Chapter 309 - You Don’t Need to Worry

Vaughn took the doc.u.ment from Zenia's hand and made some modifications. 

"This is the thing that I've worked on previously, but I need to modify it now after hearing Master Mardox's reasoning. He knew them better than us after all. It got me thinking that perhaps he's right at some point."

"Which part? All I heard was the ranting of someone who refused to accept that things have changed a lot from the time that he left Prazia. The only reason why Shadora almost remained the same as before is that he is doing something that keeps it that way. He is the greatest manipulator that I have come to know in all my life. The funny thing is that he thinks he is doing everyone a favor by making them live their lives without employing any improvements at all."

"Master Mardox is just a strong believer of traditional ways. He is afraid that the same thing will happen again if he begins to accept change."

Zenia sighed, "I am not condemning him. I just want him to see and accept that things need to change, including his way of life. What King Odhran did back then is to satisfy his selfish desires, which made the lives of the people in Prazia miserable."

"It's true. Perhaps, that one incident made Master Mardox hate change." 

Vaughn kept writing, and Zenia just kept looking. She noticed that the possible plan of action part was the only area that Vaughn was modifying. He handed it to her once more, and she began reading it.

"Do you really think that it might take a year before they can carry out their plan, whatever it is?"

Vaughn nodded his head, "Hmm. It will take time to collect the high-grade metals, and both our kingdoms will not sell any to other kingdoms. That is to say, even if they plan to use other kingdoms to buy the metal they need in bulk, we still won't sell. Tissuria will never sell our metal, and I believe that Ishelon will do the same."

"You are right. One of the reasons why our weapons are way better than the others is because we only use the finest materials to forge them. Ishelon has indeed acquired some of the weapons from other kingdoms when their delegates visited us, but we often modify the design to improve the weapons' performance. Plus, our materials are way better than those of other kingdoms, except Tissuria."

Vaughn tapped Zenia's nose, "That's because we occupy the same island. Sharing the same type of metal is not surprising at all."

"We need to discuss this plan with Redivo and the rest. We have so many things to do. If Master Mardox won't help us, we don't need to stay here anymore and waste our time."

"Sigh, here I am looking forward to spending more time with you. We are still on our honeymoon."

Zenia blushed, and her face turned redder by the minute. She felt her cheeks getting hotter, especially when her imagination began to run wild.

"I need to go to the bathroom," she suddenly declared as she tried her best to hide her reddened face. 

She ran in a hurry to the bathroom and locked the door quickly after she got in. Vaughn smiled naughtily. He had a good guess why Zenia had that kind of reaction. He had also seen how her face turned red gradually. 

'She must've thought something…weird again.'

He shook his head and waited for her return. In Vaughn's estimate, it would take an hour before Zenia would be able to compose herself. Until then, he would just think of other ways to improve their plan of action.

* * * * *

"I'm sorry to bother you like this, grandfather and Sir Roy. But, I don't know what to do anymore. Zenzen and the Crown Prince are not here, but I think my dream just now was about them and partly us too."

Jorick came running all the way to Wolstan's quarters in the Palace of the Crown Prince. Wolstan dragged Roy to stay with him while Jorick and Richaem stayed in one room inside the Main Residence.

Wolstan returned to his own quarters after spending some time with King Tarendino and Queen Mina. At first, King Tarendino did not want Wolstan to go back to the Palace of the Crown Prince, but he reasoned that he had his very own quarters there.

"Why would I keep staying here when I still have a home that I can call my own? Besides, I want to spend more time with my lovable great-granddaughter-in-law."

With that, the current King and Queen of Tissuria did not stop Wolstan from returning to his great-grandson's palace.

The Queen had been staying in the King's quarters once more, just like she did when their relationship begin to get better after Vaughn was born. King Tarendino dismissed all of his concubines and made them live outside the Main Palace. Some of them had decided to stay in the palaces of their children while the others chose to return to their maternal home.

Queen Mina couldn't believe that she would still be able to enjoy living a peaceful life inside the Main Palace. Her relationship with King Tarendino had improved a lot. He promised her that he would devote the rest of his life to loving her and only her.

The Queen just hoped that her son would learn to forgive his father. She was hoping that the former King of Tissuria could help her in changing his son's view of his father. She was glad that her son had someone like Zenia by his side.

"Tell us about your dream."

"It was like this…"

I was standing on a top of a hill and enjoying a peaceful day just like what we are having now. There was no cloud in sight, and the sun was shining brightly in the sky. It was warm, but it was something that makes you feel more alive.

All of us, who encountered Azer and his men in the port of Venetia, we were there in my dream. Zenzen and Prince Vaughn were laughing together. I was practicing together with Duke Gordon, and Sir Roy was giving us guidance.

I don't know what happened, but dark clouds suddenly appeared. They covered the sun, and the surroundings turned black. We were the only ones I could see and nothing else. The trees, grass, and flowers were completely devoured by darkness. 

The ground began to rumble and a crack formed in the middle. Prince Vaughn was standing on the other side and was the only one who got separated from us. The gap between the ground where we were standing and the one where Prince Vaughn was standing, became wider and wider. Zenzen was screaming but there was no sound coming out of her mouth.

A woman with a pitch-black hair suddenly appeared and took Prince Vaughn away. She was laughing like a witch, and she had bony fingers with long fingernails that pierced through the flesh of the Crown Prince. Zenzen screamed and lunged at the woman. But when she jumped, the gap widened even more, and she fell.

I saw streaks of golden flame across the dark sky, but the woman with pitch-black hair ate the golden flame. It turned darker than before. I saw the darkness began to cover my body. I panicked.

"Luckily, I immediately woke up from that nightmare. I don't want to go through something like that again. I have a feeling that it's one of those prophetic dreams that I keep having lately, especially when I finally recovered my memories."

Roy was in deep thought, and Wolstan knew that something was wrong.

"Is it that bad?" Wolstan asked his friend.

Jorick looked at the two old men and waited anxiously for Roy's reply. He already had a hunch that his dream was telling them of the bad things that may soon to happen.