Words of Power Quest [Needs ketchup]

Herald 2

It didn't take long for her to reach the borter.

R : (How will I answer for this?)

It didn't take long for her to reach Bilkenstury.

R : (How should I explain my loss? I haven't really been gone for that long, have I? It's only been three weeks.)

It didn't take long for her to reach the fortress.

R : (What should I cover it up with, an expedition to find a creature that was already slain?)

But, that was precisely the problem.

It didn't take long to reach where she wanted to go.

It didn't take long enough.

Even after hitching a ride on one of the carpenter guild carriages conveniently making a pit stop between Rulid and Eliasbury which gave her a straight way home, Roberia had no real answer to mask that humiliating defeat.

To be knocked down by a Segus follower, who even spared her life... It was the ultimate insult.

She antagonized the Segus follower by attacking him.

She humiliated herself by losing to him.

And now, two problems surfaced - The possible enmity of the child, and the impression the knights had of their princess losing to said child.

She didn't want to think about it.

No, even if she did want to think about it, time was not on her side.

Before she even realized, she had returned to the throne room once more, with the knights about greeting her in a stale, orderly fashion.

T : "Knight Tionno greets Her Highness Roberia."

P : "Knight Persche greets Her Highness Roberia."

It was too sudden. In that blind obedience to the victor's words, Roberia had marched her sorry ass back to the fortress, with nothing to show - No accomplishments, no successful victories... Nothing.

R : "Arise. There is no such need for formalities. Remember that I, too, am a knight as much as you are, and I do not wish to acknowledge such belittlement of yourselves."

T : "Thank you, Your Highness."

P : "Thank you, Your Highness."

She could only try to avoid the questions about her journey that lasted for slightly under three weeks.

But, something was rather off.

R : (Their eyes are more cloudy than usual... ?)

As a warrior, Roberia was sensitive to such changes. Mannerisms of others which included going the extra effort to bow more than usual, or the slight change in the pupils of others as well as their body language were among the things they were trained to perceive at an accurate and extreme detail.

And she had noticed how they were looking at her with their eyebrows slightly furled more than usual, as though...

R : (As though they were looking at me in spite, or belittling me...)

What could have caused such a reaction from the knights who served her?

Unless...

*** ***

The moonlit road was anything but 'lit'. It was so dark that seeing anything ahead of two meters proved to be a big problem, and one could only make out the shadowy figure that was their own hand when held before their face.