23 The Enemy at Our Doorstep

"Would the sudden appearance of a new cousin like her not cause disagreements or discontent within the family?" she tried her best to move on to her next argument instead, as her earlier one had utterly failed.

"From what I've heard the sister of the emperor was already looking for ways to present her to the nobility. She seemed really happy to have a young girl that she could fuss over. All of her own children are already quite a bit older, with even her youngest daughter already twenty three years old and the lady always wanted to have some grandchildren, but none of her own kids has any children so far." Jaros chuckled and seemed amused by the idea of having Myra treated like lady Velia's grandchild.

"Her cousins and siblings seemed rather excited to meet her. If she were a real member of the family, they would likely do their best to make her the next heir to get away from that responsibility themselves. You really don't have to worry about this. They will all adore her."

This time Myra could not keep of her serious expression. Her face must have shown an absolutely stunned and disbelieving look for a while, but it probably did not matter. Even if she were her own sister she would likely have shown the same face.

"That is … unexpected, that makes me happy to hear." Yet another of Myra's attempts failed and she finally gave up bothering about it anymore.

'Fine, if they want me to be a princess, then I will be a princess. As long as they let me live a normal life I guess it will be alright.'

Myra had learned so many things today that shocked and surprised her that she even forgot about tricking the principal. She was just getting ready to find an excuse to leave the academy, when their small talk was interrupted by a soldier who started a quiet conversation with Jaros.

'What is a soldier doing here at the academy? It is a military academy but regular army should not really be here.'

Curious she tried to listen to the conversation but she must have already missed a large part of it.

"… if it is this critical I will make my way to the border right away to help." was all she could hear before the general excused himself and wanted to leave.

'This sounds like an exciting adventure!' she suddenly thought to herself.

"Let me accompany you!" she said all of a sudden, causing Jaros to give her a surprised look.

"Lady Mairi, while I appreciate the offer, I don't want to drag you into another empire's troubles. Offending the aggressors might have far reaching consequences that could even drag your homeland into it as well. I dare not accept your help."

'You dummy grandpa! My family is living in this empire as well! How could I sit by idly while my kinsmen are in trouble? It's exactly why Nell and Liam wanted to come here and why I joined this silly academy in the first place!' she could obviously not tell the general in front of her the truth.

Myra did her best to come up with a good reason instead. She always excelled in making up extremely exquisite, totally marvelous believable stories. Most of the time at least …

"Nonsense. I would not be able to face our parents, if I would not even give aid to the homeland of my future brother-in-law. If someone wants to start trouble with our divine kingdom, let them come. We are not scared to drive away gods, let alone some normal mages and knights."

'Well, in theory this should probably be enough to let me join him right? I should visit Aaron with this disguise at some point and call him brother-in-law. I totally want to see his face!' Myra really enjoyed her little speech. 'It reminds me of all those heroic novels I read in the past. The knight in shining armor saving the country of the poor princess from the evil dragon!' thinking about it some more Myra frowned. 'Well, there is no dragon. Probably. I am no knight in shining armor either. At least I didn't make any shining armor yet. Maybe I do that later.'

"As you seem to have already made up your mind, I will no longer refuse your assistance lady Mairi. You have my thanks and the thanks of my kinsmen." Jaros could not admit that he was really happy about this unexpected outcome, but it was easily visible on his face.

Soon afterwards they left the academy on a direct route to the southern border. While others would have to take a carriage or a horse, Myra and Jaros were flying through the sky.

To the north of Luminos one could find the forest kingdom of Aenweidh or some just called the area the forests of Aenweidh.

To the east there was a huge ocean, Myra recently learned it was called the sea of nightmares. While the beach regions were rather calm and peaceful, sailing across this sea was not very recommended. Sea monsters and beasts were common in the deeper regions and could sink even the largest vessels.

The western border was a very cold area, with frozen ground like that of a tundra and not many trees. Most people called it the Ice Desert and avoided it as much as possible as it was home to an insect species of beasts that would quickly hunt any living creature that dared to trespass into their home region.

The south had most of the cultivated lands, with many different empires fighting for dominance. The area was fertile and mostly consisted of huge green grasslands with some lakes and little forested areas.

"Where exactly are we going to?" Myra asked, not sure where they were headed to exactly. While she heard some basic details during her childhood about the different lands, her knowledge ended with knowing the major regions of Luminos, as well as a few bigger cities and empires surrounding it.

"Mountain Towers Fortress" Jaros answered her soon after, before explaining a little bit more about the situation.

"It's a fortress that prevents access to one of the only mountain passes in the area which lead into Luminos. It does not really have any valuable resources that are noteworthy, but the location itself is of strategic importance to the empire. It is basically a gap between two nearly connecting mountain ranges and the fortress is built at the entrance of the gap."

"We usually have a skylord stationed there, who can hold the place against a large number of invaders, but the fortress seems to have come under siege by several strong mages of an organization known as the Brotherhood of Mithril Hearts. It's a fanatical elite group from the Mithril Expanse Empire to the southwest. One of these 'do whatever it takes to complete the mission no matter the sacrifices' groups."

"What's that group all about? Why would they attack the fortress?"

"It's a long story, but it's really all because of a dispute about their ancestral homeland. They say we stole the place back in the day from them and now want it back. Obviously they are not willing to offer anything substantial for it. Not that we would let those crazies have that pass, it would be like letting your enemy into your home and help them finding a weapon to kill you."

They completed their journey without any further discussions and Myra had for the first time a bad feeling about this whole adventure thing. It did not sound as fun as she would have expected it to be.

--

When they arrived at the fortress they could already see the enemy army camping a short distance away from the mountain range and the fortress. There must be several thousand soldiers stationed outside and in a world without mages and magic knights, the fortress with a few hundred defenders would have already been captured. What confused Myra though, were the people in front of the enemy army that did not look like soldiers at all. They had neither armor, nor any proper weapons of any kind. They were not even some sort of militia force and looked more like some villagers that were just coming along with the army.

She just wanted to settle down, when she could hear shouting outside.

"The mages are attacking again, be careful!"

Myra quickly ran outside to get a better idea of the situation. General Jaros as well as the skylord who seemed to be the mage of the fortress they were talking about earlier, seemed to be hunting and fighting two of the enemy mages who were flying close to the walls.

It quickly became obvious though, that the two enemy mages were simply delaying their own, not really engaging in a proper fight. While their own forces were busy, the remaining three mages had an easy time bombarding the fortress with their magic.

While both Jaros and the skylord seemed to be stronger than each of the enemy mages, the enemy had the advantage in numbers. Unable to fight all five with just the two of them, they were in a pretty bad situation. Whenever they chased too far, all five enemies would retaliate forcing them back to the fortress.

Meanwhile the bombardment caused massive casualties among the soldiers of Mountain Towers.

"ENOUGH!"

A shout echoed through the valley and the plains in front of it and shortly after an immeasurably powerful aura could be sensed from the walls of the fortress.

Myra was angry. She was as angry as never before in her life. It was one thing to read about heroic fights in a book, or listen to reports of some distant war, but to be right in the middle of such a massacre, such a waste of human life, was beyond anything she ever experienced.

The soldiers of the fortress were cowering on the walls and in the courtyard, while the archmages and saints flying in the sky had barely enough strength to land, before the pressure of the aura forced them to their knees.

"Leave! Those of you who dare to come here again will suffer the consequences and will never return."

Her aura was infused with her emotions of anger and desperation, making her threat all the more powerful. Not just the enemy mages soon retreated, but even Jaros and their own archmage did not dare to chase them anymore or continue the fight. As if they had just experienced a nightmare, none of them wanted to break the silence and say a word.

Myra just turned around and returned to her assigned room and soon after she did her best to hide her tearstained face in her pillow.

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