Was he being shy?

Lady Maara had been seated in her newly-erected throne. Her chambers had become the throne room slash sleeping quarters. There was some separation, but at night while she was by herself and her maids dismissed, all this would become one.

She was a Queen and she still had some dignity about her. During the day, while she was in front of everyone, she maintained a cool and aloof demeanor, but at night, things were different. She had concealed herself inside and in the night she cried herself to sleep, woke up from a feverish nightmare and then cried herself to sleep again.

Scenes of the battle kept playing over and over in her mind. Other scenes too, even ones she was not present for, like the killing of her father. She wondered how he died, did he scream, did he hurt, or did he get a quick death? Upon imagining her enemies raising their glasses in celebration of the victory, her heart would attack for a moment.

Like this, a whole night passed. Seeing the fruitlessness of lying in her bed, she went and sat on her newly erected throne. This only made her sadder though, as she imagined how much she didn't deserve it. How she had failed her people. So much carnage, all for nothing, she thought to herself as she remembered the battlefield.

The morning had come with 2 pieces of news. Each one giving her a reason to smile. Coincidentally, or just amazingly, both had come from the same person and their daring infiltration into the city under lockdown. That morning the Queen wanted to run our of her tent, find Barda and give him a big smooch.

The first piece of news had been so awesome that it had sapped all the feelings of loss right out. She was told that the people of Tristan were still with her, that in their hearts many still believed she was the rightful ruler. Who wouldn't be uplifted by that, knowing that your people still rallying behind you even after facing such an immense defeat?

The Queen stood up elated. As she looked at the men who had come to give her the good news, she was overwhelmed by all this. The sheer emotional rollercoaster of it all was all too encompassing, but she pushed through it and regained her regal nature. The princess was now reborn a Queen.

The second piece of news that graced her ears came to her a while later. At the time, she was up and about, regaining her leadership qualities. The fog of grief that had clouded her was almost all gone. It was still there, lingering in corners of her eyes. For now, she was back to some level of normalcy.

You guessed it, the information she received was about Barda running around healing people. What was so fantastic about it was not the actual production of medication, but the fact that there was hope. There was some movement in the right direction. It was no exaggeration to say that by evening, there was some measure of life returning to camp.

"My Queen," Barda said as he came into the tent.

"Barda, didn't we agree you were not to be that formal with me?" Lady Maara asked as she received him.

"Yeah, but that was before you became the queen, Your Royal Highness," Barda replied teasingly, causing a smile to brighten up Lady Maara's fallen countenance.

"I hear you are quite resourceful out there," The Queen said as she got off her throne and walked over to where Barda was standing. Her smile was warm and inviting, she was also playing the seductress as best she could, but given how green she was, Barda could see through her from a mile away.

He sensed what her intentions were. More than that, Barda could sense that the Queen had more than just admiration towards him. It wasn't that the Queen had been obvious, but Barda had seen the situation far too many times from older, experienced or cruder women who were leagues ahead of the virgin princess, rather Queen.

"At your service, highness," Barda went to move his hand and caress her cheek warmly, but then he froze. Don't get it wrong, he hadn't sensed some danger or something like that. The reason he froze was internal.

Like a ton of rocks, it had hit Barda that this was hands down the most important decision he had made since he got here. The ramifications therein were just too deep. As an Intelligence officer, Barda would not have hesitated to entangle himself in the target's life, but that was the problem, wasn't it?

Thinking about it up to this point, Barda realized that he had never integrated with his new life. All this time, based on the decisions he had made, it seemed as though he was floating through life.

Barda knew with his capabilities he could make money easily, but he never did. Similarly, he had gained power and influence without even trying. How much more if he put more effort? It was as though these things, power, influence, and wealth of this world were just not good enough for him, so he despised them.

As an Intelligence Officer, there were times he had had to go deep cover. In such cases, he would have to commit to the operation. Light operations did not require too heavy a commitment. In such cases, one could just requisition anything he required from the members of the general public, barely leaving a footprint.

For deep cover operations, however, one had to dig deep into the community. Establish local contacts, local businesses or at the very least, be a member of the community. Whether the job shady or finesse was not in his control, but one thing was, he had to have roots in the community. At some point, Barda had gotten a wife while in deep cover to sell his story even more, but in his heart, that was not real.

It seemed to Barda that he was still treating his new life as an extended deep cover assignment, one he would be yanked out of at any moment. It still had not clicked that this was his real life. All this flashed through his mind in a fraction of a second, and whatever microexpressions were there, the princess couldn't have picked up on.

He changed the direction of his hand and reached for hers. Taking it in his palm, he leaned forward and kissed it. A sign of respect.

Barda didn't know how long he had frozen for, but it had been more than a split second. Maybe somewhere in the range of 800 microseconds, not too long but long enough to be seen. His following change of movement made Lady Maara think of only one thing. Was he being shy?

Lady Maara had stood before thousands and received their adulation without blinking, but watching the mighty Dragon slayer lose his cool in front of her brought her extreme pleasure. It seemed a bigger validation of who she was and more importantly, of her power over him.

Lady Maara moved slowly forward, savoring the power. Seeing the beauty before him, all reason seemed to sneak out the window. He reached for her cheeks as he had intended earlier, with which she hugged his palm. Barda then drew her closer to him. A soft moan escaped Lady Maara's lips the moment his lips touched hers in a hot embrace.

***

Zoey had to admit, she was entranced by the process. She was watching the logistics team contort the plethora of ingredients and make them the fever curing serum. There was nothing much they could do since that's all they had learned. The way things were going, the supply would soon meet the demand, and they could stop slaving off.

On that day, someone had a reason to smile. After so many days of always coming off at the back, Batoo had a reason to smile! In this case, it was more than just a smile, Batoo was grinning from ear to ear without bothering to hide it.

The reason for this was simple, he was the ace alchemist slash apothecary. He was the reigning king producing almost double what the second guy had. It wasn't all coincidence though. After staying with Barda for a while, he had come to pick up a few things.

Batoo was not daft, just lacking in forging talents and possessing below-average fighting talents. He was consistently improving on the later but there was nothing he could do about the former. Now he had found his place. Splicing chemicals seemed to augur well with him.

Having been used to taking the lower rankings, Batoo did not bother to conceal his joy on the matter, nor did he see the need for it. He continued to work hard, honing his skills. Also, it helped that right now a pretty girl was looking at him as he worked the way girls would look at Barda. Of course, Batoo was too shy to lift his head and look at her.