Chapter 130 – Visitors (1)

Chapter 130 – Visitors (1)

"Are we sure of this?" Merlin asked, sitting at the oval table within the throne room. An emergency meeting was called up, and this time, it was headed not by Leon but by Sasha. Her husband was still at the castle, overseeing the repairs, installing the newly made cannons, and keeping an eye on the corpse of the giant monster they killed, so it was the first time she took complete control of Avalon and its businesses.

"Yes, I talked with my husband about it." Sasha nodded, and no ministers opposed her decision. "The letter we received in advance was detailed enough! We were almost discovered, but we avoided it thanks to the Empress's incompetency and the quick intervention of Duke Kustov. But..."

"Elena is a headstrong woman..." Merlin finished for her, sighing, making Sasha's lips curl into a smile.

"It would seem so. She took the opportunity and set out with a small group to visit Avalon, adhering to her father's 'orders.' Smart, if you ask me."

"Can't we deny her entrance?" Yuri asked, sitting amongst the ministers, stepping in for Oleg, who was also at the castle with the bulk of their army.

"We think this is even better." Sasha continued, explaining it in detail, "Let her come! The winter is the harshest it has been in centuries! She will see something that I don't think she expected, including heated homes and an organized city. Then, we can take her to the castle and show her what type of monster was trying to break through, yet it still died. As my husband once said: shock and awe."

"I have only one question, My Lady!" Merlin said, standing up in his chair, "Who shall greet them?"

"We will," she promptly answered. "And I mean you and me! And the royal guards, of course. I want all of you to stand ready, too, and ensure the city is in tip-top shape! We will do the awe, and the monstrous corpse plugging in the Pass will do the shocking part."

...

....

......

"This wasn't the best idea in hindsight..." Elena whispered, sitting in her carriage, donning three layers of clothes, watching her breath linger in the air as they traveled.

"The weather is treacherous, but we are already nearing their border. I am surprised Baron Elliot's territory has such well-built roads!" Iria, her headmaid, answered, trying to divert their thoughts from the freezing weather. "Even though they are not well maintained in this weather, that part is understandable."

Their surprise only increased after passing into the territory of the Frontier. They realized that the roads were still there, and even more shocking was that they were maintained and kept clean of fresh snow. They were surrounded by two-meter-high snow walls on both sides as they traveled, but the surprises did not end there.

"We see some smoke in the distance! Maybe bandits?" Shouted Borbossa, who was now their carriage's driver.

"Probably an outpost? Maybe they are workers looking for shelter in this weather! We shouldn't worry about our safety!" Elena yelled back, leaning out the window, letting the biting air waft into the carriage.

"We can't be sure enough!" Borbossa argued while the four horsemen beside the carriage subtly readied their bows. "This is still the Frontier, a barbarian patch of land, My Lady."

"I have been hearing nothing but the changes enacted by the Little Minister." She countered, rolling her eyes, "If we get attacked, I could rub it under his nose for an eternity, but don't make them attack us! Then it would be the opposite, and he could call me an uncouth lady until the end of times!"

Nobody had any answer for Elena, who felt a bit stifled as she never talked like this about anyone. Not to mention letting a child, no matter what rank he lied to have, speak to the duke's daughter in the way he did. Yet Elena seemed not to mind it, not in the slightest, so they had no chance to protest against it.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, and sure enough, the wind seemed to be blowing a weird noise towards them from the direction of the smoke in the distance.

As they got closer and closer, the racket became even louder, so much so that their horses became nervous and feisty, no longer wanting to continue traveling forward. They had to force them to obey as they neared the thing, toiling along the road, blowing thick, white smoke into the air from its front end.

"Oh? A familiar face." Elena chuckled, recognizing Pion, who was leading the soldiers with Polo at his side, acting as his helper and writing down inventories as they examined the carriage and its cargo. Borbossa was about to say something, but Elena's simple clearing of her throat silenced him at once.

"I was ordered to welcome you into Avalon, as originally, I was designated to escort you here in the spring. Albeit, it seems that Lady Elena was missing our Prime Minister more than we thought." He answered jokingly, and while Elena's retinue felt it as an attack, their lady simply laughed out, covering her mouth with the back of her hand.

"What could I say? I can be selfish sometimes... and a bit impatient! So... Is there a problem?"

"No. Nothing; we are just writing down what comes in and what goes out," Pion answered, smiling and pointing toward the entrance. "Please enter through the gate, one by one." Elena already could guess something was going on, which made her guards nervous and twitchy, but she was expecting something whacky but not dangerous.

"Do as asked. What are you waiting for?" She grunted, impatient to start, and her soldiers first walked through the gate... Then... Nothing. Nothing was happening. It was a bit disappointing, but then again, she didn't even know what she was expecting. "Oh... finally!" She giggled when it was their turn.

The moment their carriage passed through the gate, multiple weird cone-shaped tubes above the gates began blaring with a droning sound, quickly alerting everybody around them. Borbossa was about to stand up on the driver's seat and pull out his sword when Elena, without warning, opened the door, jumping out of the carriage and looking up at the speakers with childlike curiosity.

"What are those...?"

"A warning that the carriage is carrying magical items within itself."

"...?"

Turning towards the elegant female voice, Elena was stunned to see a beautiful woman walk down from the walls with long, flowing red hair and brilliant emerald-colored eyes. Looking at her, she was momentarily stunned as the deep, caring, and motherly aura, mixing with her unmistakable authority, stunned her like nothing before. She immediately knew she had to be the mysterious Sovereign's Queen because Little Merlin was following her with a posture that showed a kind of respect she had not seen in his body language before.

"So what-" Borbossa said after taking Elena's silence as a signal that he could speak this time, which resulted in the cacophony of swords being drawn around them.

"It's okay." Sasha raised a hand before Elena could berate Borbossa. They saw all the soldiers around them immediately lowering their weapons, but none sheathed their swords and continued watching Borbossa and his men like wolves. What made Elena's guard captain nervous was that none of the avalonians blinked at the same time, always making sure that one pair of eyes was always locked onto their bodies. "I assume you have items with CC with you?"

"Yes." Elena nodded, showing her bracelet, the same one that had told her Merlin's identity when they first met.

"And what about the other three within the carriage?" Sasha asked, keeping up her amicable smile, shocking Elena but also intensifying the light in her eyes.

"One is a one-time-use shield for the carriage. It automatically activates if a spell would hit us. The second is a reserve CC to recharge said shield. The third is a personal variant, for my own protection."

"We would like to purchase it." Merlin spoke up at once, but Sasha reached out without looking, held his head, and pushed him into a bow.

"We will talk about business when we are seated at home."

"Ahaha~!" Of course, Elena couldn't hold back her laughter, feeling this scene alone was worthy of standing out in the cold. "I am more than happy to do that!"

"Then please!" Sasha nodded slightly as their soldiers surrounded the two groups. "Let me lead you to our home, and let me be the first to say... Welcome to Avalon!"