Whispers of Lost Valor: Knight, Not Wife

Act 2: Chapter 1: Love?

After days of treatment and healing Liyliana, she slowly starts to regain consciousness. As she opens her eyes, her body hurts all over and she can barely move.

As she slowly opened her eyes, she looked around the bed she was lying in and saw Emperor Arthur sitting next to her, watching over her and gently holding her hand.

His expression is filled with relief and he looks immensely worried about her condition the look in his eyes shows that he never left her side since the moment she fell unconscious.

Lylliana was relieved to see that the emperor was fine as well. She smiled assuring him that she was fine.

Yet she could barely move, she was a bit worried about him, knowing that he fought as well.

"Are you okay?"

The emperor sees her smile and his expression grows gently. He is relieved that you are conscious again and no longer unconscious.

"I'm okay, don't worry about me..." then he immediately adds,

"I should be the one asking you about that... you've put me through a lot of worry and fear," he says as he gently touches her hand.

Lylliana wasn't too sure if she should be worried by someone this great but also the fact she did fight carelessly and didn't listen to anyone at that moment. She was indignant about herself and thought being in this bed meant payback for how stubborn she was.

Suddenly she saw the maids and guards at the door whispering to the Emperor and her.

"How can she be so calm?" One of the maids whispered and another one interfere

"What kind of princess is she? Such inappropriate manners, fighting with the knights." another maid added

"I hear she didn't even obey their commands. The emperor must be disgusted" but one of the guards cut it off by saying something that doubted the Emperor

"How can you say that? Even the Emperor didn't even do anything to the dragon and it was all her who defeated it. How embarrassing"

The emperor's expression looks pained by what he suddenly hears the maids and guards saying. He gently holds Lylliana'a hand tighter and the look in his eyes betrays a pained and anxious expression due to the situation.

"Don't listen to them... they're just saying that since I didn't participate in the battle myself... they would talk about anything"

the emperor says, now there is a hint of frustration in his tone as he glances at the maids and the guards.

Hearing that, She looks into the emperor's eyes feeling upset and guilty. Lylliana slowly moved my hand off of him.

"It's all my fault..."

The emperor looks back at her surprised and a bit hurt by her sudden removal of her hand off of him.

He sees how Lylliana looking upset now and immediately he looks worried and confused about her words.

"Why are you saying that? This is not your fault"

he says gently, he doesn't like how she just blames herself instead of accepting the fact that she saved the people from the dragon by her bravery and skills.

"If I weren't so persistent on defeating the dragon. You would have defeated it" Her voice was shaking like it was about to cry. Lylliana looked down and regretted that decision.

But before the emperor said anything, she went back to bed lying down and didn't listen to any whisper she heard. She doesn't want any guards or maids in her room anymore.

The emperor's expression grows pained after she says those words to him. Now he is starting to feel like she has started to blame herself for what happened before and how things turned out like that. But how does he know that he could've defeated the dragon? No one would know that for sure.

He stays silent for a moment before he tries to approach her again and gently holds her hand in his.

He doesn't leave his spot beside her and he calls out for the maids and the guards to leave the room and respect Lylliana's wishes.

But Lylliana doesn't only want that.

"it's getting late you Highness, I am already okay now as you can see, You should rest now. I'm gonna be okay, just wanna some time alone..." She rolled to the side not facing the emperor, and kept quiet.

Of course, The emperor was surprised and a bit hurt when he saw that Lylliana didn't want him to be here and didn't want to listen to him anymore, but he could understand why he should leave her alone now.

He doesn't say anything for a moment, just staring at her quietly but then he gently said

"Okay, I will leave you alone now. Rest well" he said as he gently squeezed her hand before finally letting go and leaving the room.

She still didn't face him as he left the room. Lylliana took a deep breath not letting her emotions mess up. She is lying on her bed looking out at the night going by.

The emperor leaves the room now and shuts the door behind him when he leaves. As he stands outside her door in the hallway, he feels an aching sadness in his chest and regrets that he didn't speak to her more before leaving Lylliana's side.

He looks at the door silently for a moment, then he says to the guards,

"Take care of this room and make sure the Princess is secure, no one can come in or out until I return," he said firmly.

Lylliana heard the emperor command the guard to secure her room. She was hesitant to move any further now she said something hurtful to his majesty and did something that hurt the Majesty. She glances out the window and looks at the night sky remembering why she was here in the first place, just respecting her father's wishes.

She walked to the window and opened it slowly, The breeze when coming in, and for a moment she smiled. But soon after she immediately climbed down through the window and quietly ran to the barriers where she climbed and finally ran away to the kingdom to the Kuro forest where she wished they would never find her for a while.

The emperor returned to his room to rest after some of the monsters called Spiderbats entered on destroyed east barrier that the dragon did. The battle went well, but he was unable to sleep as he spent the whole time awake thinking about Lylliana. He was deeply bothered by what happened earlier and her words echoed in his mind all night.

Suddenly, a guard came running into his room and reported

"Your majesty, you have to come immediately. The Princess has escaped!"

The emperor immediately looks shocked now as he hears the guard's report. He doesn't hesitate anymore gets up immediately and follows the guard.

The emperor quickly goes to the location of Lylliana's room only to find that she is nowhere to be found and the windows wide open.

"What are you standing around for? We have to find her now!" he says to the guards firmly.

She runs to the forest as fast as she can. As she looked back at the palace Lylliana misstepped a step and fell into a deep dark hole where hitting her body on the ground hard. Good thing it wasn't as deep as she thought.

"Ouch, what now?"

A scream suddenly echoes cover her ears on how loud was it. But it stopped after that. The moment she realizes that she is in a dark place.

"Wait, where am I?!"