The Thousand Year Dynasty
Anthology 15

"So what really happened, Dad?" cornelius asked when he was in his father's office in Central City a day later.

"What is this about? You just suddenly come in and ask like that?" Orland put the book he was reading on his desk. When he found his son who suddenly entered his study without even saying hello first.

"About Aksa and Nata. Caspian won't tell me. I assume Lucia asked for it. And I'm sure that you know this" Cornelius answered without making small talk as he placed his hands on Orland's desk. Looks a little upset.

While Orland just fell silent and then breathed a long breath. "Sit down first" he said later.

"So you know about them?" ask Cornelius who looks increasingly upset, while putting his body on one of the sofas in the room.

"Yes, I know about them. And the truth is, those two people are missing right now. And it cannot be found" replied Orland who also seemed not to want to waste time by making small talk.

"missing? Whatdoes thatmean? How come?" Cornelius immediately raised his body. Surprised and clueless as to what Orland had just talked about.

"disappear. Mr. Couran and Miss Lily were with them when they suddenly disappeared. And that's what they say. They are not the same as us. Why and how," Orland replied trying to explain.

"Disappear just like that? Even being with Miss Lily?" Cornelius seemed to still not understand how it could happen.

"Mr Val and Miss Yvvone have confirmed that no magic may be used to kidnap or harm them both from afar, if you are also curious about it," orland gave me other information.

"Does that mean they have returned to their own world?" Cornelius was seen surmising after successfully receiving an explanation from Orland.

"Eitherway? But it's also a possibility that could happen" replied Orland who looked a little hesitant.

Cornelius was silent for a moment, trying to digest the sudden and unexpected truth. "Then why didn't you tell me about this? Are you going to hide this forever if I don't ask as I do now?" This time Cornelius began to express his annoyance.

"I'm sorry, I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to panic" Orland replied with a deep breath. "Lucia and I deliberately kept it a secret to the others, because we had hopes that they would come back or we could find them again" he continued.

Cornelius was silent again. Back to giving frisk to think about all his father's sayings. And relieve his emotions that had increased.

"That means now is the time for us to stop hoping that they will come back and help us solve this problem" Cornelius said later. "We should immediately have a meeting to make a new plan" he added.

"Yes, it's me, Lucia, and Caspian talking about since a week ago. But because Lucia still felt that maybe they would come back, so we postponed it first" replied Orland who looked lethargic.

"It's been almost a month, since they disappeared, we can't wait any longer, Dad," said Cornelius, who was seen returning to emotions.

"Yes, I think so too. Therefore, the next day, before we do the recording and re-registration, we will have a meeting to inform others about this reality" said Orland told his plan. "At least to the leaders, and start making new plans" he added later.

"And how did Lucia respond to that?" Cornelius asked with a little worry.

"It's clearly not good. Right now he's blaming himself for not being a good leader" Orland said, looking sorry for Lucia.

"Yes, I guessed that. But right now, there was no turning back for him. Lucia can no longer stand down" said Cornelius.

"That's obvious. What else is the situation in Elbrasta as it is today. The Nobles would not let go of him, either" Orland seemed to agree with Cornelius' words.

"Then what about Queen Daisy, now?" ask Cornelius who looks curious.

"You mean Grevier's problem?" ask Orland to make sure.

"really. Now that the royal nobility of Elbrasta has begun to split because of their Queen's presence in our place," Cornelius again leaned his body back. It seems not very emotional.

"Today the head of the Nix and Chordian Nobles came to meet Lucia and Queen Daisy" Orland replied later.

"Did they come to ask Queen Daisy?" cornelius asked a guess.

"Right, we could have returned the Queen to Elbrasta. But with the current situation still at risk, it is likely that the Queen and her two sons will be in danger" Orland said. "And Lucia would definitely not agree to that. So the plan is, we'll return the Queen, when Grevier has completely taken control of the city" he added.

"But the possibility of the nobility being divided will be even greater, if we keep the Queen in this place as it is now" said Cornelius who began to question the decision taken by his father and also Lucia. "And it will obviously invite many nobles who will oppose our territory" he added later.

"Yes, it will happen" said Orland, who began to rise to his feet, and rode near Cornelius.

"Are we ready for another war? If we just keep trying to find him like we are today?" cornelius asked more like a warning.

"Yes, I'm also aware of that. But at least for the north we can still rely on the North Gate fortress wall to survive" said Orland, who now began sitting on one of the sofas in front of Cornelius.

"But still it's not true, Dad. We must understand our current position and take or let go of what we should have done" Cornelius said in response to Orland's remarks.

Orland just nodded, "Yes, I understand that" he said later.

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"Tell Luc, how bad is he now?" asked a middle-aged Narva woman restlessly, to Lucia in the living room of Lucia's residence.

"Auntie doesn't need to worry about it," Lucia replied with a smile. Try as much as possible to calm the middle-aged woman.

"I know all this will bring trouble for you and this kingdom" said the woman, whom Lucia had called her aunt, still looking uneasy.

"Don't listen to the noble's words, they're just trying to take advantage of the situation that's happening, for their own sake, Bi," Lucia said again still trying to calm the aunt.

"It's okay, because now that we know about Grevier, I can stay where I am" said the aunt, who was not willing to trouble Lucia any more.

"No need, Bi." Lucia approached and then clasped the aunt's hand. Trying to convince the middle-aged woman. "I told you not to think about it. Aunty, Alexander, and Eden will stay here until Grevier's brother succeeds in taking over the city and making sure everything is safe" he said, which began to sound a little pushy.

"But, Luc.." cut off the aunt later.

"Auntie must know with the current conditions, heading to Grevier's place will be very dangerous, not only for Bibi, but also for Alexander and Eden," suhut Lucia replied to the aunt immediately.

"Yes, I know that. But still because of this, there will be many noble families who stand up to fight against this kingdom. While now you are still in a state of rebellion in your new south" replied the aunt, who was seen clutching Lucia's hand tightly.

"I told you, Auntie doesn't have to think about it. Now rest first. We wait for her development in one to two weeks" said Lucia, wiping her arms with attention.

The middle-aged woman looked silently at Lucia with a face that still looked uneasy. But soon began to take a deep breath when it appeared from Lucia's eyes that her niece, will not change her decision. "All right then. I won't argue with you again about this matter" the aunt said later. "I will listen to you, and wait for its development" he added.

"Good then," Lucia said with a relieved smile appearing to be expanding on her face.

"Alright, I'll excuse you first then," said the aunt.

"Have a good rest, Bi," replied Lucia later, before she left the place for her study.

.

Lucia entered her study room with a wedge and immediately threw herself down on the long sofa in the middle of the room. Not caring about Jean sitting on the sofa opposite her.

Jean took a deep breath when she saw Lucia lying on her stomach on the sofa in front of her.

"Are you okay, Your Majesty?" ask Jean who looks a little worried.

"It's always strange to hear you call out to Your Majesty, to me," Lucia hummed from behind the cushion of the sofa.

"You're going to make your clothes tangle" Jean warned Lucia.

"That's not true. This can be guessed even before the kingdom stands," Jean replied. Trying to convince Lucia that what she said was not true.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to be a good Queen" lamented Lucia still with her face facing the cushion of the sofa.

"I think you're a good Queen" said Jean, who tried to encourage Lucia.

"Will the good Queen make the decision that she is today, Jean?" asked Lucia who this time began to turn her body towards Jean. Even though it is still in a position on the sofa.

"I think the good Queen is the one who understands the truth about herself. About the advantages and disadvantages," said Jean later. "Also know what he wants" he continued, still trying to encourage Lucia.

"Then that means I'm not a good Queen" Lucia replied again as she directed her gaze to the chandelier on the ceiling above the room.

"Maybe you should try to focus and make sure again, what you really want." Looks like Jean gave Lucia an input.

"Not wrong. All this time I've always done what I wanted, Jean," Lucia replied with a glaring gaze as if through the ceiling of the room. "But just doing that won't make me a good queen. And the evidence is now" he added.

"I was just a spoiled princess who always relied on those two young men. And without them both I was indeed a nobody," continued Lucia who sounded resigned.

"You must not underestimate yourself too much, Your Majesty," replied Jean, visibly alarmed by Lucia's disbelief.

"No, Jean. Like you said, I was just trying to see my own advantages and disadvantages. And that is how I am now," replied Lucia who looked serious and earnest.

Silence began to form in the room. Everyone is silent. Lucia seemed to be thinking about everything that was in her head at the moment. While Jean remained silent to give Lucia time.

"Are they coming back, Jean?" lucia asked then broke the silence.

"I think if they can come back, they will" Jean replied later.

"I doubt that. Basically their main goal is to find a way to get back to their world," said Lucia who is still staring at the sky-ldngit room.

"But I think, it is not the nature of those who leave without saying goodbye and without preparing everything. Make sure everything will go well when they leave," replied Jean who tried to give her opinion and reason to Lucia's previous speech.

"Do you think that?" asked Lucia who seemed indifferent to Jean's words.

"You remember how they were trying to make sure this region was going well, when they were about to leave this place towards the city of Guam and the Sacred Yanah?" jean tried to remind Lucia.

"Maybe because this time they had a chance? Maybe they're tired of hearing my whining? And try to leave in secret, for fear that I'll hold them back by using a bunch of things that can keep them in?" lucia replied trying to express her opinion. "Oh, it turns out that I am also a selfish Queen," he said later, as if he had just realized something.

Jean looked back to take a deep breath. "I think it's better that you also rest first, Your Majesty. Tomorrow you should discuss about the North with Caspian and Mr. Orland" Jean suggested later.

"I think you're right, Jean. But I think I'm going to take a shower to cool my hot head down right now, before resting," Lucia replied then as she stood up from her long sofa. And then with Jean started to leave the room.

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Two days later, at Lucia's residence in the central city, a meeting with regional leaders and cabinet leaders was held.

The meeting was attended by twenty-five people. In addition to Lucia and Jean, there were five regional leaders and five deputies, then there were five Yllgarian Sages, eight cabinet members, and eight troop leaders, as well as two representatives of the Star of Fire group.

They sat in front of a long table with ten chairs on each side, and several additional chairs around it.

"On this occasion I want to announce something, but before that I want to apologize for not saying this as soon as possible" said Lucia opened the meeting. "Maybe there are some of you who already know about this problem. It's about Aksa and Nata" he continued.

"The fact that the two men did not lock themselves in the cave. But it disappeared" Lucia added. Which immediately triggered the reaction of some people who looked surprised to hear this. Those who already knew it also looked a little uncomfortable hearing it again.

"Before we continue, I would like to apologize for keeping this matter a secret until now. All of these were my ideas. I feel like they might be back soon, so to avoid any commotion I decided to keep this a secret" Lucia apologized and tried to explain the reason behind her decision. "I realized, however, that they had not returned for a month. And the problems in our region are getting worse and worse. So today I decided to put all this on you, and immediately determine the change of plans. In order to solve this problem," he continued later, which was only responded with silence from others.

"All right, that's all I want to talk about. I hope you guys understand. For the matter of how the two young men disappeared, we will discuss later. Now the most important thing is to do something to deal with the problems we face" Lucia said. "For that please, Uncle," he continued, allowing Orland to take over the meeting.

"Okay, I'll start this time. So now we have two main problems that we're having" Orland said. "The problem with the south, and the problem with the north." He seemed to be dissecting his speech for a while. "For the matter with the northern region, at this time we will still choose not to follow the request of some of the royal noble families of Elbrasta. Although there is a possibility that they will carry out an attack to take the Queen by force, but the possibility is very small, and we still have the North Gate to hold her," he said at length explained.

While the others were just silent listening to Orland's words carefully.

"So for the moment the north is not too urgent compared to the south" Orland said. "And for the problems in the south, the details will be left to Mrs Amithy" he continued, allowing Amithy to explain.

"So for the problems that are happening in the south today is about the security of the territory of the rebels. Which in addition to making the population afraid, also makes our development plans hampered," said Amithy took over the meeting.

"And therefore, what the south needs now is to stop the rebels" Amithy continued. "But we don't have enough soldiers to destroy them at the moment, and stand guard at the border of the Joren and Augra kingdoms" he said.

"Is there no other way to deal with this? Like making a weapon possible?" Nadir seemed to interrupt Amithy's words.

"For the manufacture of the current Combat Train the Estrinx region cannot meet the Dracz metal needs we need. As for firearms there is no problem in making it, but still we depend on many soldiers to use it" explained Amithy later. "And I guess, starting to arm the new soldiers we took from those southerners with firearms, is quite risky" he added.

"I also agree. Now according to the news we have received, they have begun to install spies in our region." Cedrik agreed to Amithy's words. "And perhaps the first thing they do is to look for our weaknesses and steal our knowledge of our weaponry" he said.

"really. Therefore I propose that we start concentrating our forces to defeat the rebels in a certain region" Amithy added.

"That means we're going to give up the rest of the territory?" ask Mateus to make sure.

"Right," replied Amithy quickly.

"I agree too." Caspian spoke. "We can take over the area again with the increasing strength of the troops we have," he said later.

"And how long do we expect to take back all the territory we have?" Matthew asked Caspian.

"Maybe two or three years," Caspian replied quickly.

The room started to sound noisy. Several people seemed to whisper to each other in response to the remark from Caspian.

"Because it's not like the northern region that has a fortified wall. If we don't do that, our territory won't last more than a year" Caspian said, explaining the reason behind his remarks.

"But then, we will start a new war for the south. And it won't be a minute." Lucia suddenly spoke.

"really. Your Majesty." Caspian answered quickly.

"So, we will begin to withdraw our troops from the most distant border region of the central region, and begin to concentrate on purging the rebellion in the region closest to this Central region," caspian then tries to explain the details of his plan to Lucia. "And once we succeed, we will begin to build up protection and begin a gradual purge of rebels in other areas, until later we succeed in taking over our territory that we previously lost," continue at length.

Lucia seemed to be silently thinking. "But if it is like that, it means that we are no different from other kingdoms in this southern region. Fighting for territory. Territory that didn't even belong to us before" Lucia said later.

"But Your Majesty, we already recognized these territories as our territory when we declared ourselves as a kingdom. And if we lose that territory, it's the same as we humble ourselves before other kingdoms." This time Orland who spoke tried to give an explanation to Lucia.

Lucia looked silent again. "Yes, I know that," he replied then with a heavy heart. "And does anyone object to this plan? Does anyone have any other ideas or plans?" ask Lucia to make sure.

Everyone seemed to be talking to each other, but no one objected or put forward any other plans. It seemed that they had all agreed that the plan was the best plan they could do right now.

"Well, if everyone agrees. We're going to carry out this plan" Lucia said. "For details, we'll do a separate discussion after this. And now this meeting is dissolved. Good afternoon," he closed as he moved from his seat.

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