Hertrude possessed the ability to see the future from her own perspective.
It was not just so vague intuition or gut feeling either. It was a genuine power, the kind that allowed her to witness events that had not yet happened as if she were standing there in the mont. That alone made it an incredibly useful ability. Terrifying too, if you thought about it long enough. Because seeing the future also ant seeing things you might wish you never had.
So when she told us just now that Myrcella was going to lose, I could only assu that the outco had already been shown to her through that Clairvoyance of hers.
Which ant she had already watched the scene play out sowhere inside her mind.
"I am going to lose, huh?" Myrcella said.
She said it with a composed smile resting on her face, the kind of calm expression that felt strangely out of place considering the topic we were talking about. You would expect panic. Shock. Maybe even anger. Instead, she looked like soone who had already rehearsed the possibility a hundred tis inside her head.
The smile told sothing important though. Whatever Hertrude had seen, it was not sothing that had completely blindsided Myrcella. Sowhere deep down, she had already been preparing herself for the possibility.
"Although the possibility of losing is sothing I have always expected," Myrcella continued calmly, her tone steady and almost thoughtful, "I did not expect soone would co to personally just to deliver the bad news."
Lilia blinked at her, looking halfway between impressed and deeply concerned.
"You seem really calm about this, Princess," Lilia said, folding her arms as if trying to process the situation. "You are taking this way too calmly. If I were in your place, I would already be panicking."
She paused, then gestured dramatically with both hands.
"I an seriously, let us be real for a second. If you lose right now, you would be sent straight to the gallows. And since I am standing here beside you, I would probably get dragged there too. So if you are not panicking because you already expected this might happen, please... panic a little on behalf of the rest of us."
Honestly, she had a point. The way she said it sounded half joking, but there was definitely a real concern behind it.
"No one is going to be sent to the gallows," I said.
My voice ca out firr than I expected.
"I will make sure of that."
For a brief mont, the room fell silent after I said those words.
But then sothing strange happened.
Hertrude slowly lowered her head.
It was not the kind of movent soone made when they were simply thinking. It looked more like the reaction of soone who had just rembered sothing unpleasant. Like a thought had suddenly clicked into place inside her mind.
"Except..." she said quietly.
Her voice had grown softer.
"Soone did get sent to the gallows."
That line alone was enough to make everyone turn toward her.
All eyes were on Hertrude now.
"The Queen," she said.
The words landed heavily in the room.
Myrcella’s expression cracked.
It was subtle. Very subtle. But it was there. The composed mask she had been wearing showed the smallest fracture before she quickly forced herself to recover.
"I see..." she said quietly.
Even though she had regained her calm voice, there was sothing heavier behind it now.
"Do you know what led to that?"
"As I already told you, I do not really know the full details," Hertrude said.
Her hands tightened against the side of her skirt, gripping the fabric as if it gave her sothing to hold onto. It looked like she did not even want to say the next part out loud.
"But when that vision happened," she continued slowly, "the kingdom was covered in fire."
Just hearing that made the atmosphere feel colder.
"It looked like there was a war happening. A big one. The capital itself was in shambles."
She paused for a mont, trying to rember what she had seen.
"I think I saw signs of battle everywhere. Broken buildings. Smoke. Flas rising from the streets. The kind of destruction that only happens when an entire army decides to tear a place apart."
She inhaled deeply before continuing.
"And then I saw the capital square."
Her voice lowered slightly.
"There were people gathered there. A lot of them. Watching."
The way she said that part made it sound worse sohow.
"A very terrifying anomaly was there," she said. "Sothing that did not look like it belonged in this world."
She swallowed before finishing the scene.
"The Queen was being dragged toward the gallows."
No one spoke.
"They hanged her in front of everyone."
Hertrude’s voice trembled slightly now.
"And the anomaly..."
She hesitated.
Her eyes briefly looked toward Myrcella.
It was almost like she was asking permission to keep going.
But Myrcella did not stop her. She just listened.
So Hertrude continued.
"It burned her," she said quietly. "Burned her to dust until there was nothing left."
The image alone was horrifying.
Hearing that your own mother was going to die like that in the future was not sothing anyone could listen to calmly. Even soone as composed as Myrcella.
I could see it clearly now.
The crack in her composure had grown slightly larger.
She was still holding herself together, but the strain was there.
"My Clairvoyance is sothing that shows events that cannot be changed," Hertrude said softly.
Her gaze lowered to the floor.
"No matter what I do, the future I see is sothing that I cannot alter."
She clasped her hands together nervously.
"I do not even know if telling you all this will change anything. In fact... it might even be the reason it happens."
Clairvoyance allowed her to see the future, but the future she saw was fixed. Sothing already decided.
Sothing carved in stone.
No matter how hard she tried, she could not move it even a little.
"That is... a very concerning kind of vision," Lilia said.
For once, she sounded completely serious.
"So what do we do, Princess? Should we take the Queen and run? Leave the country?"
She scratched the back of her head.
"I an, I am not saying it is the most elegant plan ever, but running away is still better than getting executed."
Myrcella did not answer imdiately.
She fell into thought.
If Hertrude’s Clairvoyance truly showed an unavoidable future, then the problem Myrcella was facing right now was far more dangerous than anyone had realized.
But at the sa ti, sending the Queen out of the country would create another problem entirely.
A kingdom without a ruling monarch would fall into chaos faster than you could blink.
Power struggles, rebellions, opportunists trying to grab the throne. The usual political nightmare.
I walked over to Myrcella.
Then I gently took her hands.
Her hands were colder than I expected.
"Leon," she said softly as she looked up at .
Her eyes searched my face for a mont.
"Do not worry," I said.
I squeezed her hands reassuringly.
"I will change the future for you."
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