Unfamiliar

Victor dragged Lucia out of the courtroom and walked a little further away from the entrance before he let go of her arm and spoke to her.

"My lady..." Victor looked at Lucia with pity in his eyes when he saw clear tears running down her cheeks and she tried to hide the fact she was crying by quickly wiping them off.

Lucia looked up at Victor's face and sniffed gently as she spoke "Victor, is this a prank? Is he angry I did not visit him for two months? I will go and apologize but please... Please stop him from acting like he does not know me."

"That is what I am trying to explain to you..." Victor sighed, shaking his head "I tried to write you a letter but I was stopped. Council members disagreed to reveal that information to any kingdom though the church already knew about that."

"That? What's this that now? I am confused... Victor, just what exactly is happening here? I saw houses on fire and dead bodies of many civilians and even soldiers when I arrived. What happened here when I was away?" Lucia was panicking.

Victor patted her head to calm her down as he said "My lady calmed down first. I will explain everything only if you promise me to not interrupt in the middle. I am getting old and if I am interrupted I will have to explain everything from the very beginning." Of course, that was a lie. He just did not like to be cut off when he speaks.

"Alright..." Lucia closed her eyes and let Victor pat her. Victor was like a grandfather figure to everyone he was close to.

"A few days ago his highness fell off the castle walls and has been in a coma until today morning." Lucia's eyes widened and she looked up at Victor as he said that.

Lucia tried to run back to the courtroom and check on Andrew but she was stopped by Victor. He grabbed her arm again and added "He's fine now" to his earlier statement.

"He has memory loss does he not?" Lucia did not struggle to break free since she was well aware she could not make Victor let go of her "I understand but what about the dead bodies and houses in fire?" She calmed down or at least outside she showed she was calm.

"It was done by soldiers after court members and ministers committed suicide. Taking the chance they thought of getting a luxurious life since there was no one to manage them."

"Suicide? Those bastards could do such things!? and wait even if they were dead you were perfectly fine right? Why did you not stop them? You are the strongest person here!" Lucia said angrily.

"My lady... I..." Victor sighed softly "I was not sure how I could stop. If I was to kill them it would have been a disaster in population management and not to mention he would get weaker than we already are."

"So you let them kill other commoners? Would that have not affected the overall population?" Lucia asked with a serious tone and face "Victor... you have always been like this... but go on. How did they die then?"

"My lady, I thought you promised to interrupt me when I was talking." At that statement from Victor, Lucia just rolled her eyes before saying "Victor I have known you since childhood. You just did not want me to cut you off in the middle and I never promised. I just said alright."

"I..." Victor chuckled lightly at which Lucia suddenly got angry with a small pout "Victor! You are laughing when other people die?"

"I am sorry my lady... I just" Victor could not help but smile and gave her another pat "Now let me just explain alright?"

Lucia had no other option so she just sighed and decided to hear the explanation while being quiet and saving her anger for later.

Victor explained everything to Lucia. How Andrew woke up, came to the courtroom, used a mysterious power to force corrupted court members and ministers to commit suicide, and everything else that has happened till now.

Lucia stood there looking at Victor with confusion and disbelief. She was not even sure how she should react.

"I know you must be confused but this is the truth. My lady, the best thing you could do now is leave Zion for your own sake. At least for a while. His highness does not listen to anyone and has been doing things that he thinks are best. For example, killing soldiers. It was foolish and we tried to stop him but..." Victor sighed "He did not listen."

"I will leave..." Lucia said softly trying to process everything "But before that, I wish to tell you something about Andrew and you. I am-" Before Lucia could finish the sentence she was cut off by Andrew.

"Victor! how long should I wait!?" Andrew yelled from the courtroom in anger. Since it was not too far away from the courtroom, Andrew heard them talk and got angry when Victor said his actions of killing the crazy soldiers were foolish.

"My lady, we will talk later. For now, just leave. If you anger his highness I fear he will do something which you will not like." Victor said as he sped walked towards the courtroom.

Lucia was looking down at the ground and raised her hand to try and stop Victor but he could not bring herself from doing that. She had no choice but to follow Victor's advice and walk away from there.

Victor returned to the courtroom and stood in the middle of the courtroom before looking up to see Andrew. Andrew was lying on his throne waiting for Victor and once he came he slowly sat normally on the throne which was still surprisingly big even after the growth of Andrew.

"Sire, what do you want to speak of?" Victor smiled as he asked the question.

"I originally wanted to talk about hiring new court members but now before I go to that topic explain to me how I suddenly have a fiancee?" Andrew leaned forward.

"You... did not suddenly have a fiancee... it is just you do not remember. This marriage was fixed when you were but a small child, sire. Late queen meaning your mother fixed the marriage."

"..." Andrew stayed quiet for a second before saying "Explain everything. Who she is and just everything you feel I should know about this."

"As you wish, Sire. As I said earlier this marriage was fixed by the late queen. To be exact it was Princess Lucia's father who proposed that idea.

She is Lucia Astley. The princess of the kingdom of the Kalyra empire. It is the only place we can say is worse than our kingdom since even though our kingdom's kings were bad our kingdom itself was never bad in condition. We are quite rich."

Andrew raised his eyebrow at that, but he decided not to interrupt Victor just yet and let him finish.

"The king of Kalyra when heard about you and our kingdom sent a letter to the late queen meaning your mother requested an arranged marriage, and she instantly agreed. You were five, and she was four at that time, so the queen said they can marry each other after you reach the age of twenty-five.

But you two still exchanged rings at that age and were announced as finances official. Both of you got along with each other when you two were younger but as you both grew older she realized you were tr- I mean not socially good as a king, but she did not break the contract since she actually loved you.

And so she started to help me to make this kingdom a place you two can live peacefully but do not think this was a one-sided love or anything. You were crazy about her too... To be exact she was the only person you listened to other than me."

By the end of the sentence, Victor let out a small chuckle as he remembered how cute they both were when they were children.

Andrew listened to everything calmly, but he did not in the slightest bit feel anything about the information he had gotten or when he thought about Lucia. In his eyes, she was but an unfamiliar stranger.

Once again loud stomps came from the hallways and at that, both Victor and Andrew sighed knowing it belonged to Lucia.

"Not again..." They both said together tiredly.

To be continued...