Chapter 2- Aolenoa

I lifted my head, my eyes widened. It really was a 'golden sea'. A field filled with yellow wheats stretched in front of me. Too taken apart by its vastness, I didn't realise that Love had already walked off. I grabbed the hem of my dress as I desperately tried to catch up to her.

"My family owns this wheat field. They should be in the windmill in the center of it." She explained. The air became heavy, and I quickly understood why.

"Should;If they are still alive" was what she meant. I bit my lip as I maneuvered through the tall wheat stems. The setting sun made it seemed like we were swimming through a golden sea. Each wheat stem we walked past, waved,the sun dancing with each of its moves.

For what seemed like an eternity, Love and I walked through the wheat fields, before standing in front of a stout windmill. The heel of my shoes clicked loudly against the wooden floors. Love's loafers emit a silence that follows. Her hand gripped onto the wooden door handle. The door didn't budge and yet her knuckles were turning ghastly white. She was afraid to open the door. Well, that would be why I think she's hesitating. Hell, I mean I'd be scared too. A thin door separates the gate of my family and I. What would happen if I open the door only for emptiness to greet me back? If I was Love, being devastated would be an understatement. Subconsciously, I extended my hand out to Love, but before my fingers could touch the un-coming threads of Love's dress, I quickly pulled my hand back. My fingers felt the loud drumming of my heart. What could I say to make it better? What could I have done? I bit on my inner lip. I know nothing of what she would feel.

Slowly, the door handle turned. I too, subconsciously, had braced myself on the destiny of the windmill. The door swept back to reveal... nothing. My jaw tightened as my eyes focused on the tiny figure in front of me. Her body shook before turning eerily still. She turned, a wide smile plastered on her face.

"Nobody's home, yet!" Or ever. I, out of anyone, could detect even the slightest tinge of sadness in a person's smile. And Love? Sombre filled every inch of hers. Her unexpected 'optimism' didn't fool me.

"We should be able to rest comfortably till they arrive. Come, make yourself home!" Love exclaimed, entering the wooden door that she before this, was so apprehensive about. She pulled onto a string hanging from the middle of the ceiling, light filling the room.

"D-don't fake it." I uttered. It was pathetic how such a bold statement can be downplayed by my stutter. My throat felt as harsh and dry as the Sahara. It felt unnatural to talk but, seeing this 'Love' pissed me off. There was no shame in having broken hopes and being alone. Love dropped the string, it swung midair. Moments passed and nothing, she still stood in front of me like a statue.

"Ek, ek!" Small groans came from in front of me, Love's body undulating.

Finally, Love turned around. She had snot trailing down her nose and tears pouring down her cheeks, uncontrollably like heavy rain. I sighed, my eyes softening as I smiled at her. I spread my arms. She looked at my arms, then back at me. It was almost as if she was asking whether it was okay to be hugged by me.

"Come on, my hands are tired!" I exclaimed, feigning a tired expression. She closed her eyes and ran at me, my arms pushing her deep into my embrace. There goes my hopes of keeping this dress. I patted her head, her brown, brassy hair tickling my palm.

Hah, back then when my younger brother cried this was what I did to him. I'll hug him when he has cooled down and brought him out for fried chicken. I wonder how he's doing now.

A thought crossed my mind, those words spouting out my mouth before I could even register them

"When I rule this land, let's eat fried chicken." I proudly declared, Love raised her head. Her shocked eyes matched my equally shocked ones.

What the hell did I just say? I closed my eyes and my eyebrows joined each other, reaching for the skies. Now… Why did I say that? I'm literally burying myself deeper into a grave.

"Fried chicken?" She questioned before breaking free from my grasp.

Huh, I didn't expect that to be her question.

"Wait- rule?! You're planning to fight for this land?!" I forgot how loud children could be. Not to mention, only now you're getting that part?

"Of course, this is my homeland as much as it's yours." Lying came easily to me as breathing. In this case, the words that poured from my mouth were a declaration, a promise. At least it was to Love. I made a promise to Love that would probably be more of a burden than I initially thought but hey, what's the worse it could get? I mean God has blessed me with a new beginning. A new chance at life.

Moreover, I've been reborn as a Queen no less. I'm bound to have magical powers or abilities. Or strength, speed- either way, I could do this.

"And when I do, you will take my side..as my royal advisor!" I proudly declared.

"My queen!" She looked speechless, the type of 'touched' kind of speechless. But before I could continue, Love quickly dropped to her knees. She raised her arms swiftly and her hands joined each other. The tips of her fingers lightly grazed the ends of her palms as they hovered above each other. An O? Her hands seemed to leave a gap between each other that formed the shape of a circle.

"Is this some type of special hand sign?" I asked, genuinely curious why she pledged to me with such an intricate hand sign.

"You're so full of jokes, My Queen! You taught me this." I kept quiet. What was I to say? I won't remember memories I didn't create. Love must've realised because her eyebrows grew higher with each breath. She stood up and went behind me.

"What are-" She cut me off.

She gently grabbed my arms in hers and swayed with me. She brought both of my arms in front of me- loosening them up to be flexible and smooth, like the slow and steady streams of water. Left, right, my hands and body swayed with her. Each tensed muscle I had in my body loosened as I danced with her. Honestly, it felt awkward but there was no way I could just push her away, so I just awkwardly followed. Love brought my right hand up in the air and my left hand low from the ground and joined each other in the middle.

"You told me; Life from above and death from below always meet each other in the centre. That's called The Circle of Life. You showed me that if you were to have any pledge resonate with you, it would be this." Love whispered behind me.

Wow, this princess must've been some type of poetic genius cause no way in hell could I have come up with such an elaborate pledge. Pledges must be an important tradition for royals here since Love took it so seriously.

Love released my arms and walked in front of me, her hands enveloped each other as her eyes burnt holes in the floor.

"Do you… really not remember?" Love asked, balancing on the balls of her feet. She looked hurt.

A huge lump of guilt caved in my throat. I felt kinda bad for Love. She really looked up to this Princess Hana, but I'm not her. I can't fill the gap that she left for Love. And now that Love's family is…gone, she really has no one. Just an empty body with a mind of someone else with no memories to share. I chewed my lip before answering.

"No." I croaked. Needless to say, Love was crushed.

"B-but, you can tell me again! Maybe I'll remember?" I suggested. A meaningless attempt to cheer her up.

"I hope so, My Queen." Love quietly answered.

"What else do you not remember, My Highness?"

"Everything." Love inhaled sharply.

She stared at the floor for a while before walking across the room, grabbing a wooden crate and setting it in front of me. The crate hit the floor with a loud thud.

She dug for what seemed like a blanket and laid it on the floor.

"Sit here, Queen. I'll tell you the story of our kingdom and how we came to be." She announced. I carefully sat on the blanket and waited for her story to begin as she fumbled with an oil lamp she found in the crate. A fire ignited, illuminating the floor.

"There are 13 kingdoms; Burke, Marrine, Diya, Chahine, Sakata, Sanghee, Mawrth, GuoZhi, Azikiwe, Kovalev, Diamenté, Silvana and our kingdom; Aolenoa. Thousands of years ago, there was a great battle between demonkind and humans. Each night, one by one our greatest kingdoms fell to their knees. All the rulers had called upon their strongest warriors to fight the demons but our numbers only dwindled while theirs increased. For what seemed like a hopeless war, a light shined upon us; The chosen one. He shot from the sky and pushed the demons into The Barrenness. And until now, that is where they remain. Other kingdoms have different interpretations to the story but most view The Chosen One as god. Our land in particular is a blessed land of worship for him. For it is said that he fought one of the larger demons in our country, he was wounded here and his blood poured onto our soil. Blessing the land. After the great battle, The Chosen One returned to the skies. Since then, each and all of the choices put in this kingdom is in accordance to what The Chosen One would want. We banned magic, women rulers-"

"No women rulers ?" I questioned, cutting Love off. I didn't know why I was more surprised about banning women rulers than magic but regardless, Love answered.

"No women rulers."

"But of course, you would be our first." Love sheepishly smiled. I chuckled and rolled my eyes at her attempt to butter me up.

"Now, many of the kingdoms have built up on themselves and we're not as close as we used to be. When the men of Mawrth came for us, the King of Burke promised to come to us but until now, we haven't heard from them."

"Let me guess they are the strongest kingdom and needed us then but not now?" I snarkily commented.

"Heavens forbid me from speaking ill on Burke!" Love exclaimed, raising her hands up in a defensive stance.

Her face contradicted what she was saying though.

"But...If that were true. I would understand why. Many of our followers migrated over to Burke after the promise, most being our farmers, cooks, philosophers and nobles.Furthermore, all our soldiers joined Burke's men." She mumbled, staring at the dull, wooden floorboards.

Holy fuck, so we didn't even have a frontline defence. How could the emperor be so stupid to form an alliance with Burke when it essentially leaves us defenceless?

The sun started to set and Love pulled onto the string again, only the oil lamp being our source of light.

"If the Mawrth's soldiers do come here, at least they won't see the light from the windmill." Love explained.

"Where can we go then to escape here? So we can recuperate safely." I asked.

"To the south. My family found an old mining cave there once and ever since then, that has been our escape route if anything were to happen."

Wow, that sounded a lot like the citizens of Aolenoa knew something like this would happen.

"Is Aolenoa hated? You can speak freely in front of me, Love." I assured.

Love fumbled with her fingers. "Respectfully, Aolenoa has come to many disagreements with others. Be it our questionable laws, treatment of others or our status. But nobody tried anything because we were a holy land. But I cannot fathom why we could have fallen into a war like this so easily."

Nah, this sounded a lot like there was a lot of loose soil from the start. No democratic connections, loyal citizens and an emperor with no leadership qualities. This was all premeditated. And hearing Burke's involvement in this, I'm willing to bet that Burke and Mawrth are planning something.

I didn't tell Love that, of course. I can never speak too freely unless I've come up with a plan. Wow, who knew God would have thrown me into a world with so much fun?