Chapter 70

70 Facing your fear in the odd places

Once again, they were in the carriage, heading into the Beyor cemetery. Anne was sitting beside Justice, while Xavier was in front of her. Andy was out of luck, having Xavier beside him, and the crown prince in front of him. Anne asked the three of them about hallow eve.

“I have never heard of this tradition. I mean Viora village elder, never even mentioned the hallowed eve.”

Andy looks at Xavier and Justice, seems he wanted to explain but is afraid to barge in. Justice let him be the one that explained everything to Anne.

“It’s because when the royal decree, when the royal decree gave the banishment announcement, it meant that everything about hallow eve will be forbidden to be spoken on the entire kingdom.”

She looks at the view from the window and muttered, “Makes you wonder what else has been destroyed because of the royal decree.”

Justice pokes at her and smiles. “It seems like the royalty is having a full reign on this kingdom, but the truth is, we don’t. There are the nobles and high-ranking officials that gave their opinion, but the empress needs to have the versatility and consideration towards all of her objects,” He lean on his seat and said, “Becoming an empress is not glamorous, I have heard a story of a mad empress, a slain empress, and of course a success story as well, what kind of empress that a woman can be, depends on herself.”

She went quiet, imagining the reason Justice to gave her the history of the empress, Anne wanted to know why he felt a need to tell her about the empress’s obligation. The crown prince seems to wait to see her reaction. Anne tilted her head and gave her opinion.

“You said that being an empress means she has to hear the opinion of the nobles and the high-ranking officers, right?”

Justice nodded his head. “Yes, one of her duty is to hear the councils and then decide the best possible outcome for the kingdom. The councils here are the nobles and the high-ranking officials.”

.....

Anne then smiles at Justice. “Then what about the commoners?”

His eyes stared directly at Anne, this young girl giving her brave thought, and with such freedom asked him about how the empress left the commoners’ opinion over the nobles and the high-rank officials. His mother, Empress Liberty Hargreaves, came from the bloodlines of the nobles. The Hargreaves family is a noble warrior family, with highly decorated knights and magic knights.

Empress Liberty, as the ruler, has the ability to rise the kingdom’s economy, but somehow neglected the unification of the noble and the commoner. Justice has a hard time making his mother see his vision, one of the reasons he gave the custom noble title to Xavier and Vale. He doesn’t want the councils to have an objection to how he befriended commoners. For once in his life, he sees another opportunity. The opportunity was in the shape of a young girl with beautiful purple color hair.

“We are almost there. I can see the top of the mausoleums from here.”

Xavier spokes and pointed his finger to a mass of old roofs of grey structures. Anne and Justice peek from Xavier’s windows, while Andy cowers in his seat. The poor young man doesn’t even want to see what’s going to be the place of their expedition.

“Oh wow, there are so many mausoleums inside. This is a vast cemetery.” Mumbled Anne.

“Yes, I have heard, the cemetery has like fifty mausoleums.” Said Xavier, his eyes looking directly at Andy with a smirk on his face, “One of them contained the hidden library for any forbidden books or tomes. Aren’t those excited for you, Andy?”

Andy almost gets a heart attack. From the looks of it, he seems trying to imagine another place, rather than to see the cemetery that little by little was closing in. Any took a long sigh and gave Xavier a meek smile.

“Xavier, do you have to tease Andy? Look how pale he is right now,” Anne scolded the huntsman captain, not without a reason. Andy looks like he was going to be passed out anytime soon. Anne worried for him, “Are you alright, Andy? Here, drink this meylatee water. It would calm your nerves.”

Andy took the meylatee with gratitude towards Anne. He was afraid, and he felt he wasn’t the only one that was afraid.

“Anne, you don’t have to take care of him, this is his job, being a librarian meant not just reading books all the time, taking care of documents and retrieving ancient or forbidden books is also his duty,” Justice scolded the girl while looking at Andy, “Every job have their own set of duty, this is Andy’s duty as the librarian.”

“Yes, but...” She feels sorry for the junior librarian, who cowers in his seat.

Justice took a deep breath and hold her shoulder. “You’re a girl who loves caring for others. It was admirable, to say the least. But, let me tell you this, you can’t be with him and protect him all the time.”

Taken aback by the crown prince’s words, she looked bittered and nodded her head, “You’re right, he needs to be able to face his fear,” Her eyes then goes to Xavier and Justice, “I need to confess also, I acted brave all the time, but I... I’m also afraid.”

“Yes, we know you’re actually a coward, Anne,” Xavier’s chuckled, remembering about last night, “I was with you last night, but that’s how you’re different from Andy, you tried to face your fear, he doesn’t”

The movement of the carriage suddenly halted. They look outside and saw the iron gates of the Beyor cemetery. They have arrived, and not a moment too soon. Xavier and Justice walk outside, while Anne holds Andy’s hand.

“They were right, Andy. I felt your fear, and so do you. How about we proved ourselves to that pompous man right there?” Anne tried to give encouraging words to Andy.

“Thank you, Anne, you’re younger, but you’re also wiser.” Said Andy to our heroine.

Anne shook her head. “No, I am no wiser. I just... know how to handle my fear.”

They step outside and immediately being thrown back by a cold breeze that was coming from the cemetery. Anne remembered any old cemetery from the old world, the creaking front gate with the large nameplate of the cemetery, with stone walls around the cemetery. The only one that missing is the crows cawing from inside.

“This place seems... too quiet.” Muttered Anne. She already felt overwhelmed by the aura of the place.

“Yes, there are no other animals around the cemetery area. It seems weird for me.” Said Xavier, he already assessed the nearby area, as the huntsman, his instinct will be sharper than the rest of them, he senses not even small critters have a nest near the cemetery, “Even in the cemetery small critters like chipmunks or birds were nestled inside, but not in this one.”

Justice came back from the carriage, wearing a heavy coat, and gave one to Anne, “I’ve told the carriage driver, my guard will accompany us inside,” He let out a sighed, “That bloody slobbered, if only we don’t fight those monsters, my mother would’ve allowed me with no guards.”

“Oh yes, you don’t have them before, so they must come with us after we encountered the monsters.” Anne realized how the protection of the prince goes, Justice has a wild way to go on his adventure, and his security details was zero to none when he goes to Viora village, she asks Justice with suspicion, “You file no report when you’re going to any expedition, aren’t you?”

Burst out laughing, Xavier steps inside the cemetery while teasing Justice, “She got you.”

The crown prince also laughed, and when he followed Xavier outside, he turned to Anne and said, “I do, I hate security details that my mother gave me, besides, it would be impossible for us to meet back then if I’d been surrounded by my bodyguards, right?”

Smiling while shaking her head in disbelief, she followed the other two and step inside the cemetery, Andy and the guards were following close behind. The inside of the cemetery was more unsettling than the outside. If the thought of all of them about Beyor’s cemetery was the same as the other cemetery that occurred before, it would have vanished when you entered the cemetery.

The graves were so neatly arranged the tombstone was clean even when most of it already missing the engraving words. There was no tilted tombstone everywhere.

“What’s up with this cemetery? It was too neat, it gave me chills.” Said Xavier, looking around the cemetery.

Justice and Anne couldn’t agree more. Somehow, there are people taking care of the graveyard but not even bothering to spruce the place with flowers or even green grass.

“Hey, you don’t even wonder why there’s no living tree inside this place?” Justice Asked no one in particular while he looked around the cemetery.

The revelation came late for some of them. Anne looked around and there was no single living tree inside the cemetery, and then she looked at one peculiar tree from afar. A tall shadow, looming from one of the trees, a black shadow in a shape of a person.

“Hey, what’s that?” She screamed while her finger pointed at the shadow.