The Rose That Blooms In North
Chapter 15: Chateau de Montreux

General Arianne was the only woman among the four Generals in Nordhalbinsel. Anna had previously studied the Montreux family tree, which was a little more complicated than the genealogy of the other Generals. But at its core, General Arianne's half-sister was Duke Frederick Montreux. Arianne Montreux, despite being the biological daughter of the previous Duke of Montreux with his legal wife, was unable to inherit the position of Duchess of Montreux due to her childlessness. General Arianne married when she was twenty years old and became a widow when she was twenty-one because her husband died in the war and she suffered a miscarriage of the fetus upon hearing of her husband's death. Since then, the General has chosen not to remarry until now at the age of four. Anna also heard rumors circulating that General Arianne was a good friend of Queen Irene so General Arianne had considered the Crown Prince as her own son and so was the Crown Prince who had considered Sang The general is like his own mother.

“Why did Mom greet me formally like this?” Xavier asked in a joking tone like he was joking with his own real mother.

The General immediately hugged Xavier after that very formal salute and kissed the Crown Prince on the forehead. Xavier bent down to align his height as the General did so.

“You've grown this big, my son. How many years has it been since I last saw you? Oh, look at this muscular arm of yours. You must have been the greatest swordsman in the entire kingdom. But why is your skin so pale? Didn't you sleep well my son?”

“It's only been a year since my mother last saw me at the Palace. I haven't changed much. Likewise with Mother who still looks very young and healthy.”

General Arianne laughed happily at it. “Oh, what am I doing, is keeping you and your troops outside when the weather is cold like this. Come on, let's get inside the castle. Me and my girls have made a delicious lunch. You all must be very hungry after a long trip.”

***

Anna followed Xavier from behind while continuing to hear his talk with the General. Far from the shadow of Anna all this time, it turns out that the General has a motherly figure that is far from the figure of a tough female General that he had heard from people. Even when Anna was still the Princess living in the Palace, her teacher always told her the only female General in the entire land who was alive and active was General Arianne Montreux, the Beheader. Back when she heard that at the Palace, Anna always imagined the figure of a woman her mother's age, wearing an armor and sitting on a horse while beheading people without compassion. But now when he saw it firsthand, it turned out that General Arianne was a very friendly figure who could make anyone feel like having a second mother.

"Where is that Winterthur's Naughty Wolf that comes with you everywhere you go?" general Arianne asked as they were walking through a long passageway to where a lunch banquet was held inside the castle.

"Elias? Did Mom get the news yet? He is now General Elias Winterthur of the Northern Territory. Well, even though his coronation hasn't actually been held. But the Grand Duke has announced that he has quit his position as General and will focus on becoming Grand Duke Winterthur." Xavier. "Ah, I haven't introduced Mother to my new Personal Guard. Anna, come here."

Anna immediately sped her way to the Crown Prince's side and faced towards General Arianne.

"He's my new personal bodyguard. Her name's Anna." Xavier introduces Anna to the General.

Anna bowed to give her greetings.

"May the Crown Prince not trouble you too much, son. Elias used to complain to me how difficult it was to be the Crown Prince's Personal Guards because he traveled everywhere. Oh, you're so young, son. Looks like a lot of my girls are your age. You're gonna love it here."

When General Arianne called 'girls' Anna could immediately tell that the Montreux soldiers were mostly young girls aged twenty to thirty. When other Generals rejected the existence of female soldiers, Arianne gathered brave women throughout the kingdom to train and be made a reliable soldier and equal to male soldiers.

"Anna? That you?"

Anna turned her head as she felt her name being called by a familiar voice. It didn't take long to find out that the one who called her was Honey Welsh.

From a distance of 2 meters, Honey immediately ran up to Anna and hugged her as if they were old friends who had been separated for many years. Honey then watched Anna from top to bottom and from bottom to top. He smiled broadly. Seeing her smile, Anna also smiled widely.

“You've changed a lot since we last met. You look more..” Honey hung up her words while thinking the right words. “Like a female knight.”

“I can say the same to you.” Anna said, to Honey's laughter.

Honey tied up her long black hair after removing her head covering. He wore a warrior uniform complete with armor made of iron. His sword was draped on his waist belt. Anna looked at the watchful eyes as Honey noticed the circumstances around them. Anna followed Honey's gaze, but was unable to see anything suspicious. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince and General Arianne had already walked ahead of them.

“Come quickly we go inside. Out here dangerous.” Honey said.

Anna nodded in agreement and followed Honey and the rest of the troupe into Montreux Castle.

When he reached the castle and the door was closed, the Crown Prince ordered all his troops to remove the masks and prepare to enjoy their lunch at the banquet.

“Every time you are going out or at night, you should wear this mask.” Said Crown Prince Xavier, who was immediately welcomed by all those in the Castle.

They all then continued their journey through the rooms and alleys in the castle to where the luncheon was held. Anna and Honey walk right behind Xavier, listening to his conversation with General Arianne.

“So you've decided that this is really due to the fine dust from Westeria?” ask the General.

“True, Mother. Although this is only my guess, but it would be nice to keep watch by wearing a mask to protect ourselves.”

“General..” Honey interjected between the conversations. But Arianne allowed him to speak further.

“Ah, correct. One of my daughters wants to convey something quite important to you, my son. Please continue, Miss Welsh.” General Arianne said.

“Your Majesty, I just arrived at the Castle two days ago." Honey said.

"Ah, yes. I rememberedyou. You are one of the five best candidates to enter the third stage of my personal bodyguard selection. Thank goodness you got safely to the castle."

"Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty." Honey Vocabulary. Then he continued, "There's something I need to say about what I know when I'm on my way to this castle."

"What is that, Miss Welsh?"

"Forward. What are they talking about, Miss Welsh?" Xavier said impatiently.

Anna just kept quiet while listening as they walked through the other hallway towards the lunch venue. Anna felt very hungry and tired and sleepy at once as soon as she arrived at this castle, but after meeting Honey and the girl started telling stories, she said, all of that seemed to disappear and he was so swept away in his friend's story. Anna understood why most explorers from the Orient were excellent storytellers. Many tales and legends brought by explorers from the Orient to various countries because they are known to be very detailed in storytelling.

"I heard that Queen Elizabeth is dying." Honey said.

Everyone fell silent after hearing that one sentence. Anna knew that Westeria was led by a Ratu—not Raja—in generations. The current Queen of Westeria is Queen Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth is also known to be unmarried and to have no children. So the only one who might carry on his current reign is his niece, the eldest daughter of his half-sister, Princess Eugene. The princess previously told by Xavier often sent letters to him. Now things are starting to get clearer for Anna. Princess Eugene may stop sending letters to Crown Prince Xavier as she prepares for the coronation to become the new Queen of Westeria.

"Then, the project is closed because the Queen is dying?" Ask Anna.

Xavier nodded. "I also thought like that. But it is also possible that the Queen's health condition worsened due to the effects of the fine dust."

"No, Son. From what I know, no one in Westeria has experienced the same thing as a Montreux. That's what made me initially doubt whether all this was due to the fine dust from the drug-making project." General Arianne said.

"That's weird. The fine dust coming from Westeria did not disturb any Westerians and instead spread to Montreux to create a plague in Montreux." Honey said.

"But, what if this isn't something unintentional?" Ask Anna.

"What do you mean, Anna?" Ask Xavier.

"What if someone or a group deliberately did all this to pit the two kingdoms. Didn't Westeria and Nordhalbinsel have a very good relationship? And in case of war, Westeria would help Nordhalbinsel as an ally, and vice versa." Obviously Anna.

"You're right. How could I not have thought of this before." Xavier's stunned. "And this all happened along with the news that the Queen was dying. Princess Eugene, who is the strongest candidate to continue the government, is nineteen years old and unmarried. According to Westeria law, Princess Eugene is not yet qualified to be crowned Queen even though she is the Queen's only successor. Princess Eugene has to get married if there's not a government vacuum."

When Xavier said that, they had already arrived at the lunch banquet. A very long table lay before them. On it are various types of delicious foods ranging from grilled meat, grilled fish, fresh vegetables, various fruits and red wine as a drink. The smell of the food made everyone feel twice as hungry as they actually felt.

“I must immediately find out the whereabouts of Princess Eugene.” Said Xavier who was preparing to leave from the banquet, but Anna immediately held him back.

“Pardon my presumption, Your Majesty. But General Arianne is right, you look very pale. During the trip you also lack rest. It would be nice if you eat first. If you are sick, you will not be able to help anyone.”

Anna ventured to look at Xavier who seemed to be in a state of chaos at the thought of everything that was happening in her Country and the neighboring Country. But then Xavier followed Anna's words and sat down obediently at the end of the long table to start their big lunch.

***

After lunch was over, everyone felt full and sleepy. Xavier allowed his soldiers to rest in turn. Meanwhile the Montreux soldiers were busy with their daily activities. Some were cleaning up the remnants of the banquet, some were practicing swords, sharpening swords and some were ascending to the watchtower to keep an eye on the surroundings.

Meanwhile, Anna, Crown Prince Xavier, Prince Jeffrey, General Arianne, Honey Welsh and several representative soldiers from each group gathered in a room that Anna suspected was General Arianne's workroom. They were all talking about the alleged cause of the Montreux outbreak, which seemed to be related to Queen Elizabeth's condition. Xavier immediately sent an emissary from one of his soldiers to spread the word regarding the Crown Prince's whereabouts in Montreux. This way he hoped that the news would be heard all the way to where Princess Eugene was because no one knew of the Princess' current whereabouts. Although he was not sure if this method would work.

Xavier also wrote a secret letter unbeknownst to anyone other than Anna that had to be sent to King Vlad regarding the possibility of an Orient attack on Westeria. Xavier asks Anna to send the letter-sending eagle in secret at dusk without being noticed by anyone. Anna uses this to send Leon a letter with the same eagle.

***

L, it's me A.

Burn this letter as soon as you read it. Then send this eagle to bring another letter to King Vlad at Nordhalbinsel Palace. No need to read the letter, I will tell you the contents.

In short, I managed to become Xavier's personal bodyguard. But it turned out that the Crown Prince Nordhalbinsel was a very busy person and had many itineraries traveling out of the palace. So on my first day at work, I had to go with him to deal with the problems in the Montreux area.

I am now in Montreux. You don't have to worry because I'm fine and safe from the storm. I hope you're okay and safe from the storm.

You have to prepare yourself for what I'm going to tell you next because it's very important and it looks like Xavier wrote the same thing for King Vlad in another letter.

Queen Elizabeth of Westeria seems to be seriously ill and is dying. He is not married and has no children. His heir is his nephew. The daughter of her half-sister who is a nineteen-year-old and unmarried young girl. She's Princess Eugene who you seem to know years ago if I don't remember wrongly. Princess Eugene is in danger and Xavier who seems to know him very well is very worried about him and is trying to find him. He asked the soldiers to spread the word about his whereabouts in Montreux for Princess Eugene to know of this and immediately sent him a letter.

News of the Queen's condition seemed to be known to others who wanted to destroy Westeria's relationship with Nordhalbinsel. So the other party seemed to be making a plague that came from fine dust—or at least that's how we thought— attacked Montreux and seemed to come from Westeria. If the two kingdoms were to successfully pitted against the sheep and cut off their alliance relationship, it was likely that the other party would benefit.

For now me and Xavier assumed that the other party was the Orient Empire. I'm not really sure, but Xavier assumes that Orient wants to expand his realm. That makes sense to me, but I still don't know the real reason because this is still a mere assumption.

I was hoping you could find out about this. I think we can recapture Schiereiland from Nordhalbinsel by taking advantage of the current situation.

Find out if Queen Elizabeth has any other potential heir to the throne other than Princess Eugene, where and how Princess Eugene is currently and who is trying to pit Westeria and Nordhalbinsel. Send a letter to the address I wrote below.

A.

***