The Royal Mark-Chapter 228: Commander in Charge

Elsa invited her mages over for breakfast since it would be their last time eating together before they departed. They will be preparing for their journey the whole day and everyone who will join Elsa tomorrow will be spending their evening with their families before leaving the next day on first light.

"Wow, I can’t believe you are up early," Elsa commented when Drake and Arla joined them.

"Well, we are still part of your troop so we are here to fulfill our duty. But I must thank my sister, Milda for the gift. We tried it last night," Drake said performing a salute to Milda.

"Oh, you did drink it. I thought you would ignore it or throw it away," Milda replied and added, "So... How was it? Did you enjoy it?"

Drake grinned mischievously and Arla got nervous about what he would answer in front of everyone including her mother and brother.

"We both enjoyed it and as a matter of fact, we loved it. It was after some time before we figured out that you added something extra to it," Drake mentioned causing Milda to chuckle.

"Added something? What did you do Milda? You’re not doing something forbidden again, aren’t you?" Andrius said, making Milda’s face turn sour.

"And do you mean by that... Brother?" Milda retorted with a raised eyebrow.

Sensing the tension, Arla quickly intervened, "She requested it to be sweeter than usual, just the way I like my wine. Thank you, Your Highness. It was really thoughtful of you to think about that."

"Arla, we are sisters now, so drop the title, just call me Milda or Sis, I would prefer that. And I am thankful you like my gift. I will whisper to you later where I got it," Milda suggested and winked at Arla.

Mistress Valeria glanced at King Allister and saw him smiling while watching the interaction happening at the table. She held his hand and uttered, "You look happy."

"I am happy. Look at them, everything is finally falling into place. I can’t believe I am such an incompetent father that I allowed Irina to poison the mind of my daughter for years. And I am so glad that it was still not too late.

Milda is surrounded by good-natured people now and that would influence her to do the same. I hope that she and Andrius can find the person who will also make them happy, just like you and me. That’s the only thing missing now."

Valeria felt the King’s contentment in their life right now and smiled back at him. "I am sure they will."

Breakfast was not the same as it used to be. Today, it was more merry and everyone shared their stories and freely expressed their opinions without the former queen judging them and commenting negatively on their every sentence. Everyone felt light and happy.

********

Morning came and Elsa was up early. She was the first one to go outside and check their horses.

"You are too early."

Elsa heard from her behind while petting her horse and was startled by it. She quickly turned around and saw Elandir.

"I can’t sleep. You are too early too," she said.

"I always get up early. Is that your horse?" he asked.

"No, it’s Laureen’s, but it knows me. Good thing my mother had already taught me how to ride a horse, so I didn’t need to ride with someone anymore. Andrius said that Lexi wrote on her note to bring Laureen and her horse once we go to Arcanis. Maybe they are trained or something like that."

Elsa sighed after telling that to Elandir which he noticed.

"Is something bothering you?" he questioned.

"I am anxious and excited at the same time. Perhaps even worried. I only have three of my elements. Ciel is grumpy and doesn’t want to tell me or at least hint to me on how to merge with her. So I am on my own.

What if the connection between us doesn’t open when the battle begins? What if my power is not enough to defeat the witch queen? Everyone is telling me that I am the only one who can defeat her, but how will I do that if my elements are incomplete? I am so pressured to the you the truth," Elsa stated.

"That’s how leadership is. You will be queen and you will get used to it. Do you have some milk for Rocco today? I can portal there before we leave."

Elsa nodded and smiled, "Thank you for doing this every day. You are consuming too much mana just for it."

"That’s fine. I get to see Rocco every day, even though he is always sleeping whenever I go there."

"Thank you. Let’s go to my room and get the milk," Elsa requested.

When they got out of the stable, they were surprised to see the incoming crowd. Elsa squinted her eyes to take a closer look. Some were holding torches since the sun hadn’t risen yet. Most of them were also carrying duffle bags.

"Uh... What’s going on? Who are they?" she asked Elandir.

"Hmm... I think they are both humans and werewolves. From the looks of it, I think they will join us."

"What? Andrius and Drake had already enlisted the soldiers who would join. We cannot take civilians," Elsa voiced out, completely confused and astonished at the same time.

When the crowd got closer, Elsa saw Chris’ elite alphas led by Hoven and Gavin. The four alphas kneeled on one knee the moment they were close enough to Elsa, the rest of the crowd followed.

Elsa scanned the crowd and spotted Laura, Laureen’s mother, positioned to the right of Hoven. She rubbed her hands over her face, feeling uncertain about how to handle the situation with those people.

"Your Majesty," Hoven greeted. "We brought more of our people to help rescue our King and take back Arcanis."

"Hoven, I can see that. But they are not soldiers. Some are even teens and women, what do you want me to do with them? And what is Laura doing here? Are those mages behind her?" Elsa questioned.

"Yes, you seem to underestimate the werewolves, Your Majesty," Hoven jested causing some to chuckle.

"Not funny, Hoven. I am just worried that there will be a lot of casualties. I don’t want teenagers joining the battle and even women unless they are soldiers of Arcanis," she said.

"They don’t need to be soldiers of Arcanis, Your Majesty. They have volunteered just recently. Tallor and I trained them personally these past few weeks," Blake mentioned.

"I still can’t risk their lives. If anything goes wrong, they will be the foundation and future of Arcanis. They can’t come."

"We need them and I allowed it."

Everyone turned to Andrius who was approaching them from the castle.

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked as she frowned. She was not informed about it at all.

"King Stephan of Vrenada will help us infiltrate Arcanis from the south. These women and young men will be the ones to do that. They will enter from Vrenada and will pretend to be living in the rural eastern part of Arcanis," Andrius explained.

"How will you make the witches and demons believe that?"

"I will cast an imitation spell, Your Highness. It’s not that strong and will only last a day but it is enough," Laura butted in.

"This won’t work, there are too many people here, what about our plan to hide this from my grandfather and Aunt Milda?"

"I’ve got that covered. Last night, me and Andrius invited Milda and Father for a drink. Mistress Valeria added a sleeping potion so they wouldn’t wake up until this evening. We don’t have to pretend that we will leave in five days. We can all go there now," Drake revealed.

"Since Laura’s daughter was also captured by the witch queen, she badly wanted to help. So I asked her to gather mages that are not part of the defense troop so Father and Milda wouldn’t notice.

Air and fire mages will join us in the front line while water and earth mages will join the werewolves who will enter via Vrenada. Everything is already in place, you are worrying for nothing, Elsa," Andrius confidently declared.

"Let’s talk..." Elsa demanded and immediately went back to the stable. Elandir, her uncles, mages, and Chris’ elite team all followed her inside.

"Is there anything else that I don’t know about? We can’t go on a war not fully calibrated! You have to tell me your plans, Andrius," Elsa glowered.

"I was about to tell you but you came here too early. We were not expecting you to be here at this hour. What are you doing here anyway?"

"Panicking... A bit... Ciel is still in my room sleeping soundly. I don’t know if I will be able to get her power any time soon. I am so doomed!" Elsa admitted.

"Relax, don’t rush things. I am still the commander in charge, you don’t have to worry about anything else except yourself. Focus on yourself and continue your training with Elandir and Dasher. We will get our last intel by tomorrow. Bendy and Lexi have been effective messengers so far and tomorrow, your pet will bring our last message to Lexi and Baahu will let us know her answer," Andrius disclosed and fortunately, Elsa did not counter anymore.

"Now, if everyone is all set, let’s all prepare to depart as soon as possible," Andrius added.

********

A/N: 1/25/2024

Thank you Velveta for the 5-star review! I really appreciate it.

New Power Stone voter: kefranflor, thank you!

Sorry guys but we will only have 1 Chapter today. Need to meet some deadline at my fulltime job today.