"Right, I believe this is the ideal place."

"I hope it's not bad news Jess" Bertrand murmured as he pulled up a seat at the rounded table made of the most luxurious marble possible.

Jess was silent. He opened his leather backpack that was around his waist, took out a small letter, and placed it on the table

"I would very much like to bring you good news Bertrand"

Urias saw the seal on the letter, that seal clearly identified who the sender was from.

"So it's from the Dark Ruler?"

"B-but what?" that message took Bertrand by surprise. No doubt Urias was surprised as well.

"You can open it Jess..." Urias didn't let surprise have any space, a smart move, should surprise take over that meeting it might cause some divergence of information.

Jess opened the letter with trembling hands, everyone already knew it couldn't be good news. Considering the long negative relationship that Urias and the Dark Ruler have. Jess read the letter carefully, upon completion, he placed it back on the table.

"Well... how can I put this... The Ruler of Darkness, has demanded the lands north of the Krashopf glacier."

This demand made no sense at all, if there wasn't some foul play behind it.

The Kingdom of Austrelia, had a different system of succession, as soon as its Ruler died or was unable to continue his reign, seven new candidates were selected, who passed a rigorous aptitude test. The background of the chosen candidate did not matter much, as long as they were young they could undergo a proper education and Rule the Kingdom for prosperity. At the end of this test, Urias was the only remaining alive.

"This is going to be quite problematic, we can't give away land with enormous potential," Bertrand said, already preparing himself for a possible war.

"But since we can't sustain any more wars, we'll have to solve this another way" Jess replied thoughtfully.

Urias's fingers were restless, her index finger tapped frequently on the table, it was she's hipomania she possessed when became anxious.

There was a time in her past when Urias had come close to entering the court of the Dark Ruler. However, fate smiled upon her, and she was selected as a candidate for succession. This greatly enraged the Dark Ruler, who saw Urias as a diamond to be polished , which in itself was true in view of Urias overwhelming power.

 

"Well, I probably would have become just another undead in his hands" meditated Uria

 

Urias was weak in long-range magic, unlike the previous King, who was a skilled sorcerer. She was efficient, and did not require large amounts of mana particles to be able to perform some low range magic. However, if she depended on longer range spells, she was out of her reach. She simply did not have the mana reserves to provide spells of this size.

Because of this, Urias turned to a more practical way of fighting, using short-range magics, and focusing on her melee combat style

 

"Still, the internal research that there is a chance of possessing mana reserves under the glaciers is something that cannot have leaked out so easily."

"You're right, and besides the Dark Ruler doesn't usually demand land"

"How many men can we move to the border Bertrand?"

"At this moment your majesty, we have been able to add two regiments, more than that we can put our new possessions at serious risk"

 

"That will not hold off an invasion..."

 

"The big problem would be the lines of logistics, the glaciers is an area still little explored and we don't have great infrastructure yet. Cold clothing, carriages, horses and weapons would have to be stocked from scratch in the glaciers if we want to sustaining a worthy battle"

"Now is to late for doing this. Nobody ever imagined that any interest could arise from that remote region"

"With the current battles the vaults are starting to empty quickly, and taxing again is not an option too"

"Perhaps we should return one of the Generals from the battlefield

"With that we could postpone the confrontation a little longer... Currently there are three Generals in the Kingdom of Florenz, it is just like attacking an ant with a cannon.

 

Urias listened in silence to Bertrand and Jess discussion, they were all arguing as if the battle was a sure thing. But for Urias something was out of the curve, for her this battle was avoidable. The ruler of darkness is watching for something, but her mind couldn't tell what exactly. This made her more and more impatient.

The Glacier Region was in the middle of a triple border, between the Kingdom of Florenz, Kingdom of Austrelia and the Kingdom of Darkness.

 

"Triple Border..." Murmured Urias As if she was forgetting a link in the chain.

 

"There are also rumors that the confederation of Dusselmoth is studying ways to mass produce weapons with Dragon bones, that might-"

"That!!!" Urias' mind had been enlightened by Jess comment, the chain link that was hidden from Urias eyes has been connected, her mood suddenly improved and she had finally deciphered why the Dark Ruler was suddenly doing this harshly movement.

 

"Jess, we don't need to come into conflict with the Kingdom of Darkness, nor do we need to hand over any land" Urias held this statement of his with such excitement that there was no way to properly contest it.

"B-but how?" Bertrand remained skeptical, in all this time of his life, he had never missed the smell of a long war coming.

"Bertrand, the Dark Ruler is not interested in our lands. What else does the Dark Ruler have an interest"

"Undead...?"

Bertrand was flabbergasted, how he hadn't put the pieces together.

It hadn't been long since the group of heroes had defeated the Ice Dragon in the Glaciers of Krashopf. That was long enough for its body to start rotting, the ideal time to get a living Dead Dragon as a familiar.

"But your majesty, allowing a Dragon as a familiar to an enemy Kingdom will be a future problem. One Dragon has the power of almost four Generals"

"What your majesty wants at that moment is to buy time."

Urias shakes his head agreeing with Bertrand's afirmation.

"Now we just need some information to back up that hypothesis".

"I will get that information for you Lady Urias" Jess concluded with a simple bow.

With that the Meeting was over, and Urias retired to his room. A modest room for a royalty, there were countless patterns in geometric shapes carved upon the wall frame made of sapphire.

A huge stained glass window in his room provided a wide perspective on the Capital of the Kingdom. A pile of papers had accumulated on his bedside table; they were his novel manuscripts, his hobby in his free time.

"Knock-knock, Your Majesty. Would you like some dark herbal tea?"

"Yes, can you also bring me the news from the battlefield, also the spy's news too"

While Urias waited, she devoted herself to continuing to write her romantic manuscript.

"What would I do without you, Jess..." Urias wondered as she wrote her novels, sometimes Urias missed her old life, and especially her mother. She had not yet fully avenged the injustice your mother had suffered but each time passed, she moved away from that goal, she now owned the lives and well being of thousands of people.

Only Jess remained after the betrayal of her family. The Paladin, was adopted by her mother and served under the ancient Citrine family crest, and never wavered in her loyalty. Even after her family's exile from the Empire. Her family fell into disgrace, with her mother being accused of treason and hanged in a public square. Because of this Urias fled to the far north and Jess obediently accompanied her.

The servant girl delivered the tea and news from the battlefield as requested.

The news was inscribed on sparking sheets, a simplistic but quite useful form, considering that this news only needed to be resistant to weather and transportation.

Urias read the titles as he appreciated his tea.

"The escape from Florenz's court. And the new regent king."

"Completion of the battle on the outer side of the wall."

"Delay in ration supply causes upset to novice soldiers."

Although Urias knew in detail about the crimes committed by the novice soldiers in the battles around the villages, there wasn't much she could do, or at least she tried to convince herself of that.

Urias, paid more attention to the article of the new regent king. They practically gave up the head of one of their sons so that they could input a peace truce after he's dead.

"They will probably ask for help from some foreign kingdom for a peace agreement. Well whatever, as long as they give up their arable land I don't really care."

Urias had finished her tea, but there was something uncertain about this new King Regent, something about him bothered her, not much information was possessed about him, what if he has a strategy that could put his victory in doubt, or what if he gets help from an ally? This made her uneasy.

 

"I think I should start reading the spy news."

Urias focused her attention the news about the Kingdom of Dero the madman, for her this was an inevitable conflict against the degenerate Gargoyles. And as expected there was nothing unusual in the spy reports, they only reported the increase of gargoyles in the underground tunnels.

The gargoyles had a great appeal for propaganda, which caused a tight grip on the political culture of that kingdom. To Urias, gargoyles were a dirty, treacherous race, and in contradiction to what they tried to demonstrat. This was the main reason why Urias found it increasingly complex to distinguish what was really truth or just publicity.

The Gargoyles understood well that at certain times there was a need to bury certain information to hide their true faces. Opportunities multiply in a vicious cycle as the first one is seized. And for Urias, the first opportunity had already been grabbed by Dero, and it was only a matter of time before Dero managed to put the Gargoyles in a prominent position.

Beings that hide in the darkness, waiting for unsettled times to put their plans into action, caused Urias to feel uneasy.

"Your Majesty, may I request a moment of your attention" Informed a shadow guardian.

Shadow guardians were a special group of tatical action that could no longer be considered human and answered only to the Queen, usually they only appeared in case of urgency.

"For what purpose?"

"there is something strange with the new regent king these days"

Urias felt uncomfortable with this news, for her the new regent king could be a clever person and maybe hiding some trickery, but otherwise an average human. However for the shadow guardians to notify me something very wrong has happened.

"So he seems more formidable at first sight?"

"No your majesty, it is his aura, his aura has changed recently"

Urias frowned his brow "what is the meaning of that?"

"Majesty you can't feel the aura yet, she is still human" Another shadow guardian replied. "But the aura is like someone's features, their scent."

Urias understood what the aura meant, but didn't understand what was so urgent about it.

"Okay, but what about your aura?" Urias asked sarcastically, figuring that the shadow guardians were making a fuss for nothing.

But the shadow guardians remained serious, well, they had no other way of acting "he doesn't have an aura, your majesty. Normally people have an aura that involves from blue to red, however this man does not, that is what worries me."

"Well, I don't think it matters much" Urias replied heading towards the bed.

"You may go, should anything else strange occur let me know."

"Yes your majesty."

Why would the shadow guardians be alerted with a bastard? Urias thought, his body start to reacted differently as normal, as if something was in your stomach, and it was coming from this Regent King. Something didn't fit there.There was more to this man than meets the eye.

"Should I be worried