chapter 21: An unexpected meeting

After their return from the north, Prince mikael's situation changed a lot, he didn't talk much anymore and blamed himself for not being able to bring aries home safely.

" Because I'm not strong enough... Because of me.... Because of me..... haaaaaaaaa!!...'

There was the sound of broken glass and the sound of glasses being smashed. Since that day, prince mikael has been abnormal, He just sits in his room and no one dares to enter his room. In the hall, everyone is talking about prince mikael's condition, which is no longer the same as it used to be.

Inside the office, the sound of the door being knocked from outside was heard. When the door was opened, Emperor arthur saw the crown prince enter with a document in his hand.

" This is a report document about the incident that happened in blanca village and a list of the need for help to repair what was damaged is all in this report."The crown prince submitted a report about what happened while in blanca village and also a report for other needs.

" Hm... Ok..You have worked hard.. Thank you lukas."

The emporer who flipped through the crown prince's papers felt satisfied with the report given by him. After that, the crown prince wanted to leave because his business was done.

" How is mikael? He still did not come out of his room?."

The crown prince who heard emperor arthur asking about mikael's condition, he who wanted to leave but turned back to emperor arthur.

" He's still like that, He doesn't come out of his room, He doesn't even eat or drink, All he does is keep blaming himself."

Crown prince knows that mikael can't accept the fact that aries is gone, He knows that his brother loves aries very much.

After that, the crown prince who had finished talking to his father was the one who was walking in the hall listening to the maid gossiping about mikael's increasingly unmanageable condition. He was also impact by what happened to aries because if it wasn't for aries they might not be able to meet the people they love. He knew that right now mikael needed someone to be there for him to get through his bad days and he went to meet mikael.

knock....knock...

The crown prince knocked on the door of prince mikael's room but did not get an answer from him and the crown prince opened the door and went inside.

" Mikael.... Are you there?."

When the crown prince stepped in, He saw that mikael's room, which had been very clean and tidy before, But now looked very messy and things were scattered everywhere.

Crack....

Crown prince stepped on glass shards scattered on the floor. Crown prince walked towards the window because the whole room of mikael was dark because all the curtains were lowered and when he pulled the curtains the light started to illuminate mikael's room and he could see mikael who was now on the edge of the bed with wounds on his legs and hands.

" Mikael..... Why... are you like this..."

Seeing mikael's very bad condition made the crown prince's heart break.

" Because I'm not strong enough... Because of me.... Because of me....."

Mikael just repeated his words blaming himself for not being able to bring aries home, the Crown prince saw that and pulled mikael into his arms.

" Mikael... Please.. I'm sorry.. It's my fault too for not being able to protect aries."

Mikael who heard what his brother said made him cry loudly.

" Yes..cry as much as you want right now, But don't ever waste aries's sacrifice.. You know her better than all of us, don't you?.. Surely she doesn't want you like this.. She must be angry if she sees you like this."

Mikael fell asleep exhausted after crying for too long. When he saw mikael already asleep, the crown prince ordered the maid to clean his room and told the butler maxi to call the royal doctor to treat mikael's wounds.

After the royal doctor treated mikael's wounds, the crown prince ordered the butler maxi to escort him out and butler maxi went back to the crown prince to see how prince mikael was.

" How about his condition?."

Prince raymond and ezreal winter come together to see how prince mikael.

" As you can see, his condition is not very good."

The crown prince saw the face of his brother who was sleeping.

" Let's chat outside, Let him sleep."

The three of them left prince mikael who was sleeping and crown prince told butler maxi not to leave prince mikael alone.

" How about the task I told you to do."

After listening to what the crown prince said, prince raymond and ezrael winder handed over the paper they had in their hands at the moment.

" The situation there was already under control and when we arrived not a single monster appeared and even the door that brother lukas said was no longer there."

A few days ago the crown prince ordered prince raymond and ezreal winter and with the knights to go back to that place to monitor the situation there.

" Aries... Have you seen her?."

Also the operation to find the body of aries but when they got there it was deserted and everywhere there were corpses of dead monsters and also an area it looked badly burned.

" We didn't find anything there related to aries."

Hearing that didn't find anything related to aries, Made the crown prince frown.

" Thanks for the help."

The crown prince did not want to talk this further and ordered them to disperse.

Crown prince looked out the window while remembering the face of aries when they last met.

" Where are you?.. Are you still alive?..If you are still alive where are you and why don't you come back here?."

Upon hearing that they found nothing about aries, The crown prince hoped that aries was still alive.

" If you really still alive... I hope we can still meet one day.. Please come back here.. We are waiting for you."

The crown prince clutched the paper in his hand as much as he hoped that aries was still alive and would return to the palace.

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When aries opened his eyes she found herself in a strange place and she could hear people talking.

" Water.... "

At this moment, Her throat was very sore but no one noticed her already awake then her slowly get up to take a water beside her because of her body is still weak can't move so much she couldn't reach the glass of water next to her and it fell to the floor.

Brackkkkkk....

Those who heard the sound of the cup falling quickly ran and quickly opened the door. Aries who was surprised because suddenly the crowd came in and the face was very strange to her.

" I'm sorry.. I just wanted to drink but... I couldn't reach so the glass fell.. Sorry.."

Aries who is very surprised by many people and even now she herself does not know where she is and who the person is in front of her eyes.

" You are awake.. Thats Good..."

In the crowd in front of aries, a woman who looked like she was still in her early thirties approached aries and gave her a drink, Aries politely accepted the water in the woman's hand.

" Sorry, Where am I and... Who are you?."

Aries asks where she is and who are the people in front of her eyes right now.

" we are mercenary.. A commoner mercenary.. we found you covered in blood unconscious when we came to blanca village."

They said that they came there when they heard that monsters were attacking the village but when they got there all the monsters had been wiped out and they only found her lying alone in the middle of the monsters' corpses. At first they thought aries was dead but they approached aries still breathing and they decided to bring aries to their place.

Aries who heard what they were talking about was just silent, because she didn't think she was still alive. Before she lost consciousness after she destroyed the flames stone her head hurt like it was going to burst.

" Hey child.... What you name? and Why can you be in a place like that?."

One of the people in the room asked that question, He felt it was strange why a small child could be in an area filled with monster corpses and in a state covered in blood. But aries didn't directly answer the question, Aries just looked at the faces that were there one after the other.

" Why are you asking so many questions, She just woke up."

Aries heard a woman's voice scolding the person who asked her that question earlier. Aries looked where the voice was coming from and she saw a young woman who was tall and thin and also beautiful, The woman walked and approached aries.

" Hey baby... How are you? Is there pain anywhere?.I'm Emeily.."

While holding the aries head to check the temperature of the aries body. Aries who felt the warmth as the woman's hand held her forehead.

" Ah.. No.. I'm.. fine.. err.. Thank you.."

Aries felt embarrassed because she was suddenly treated like that and her face was red, The woman just smiled at her behavior and she sat next to her.

" what is your name? Baby.."

Emeily held aries' hand gently, Aries looked at the emeily's hand holding her hand.

" Errr... Aries.... Aries anathasia..."

Seeing the response given by the aries made the emeily smile.

" How old are you?."

Aries who was looking down now slightly looked up at the emeily's face and when their eyes met, Aries immediately looked down again.

" 8... I'm 8 years old.."

When aries said that she was 8 years old, She could hear the people in the room whispering to each other. Before asking the next question, The woman looked at the people in the room and remained silent for a moment.

" Baby....hmmmmm.."

After calling aries like that emeily stopped saying for a while, In quite a while. Aries strangely waited for what she was going to say, She looked up to see why she stopped talking. Seeing aries looking at her, Emeily smiled sweetly at aries.

" Baby... I'm sorry... But... May I know why you are in such a place..."

One hand held aries' hand and the other stroked aries's head because she didn't want aries to feel uncomfortable with the question. But aries did not continue to answer she question, She looked at the emeily's face and also the people there.

" Sorry baby... You don't have to answer that question if you think it's too sensitive."

She who noticed that aries seemed uncomfortable with the question quickly persuaded aries. Aries looked down after hearing what the emeily said in a few seconds then she looked up again and took a deep breath.

" I think..... You guys... You definitely know who I am..."

Aries looked right into the faces of everyone in the room and everyone was silent at what aries said.

" With this hair and.. eyes... Yes.. As you thought I was one of the Lioners..."

Listening to aries from lioner again aries could hear the noise from the room and this time aries could hear what they were saying.

" Lioner... How is that possible?."

" Didn't emperor arthur only have one princess.."

" Is she an illegitimate child?."

Aries already guessed the response from people who heard that she was one of the lions because she knew that no one knew of her existence.

" Shut up!!.."

Everyone fell silent when they heard emily's very loud voice telling them to be quiet.

Aries wanted to ask more but she felt very tired and just kept quiet.

" You have just come to your senses and don't think too much about other things for now you rest, we will talk more later."

And they walked away leaving aries to rest. Aries who was lying down was thinking about what emeily had said just now falling asleep.

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IWhile aries was sitting in the cradle, She was so lost in her feelings that she didn't realize someone was approaching from behind.

" Hi... What you doing ?... From far i can see clear that you had think about something?."

Aries a little bit shock because someone approach her from behind, When she turn her head and she saw emeily.

" Arh... Nothing i just think about a world....Ha ha .."

Emeily feel strange what a little girl front of her think of about world.

" World??... Hmmm... What for... Talk to me,? "

While taking a seat next to the little girl.

" Nothing, It just.. When will this world get a peace.. "

Emeily tried to understand what aries said, for her there was no problem with the topic of their conversation, the only thing that became strange was the little girl in front of her talking about such things.

" Who know, Maybe one day someone can end this battle."

It's a lie that she's not looking forward to all of this being over, She just doesn't want to think too much in front of aries, so she gets up and ask aries to go get together with the others.

After such a long time, The days change, Now aries has reached the age of 13 years, it has been 6 years since the incident. Throughout the aries together with them a lot that aries learns and she grow be a beautiful girl.

While aries was sitting daydreaming remembering past events someone approached from behind, The figure that approaches aries takes place next to aries.

" What are you thinking about so much?."

Aries was surprised because suddenly someone spoke next to her.

" Since when have you been here?."

Aries looked at the figure sitting next to her.

" Just now, I saw from afar you were thinking far away, What are you thinking?."

Because before he got close to aries from afar he saw aries that was like she own world.

Aries looked at the figure in front of her, She was remind by the memory of how she met the person in front of her 6 years ago. After a month since aries was in the mercenary group that saved her and after her conversation with Emeily, she found out that emeily is her mother's best friend. At first aries was confused because in her past life she had never met emeily and never even knew of her existence. After Aries recovery from her injuries she start help emeily for mercenary activities, While they go to fight with monsters, Aries is not allowed to join and only helps where to camp. And one day when they came back from fighting monsters they brought a boy who was full of wounds. At first aries did not recognize the boy because he was full of wounds from his face to his feet until after they treated him and aries saw the boy's face immediately she recognized that the boy in front of her now was the person who triggered her arrival to blancas village that is brian, How could she forget that face even though the brian in front of her is still small. After she recognized the body, Aries quickly approached Brian and hugged him.

" I know it's not easy to go through all this, But you have to be strong to go through it all."

Brian who was surprised because Aries suddenly hugged him at first wanted to reject Aries's hug but after hearing Aries' words made him feel that there was a feeling that he himself didn't understand and also he felt Aries's hug was very warm as if it was a hug that he missed and made he tears fall.

From what Aries heard when they met Brian, He was fighting a monster alone and didn't seem to care about his own safety. They were surprised that brian didn't reject aries because at first it was difficult for them to approach him with his personality like a lion cub hard to approach.

Aries came back to reality when Brian's hand touched her forehead.

" Why are you daydreaming a lot today, are you not well?."

He is worried because Aries daydreams a lot unlike other days.

" I'm good,it just I was remind about a past."

Aries got up and brushed off her clothes that had a little dust on them.Before Aries passed, She teased Brian again.

" About the first time I meet a lion cub...hahahaha."

After saying that aries kept running leaving brian behind and brian hearing aries mention the title he got when he first arrived at the camp, he quickly got up and chased after aries. The people there could only shake their heads and smile at the behavior of the two of them.