Valentina entered the room and made her way towards the bathroom straight away with Clemencia.

“mother?”, Clemencia asked in a confused tone. She couldn’t understand what her mother was thinking

with that blank face.

But there was no reply, again.

Clemencia didn’t liked to upset her mother and this situation made her worried a lot.

‘maybe I should apologize', she thought and opened her mouth to whisper sorry’s but Valentina beat

her to it.

“I'm sorry”, Valentina said. Clemencia got more confused as to why she was apologizing to her and why

was she bathing her by her own hands instead of the maid and on that at this particular time.

She kept rubbing Clemencia's hands and poured water again and again on her.

“brother is going to teach me about politics and swordsmanship every fourth day”, Clemencia blurted

out, she didn’t plan to tell her mother this quick but the silence was making her uncomfortable.

Valentina's hands stopped and her eyes looked at her as if telling her to continue her sentence.

“I want to learn about the outside world and overcome my social anxiety", she explained trying to sound

brave.

Valentina's eyes softened a little at her last words.

The main reason Clemencia was a sheltered princess was because of her severe anxiety when she meets

a lot of people at once. There were other reasons too but her social anxiety was one of them.

“wouldn’t it be hard?”, Valentina asked in a soft and gruff voice.

Clemencia looked towards Valentina whose tendrils were blowing from her perfect hair updo, and then

her eyes which hadn’t even wrinkled yet and her smooth white skin complementing her natural red lips,

Clemencia traced her again and again with her own eyes. She couldn’t help but compare her mother’s

appearance with her past ones.

‘she looks younger, better, not sad, and not dead’

“it will be, but I want to stand beside you pridefully", she came up with a believable excuse.

Valentina chuckled, “fine, just tell me when you feel burdened, I'll wipe that thing off from the earth.”

she said it in a cold and warm tone.

Clemencia laughed at the way she expressed her affection for her hugged her.

“yes, let's do that.”

‘this is what I was looking for’

-----------------*--------------------

Elijah knocked at Valentina’s door and entered her room.

“mother", he bowed and stood up straight wondering with a blank face why she called for him at this 

time of evening.

“come, sit”, Valentina’s answered back who was standing before the window and staring outside with a 

cup filled with tea in her hands.

Elijah took off his coat and wrapped it around his mother and sat back on his chair.

At first neither of them said anything for quite a long time.

Valentina neither tried to start up a conversation with her son.

“I heard you’re going to teach Clemencia swordsmanship and about politics”, Valentina casually said 

while sipping on her warm tea.

“yes", Elijah answered with a curt nod.

The mother and son didn’t have a bad relationship in fact they were quite comfortable together with the 

silence surrounding them.

“how was your mission?”, Valentina asked again, she folded her hands and crossed her legs while she 

sat in the chair.

“there has been a rise in criminal activities on the borders, especially slave trafficking", Elijah reported 

back.

Valentina sighed and her mood worsened at the news.

“Amartolos”, her jaw ticked in annoyance.

It had been nine years since she banned on slave trading. Valentina passed a bill against slave trafficking.

The Amartolos were known as the very known criminal association which had the dirty secrets of many 

high aristocrats, kings, queen, and nobles. They were famous for all sorts of criminal activities from 

assassination, kidnapping, exporting drugs. But that was it until they started getting suspicious by buying 

lands and establishing their rules and laws on the people who lived on those lands.

And if they failed to do so then those people disappeared anonymously. A rumor started that those 

people were sold as slave to other countries.

Valentina would have ignored it but a similar situation started happening in the borders of the Chester's 

land six months ago.

“how annoying, what is the solution you found?”, Valentina asked while tapping her fingers on the 

report papers lying on her table.

“alliance", Elijah took out the papers which were in hands and showed it to her.

Valentina grabbed it scanned her eyes over it turning it again and again.

“why them? Our alliance with the Lykaios would have been enough.”, Valentina inquired while picking 

up the half-emptied cup of tea close to her lips.

“yes, but someone told me that having ‘strength and power is not enough. It could be a white trap too’.”

And by someone he meant Clemencia, who was skimming through the report papers randomly in the 

morning and said the alliance could fail.

Quite surprised by her thoughts as this was the best solution that he could come up with while analyzing 

the current situation, he asked her why she thought that.

‘power is strong, strength is too. But not everything. They can provide you with these both but at what 

cost? What if these were traps of their first step to extract the main source of income? This is favorable 

to only one party from my perspective’

Elijah was baffled at her reply and thought over too.

“Ho, and how can you prove that?”, Valentina asked amused by her son who refuted his own choices for 

the first time.

“I can’t but this is more favorable to the other party then us and they could be related to amartolos as 

we’re one of the only continents who are not influenced by them", Elijah replied.

“and how do you know ‘that man’ would form an alliance with us within this short period of time?”, 

Valentina asked trying to ponder over the situation quietly and understanding Elijah's point of view.

“he comes here every five years in disguise for some reason according to our spy who sees him here 

every few years, and that is the time I'm planning to request for his audience in the palace.”

“but there’s no guarantee he would agree.”, Valentina muttered to herself while concluding the whole 

situation.

“yes", Elijah answered back to her self-talk.

There was a silence in the room again.

Elijah took this as a sign to leave and got up.

“well then, good night mother.”, he bowed and his hands reached out for the door and heard Valentina 

speaking her last sentence in a low voice.

“take care of her”, he smiled without looking back and went out of the office.

It was a peaceful night for Elijah and a smile appeared when he saw his sister leaning her cheeks against 

window to feel the cold marble and the maid complaining who covered her body with a quilt and took 

her inside while complaining about something. Probably about how she’ll caught a cold.

Elijah leaned against a pillar, closed his eyes and whispered, "goodnight, Clemencia.”

----------*----------

Author's corner:-

Boy, now I'm curious about this.

*Who do you think 'that man' is? Will he be related to our protagonist in anyway?ಡ ͜ ʖ ಡ