough, so promise me you won't put yourself in danger." He was looking at her through her mirror. His blue eyes pleading with her. Her gold eyes wavered but she eventually nodded.

"I promise."