Chapter 80 - Big Brother’s Letter

"This is my Big Brother's letter to me. It has nothing to do with Your Highness." Zenia was starting to get annoyed.

"You're my wife and Crown Princess. There should be no secrets between us." Vaughn chuckled lightly.

Zenia had a hunch that Zander wrote something bad about the Crown Prince. She was just giving the Crown Prince some face. But since he was eager to suffer, she would just let him read it with her. Vaughn had already prepared himself for whatever his brother-in-law would say about him.

"Are you ready?"

Vaughn nodded his head. Zenia opened the letter and they began reading it.

[My dearest lovely little sister Zenzen,

Although your Big Brother does not want to part from you, I have an important task to do for the people of Ishelon and Tissuria. I have decided to put up a mini-private army at your disposal so nothing bad will happen to you. 

I promise to wage war against Tissuria if something happens to you. To prevent that, I will deploy your private army in secret so they can protect you well. Rest assured that I will train them from dusk 'til dawn and turn them into a lean, mean killing machine. This way, the people of both kingdoms can be spared from the brunt of war. 

I fear and know that the brat Crown Prince won't be able to give you the kind of protection that only I, your loving Big Brother, can give. If you want, I can train someone here to replace me so I can guard you 24 hours a day to ensure your safety. 

I know you can protect yourself, but what if your skills have already regressed? You've been staying there for a long time now, and I bet they don't even have a decent training area like ours. 

I will try to help you solve this problem so you can return to Anisen Manor as soon as possible.

Your loving Big Brother,

Big Brother]

Vaughn's eye twitched. He knew that Zander had a strong sister complex, but he never expected it to be so severe. He just hoped that Zekiah was a bit milder.

Zenia wanted to laugh as she imagined Vaughn's facial expression. He had been silent for a long time already and stayed in the same spot without moving. He must've been shocked.

"Your Highness, that's just how my Big Brother talks. But, he will surely deploy the mini-private army that he mentioned. In my estimate, they could be here in less than six months."

"They can turn into a lean, mean killing machine that your brother mentioned in less than six months? What kind of training do you do in Ishelon?"

Zenia cleared her throat. She had seen their training area during the time she explored the Palace of the Crown Prince. It was mediocre in comparison with Ishelon's training area. Yet, the people there thought they had the finest training course, weapons, techniques, and other things that can help them improve their fighting abilities.

"Do you want to hear my honest opinion?"

"Of course!"

Vaughn wanted to add, 'I want to give you the best guards to protect you, way better than the ones your big brother will provide.'

"Your obstacle training course is only so-so and you don't have variety. Once the soldiers get used to it, they stop making progress. You need to change it after some time."

"Are you saying we need to build another one?"

"You need to create a customizable obstacle training course. Why did you build permanent structures? You can build something modular so you can transfer or change the layout of the training course."

"It won't be sturdy enough. We tried it before. Our men could topple it quickly."

"You don't practice the lithe movement technique?"

"What's that?"

Zenia's eyes widened when she heard Vaughn's reply. She couldn't believe that the technologically advanced Kingdom of Tissuria did not know lithe movement technique. 

'Is it possible that the technique is considered an ancient one in this kingdom? But it is so effective.'

"It's a technique that allows your body to move as light as a feather while delivering powerful blows."

Vaughn couldn't believe what he heard. If it sounds as good as Zenia had said, then it should really be effective. No wonder Zander was so confident when he said that he would put up a powerful mini-army for Zenia. He bet that the mini-army should be as good as the whole defense unit of Tissuria. 

He shuddered upon the realization that his brother-in-law was truly powerful. If he had such amount of power, he could just command his troop to go into war to end the problem. Why didn't he? 

"Your Big Brother holds such amount of power, why didn't he just go to war and end everything swiftly?"

Zenia sighed and knew that Vaughn had never experienced war before. He was a pampered prince with guards and retainers all around him. She knew that he had superb fighting skills, but he continuously lived his life under the protection of his guards and retainers.

"If you experienced what it's like to be in the middle of the war, I doubt that you can still spout such nonsense. People die in war and most children become orphan. If everything can be resolved without going to war even when it takes a long time to see results, I will always choose to wait than see people die before my eyes."

Vaughn wanted to say something but couldn't. He felt the sadness in Zenia's tone. He knew that she was once trapped in a war between two kingdoms when Ovid took her with him to visit Venetia. Their enemy suddenly attacked and war suddenly broke out. It was a good thing that Ovid brought some of his men with him. A few of them were enough to barely win that war. 

They visited Venetia because the King sent an invitation that Ovid could not refuse. According to Vaughn's team that investigated the matter before, it seemed that the King already knew that their enemy might attack them. Ovid thought that the invitation was nothing more than attending a lovely banquet. He took Zenia with him because she loved to travel.

"I did not mean it that way. You resent war?"

"Of course, I do! Although I train hard to enhance my fighting skills, I still don't want to go to war. But, if I don't train hard enough, how can I protect the people against the enemy?"

Vaughn decided to shut his mouth and let the tension subside. The war may have been too much for Zenia and he regretted bringing it up.