After that strange, almost unsettling conversation, I made my way back to the castle.
The air felt heavier than usual, or maybe that was just overthinking things again. Hard to tell at this point.
When I stepped inside, I headed straight toward the officials’ eting room. The mont I reached the doorway, I saw them already there. Myrcella and Lilia were seated across from each other, both focused, both carrying that sa quiet tension in their posture.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that ant.
Anyti the ruler of a country and her general were sitting together like this, especially in that room, it usually ant one thing. Sothing serious was going on. Not just paperwork or routine decisions, but sothing closer to war, or at least sothing that could easily spiral into it if handled poorly.
"Oh, Leon," Myrcella said as soon as she noticed . Her voice was calm, but there was a layer beneath it. "Did you find anything?"
For a brief second, I considered telling her about the conversation with the cat. The whole thing. The talk about worlds colliding, Great Ones, and everything else that sounded like it belonged in so insane prophecy.
Then I stopped myself.
She already had enough on her plate. You could see it in her eyes if you paid attention. The kind of stress she was dealing with wasn’t sothing you casually add to. Telling her about a possible multigalactic war in the future would probably just make things worse.
"Nothing," I said. "At least, nothing important."
Lilia let out a small breath, leaning back slightly in her chair.
"Well, considering her abilities, I didn’t expect it to be easy to track her down," she said. "Right now, we’re basically trying to catch the wind with our bare hands."
That was her way of saying it was hopeless.
Pretty accurate, honestly.
You don’t just go around finding soone like that, especially when they clearly don’t want to be found. It wasn’t even like chasing shadows. At least shadows stay in one place for a second.
While that thought was still settling in my mind, sothing else hit .
It was that familiar sensation, like sothing pressing against your senses without actually touching you. A presence. It was very heavy.
"That surge of aura again..." I muttered, my gaze shifting slightly. "It looks like the enemy wants to notice where they are."
Myrcella straightened a bit at that.
"What is it, Leon? The aura of a Great One?"
"Yes," I answered. "They’re releasing it on purpose. They are not even trying to hide it. It’s like they want to feel it... to find them."
Even saying it out loud made it sound obvious.
"What do you think they’re after?" she asked.
"I’m not sure," I admitted. "But if they were serious about attacking, they wouldn’t be doing this. This feels more like... bait. They want to leave the capital."
Saying it that way made the whole thing feel even more annoying.
Given the distance, I could reach the source of that aura in about ten to twenty minutes. That was more than enough ti for sothing to go wrong here.
More than enough ti for a full-scale attack on the castle.
Which was exactly why I wasn’t moving.
Walking into that would be like volunteering to lose.
Instead, I planned to leave that job to the Shadows and the others. Even then, I had already made it clear they weren’t to approach directly. Just observe or keep track. Stay alive, which was the most important.
"Johanne, Tris, and Miss Hertrude are heading back to the castle," Myrcella said, glancing down at her phone. "Looks like they have sothing to report."
I didn’t need to ask what it was about.
I already had a pretty good idea.
Judging from the way Myrcella’s expression barely shifted, she knew too.
Neither of us said anything about it, though.
A few minutes later, the door opened, and the three of them walked in without wasting ti.
"Princess," Johanne said, imdiately dropping into that familiar knightly bow. Even now, she hadn’t grown out of that habit. It was kind of funny, in a way. Not in a bad sense, though. "Leon," she added, lifting her head and looking at .
Tris and Hertrude followed suit, both offering their own bows.
These three had been handling everything at the academy lately. Which ant if sothing was going wrong there, they’d be the first to know.
"There’s a problem," Johanne said, getting straight to the point.
"What is it?" Myrcella asked, setting aside whatever she had been working on. Her attention was fully on them now.
"People are starting to grow impatient," Johanne began. "They’re worried about what’s going to happen to the academy, especially with no administrators currently in place."
That alone was already bad enough.
"And it doesn’t stop just there," she continued. "The families of the forr administrators have started pressuring the staff. So are being pushed to resign. Others are being threatened with financial ruin if they don’t comply. If this keeps going, the institution itself could collapse."
"The cadets are also feeling it," she added. "Tension is spreading among them. Rumors have started circulating that those who aren’t of noble blood will be filtered out."
That one was worse.
"We’ve been trying to shut it down," Johanne said, her voice tightening just slightly. "But since we’re nobles ourselves... they’re not exactly convinced."
Of course they weren’t.
Nothing screams "trust us" like being part of the group people already suspect.
Myrcella let out a small laugh.
It wasn’t loud or cheerful. There was sothing dry about it, almost like she found the situation absurd in a frustrating way.
"So people are starting to panic... because of my decision," she said.
There was a hint of self-awareness in her tone, maybe even a bit of self-criticism.
"Even so," she continued, her voice firming up, "I stand by executing those monsters."
She rose from her seat after saying that.
"I think what people need right now..." she said, pausing for just a mont, "is a bit of motivation."
Despite everything piling up around her, she wasn’t backing down, it seems. Not even a little.
And honestly, that was reassuring.
A situation like this could easily break soone. Watching everything start to crumble, feeling the pressure from every direction, knowing that one wrong move could make it all worse.
Anyone could falter under that.
But she didn’t.
If anything, she looked more certain.
Which, strangely enough, made things feel a little more stable.
Because if the person at the center of all this could still stand like that, still move forward without second-guessing every step...
Then maybe things weren’t falling apart as much as they seed.
And that’s exactly why, standing there and watching her, one thought ca to mind without much effort.
She’s going to make a good queen.
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